Garlic Giveaway Winners!

Thank you to all who took the time to comment on my blog(s) for a chance to win some delicious Garlic!   There are 2 winners and they are ….

Real Life Farm Wife

I Read Do You?

Congratulations!!

Please send your mailing address to mailbox@therunninggarlic.com so I can mail out your package this Monday.   Thank you once again to everyone who commented.

We have been so busy packing and cleaning and doing the move thing it has been crazy!   I am excited but also sad to leave the home where are children grew up … so many memories.

Time for a new phase of our lives and many more memories ahead!

Moving the Garlic Giveaway Up!

We have changed our moving plans and will be heading out-of-town sooner than planned.   The internet provider where we are going can be unpredictable and I want to make sure I have the winners picked and the garlic mailed to them before we leave.   So with that the Garlic Giveaway winners will be picked August 12 and have 48 hrs. to contact me.   You can leave a comment on this post or the previous Garlic Giveaway post.   There is also a post at the Growing Phases Farm blog where you can leave an additional comment.   A total of two winners will be picked – one from each blog.

Thanks and Good Luck!

 

Sunflower Beauty

Add your photos to the Wordless Wednesday collection below and see more entries here.

Also don’t forget to comment on the Giveaway Post for your chance to win some Gourmet Garlic!

Another Gourmet Garlic Giveaway!

Last year I held a giveaway and one lucky winner won Gourmet Garlic from my harvest.   I decided this year I should do the same …

Garlic freshly grown in Illinois

All you have to do is leave a comment here or on Growing Phases Farm’s blog .  You can  leave a comment on both blogs – one winner from each will be picked and receive the Garlic as a gift to either use in your recipes, give as a gift or plant in your own garden.

Include your contact information (email address or website) so I can find you if you win.   If you rather not post your email you can send it privately to mailbox@therunninggarlic.com .   The winner will be announced and posted here on August 26, 2011 and will have 48 hrs. to contact me with their address for mailing otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Finally the Sungold Tomatoes are beginning to turn color and should be ready to EAT any day now … I can’t wait!   Also the Black-eyed Susan are in full bloom – they are biennial and bloom every other year – this is the year.
I have a few more pictures of happenings around the farm posted at Growing Phases Farm, so make sure to stop by and leave your comment for yet another chance to win the Gourmet Garlic…..best of luck to you!

Ultimate Blogging Party 2011 #UBP11

I am happy to participate in the Ultimate Blogging Party 2011 this year.   I follow @5minutesformom on Twitter and luckily spotted their tweet this morning and hopped on the party bandwagon!   Looks like a fantastic way to meet some fellow bloggers and there are even some prizes offered.

For those stopping by from the party and this being your first visit here … I am Debbie also known as The Running Garlic. I blog about Gardening, Cooking, Crafts and every day life.   I am participating in the WordPress Challenge and have started a Facebook group to help support all the bloggers who are creating daily or weekly blog posts.   The Challenge has been very rewarding and a wonderful way to connect with others; being Freshly Pressed and receiving 4,500 hits to my blog in 2 days was beyond exciting!

Along with this blog, I also created Garden Dish to share some recipes and Munchie Monday where you can link up and add your own.   Ok….enough about me, I am headed back to the Ultimate Blogging Party to make some new friends!

Facebook page = The Running Garlic Twitter handle = @RunningGarlic

Happy April 1st …. Nice to meet you!

Holiday Fun!

The holidays are Here!   I have been baking up a storm this week so I have plenty of goodies to give as gifts and to bring to the Christmas feast at my brother’s.   I am really looking forward to all the family fun and “Eating” we will be doing!   I have already had quite an exciting week receiving Christmas gifts … the same day that I received my new Mac computer, I also received my wonderful “huge” box of presents from a recent giveaway I had entered.   The Pantry Blogger gave away tons of cooking tools (and I mean tons!) and I WON!   Believe me they are very appreciated and will get well used!

This was left at my door ………  yes, there is a Santa aka The Pantry Blogger!

I opened the package and took out each item … in utter disbelief of all the wonderful goodies I now have.    Remember that feeling on Christmas day when you open all your gifts and then organize it all and just sit there and “look” at everything?   You don’t want to use or put anything away just yet … it needs time to be cherished.   And so …. my gift still sits all laid out so I can take it all in and think about each item individually.

Of course, Ms. Billie thinks I am out of my mind and worries about my sanity at times!   It’s OK I tell her……  it’s ok to believe in Santa Claus!

FIVE Winners!

I had so much fun making these labels and really like how they look so I decided to have five winners instead of  just one!   Thank you to everyone that left a comment – I sincerely appreciate your time and kind words.   The winners are –

Cheryl Delaney – Barbra – Jenn Tidwell – Kathleen and Rebecca!

All you have to do is send your mailing address to mailbox@therunninggarlic.com and I will send your packette along to you!

Thanks again to everyone!

HomeGrown Holidays and Giveaway

As each year passes I find myself growing, preserving and giving more Homegrown presents to family and friends and they Love them!  

The garlic harvest this year was excellent and gifts already have been given – fresh garlic, pickled scapes and garlic cloves … more garlic gifts will be given for Christmas.   I have only one more jar of the pickled garlic scapes left and those are mine … I really have enjoyed them and posted the recipe back when I discovered it.   In the Garden Online is the place I first learned about these wonderful garlic scapes and the blog writer, Colleen, also has a book out “Edible Gardening for the Midwest” which will be added to my Christmas wish list this year.

Since we are on the subject of Canning and books, I want to also mention “Canning & Preserving for Dummies”.   The author of this book, Amy, was actually the winner of the Garlic Giveaway I held not to long ago.   She hosts a blog over at The Farming Wife – check her out too!   I highly recommend both of these sources for your cooking and gardening interests!   Great gifts for others on your list too!

I made up labels to add to my canned goods this year in hopes of receiving the empty jars back.   Most people will forget (except my parents, they always return the jars) 🙂 and if they see this little reminder on the bottom of the jar when the goods are all finished up, odds are they will return the jar to you!

It’s has been a while since the Garlic Giveaway and since this is the week of giving thanks……. time to show appreciation to my friendly readers, I worked on some gift tags as a new giveaway this weekend.

These are actually stickers which were hand stamped – so you can peel off the back and place on your gift!

It is rather difficult to see the detail on the tags …. the stamped images are heat embossed which gives them a raised glossy look – pretty neat!   So leave a comment and the winner will be announced next Tuesday after the holiday and in time for adding to your holiday gifts.   Also the newest Linky starts today!!   The theme is Stocking Stuffers so make sure to head on over and add your listing – also on the same page I added a Linky to add your facebook fanpage.

Wishing Everyone a Safe, Fun and Enjoyable Thanksgiving!   Thanks All!

Garlic Cake and Free Friendship Seeds!

I was hoping for an occassion to bake this Garlic Cake and I made sure I have all the ingredients.    The only problem is if I make it now I will be the only one eating it and I really don’t think that’s a good idea – maybe I could freeze most of it …hmmmm.   It probably won’t be until next week that I make it so stay tuned if you would like to know how it turns out!    I found the recipe in this Garlic Cookbook by Linda & Fred Griffith –

Make sure to stop by and retweet this post I created at my other blog – first 10 to retweet will receive Free Friendship Seeds and a Hello Card!   What Fun!  

I have also been working on improving my website and just added a new page last night called Add Listings.   Some great great listings have been added so far and I hope to keep this idea going well into the holiday season and beyond.   What do you think?

I can’t forget to show you these guys – remember, those pumpkin gourds I had drying out?  Well, I painted up a few and have them smiling away being ohhh so happy!

Happy Fall !!!

Garden Wrap-up

Fall is upon us and the summer gardening season has pretty much ended – a few tomato and pepper plants remain, but most have been removed.   It came on suddenly, hot in the 90s very early in the season and the temperatures reached heat indexes of over 100 – now all the sudden it’s Chilly!   The cooler weather is welcome and fall colors have to be some of the most spectacular of the year; just hoping those cold snowy days don’t arrive too soon!

The Nasturtium flowers continue to grow and bloom in the container on the deck and I am sure they will flourish up until a frost covers the ground.

These flowers were planted as a team GROW project with many other gardeners across the country and all documented their progress throughout the summer months.   “I’m growing Nasturtium “Spitfire” for the GROW project. Thanks, to Renee’s Garden for the seeds.”  

I also planted and just recently harvested TriColor Bush Beans also received from Renee’s Garden and I will be blanching and freezing these later this afternoon.

 TriColor Bush Beans – yellow, purple, green

I have some mini pumpkin gourds I will be working on this week and these were actually from last year’s harvest.   My mini gourds this year didn’t take off like I had hoped so I only have a few and they will have to dry before I can work on them.   The larger gourds are still out in the field and they were doing great until the 115 degree weather hit and I was not there to water them – they suffered, but I will have some gourds regardless.

 Mini pumpkin gourds setting in the sun to dry after I washed and scrubbed them getting ready to decorate.  

I want to Thank everyone that entered the Garlic Giveaway and we did announce the winner last week … this will be the last week the garlic is listed for sale in the shop; then it’s Garlic Planting Time!!!     

Thanks again and Happy Fall!