Today's Bounty

Harvested by Erika, Aminah, Nadia, and Nasir. 

Today, upon inspection, we realized we had been blessed with an abundance of squash. Again! Thank you Allah. So what to do with it?
I decided to make squash enchiladas and zucchini bread. And we still have more. We are enjoying the benefits of growing our own food, even on this small scale. When we planted (late) this year we were not sure we would reap the benefits but with the inevitable earthquake coming better to be safe than sorry.
(As i was proofing this an earthquake hit.)

Same recipe. 2 different flours. taste test.

Thanks to Sis. Salamah and Sis. Tonja for probing me about what is to become of the garden. I decided to do an experiment. I pruned 2 squash plants. I have never done this. Not sure you are supposed to. And mistakenly I cut one that had a few small zuccs on it. Oh well. We also uprooted a lot of the green bean plants. We plan to let a few go to seed. Never done this before either. There were a few out there that looked like it is a possibility in the near future. We hope so. I have some reading to do to help me figure this out. Nonetheless, I also discovered that i have a lot of worm tea on hand. So  we watered the plants with it. not the tomatoes tho. I don't think we will get to reap the benefits of those.
Basically we started a few new projects today. Thanks Sisters.
Wondering what we will see within the next week.

1. Will the worm tea improve the appearance of the plants. It has a lot of nitrogen so i am thinking they will look even greener.
2. Will the worm tea improve growth? In a week?
3. Will the seeds we get from the green beans reproduce?
4. What are the effects of pruning a squash plant? I am not sure we will get this question answered. I didn't intend to cut off new growth. I was trying to see if they would grow even faster with all energy going to them instead of a huge plant. But we shall see.
5. We put the pulled up green bean plants into the chicken coop. I wonder if the chickens will find the leaves as appetizing now that they have easy access.

I believe that is it, for now. Gardening always provides me (us) with the opportunity to learn.

Peace took this photo today. 

More Photos Summer 2011

from the yard

Farmers' Market. delicious

mixture for strawberry ice cream

strawberries to make strawberry ice cream

from the yard

family bowling trip

more goods from yard. harvested and photographed by nasir

goods from a visit to our new yard

Swim Season Summer 2011

Greetings and Peace!

Swim Season is over for the summer. Thanks all those that showed up to the Championships to support the girls. It meant a lot to them. Granny, Uncle Eddie, Dida, Mah Mah, Grandpa Doyle, Jawanzaa, Michael, Tara, Vivian, Victoria, Auntie Stacie, Jasmine.

The Boy didn't compete but he also made strides in the pool. "I can swim across the pool doing breast, butterfly, and freestlye." I would like to include that he is very comfortable in the deep end. He even tries to dive.

Faith:
The Boy says that Faith is fast at freestyle. (If you can't tell he is next to me, helping me write this and distracting me. )
Faith says that she feels she has gotten better at backstroke, swims straighter. Also feels she improved in butterfly. She had fun swimming. (Seems annoyed that i keep bothering her. It is bedtime.)

Peace:
Feels she improved in butterfly, again. She placed higher in meets this season than the last. She had a great season, minus their team taking 4th in Championship. (We will spare you all the drama.)

For those that are interested in their progression over the season I have added their places in the weekly meets leading up to Championships.

July 9
          Faith                                  Peace
25 yd free 1st place                      50 yd fly 1st
25yd back 1st place                     100yd IM 3rd

July 16
25 yd free1st                                200 yd free 3rd
25 yd back  2nd                            50 yd fly 3rd

July 23
25 yd free 1st                             50 yd fly 3rd
25yd fly 2nd                             100 yd IM 3rd

July 30
25 yd free 3rd                         50 yd fly 1st
25 yd back 2nd                      50 yd breast 1st

Championships:
25 yd fly 3rd                        50yd fly 3rd
25 yd back 2nd                  50yd breast 2nd