Have You Any Canning Jars???

Yes sir, yes sir, seven bags full! And two boxes to spare as well.

Peppers Galore

But I don't know the name of what it was we planted and the tag that was next to the plant has disappeared - I'm blaming that last bit on the chipmunks that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

New Cabinet

My birthday cabinet! Normally I'd ask for a cabinet etc., for my studio this time it's for my canned goods. It is in a weird location butted up against the side of another cabinet. We had just enough space for a bit more canning storage.

This cabinet if for my jams and jellies, all of those half and quarter pint jars that take up valuable shelf space that a quart jar needs and when left in boxes go uneaten.

Brandied Pears

We made brandied pears, John is in love!!! We are making wine with the rest of our pears.

Canned Butter

We finally tried a jar of the home canned butter and it was actually pretty good. It was missing something and I'd have to say that it is the salt since I canned the unsalted butter. It was creamy just like stick butter.

I used a double boiler to melt my butter, I've heard tales of it being gritty but they didn't have a double boiler which leaves me to believe heat is the culprit. Shelf life is about 3 years, I'd say that's stretching it a bit, more like a year and a half to two years. Ours won't last that long so it's not a problem.

Christmas Pickles

The recipe made 9 pints total, just enough to get me through the witner. I'm hoping we will a larger cucumber harvest next year.

Beautiful red color! Sweet and sour and somewhat hot cinnamon flavor will be most welcomed this winter.

I forgot to take pictures of the process! Here are the cucumbers cored and soaking in lime water. Christmas pickles are very similar to Lime Pickles except you leave out the spices, except the cinnamon, and add a bag of red hots to the syrup they are soak in overnight. I will try to get a picture of the finished pickles later today.

What's that Smell!

I spent the better part of yesterday trying to find what had died in the laundry room. It started when I emptied the dehumidfier into the floor drain and persisted through the evening. I poured water down the floor drain again and every time I did so the odor got worse.

I finally found the problem - dead tree frog! No kidding. A few weeks ago I found myself trying to track down the weird sounding cricket in the laundry room, partly thinking it sounded a LOT like a tree frog. Well said tree frog must have come in with the bushels of apples because there is no other reason for a tree frog to want to come into my house! It was either looking for a way out of the house or for water, anyway it is no more poor little fella.

New Can Goods Cubbard

One of the down sides to living in a very old victorian home is the lack of storage. John built a cubbard for our canned goods, I should say the food we've been canning ourselves! There are some blank spaces but they should be filled by the end of the week.

I have peach chutney to make tomorrow, more butter that needs to be canned and more pickles than one could ever imagine having - the christmas pickles are the ones I'm most excited about very similar to lime pickles but you add red hots and cinnamon to the pickles just before you process them!

Tonight's Menu

I made a lot of food, side dishes, for a group event today and have a healthy amount of left overs so tonights menus is:

Cole slaw (with vinegar dressing not mayo)
Cucumber Salad (with red vinegar and black pepper)
Baked Beans
Homemade whole wheat bread from freshly ground wheat
Fried Chicken
Autumn Harvest Pasta Salad

Everything either came out of the garden or out of food storage!

Spring Hard White Wheat - Fresh ground

Freshly ground Wheat Montana brand Spring Hard White Wheat.

Fresh Bread

I made bread for function today from freshly ground wheat, John did the grinding, it was delicious. So the dough rose in record time, I made loaves of bread which rose in record time and my oven decided not to work~! At 9:50 pm!!! So I called the neighbor and enlisted the services of their oven, it is really nice to have neighbors that care! The bread fell somewhat in the transfer from our house to theirs, the bread was incredible none the less.

The wheat was fresh ground Wheat Montana Spring Hard White.

More Beans

I think we are about 25 or more days into the new round of green beans, these are bush beans we didn't have enough growing season left for more pole beans. We have yellow wax beans to the left for a total of three varieties of bush beans.

Today's Haul

2 Gallons of pickling cukes, 2 table variety cukes, a gallon of garden fresh tomatoes (early girl) and a handful of blue lake poll beans.

Web Site Update

I updated Prairie Fibers this morning, it still needs a lot of work but let me know what you think.

Pepsi Canning Jar

We found a Pepsi canning jar, of all things, in our canning jar supply it's a pint jar that is currently filled with Garden Medley.

Tonight's Menu - BLT's

A very happy BLT eater!!! Of course he's grinnin like this because he hates having a camera in his face all of the time but also because his pickles are almost done.

Two BLT's assembled and taste tested.

The assemblage begins, mustard, and mayo are required.

The birds ate my tomatoes so I had to purchase some from a local grower for tonights meal.

Got Pickles???

Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath and your done! Consult the Ball Blue Book for more specific directions.

The color of the pickles changes from bright green to that cooked pickle look with which we are all familiar.

The boiling spice solution is then mixed in with the newly drained and rinsed cukes and onions and brought to a boil.

Spices are mixed together with sugar and vinegar and brought to a boil.

You start with some pickling cukes, and a whole lotta onions, they are soaked in some pickling salt for awhile to draw the water out of the fruit.

Dh helped me put together three batches of Bread and Butter Pickles tonight. I do the pickle making around here, as everyone loves the way they taste ;-) Here's some pic's of how it all went together.

Interesting

If not weird! Freegan Kitchen Dumpster Diving

Pepper

One very sick kitty, I've been giving him about a quarter cup of pedialite every half hour to stave off dehydration, he's started fighting me a very good sign! HE's been relegated to the basement because of the diarreha, he'd rather be on our bed, we'd rather he wasn't. It's also safer for him there because the dogs can't get to him. So there he sleeps in a laundry basket with his water and a litter box two feet away.

Sunday Activities

My poor poor stove! God bless the person who invented oven cleaner because that's what it'll take to get the pans clean on my stove top!!!

As you can see I have a rather vintage kitchen, ala 1950's remodel style kitchen. John at the rather vintage sink cleaning the stove grates. Tomorrow's lunch is cooking away in my vintage crock pot, they just don't make green appliances like that anymore ;-) I've been color testing in the kitchen, the cabinets will be ladybug red, a good choice if I don't mind saying so myself.

14 quarts on the counter and 7 quarts on the table, with another 7 quarts to join those and right quickly.

John did the canning today, he made 28 quarts of applesauce using the last of our Lodi apples. I sorted the apples and helped with dishes and did laundry but my main task today was to keep the cat from dying, no kidding. I'm hoping my vet will be available tomorrow, seems the little bugger is severely impacted, did you know you need a vet to get laxatives for a cat??? I didn't, anyway... Here are a few pics of Johns hard work, and one very sick kitty.

Onions

I'm not sure why my onions are above ground, AGAIN, suggestions?

Tomatoes

Well my plants were damaged by high winds and hail I'm suprised I have this much left to be quite honest. The plants are missing so many vines they border on looking rather sickly!

Our Last

The last of the Junk Pile! And Lord Willing and the River Don't Rise it won't rain tonight and it'll be gone tomorrow as well. It's mostly leaves and vines that will be run through the wood chipper and then put into the compost bin, which I have YET to turn this year because it's been too wet all season.

Backyard Rehab!

Our backyard went from this to this! We think it looks so much better now, most of the wood etc,. went to a friends burn pile and the rest of the "stuff" went to the junk yard Now we have a neat construction pile against the shed and my old garden space is now planted with three types of bush beans, two green bean varieties, and one yellow wax bean. NOTE that pile of boxes by the trailer is NOT there as of an hour ago! It's gone I tell you it's ALL GONE!!!