Our Crazy Busy Summer....AKA Preserving the Harvest

It has been more than 2 months since I last had time to blog.

Please forgive me.....AGAIN

  So today, I thought I'd share with you what has been keeping me from blogging! 

I'm telling you, 

I have been crazy busy!

Maintaining our garden

as well as our family relationships has been challenging to say the least. We are still going back and forth between our country home on weekends and our city digs during the week. 

2 homes in 2 states is just too MUCH!

  Of course, my heart is AlWAYS at HOME!

I'm a country girl at HEART!

Even though we couldn't watch over the garden as diligently as we would have liked, we managed to harvest quite a bit of goodness to fill our freezer and pantry!

Zucchini Bread!!!

We had a pretty nice strawberry harvest this year. 

I froze many of them, after we ate our fill, of course.  

I also made a small batch of jam.  We are not big jam/jelly eaters, because of the sugar.  But the grandkids always have to have pbj's when they come over.  I personally don't like the taste of pectins in jam.  I have made pectin-free jam before by literally cooking the jam to death over the stove. 

But here is a trick worth sharing.  I happen to have this high end bread machine that makes pectin-free jam, and it does all the work.

Really! it has a jam setting!  I bought this machine a long time ago for baking bread after my old welbilt machine died.  However, I rarely, if ever bake bread in it.  Usually, I just mix the bread in the machine and then bake it in my own pan.  But this jelly setting is SWEET!

 When the jam was finished, 

I put it into hot jars and gave it a water bath.  Wala!

 We had quite a few wild black berries on the homestead.  I made a few more jars of bread machine jars of blackberry jam and I made some blackberry vinegar! This is going to make a yummy vinaigrette.

preserving herbs is a never ending job!

I have found that there isn't a better place to bond than in the garden.  This is true for grand kids as well.

This boy is quite the foodie.

His mama has introduced him to lots of veggies.  He will try almost anything.

 After spending the morning in the garden, we made lunch with all the goodies we picked.  He had beans, zucchini, fresh potatoes and kale chips.  Also, he requested some pickled beets.  He loves pickled beets!  Crazy, I know for a 5 y/o to request beets.  Of course he had watermelon for dessert.  He was one happy boy.

We were able to spend some time swimming and picnicking with kiddos on weekends.  So much fun!  

Check it out......3 more reasons why I don't have time to blog!

The Good news is....

I'm home right now.  

I'm trying desperately to get all our food put away.  

Right now, I'm up to my elbows in tomatoes.  I usually can tomato juice, tomato sauce and salsa. 

 This year, I'd like to give ketchup a try.  I'd like to find a recipe that i can pass off as store bought.  If you could help me out with this, I'd be forever grateful!

Until next time....

Keep it Simple.....

Tammy

Winter Blahs....

As I sit here typing....

It's snowing....

AGAIN!

That darn ground hog has once more cursed us. 

So what does one do to beat the winter the blues???

Well, around here 

We craft! 

Helped the grand kids make some Valentines

MADE VALENTIN'ES FOR MY LOVED ONES..

  

and crafted  some more.

Cascading card

Saw one of these on Facebook
and had to have one.
So I made one with the Cricut!!

And when I can't craft any longer....

I break out the seeds..

and plan

and dream 

of a summer garden.

How 'bout you?  

How do you beat the winter blahs??!

Keepin' it Simple

And tryin' to keep warm!

My Garden....

it's gonna be awhile!

The Season of Harvest

I love this picture....

Of course I love it because it's a picture of my 2 little darlings...

But that's not the only reason.

This is a picture that shows the grandkids enjoying summer....

and at the same time....

if you look closely....

you'll see hubby...

raisin' potatoes.

We're in the process of  transitioning from 

the season of 

SUMMER FUN

to the season of 

HARVEST.

Around here,

you can easily recognize 

Harvest Season.

For one, we're busier than a one armed paper hanger!

(It's been especially challenging this year since we are living in 2 locations.)

But also, our house begins to explode with food stores.  

Everywhere you look is a new cache of food

preserved by either canning, freezing, drying, or being ready to be stored in the root cellar.

Check it out.....

I know this looks like a lot of potatoes for 2 people....

but we'll share :)

This (picture below) is one of my secrets when I pickle beets.

 Using the (twice strained) beet juice in place of the water,

I  freeze extra pickled brine to use when making pickled eggs. 

Pickled eggs are super easy to make once you've pickled your beets.  You just add hard boiled eggs to a jar of beets.  However, more brine is always needed.  That's when I just pull out a jar of frozen brine.  Easy!

Here is my recipe for pickled beets.

(I cut back the sugar to about 3 cups or less to make the additional brine)

Pickled eggs are a staple around here.

I often have them for a fast breakfast!

frozen pickled beet juice

Two pantries are filled...

We ate all our homegrown onions.

Many of them ended up in our tomato sauce.

So we purchased some in bulk at a local farmers coop.  

These will last all winter...

Did I mention we like onions!!????

Do you dehydrate.....

My dehydrator seems to run non stop with veggies for soup as well as herbs, 

like oregano, cilantro, basil and more .....

We still have pumpkin and squash to harvest, 

as well as a few sweet potatoes.  

And hopefully....

I'll be able to get my hands on some apples for some homemade applesauce

and some

PIE!

So there you have it!

We're ready for winter....

How about you???

Trying to Keep it Simple..

Tammy

The Autumn Harvest Tour...a very long post!

I love Fall

It is definitely my favorite season.

I love the rich colors..

I love the smell of spicy desserts baking in the oven....

and I love the crispness in the air as summer's hot air just breezes on by.

Around here, signs of Autumn are everywhere.

They're outside...

  

..and they're inside....

...But it's  inside that you can really see

Signs of 

Autumn

Come with me and take the 

Harvest Tour

We have stores of food for winter

Everywhere!

In the basement, we have

Bins of both 

Homegrown White and Red potatoes...

...... boxes of onions we purchased at the local Co-op...

(We grew our own but they are not as big.  My theory is why skin 3 onions when I can skin just 1-RIGHT?!)

Our second fridge is housing refrigerator pickles..yum..... 

as well as some fermented sauerkraut.  (more on that in a later post)

the pantry is stocked..

Shelves are filled with all our favorite jellies, and sauces.

We're stocked up on pickled beets and tomato juice (used in cooking)...

All the herbs have been dried...

And most recently, 

I made some homemade vanilla so it will be ready in time for holiday baking.  You can learn more about that on this post from my cooking blog, Carlisle Cooks. Homemade vanilla is delish!  

I also canned about 2 dozen jars of grape juice using the easy method of making grape juice concentrate by placing grapes and sugar in jars and covering with hot water before canning them.  It was way easier than the traditional way of making juice.  However, next time I would either add more grapes or subtract some sugar. We'll see, the grapes may produce more flavor as time goes on.

In case you're wondering, when using this method, you just strain juice before drinking. 

add ginger ale and you have punch!

More than a dozen jars of sauerkraut were canned in addition to the 2 jars left un-canned that continue to ferment in the fridge.

Did I mention that the freezer was filled to the gills?....

Yep.  It's filled with soups and veggies, veggies for soups...like chopped onions, carrots and peppers.....even some cabbage wedges. There are pies, breads, cookies, cherry pie filling (my fav), peaches, strawberries and blueberries. The only problem is that I still have to make applesauce , apple pies.....

....and of course, freeze pumpkin (still in the garden) so we can have yummy treats, all winter long! Where will I put all that stuff??

I think there may be a turkey on the bottom of the freezer that may have to come out!

It's no wonder I haven't had time to blog!!

Much of the garden has been put to rest for this year.

Hubs planted barley for the winter where
the potatoes and corn once grew.

I have some fall crops yet to enjoy, like kale, kohlrabi, chard and turnips.  And just recently, I planted a variety of lettuces that like the cooler temps.  

Our sweet potatoes have yet to be raised (that will happen after frost) and the field corn must be picked and shelled for the girls this winter.  We do that a wheel barrow load at a time- in our free time..ha ha!

Just reflecting on this year's garden harvest makes me fill full.

And I'm not just talkin' about my belly.  

Gardening is a 

LOT of WORK 

(a 4 letter word)

But its rewards way outweigh the work.

(I can say that now that the season is nearly over!)

God's goodness seems to fill every nook and cranny of our home!

We will be savoring the fruits of our labors (and his goodness) for months to come!

And isn't 

HOMEGROWN

much better than 

Store bought??

Do you have a garden?...

BIG or little....

I'd love to hear about it!

Enjoying the harvest....

For everything there is a season,   a time for every activity under heaven......   A time to plant and a time to harvest..

Ecc 3

This post is linked to Barn Hop #80