New garden beds

Here is the expansion to our garden this year.

 We had old beams from a really really old building that fell down and we used them to make our raised beds.

Here is Mr. Smith using our 1970's tractor with tiller attachment. It makes farming soooo much easier!

First run through. It was like a jumping kangaroo trying to get through all those roots.

Mr. Smith ran through the dirt about 4 times per side of each bed. he is going to do another run through tomorrow to work through more of the clumps. I am planning on putting my potatoes in there. Russet, Red and Sweet.

I made spilt pea soup in my crock pot since I knew it was going to be a working day and who wants to think about cooking after a hard day out in the "fields" Ha Ha What I do is when I am making breakfast I get my crock pot out, pour the peas in and 4 cups water, turn on high and add in a pork or beef bone that was leftover from the packages I buy of either to make our own ground beef or sausages. (We use EVERY part we can! We don't like to be wasteful) Then I turn down the pot to low after an hour and just let it go. About an hour before serving I add 1 1/2 more cups of water, stir and let it go. Right before serving I scrape the meat off the bones and stir in salt and pepper to taste. During nap time I make Irish Soda Bread, I make it every time because they are just so scrumptious together! :D

Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients:

4 cups flour

2 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 tablespoon butter

1 cup raisins

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 3/4 cups buttermilk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda into a large mixing bowl.

2. Using your hands work butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal, then stir in raisins. In another bowl, beat egg and buttermilk together, add to flour mixture. Knead with hands.

3. Transfer dough to a large, lightly greased baking sheet (it will flatten out a bit on the baking sheet) Using a serrated knife, score top of dough about an inch and half deep in an "X" shape. This is to help get the heat into the center of the dough while it cooks. Transfer to oven and bake until golden brown and bottom sounds hollow. About 35-45 minutes. Insert skewer, if clean...then done!

Here is what my coarse meal or flour mixture with butter looked like.

My bread before.

The knife I use.

Right before it goes into the oven.

20 minutes into baking. As you can see 2 of the peaks are a little scorched.

So this is what I do to prevent that from happening and only do it halfway through cooking. Its a tin foil tent. It will still cook the bread the right way, but prevent further scorching of the top of the bread.

Done!

This bread is amazing. I skip the raisins because only kiddo #1 likes them and I use milk versus buttermilk and it tastes the same.

Enjoy!