Onions!

We harvested the onions yesterday. Seeing all those yellow and white onions just make me feel so pleased with our efforts at keeping the garden weeded. Last year, when we planted onions, we lost the entire crop when weeds completely choked them out.  All that back-breaking work to plant them only to have all our efforts wiped out.  Not this year!

I didn't count, but there are more than enough onions here to last us for quite awhile. I don't think it'll last til next summer, though, so we plan to plant a second batch to make sure there's enough. We eat plenty of onions, just about in every dish we make.

A far cry from the onion-hating person I used to be! I used to plead with my mom not to put onions in meals, and she made onion-less potato salad for my sister and I.  Then I met Andrew, with onion juice in his veins and he often says, "A house is not a home without onions!" I'd begrudgingly add chopped onions into a dish, just for him, only a little! He'd ask for onions in the meatloaf I make, so I obliged, just half of one! Then the amount of onions I used grew, onions were included in more and more meals. We'd give raw onions to the kids when they were babes, and to my surprise, they liked them!

Now, I cannot imagine not having onions! Onions go in practically everything I make these days. Even though our kids have grown up eating onions, it still surprises me each time they willingly put raw onion slices on their sandwiches or hamburgers.

The onions still need a couple weeks of drying time, and they're in the pole barn now. I plan to store some, dehydrate some, and of course, use them as we go.  I've stopped buying store onions quite awhile ago, and there's nothing more satisfying than being able to provide something we need from our own garden.

Still No Pictures

My new camera arrived. I waited alllllll day for the UPS guy to deliver it after I checked the tracking number and figured out it would be delivered on Tuesday. Every time Maisie barked, I ran to the window, hoping to see the familiar brown van pulling into the driveway and I was disappointed every time. Dang it! After 4 pm, I gave up, knowing it was too late for the UPS to be making any deliveries in my area.

Wouldn't you know, the lazy bum put it in the mailbox?!? The mailbox?!?!? When Andrew came home around 6, he had it in his hands along with the rest of the mail. If one can be happy and pissed at the same time, that was me.

The downside to ordering online is you cannot see the actual product; hold it in your hands and decide if it's the right one for you. Looking at the online info doesn't exactly help form the image in your head and a picture just doesn't do it justice. The camera is tiny! Good grief! I'm afraid I'll crush it! I've taken a couple pictures with it and it's nice and the pictures seem alright, though I've yet to download any. It's just so... small! For the first time ever, I put the wrist strap on it just to give it more substance. I'll put it in my pocket and it'll disappear in there! The diaper bag will eat it up! It'll slip into the cracks and I'll never see it again! People will think I'm a spy except for the fact that it's ruby red! I think in the future, I'll buy cameras in person so I know exactly what I'm getting.

My uncle came down on Thursday and we butchered the last 3 roosters! He lopped the heads off for me and I was happy to let him do it. It does get easier and this time, I hardly paused when it came time to pluck feathers and cut into the bird to gut and pull out the innards. The big old mean one got his last hurrah even after he was dead-- his spur stuck me in the hand when I picked him up by the feet to pluck feathers. I'll get the last word when I eat him: "yum!"

It sure is quiet around here without the chorus of roosters crowing! For the first time in ages, some of the older hens were out in the yard, taking dust baths and drinking from the outdoor water pan. It was nice to see the yellow Buffs out of the coop and I'm sure all 4 of them will soon take over the yard. The kids are out playing more freely now, too, instead of hiding behind me or wielding sticks in terror of pecking roosters. The one rooster left is too busy keeping track of his women to pay any attention to the kids. 1 rooster, 11 hens, and 9 chicks-- much better.

We should be getting our first frost soon. We had two nights with temps as low as 32. I've harvested most of the peppers and plucked all the red tomatoes. I haven't dug up any potatoes yet, plan to do that soon. We've had some nice days lately, so I may still get some more tomatoes, but I won't be canning them. I have enough canned tomatoes for the winter and we will eat what is left.

Andrew is working this weekend at another local town festival and I just might take the kids and check it out after he gives me a report on how it looks out there. I took the kids to the apple harvest festival he worked at last week and the kids were very good-- we parked about a mile away from the event and it was nerve-wracking to walk alone with 4 kids, making sure they stayed off the road and on the shoulder. Peter likes to take off the minute you put him down, so I was almost constantly carrying him and my shoulder paid for it the next day. It was a huge event, almost like a big flea market with a band playing, different foods, and exhibits, and not a single apple in sight! I wanted to go back the next day, but it was too much for the kids and they were such good sports to do all that walking and then have to walk the last mile back to the van. I was amazed at how packed it was, since it was the kind of town where if you blink, you miss it. There's nothing there, just homes, a school and a fire station, but boy, people really came out for this event!

I have several posts planned for next week with pictures! I miss posting with pictures. Have a great weekend! :o)

Jar Finds

I'm having pretty good luck at the yard sales these past couple of weeks. Last week I found a box of a dozen reg. mouth quart jars for $1.50 at a church yard sale. I wish they were wide mouth, but I'm happy with what I can get. Then today, I found a dozen Kerr wide mouth quart jars for $5 and 17 mostly wide mouth pint jars also for $5. My stash of empty jars is getting replenished again-- yay! I know that regular mouth jars, lids and bands are cheaper than wide mouth, but I have big hands, and I find it easier for me to use wide mouth for my purposes. I reserve the reg. mouth jars for jams and sauces, foods that are easy to pour out.

I like the Kerr brand of jars. I used to think Ball jars were the best (still do, sort of) but then a fellow blogger enlightened me to the fact that Kerr jars have the year they were made marked between the threads. How cool to know when the jar was manufactured, knowing a jar has been in continuous use since 1966 or 1981. Since Ball bought Kerr, they dropped the date on the jars and changed the shape, which used to be squarish, to match the current Ball jar shape. A little disappointing.

So now, when I go yard sale-ing or thrifting, I try and keep an eye out for the older Kerr jars. I just like knowing the date of the jars. It's comforting to me, to know that someone took care of it for all those years, filled them with tomatoes or applesauce to feed their families, cleaned them when they were empty and did it all over again, year after year.

My uncle tells me that my Grandmother had thousands of canning jars. She had to can enough to feed 11 children plus her husband and herself and they lived in Minnesota with those long, cold winters. I imagine it was a full-time job to put away enough food for everyone. I don't have that many jars, but one of these days, I'm gonna count, just to see how many I have. For sure, it's not nearly enough jars to put away food for my family if we were not able to go to the food stores, but I don't know if we ever will get to that point. Someday it'd be nice to live solely off what we grow and raise; partly to see if we can do it, but also to reduce our dependency on society and besides, it's better for us in the long run to know exactly where our food came from, what is in it, and what it ate before we ate it.

I bought 2 bushels of apples the other day. I'll make a few pies to freeze for later and then depending on how many are left, I'll probably make apple chips with the dehydrator. It got hot here again, the temps are in the 90s so I'm looking for cooler ways to put away the apples for winter eating.

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How To: Wet Walnuts (Walnut Syrup)

If you're like me, you love wet walnuts on ice cream! Yum!

Just look at that spoonful!

The only thing I don't like about buying wet walnuts at the store, is the cost-- ouch!

So, I searched and searched and finally found a recipe to make and can my own wet walnuts!

I've been making my own for quite a while now, and the recipe has been tweaked and changed to the way I like it. Here's the way I make it:

You'll need:

8 cups of light brown sugar (for no measuring, buy 2 bags of brown sugar 32 oz or 2 pounds each)

2/3 cup corn starch

3 tsp maple extract

16 cups of walnuts

6 cups cold water

You'll also need your canning supplies plus 10 clean pint-size canning jars and lids.

{Makes 10 pints}

Dump your brown sugar in a large pot and add corn starch.


Add the maple extract

Add the 6 cups of cold water and whisk to combine ingredients.

Bring to a boil.

While waiting for the syrup to boil, get your clean jars and fill with walnuts. Divide the 16 cups of walnuts evenly into 10 jars.

I like to tap the jars on the counter to help settle the nuts and then add a few more, pressing firmly to make sure there is at least 1-inch headspace.

When the syrup starts to boil, let it boil at least 10 minutes.

Using the jar funnel, ladle the hot syrup into each jar, until it reaches the top, leaving 1-inch headspace. Wipe rims, cap with lids, then place into canning pot.

10 jars fit nicely here.

Cover and bring to a boil. When boiling starts, can for 10 minutes.

Let sit in canner off the heat for a little bit, then remove and cover with a towel to keep from cooling too fast. When cool, check for sealed lids and store in a cool place.

Once you open a jar, keep in the fridge.

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Incidentally, this is also the recipe for my pancake syrup, just keep out the walnuts.

When I had the wet walnuts in the canner, I made another batch of syrup.

I love yard sales, where else can I pick up a 1/2 gallon Atlas jar for 25 cents??

The syrup recipe will make 3 quarts. I pour 1 quart into the old syrup bottle and 2 quarts in the 1/2 gallon jar.

Store in the fridge and refill the syrup bottle as needed.

Let me know if you make this and how you like it! This also makes nice gifts for people and you can use those smaller 1/2 pint jars instead.
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Pressure Canner Love

I don't know what I was so nervous about, working with that pressure canner was pretty easy! I am so glad I got one and I'm already dreaming up other food to pressure can!

My very first pressure canned batch of corn-- 14 pints total.

I love the fact that it holds 10 pints (reg. mouth) at once, so that'll speed things up, but the downside is, it takes a whole 55 minutes to do one batch of corn. Now I understand why my friend's Grandma got so upset when one of her two pressure cookers broke and she immediately sent her husband to the store to buy another one. He ended up going from store to store before finding one and came home about two hours later. It was my very first time helping to can tomatoes and I didn't really understand what all the fuss was about. Having 2 pressure canners going at once would definitely help things go faster, but maybe later. First, I want to be skilled at using this one, then in a year or two, I'll buy a second. Or maybe when I get frustrated at the wait time, I'll send Andrew off to the store to get me another.

In the middle of me working on the corn last night, Andrew called from work and told me he was going to his friend Jim's house after work to pick up some peaches. We had a storm roll through in the late afternoon and Jim's neighbor had peach trees. The wind knocked a lot of peaches to the ground and the neighbor shared them with Jim, not wanting them to go to waste. Well, it was too much for Jim, so he called Andrew wanting to know if we wanted them. Well, sure! I'm not going to turn down free peaches!

We got four bags of peaches, some of them were badly bruised, but most of them were salvageable. Jim's lady hinted at peach butter, so I took all the smushed peaches and made up a batch of peach butter.

I started out with a full pot of peaches, about double the recipe in the Ball Blue Book, and it simmered for the next 5-6 hours before it was thick enough to round up on a spoon. Those peaches were juicy! I spiced it with a teaspoon of cinnamon.


I ended up with 6 pints of peach butter. I'll share them with Jim and his Lady, since he was kind enough to give me the peaches. There are enough good peaches left over to make peach cobbler and to eat out of hand. I had to fend the kids off the peaches so I could make sure I have enough to last a couple of days.
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Kind of funny how things work out-- I've been wanting to stop by the farm stand and pick up some peaches, but every time I'm out by the stand, I never have enough money on me (they only take cash), so I don't stop. I've had a real craving for peaches lately, I haven't eaten any this year yet. Then unexpectedly, we get a bunch of free peaches! Nice! I'm going to save some of the pits and plant them, see if I can get any to grow. It'd be nice to have a peach tree to replace the one we have now. The peaches never grow any bigger than a ping-pong ball. Any tips on getting a peach pit to grow? Do I need to let it dry or can I plant it now?
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Why I Do What I Do

It's not such a big thing now, with more and more people having gardens and preserving their own food, but when I started doing it a little bit before my first child was born in 2002, I had many people question it. Why? You can buy it from the store, you know. Isn't it too much work?

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My own mother often wonders why I do this, partly because it is a lot of work, and partly because she remembers her mother telling her it's cheaper and easier to get it at the store. My grandmother had no choice, she had to preserve her own food. She had no car and lived out in the country on very little income. For her, it became drudgery. It was something she had to do if she wanted to eat in the winter. She didn't have any other options, but she made sure to make clear to her daughters that they would be better off buying from the stores and did not pass on any of her knowledge of gardening, butchering, and preserving. She had high hopes for my mother and aunt to go to college, graduate and get good jobs so they could buy what they needed from the stores.

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I do this because I want to, and because I can. It isn't drudgery for me. Not at all. I enjoy the whole process, from beginning to end. I love planting the seed, nurturing it and watching it grow, seeing fruit ripen and then plucking it at its' peak. I love doing the prep work it takes to get a tomato ready for canning-- to dunk the tomato in hot water, slipping the skin off, chopping or leaving it whole and placing it in the jars. I enjoy the steam from the water bath and when they're done, hearing that 'ping' from the lids that tells me it sealed.

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I wish I could have picked my grandmother's brain; to have the chance to ask her how she did certain things. But she probably wouldn't have shared her knowledge with me. She was tight-lipped about things and often told my mother to "mind her own business" when asked anything.

I had to learn things the hard way, by trial and error, by devouring books and instructions and other people's blogs. I have only recently started to feel comfortable with experimenting, deviating from the recipe to add my own twist, no longer afraid that I'll botch the whole canning process. I feel confident now in my skill to make jams and sauces and I want to take the next step in food preserving. I'm ready to tackle the pressure cooker so I can try preserving other food, like corn and potatoes and meat.

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Sure, I could go and buy what I need from the store. But if you have never tasted home-preserved tomatoes or home-made jams, you don't know what you're missing. Before my garden, we used to buy tomatoes year-round, never really tasting the difference from store-bought summer tomatoes to store-bought winter tomatoes. After the garden and we grew our own, and I didn't can my own tomatoes yet, we'd buy tomatoes in winter and wonder why we are wasting our money on tasteless tomatoes? We no longer buy tomatoes in winter anymore, preferring, instead, to eat what I have canned and when we run out, we will (im)patiently wait for our garden-grown tomatoes.

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I didn't think I would taste a difference in store-bought potatoes versus home-grown potatoes, but I can! I really can! The same goes for nearly everything I can grow myself versus buy in the store. So after learning all this, how can I ever stop? How can I ever give up the freshest, juiciest, tastiest home-grown or home-preserved foods and go back to buying bland, flavorless, preservative-packed store-bought food?

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I'm sure my grandmother is looking down at me, shaking her head at me, while I sweat over a hot stove, boiling hot water for dunking tomatoes in, washing hundreds of jars and lids, while fending off 4 children. Go ahead granny-- shake your head, but I'm not going to stop.

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Damson Liquor

Back in August, I made my very first batch of Damson Plum Liquor. I made two different ones-- one with Gin and the other with Vodka. It is supposed to steep for several months, then you strain out the plums and voila! Damson Liquor!

This is what it looked like in August, and the one on the right is what it looks like now.

I strained out the Gin batch a few days ago and it was just tasty! I can't believe it was that easy to make and it turned out so good! The photo above on the right is the Vodka batch and I haven't strained it out yet, but it smells heavenly! Can't wait to taste it!

The color of the Gin batch is lovely, like a nice, deep, dark wine color. It filled up this bottle and a little overflow into a small canning jar. Nice flavor, reminds me of blackberry liquor. Any ideas on how I can use the plums?? I know I can still eat them, but do I just eat them right out of the jar or can I cook with them?? I'd love some ideas. Maybe I can make some sort of cake and chop the plums for a plum/gin version of rum cake??

Andrew and I aren't big drinkers-- we did the whole drinking and getting drunk scene when he was in the Navy and I was in college, and we have had enough of that. We do, however, like to have wine now and then, or a recipe calls for beer or wine, or when we are feeling sick, there's nothing like a shot of rum or vodka to knock you out and kill the germy germs. My dad used to let me have a shot of blackberry liquor when I wasn't feeling good and that will be next on my alcoholic ventures this Spring, when the blackberries are in season. I keep thinking that this would also make some nice gifts, bottled up in some nice glass bottles.

Strawberry wine, Peach wine, and Damson liquor-- all excellent results! Well, a 50/50 success rate with the Strawberry wine-- half of it went to vinegar. I learned from that and stayed on top of the Peach wine and that turned out to be just right, with a bit of sweetness to it. The strawberry is stronger with a bit of tartness. Looking forward to making mulberry wine and blackberry liquor!

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It's Definitely Fall!

I love the cooler weather we are having now. There have been a few days where we came close to starting a fire in the wood stove, but we held out. On nights where the temperatures dip into the low 40s, we have a little space heater we use in the hall, aimed towards the bedroom doorways and it wards off the night-time chill. Pretty soon, the wood stove will be fired up, I'm sure, but the longer we can put it off, the longer our wood will last.

It's been an extra busy week here. I took the remaining green tomatoes off the vine and turned it into green tomato salsa. Oh my! How tasty that was! I made a small batch first, to see if we would like it, and it was so good, that I made a bigger batch the next time, after buying what I needed to make more. I ended up canning 12 pints of green tomato salsa to enjoy during these cold winter months.

My Aunt and Uncle also brought us 150 pounds of russet potatoes! I took about 25 pounds and turned them into potato skins, loaded with bacon and cheese and froze them for later snacks/meals. All the potato that was scooped out has been turned into potato soup and mashed potatoes. Yum! We are a family of potato lovers and we definitely eat our fair share of potatoes around here.

Oldest was playing around with the bungee cords that we are using to keep the chairs with the table, to prevent Baby from climbing them (read previous post for more info). We tell the kids all the time not to play with them, they are like big rubber bands and they'll snap back and might poke your eye out or hurt you. Sure enough, Oldest hooked one end to the door knob, the other end to the sliding door handle and it popped off and clipped her in the eye.

*The day after*

It gave her a deep little cut in her eyebrow and left a shiner the next day. I am SO relieved that it missed her eye. She had a very swollen eye for a day, and now she is left with what looks like a bad make-up job on her eyelid. I hope she has learned her lesson (a painful one at that!) and will not play with the bungee cords anymore.

There will be one more preserving of food for me before I can finally put away all my tools for the year-- pumpkin! I have no pumpkin left from last year and am looking forward to making pumpkin pies, breads, cookies, and more! Hope to get a pumpkin this week and believe it or not, I'm actually tempted to get another bushel of apples. Wait and see how busy it gets this week, before I decide to get more apples. I feel like I turned all the apples into sauce before we really got to eat any out of hand, so I am craving the crunch-crunch of apples and the juice dripping down my chin. Plus, I've never made caramel apples for the kids before, and I think the kids would love to try them!

Random Tidbits

I have some random things and pictures I need to unload out of my head. You know the feeling, stuff that clutters up your brain and rattles around in there until you decide what to do with it. Well, I've decided to put it all in one post, tidbits and stuff that's happened this month, sort of a way to sweep out the old and welcome in October! Dang! October already? Really?

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The garden is still giving us tomatoes. The temps are going anywhere from the 60s to the 80s during the day and drop to the 50s and sometimes lower at night. It was pretty chilly today, most of the windows stayed shut, so I may have to pick all the green ones and make that green tomato salsa I've heard about. We haven't been overwhelmed with tomatoes but I did manage to can 10 pints of chopped tomatoes and it looks like I may be able to can a few more tomorrow.

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One day, when the husband had a day off from work, I made up some pie crusts and chopped up some apples for making and freezing mini apple pies. Hubby picked up a mini pie maker at a yard sale somewhere so we tried it out and it's a nifty little thing. One side cuts out the crust, other side folds and seals the edges.

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Pretty soon, the girls took over and edged me and the husband out of the pie-making operation. We ended up with about 50 mini pies to go in the freezer and the ones with ripped crusts got baked and eaten. They were tasty! I also made and froze 2 regular size pies. I planned to make 4, but my pie crust was not cooperating with me that day and kept crumbling. I gave up and pressed the crust into a rectangular cake pan and made a deep dish apple pie with crumb topping. We are still eating that, it was so good, but it's a lot of pie! I would make it again if there was going to be a crowd coming over to eat.

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I finally used up the last of the apples from the 6 bushels we bought. I canned another 6 quarts of applesauce tonight for a grand total of 70 quarts! I originally planned to can 100 quarts, since the 52 quarts I canned last year didn't make it to the next apple season, but I got to thinking-- Baby is not eating applesauce daily like he did before, so 70 ought to do it. Plus, I'm tired of apples. I'm tired of peeling them, coring them, chopping them, stirring them, eating them. And being chased by bees when I take the apple leftovers to the compost...

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My coupon-cutting is time-consuming, but effective in saving us money. I have to do my "homework" to search out different websites for coupons and deals and then sit down to match up coupons with prices for cheap deals. I am not complaining, we are eating well. My local food store had a bargain sale on store-brand mac 'n cheese for 10 cents a box and spaghetti for 59 cents. The husband loves spaghetti, it's his #1 favorite meal, so we eat a lot of that, at least once a week. And I love mac 'n cheese-- who doesn't? With trying to save money, I have been making it from scratch, but with a deal like this, I'll happily buy some. The photo above is what happens when you let your 3 year old put away pantry items: boxes of spaghetti and mac 'n cheese stacked anywhere she could put them. We ended up buying 60 boxes of mac 'n cheese (do the math, that equals $6!) and 60 boxes of spaghetti.

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I made a meal tonight that cost less than $2.00 to feed the 6 of us:

1 box of mac 'n cheese- .10

1/2 lb ground beef- .75

2 tomatoes- free (garden)

1 carrot- .20

1 tube biscuits- .75

Total: $1.80 for a yummy tomato/mac 'n cheese/beef (with grated carrot hidden in the sauce) dinner

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The bright side of saving all this money is that we have a little extra money for other things-- like fixing my van. We have been having trouble with it lately. The tires needed to be replaced- they were bald in front and leaky in the back; we had to pump air into the back tire before we went somewhere. Bought 4 new tires and now something else is happening to the engine. It sputters and lurches and then shuts down. Our neighbor mechanic is working with us, replaced this and that, still no go. Hopefully we will pinpoint the trouble soon and it won't cost too much.

I have been "trapped" at home lately, because the one vehicle that works is the husband's truck, which is a stick-shift and 6 of us don't all fit. I am counting my blessings, we have a truck that works and if that means I have to stay home and give him the grocery list to shop for me, then so be it.

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I think my head is not rattling anymore. Thanks for listening. :o)

Grapes

Husband and Youngest helped me pick the last of the wild grapes today. I previously picked some, but I couldn't reach the higher-up ones without some help. The ground where the grapes are at slopes down and it makes for an awkward time with the ladder. Husband came up with the idea of backing the truck up to it and putting the ladder in the back of the truck bed. *!!!* What a good idea! I was then able to nearly get all of the high-up grapes and then used the truck itself for a platform for the other areas where I just needed a little bit of help.

The wild grapes were plentiful this year, I assume because of all the nice rain we had and the birds and animals had plenty of other food to munch on. I had been keeping my eye on the grapes, waiting and watching for them to ripen. I want to try making grape juice this year, since I still have plenty of grape jelly from last year's harvest.

Youngest and I set up grape headquarters outside on the bench and got to work plucking grapes off the stems. Youngest is always following me and helping me in whatever I do. She's my little helper.

Things were going well, until a bee flew by and landed on her shoulder. I was about to tell her not to move, when she jumped, and then the bee stung her. Poor girl, I know how she feels. She took it much better than I did when I got stung by a wasp back in July. After soothing her and giving her some meds, we moved the grape operations indoors.

After cooking the grapes and straining the juice from the pulp, I found that I don't quite have enough for the recipe I have for grape juice. I'll have to play with it for a little bit, halving the recipe and then tweaking and tasting until I have it right. I have plenty for making more jelly, but I really don't want to make more jelly at this point, I have enough kinds of jams and jelly in the basement to last for a long while. Wild grapes are very tart, and it would take a lot of sugar, so maybe I'll blend it with apple juice to stretch it out a bit and also to sweeten it naturally, using less sugar that way.

Next year, I would like to try growing conventional grapes for eating and juicing. It would be nice to expand on our little mini-orchard and grow even more of our own fruits.

Rhubarb and Peaches

In the 4 years since we moved here and since I transplanted my rhubarb from the old house, this is the most I have ever harvested. Even moving them from a spot in the garden to the side of the house in the Spring did not deter them from doing well. Baby chicks pecking their leaves didn't bother them. I'm convinced that moving them to the side of the house was the best thing for them. From now on, if we ever move again, the rhubarb will be transplanted by the side of the house.

Since there is now a chill in the air, it was time to harvest the rhubarb. I pulled 90 percent and made 2 rhubarb-strawberry pies, then chopped the rest and froze them. We reallllllllly need a freezer. sigh.. That's first on our list after we get new tires for the van.

I did the next step for the Peach wine this afternoon. Last week, I strained out the peach pulp, added the sugar and then stirred daily for a week. Today I poured it through cheesecloth and divided the liquid equally among 3 gallon jars. Now it gets moved to a cool, dark place (the basement) where it will ferment for the next 6 months to a year. This time, I'll be checking after 6 months to be sure it doesn't go past wine and turn into vinegar, like what happened with the Strawberry wine I made.

Isn't it a nice peachy-pink color? I'm looking forward to trying this when it's ready!

Harvesting and Canning

All the apples are gone. They were made into crispy apple chips, dried apples and eaten out of hand. It was nearly a week of daily morning and night peeling and slicing, before I finally ran out of apples. Good thing, I was starting to get sick of arranging apple slices neatly on the dehydrator trays for maximum effect.

My break from apples won't be for very long, they just advertised Gala apples and I like to use those in my applesauce, along with jonagolds. As soon as the jonagolds are ready, I'll buy several bushels of each and get to saucing!

After I made the Damson plum liquors, I waited a little too long (I got busy with the apple chips) to make plum jam, and found that about half had gone moldy. I was able to salvage enough for two batches of plum jam and the rest went to the chickens and compost. It was my first time making plum jam and it's very good! When I mentioned the jam to my mom, her eyes lit up and she said she has not had plum jam since she left home for college. My grandmother had a plum tree behind the shed and made jam with the plums. I am eager for my mom to taste my plum jam and see if it compares to my grandmother's.

We have gotten 4 eggs so far from our chickens. I think it is a possibility that some of the chickens are laying in the woods, because there should be more than just four. We passed some one's home with a pile of rolled up chain link fencing for sale. I think I'll stop by and see how much they are asking, and if it is reasonable, get some for making an enclosure around the coop. Fall is in the air around here, and fallen leaves will make it hard for me to search for eggs, so as much as I want them to free-range, I also want them to lay eggs in the coop.

Our tomatoes are finally starting to come in. It was just a trickle these past couple of weeks, with a tomato here and there. When I was canning the plum jam, I had enough tomatoes to can a quart. Only a quart, I know, but it's a start. Checking on the plants today, I am hoping that by next week, I'll have at least enough ripe tomatoes for 10 more quarts. Not even enough to last the whole winter, but that's what I get for not being more careful where I put my tomato and pepper starts and then getting a puppy that thinks the plants were for her to chew on. I consider myself lucky to have found tomato starts when I did. So I'll take what I can get and have better hopes for next year's garden.

I am considering getting a bushel of tomatoes from the farm market, they ask $15 for a bushel, but every time I inquire about them, they tell me not today, maybe next week. Meanwhile, there are plenty of tomatoes for sale on the table. I suspect they pick the best looking ones for sale and save the ugly ones for canning tomatoes. This is what makes me hesitate.. Why can't they just sell me a bushel of those tomatoes when I want them now? Maybe I'll just do without and concentrate on apples. I will miss not having rows of pretty canned tomatoes in my basement, but I have plenty of other lovely canned goods to make up for it.

I am also harvesting items from the stores, buying a little extra here and there, when we can afford it, to get ready for the winter months. My step-mom taught me some tricks for shopping with coupons, and I am getting some pretty good deals, now that I know where to find them. Recently at the rite-aid, they had a pretty good sale for certain items-- buy one get one free type sales and combined with manufacturer's coupons, store coupons and rebates, I managed to get about $75 worth of items for about $15. I'm pretty pleased about that. It's a thrill to see the total on the register go down, down, down and walk away with quite a few bags of items.

I am trying a batch of peach wine. It's made the same way I made the strawberry wine and it is smelling mighty fine. I strain the peaches out in a couple days, then add the sugar, stir daily for another week, then divide into gallon jars and let it sit for a couple of months. I won't wait a year this time around, before checking them, to make sure I don't end up with 50/50 vinegar and wine.

I am going to enjoy this little break from canning anything, catching up on things I need to do around the house. I have a project going on right now and I look forward to sharing it with you as soon as I am finished.

Damson Plum Liquor (recipe follows)

There was an ad in our local paper, from the same orchard where I got my cherries, for rambo apples and damson plums. I looked up damson plums on the internet and found they make a great jam and liquor. The rambo apples are good for pies, jelly, and drying.

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I definitely wanted more apples for making apple chips. They went so fast last year and I didn't make a whole lot of them, so this time, I got a whole bushel that will be just for apple chips. The rambos were only $9 a bushel so that's a great deal! This also breaks up some of the labor of peeling hundreds of apples all at once for applesauce and chips. The apples I use for applesauce are not ready yet, so this is nice to only work on making chips.

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I am intrigued by the idea of making damson plum liquor, and at 80 cents a pound, I thought it would be worth a try. I bought 25 pounds worth of plums, some for making liquor and some for jam.

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I am not a big drinker. In college, I went to my fair share of parties and night clubs, and I did the whole party-hearty thing, but now, I just like the occasional wine and a swig of the "hard stuff" when I feel rough around the edges. I have always liked fruity flavors, so I enjoy sangria and margaritas and such, and I really like the strawberry wine we made last year, so I think (and hope) the damson plum liquor will be something I like.

I found 2 different recipes on the internet for damson liquor. I am trying both. They are basically the same, except one uses more plums and more sugar, but less alcohol.

Recipe 1:

1 quart of damson plums (it didn't specify, but I halved and pitted them)
1 1/2 pound of sugar
375 ml vodka or gin (I used vodka)

Combine ingredients and pour into a gallon jar. Keep lid loose for fermentation. Stir weekly for 6 to 8 weeks until sugar is dissolved. Should be ready by December.


Recipe 2:

1 pound of damson plums, pitted ( I halved them and pitted them)
1 pound of sugar
1 quart of gin or vodka (I used gin)

Combine ingredients and pour into gallon jar. Stir weekly. Should be ready in 3 months. (Didn't specify, but I'm keeping lid on this loose as well)


I'll be keeping these in a cool dark place, the heat and humidity will spoil the fruit and I don't want that to happen. Hopefully this turns out yummy and I'll let you know how it tastes.

Now, I need to get started on peeling and slicing a batch of apples for the dehydrator. If I get it in tonight, they'll be dry by morning and ready for another batch!