GETTING READY FOR FALL AND WINTER

AS WE NEAR OUR FALL SEASON, THERE ARE SOME THINGS WE SOMETIMES FORGET TO MAKE SURE OUR HOUSE AND FAMILY HAVE TO GET US THROUGH FALL AND WINTER.

We have put together a great list of items that you might think to pick up on your next visit to the Hardware store.

A battery operated crank emergency is a great option. It is RED CROSS certified. It has emergency channels in already.

A first aid kit is always something to think about. Not only should you have the proper items in your home but also one for your car.They say to have a battery operated radio and clock for emergencies. This one fits both bills. Radio and clock all in one.

This is a great one for in the bedroom. Just in case the power doesn't turn back on in the middle of the night, even after it was promised.

WINTER PREPAREDNESS FOR YOUR HOME

For out and about:

Snow Shovel

De-icing compound

Waterproof floor mats

For inside the home:

• Food - that doesn't require heating or refrigeration, such as canned meats, soups and stews, cereal and energy bars,
• Manual can opener
• Paper Plates, cups and plastic utensils
• 1 gallon of water per person per day ( allow enough for four days)
• Flashlights and batteries
• Battery operated Radio
• Batter operated clock
• Or combination of both
• Cellular phone - always keep them charged
• First aid kit
• Four day supply of prescription medicines
• Blanket and cold weather clothing for each family member
• Pet food and additional water for household pets

ON THE ROAD:

Winter transportation can mean ice, snow and hazardous roads. Road conditions can change in an instant. Before traveling, give cars a winter preparedness exam

Always make sure your tires are aired properly. Don't forget to check your spare. Check antifreeze, check and/or replace your battery. Remember to always keep the gas tank near full to avoid freezing water in the fuel line.

When traveling by car, always make sure that you have emergency food and clothing for each traveler. Pack supplies in a backpack in case you need to abandon the car.

An Emergency backpack should include:

• Jacket for all family members in the car
• Gloves, and sturdy weather proof boots for each traveler.
• Non perishable food,
• Your cell phone
• Money.
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APPLE PIE CONTEST

THIS SATURDAY,

SEPTEMBER 25TH

AT 1 P.M.

JUDGING BEGINS

So, stop by and test your baking skills. We will be having ice cream and apple pie after the judging is finished.

Changes in the Garden Center

This week will start off with alot of redesigning in the garden Center. We will be getting ready for fall planting. Fall is the best time to plant your yard structure plants, like trees, shrubs, roses and also put in a fall and winter garden. Gardening in California seems to be pretty consistent with all gardeners. We all try to find ways to keep gardening throught the year.

We will be filling the nursery up with great ideas for Fall and Harvest settings to get your ideas flowing.

We have also brought a portable Chicken coop from Creative Coops. It's retails for $488.00. We fell that this will also give you an opportunity to ask questions about the new law for our City folks to have chickens......Thank you Theresa Huck and all the other folks for putting this into action.

At one time, most city dwellers either had chickens or bee hives in their yards for their own use and we have gotten away from taking care of ourselves and relying on other people to do that. So, we are hoping that you will stop by and ask us questions about what we are doing. Or just stop by to see all the beautiful plants and designs that we have created for you.

We are still moving along with our workshops here at the Garden Center. We still have veggies in stock and seem to still be getting requests for them. Everyone is running behind on planting along with some of the girls here.


We are staying busy and the nursery is full of great plants for your yard. We still get two to 4 deliveries a week of great specimens.

We are getting some more Monrovia deliveries in the next two weeks.....

Hope to see you soon at the Garden Center.

April and the Girls.

Memorial Day Weekend

We are getting ready for the great weekend ahead of us. Ace puts on a huge national sale with all their Ace hardware stores. Between the Garden Center and the Hardware store.

We will have Fresh veggie starts, flowers and lots of other goodies for the sale this weekend.
I hope you all get out to see us this weekend. We will be waiting patiently for you.

GARDEN CENTER IN FULL SWING

Spring has sprung and I think we will go right into Summer......Rain, hail, snow, wind and cold temperatures. It took too long to get here and now that it is, our Nursery and garden center is full and brimming with color.


Vegetables are in stock. We have everything you can think of and then some. We also have Organic Vegetable starts and look amazing.

So Stop by and see the beautiful plants.


I hope everyone has a great Mother's Day and a wonderful weekend.

A visit to the Apple Center in Nevada City

Lyn and April took a little trip over to the Apple Center in Nevada City to introduce ourselves and give them our upcoming workshop list. We met Chris and Mali and had a wonderful conversation regarding educating the community on different ways of living.

We hope to get together with them and do some workshops with them.

Also, Wednesday nights workshop was a huge success. We had 27 attendees along with Dan Sr. and one of our new employees, Shelley. Jess and Lyn were the speakers and we had a great time giving information on Vertical Gardening, growing $700.00 worth of veggies in 100 sq ft., also, raised beds, and container gardens.

OLD MAN WINTER

All the Camellias are either full of buds or are just starting to bloom. Some of them have the brighest pink in color.

Things still look beautiful with all the Camellias in bloom.

Are Bareroot trees are still outside and they are waiting for Happy homes to go too!

Well, we are still getting rained on, but the plants love it. It is the best water they can get. Starting to work on the upcoming workshops for this next spring and summer for the Garden Center.

We got the next round of workshops on the schedule and we are doing well. Things are slow like they are everywhere, but we will make it through........

We think veggies will be huge this year and we will have all the great varieties like we do every year. Along with our Organic Veggie starts.....can't wait.

Rhubard and Strawberries - bareroot of coarse and our first round of bulbs arrived. All of our great seeds are in and we keep going back to them to see what is new. Can't wait!

HOMEMADE WREATH AND GARLAND MAKING

WITH

LYN MUTH, FILOLI CERTIFIED

ASSISTED BY

LORI LUNDBURG

Our Miss Lyn, making a beautiful garland for mantals. She is Filoli certified. Her and Lori had a great time with our workshopees.

Her example of making a wreath. All items gathered where from around her house.




Here is a picture of some of the items that she used to make the wreath with and center into the garland.

Miss Lyn answering questions from our workshop attendees. Even Dan Wheat Sr enjoyed the class.

Getting ready to do her thing. We love that everyone had such a good time. They keep coming back and bringing more friends with them to attend the FREE workshops.

She used an old wire hanger to make her wreath with and used garden twine to start her garland with along with 24 gauge wire in a roll from the hardware store. She had a good pair of gloves, along several pair of pliers. She also showed them how to take the battery operated single window candles and place them in the garlands. She answered questions about drying fruit to hang along with the berries in either the garland or wreaths.

PUMPKIN PRESERVING

PUMPKIN PIE AND OTHER GOODIES FOR FALL......

PUMPKIN PRESERVING........

We had a great time at the Pumpkin Preserving class and what to do with the Pumpkin. From making pies to bread to muffins and the famous Pumpkin Pie.

PUMPKIN PIE RECIPE

Here is the recipe for two Pumpkin pies: you can either use fresh or Libbys canned Pumpkin.

2 1/2 cans of Pumpkin or 3 full cups of fresh Pumpkin

4 eggs, slightly beaten

1 1/2 cups of sugar or sugar Substitute

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

3 cups of milk ( 1 1/2 cups of evaporated milk, and 1 1/2 cups of whole milk)

4 EGGS, slightly beaten

2 1/2 cans of Libbys canned pumpkin or 3 cups of Fresh Pumpkin

1 1/2 cups of sugar or sugar substitute

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

3 cups of milk - ( 1 1/2 cups of evaporated milk, 1 1/2 cups of whole milk )

Preheat oven to 425' degrees. In a large bowl, mix ingredients as listed together.

Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees, then reduce heat to 350' degrees and bake for another 45 minutes or until knife inserted in middle comes out clean when inserted into the middle of pie.

Let cool on wire rack for 20 minutes. Serve with homemade whip cream with a light hint of vanilla and cinnamon mixed into the cream. Enjoy.

Pie Crust.

I think we all have a different pie crust that we like to use. So use that one for your pies. I always make my pie crust first. Place in my pie plates and place in refrigerator until ready to use. I layer with wax or parchment paper as to help them not to dry out.

Pate Brisee (Short Crust pastry

2 1/2 cups of All purpose Flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp granulated sugar

1 cup ( 2 sticks) unslated butter, chilled and cut into 1 inch pieces

1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

I use my food processor, but you can also a pastry cutter and a large bowl.

Combine flour, salt and sugar, mix well. Add the butter and process in your food processor or use your pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Slowly pour 1/4 cup into mixture as a steady stream until dough just holds together when pinched. Add remaining water, if necessary.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and gather into a ball. Divide the dough into two equal pieces, flatten each portion into a dish, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate or 30 minutes to one hour before using. This will chill the butter and allow the gluten in the flour to relax. At this point you can also freeze the dough for later use.

When rolling the pastry out, make sure the pastry is an inch larger than the pan you are using.

On the last day of the Fall Home and garden show, the last cow had her calf. Baby is 11 years old and this is her last one. So his name is Finale'. He is a loving and fun calf. Loves to have his ears scratched and his forehead rubbed.

I waited until he and his Mom got situated on Monday and snapped some pictures of them.

WEEK OF VACATION and NEW INTERESTS

I had this week to not only clean house and start to put the leaves up as they fall. The weekend before the girls and I were at the Fall Home and Harvest Show. We had a great weekend. Here is the picture if my doing my demonstration on how to make homemade Applesauce.

Here is my wonderful worker and mother Bee, Miss Lyn. I love the way she took control of doing all of those soil samples. It took 14 hours of hometime to go through all of our customers samples. We hope we made every one happy with their results.

Miss Becca had her dark chocolate covered cheesecake. And she ended sharing with Mom.

Here is the end result of the demonstrations. Jars of Applesauce.

THE UNIONS FALL HOME AND HARVEST SHOW

Thank you to all who stopped by our booths at the Unions fall Home and Harvest Show. We did two canning demonstrations and had about 100 soil samples dropped off. The girls have their worked cut out for them this week.



We appreciate all who stopped by and saw us, talked to us and we enjoyed your company.

APPLE PIE CONTEST

This is our 3rd Place pie. Jenna brought hers in piping hot from the oven. And after two hours it was still warm. Loved the Crust.
This is our 1st Place pie from Deborah Martin. She was very creative with painting an Apple on top of the pie. It was also very tasty.

After the judging was done, we left the pies out for our customers to taste and share. The boys from the Hardware store made plates of 4 to 5 pieces on a plate to take home.

It was a great sweet treat to start fall with here at the Garden Center.

Saturday was our Apple Pie Contest. We had a great turnout with 15 pies. All very different and all were very good.

1st Place - Deborah Martin - $75.00

2nd Place - Lee Reilley - $50.00

3rd Place - Jenna Cross = $25.00

Composting and Fire safey Workshop

We had a great turnout for our Composting and Fire Safety workshop. Christine and Steve spoke for one hour to explain to everyone about Fire safety and Composting, and how they go along with each other.

As you clean your yards for fall and bring down dead branches, collect leaves, clean out gutter, and create fire safe zones in your yard you are protecting yourself for the upcoming Spring and Summer fire safety. With your yard wastes, you can start your compost pile, and continue to add kitchen scraps, cardboard, most sawdusts, tea bags, citrus rinds, coffee grounds and coffee filters.

DO NOT ADD: Meat, bones and fish, dairy products or grease, dog, cat or bird feces, Sawdust from plywood or treated wood, diseased plants or pernicious weeds such as bermuda grass, ivy, oxalis bulbs or burr clover.

With Fire safety, it is a year round aspect of life in California. We have very different climates.
When winter rolls around and you are getting ready to start your burn piles, here are some tips for you to follow.

1. Maximum pile size 4 foot diameter.
2. Area within 10 feet of outer edge of oile is maintained free and clear of all flammable material and vegetation.
3. Adult in attendance with shovel until fire is dead out.
4. Water supply at burning site.
5. No burning sall be undertaken unless weather conditions (particilarly wind) are such that burning can be considered safe.


Make sure that it is a permissable burn day and no permits are required to burn.

Hope this information is helpful. We had fun at the class. Hope to see you at the next one.

ANNUAL A TO Z SUPPLY GARAGE SALE

This coming Saturday, the 19th. We will be having our Annual garage sale here at the store and nursery. Doors open at 8 am. Hope to see you there

Yesterday evening was our Irrigation workshop. Dan Sr. spoke for over an hour and answered questions regarding drip irrigation and conventional irrigation.

All of our workshopees were very intentive as to what Dan Sr. was speaking about.

We had a good number of regular customers attend our workshop. We love to see them.

Dan Sr.'s demonstration table with anything and everything you could think of. From the smallest emitter to the largest conventional sprinkler that Hunter or Rainbird makes.

WATER FEATURE WORKSHOP

Our water feature workshop went well. Lyn and Steve walked and talked about all the different fountains we have in stock at the Garden Center.
They gave our workshopees some great examples and helpful hints to make one on their own.

From large to small, water features in your yard or small ones in your home help with noise and give a sense of calmness. They attract wildlife and sound wonderful.

Don't forget our next workshop is Irrigation with Dan. Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Garden Center.

The 15th Annual A to Z Supply BBQ went on without a hitch. We had a great time. Lots of food and plenty of things to do. Here is some of the gang relaxing after eating a great BBQ.
Dan JR or DJ as we like to call him, playing Horseshoes in Dan Sr's backyard. With a 1/2 acre of lawn there was plenty of games to be had.

Jessica Kelly who works in the Garden Center, dropping off her dirt pudding on the dessert table. John Beatty behind her getting ready to have some more goodies.

Terri Rutan, our awesome bookkeeper, with Larry Stallion, Elizabeth Stallion and Loretto Beatty. Enjoying the shade near the creek in the backyard.

The youngest of the grandkids at the BBQ. Left to right. Lucas, Aaron and Becca. They were very tired at the end of the day. But they had a great time running around with the other 15 kids.

As you can see we have filled our shelves with a great Fall seed selection and canning items in stock to keep you going through the fall. We also have Winter Veggie stocks now and a great variety. We also carry Certified Organic Veggies Starts.

The first Voilas of the season. They are such a happy flower. WE love them, it reminds us that fall is just around the corner.

Antique Pansies are April's favorite fall flower.

This is our new addition to the Nursery. She is a Pot lady. We haven't named her yet and she is still missing some details. But we think she has great character.

Everyone have a great and safe weekend. Happy Labor Day.

A to Z Supply and the A to Z Supply Garden Center will be closed Monday.