Goodbye Jack-O-Lanterns

This past Sunday, the kids and I took the pumpkins we had carved for Halloween, and said our goodbye to them. We then chopped them up into the soil of where we were going to plant our strawberry plants. Instead of just throwing them in the garbage, we figured we let them add nutrients to the soil, and hopefully in turn give us great tasting strawberries come spring. We also noticed that one of our neighbors was throwing out three full size bales of hay that they had used for their Halloween decorations, so the two older kids and I grabbed their red wagon, and loaded it up with hay and brought it back to the "homestead" to use as mulch for our strawberries.

Strawberry Jam

Last week Julia preserved some of the strawberries that we had picked from a local farm, as Strawberry Jam. The kids got into the action by helping mash the strawberries down, each waiting eagerly to take their turn.

She then got out our canning pot, and boiled the jars and filled them, so that they stand ready for our later enjoyment.