Stephanie and Jake... for those of you concerned about Jake eating dirt, read this article http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/health/27brod.html

Every weekend for the last few weeks we have had plans to go to the garden and plant the seeds we were going to sow outdoors that can withstand a few frosts (that includes our parsnips, turnips, onions, and lettuce).  But every weekend we have either had company or it has snowed…  a lot.  Back in February, I created a spreadsheet for the garden with dates for when we should be planting everything, and boy are we behind.  Not only that, but we had already tried to start onions from seeds indoors (you may remember that our Tropeana Lunga onions were doing great and the Gold Princess onions had not sprouted at all).  Well, a few of the Gold Princess onions finally sprouted and then promptly died, and the Tropeana Lunga onions all finally died as well, I think if we had transplanted them outside sooner they would have done better.

So last night Jeremy, Jacob, and I packed up our seeds and gardening supplies and headed over to our garden plot at Kerr Community Gardens.

Jake and Jeremy planting seeds

We have a water hookup that takes up space in our plot for a drip irrigation system, which I did not account for when I originally drew up the plans, so I had to move a few things around.  But we did get both kinds of onions planted and have a spot for green onions as well.  We planted parsnips, turnips, and two patches for lettuce mixes.  And, my mother-in-law’s friend Linda was very nice and gave us a bunch of Iris bulb’s that were her mother’s for our garden and we planted those in our patch for flowers.

Baby in the garden

Hopefully, our seeds will take, the soil was moist but not sopping wet and it is supposed to be gorgeous outside all week.  I’ll go over in a few days and check on things and give them some more water.  And maybe we’ll have some sprouts in a week or so, if all goes as planned!

Canned Tomatoes, photo by thebittenword.com

I drove up to Fort Collins again this week to check out some canning classes with my friend Amanda that we had seen advertised at the Farmer’s Market we went to a few weeks ago.  I am hoping this summer with our garden and our CSA I will have enough vegetables to freeze, can, and dry that I might be able to get through the winter without having to buy too much out of season produce at the grocery store.  We went to the canning basics class offered by the extension office.  It was only $10 and provided a lot of information on both water bath and pressure canning in Colorado.  I found the class very helpful because I knew pretty much nothing about canning before we went.  I still don’t think I’m confident enough to try pressure canning without someone who knows what they’re doing, but I think I could try water bath canning.  And at least I know now that because we live at a higher altitude than most people, we have to change the length we leave our can in a water bath or use more pressure depending on the type of canning we are doing.

I’m planning on taking a salsa class from them later in the summer where we will get hands on experience preparing and canning salsa and also a drying class to learn how to preserve food by drying it.  Many extension offices in the U.S. will offer similar classes and may also offer other information on their websites about everything from safe food preparation to how to garden in your area.  Or for more information on food preservation techniques, or canning recipes that have been tested and are safe check the National Center for Home Food Preservation website.