I am having a lot of fun canning this year. It is a lot of work and I wouldn't have the energy without my Spark, but it is fun. Friends blessed us with some tomatoes and peppers. I picked up a few more tomatoes from the local farmers market and made salsa for the first time. Wow, fresh salsa is delicious!
I worked up the second half of my Ginger Golds and turned them into apple pie filling. Peaches at the Orchard went on sale and I went a little crazy. I bought a bushel each of Red Haven to freeze and Sun High to can. I worked up some of them yesterday as not all are ripe enough yet. They sure do make pretty pictures. We will be eating good for a long time! God is so good. ''Would you like some blackberries? We have more than we need. We picked 2 gallon last time, you'll probably get as many.'' So, we were off on a berry adventure. We pulled up on the farm and looked left as we had been instructed. ''Well, kids, I guess we're heading into the woods on a treasure hunt.'' The weather was pleasant. There were nice mowed paths leading here and there. This was going to be fun. We soon came to a little bramble bush and I instructed the kids, ''Here's what you're looking for. Look out for poison ivy and wildlife. Stay on the paths and fill your buckets.'' I'm a country girl, I had come prepared in long sleeves and long pants but these bushes were even more pokey than I had expected and the fruit was much smaller than I remembered blackberries to be. But, they said we should find two gallons. They had, so we could too, I was sure. And why turn down good food free for the picking with six kids to feed. One after the other my kids came running back claiming they couldn't find any more berries. They just must not be looking, I thought. We headed further into the woods together. Indeed, I wasn't finding berries either! Well, it was a pretty nature walk anyway. We circled around and eventually found a bit larger patch which we set out to strip. Storm clouds were rolling in, but we had maybe a quart all together, this couldn't be it yet. We pushed through the tangled bushes picking all we could find. The kids were getting discouraged and I have to admit I was relieved to feel raindrops. ''Looks like we're getting rained out today. Head to the van.'' I looked rather disappointedly at our scanty buckets. So much for two gallons. Maybe two quarts if we're generous. We made it home and unloaded. A few minutes later, the phone rang, ''I'm over at the farm and I see you haven't been here yet. You still planning on picking blackberries tonight? '' ''Uh, yeah, we didn't pick them all cause we got rained out and, well, maybe we weren't looking, at the right place cause we just couldn't find much worth picking. '' ''Oh, there's a good two gallons here by the left side of the house.'' We were finally convinced to try again, and sure enough when we looked in the right place, there were some beautiful blackberry brambles. All neat and tidy like, along a fence row. Manicured and sitting pretty with huge berries and few thorns. We found our gallons after all plus a quart or two of raspberries waving from their pretty row. Our generous friends threw in some corn, peppers and tomatoes to boot. Time to put up some berries! And eat some good summer suppers for the next few days. God is good and you can't beat living in the country near good people-oh, and finding the right patch. :) We also put up applesauce today. I still have half of the bushel I bought to do tomorrow.
Beans and blueberries - compliments of my own garden and my uncles. Once my plants finished producing, I pulled them and we started round two. It's a bit of an experiment seeing how late we can plant fall beans and corn. I guess we'll find out. :) How's your garden this year? Learn any tricks? I learned you can't plant squash or cucumbers near potatoes. They don't work well together. Squash and zucchini take lots of room regardless. I didn't leave enough space. I also planted tomatoes and corn to close together and they tangles up and pulled on each other, like squabbling siblings.
A friend dropped off a huge container of cucumbers three days ago, so we got to have some fun. Yummy cucumber sandwiches and salads and then pickles!! I've never made pickles before, but it seemed simple enough. I saw many different recipes. Some required soaking and making a brine for days or weeks before canning, others had you pack jars raw, pour liquid over the cucs, can and then not eat for a few weeks. We went the simple route of packing raw. So, now we have jars of pickles doing their thing on our shelves. We decided on bread and butter pickles out of the Ball canning cookbook and then a dill recipe out of the Esther Shank's Mennonite cookbook. We shall taste and see... eventually. :)
Painting with bubbles. Just add food coloring to bubbles and blow onto paper. Fun times :) And even when you don't plan school, sometimes they will play school anyway. Or create castles with boxes, popsicle sticks, towels, sticks, stones a
and shirts. Imaginations run wild. There's always a first time for everything. In our attempt to grow more of our food, eat healthier and cheaper... We've been on the lookout for fresh berries this spring. A friend let us know that their mulberry trees were producing more than their family needed so we got to try something new. We found out mulberry picking isn't quite like picking other berries. We spread sheets on the ground and learned how to shake trees. Raining berries! And bugs. And leaves... :) cleaning mulberries can be a big job. But, take this piece of advice I learned the hard way. No need to pinch off the little green stems. Just eat them. Or your fingers may end up like mine. After pinching countless stems I cut through my finger tips with my own nails. Ouch! Still sore days later! Then we tried a second new thing. Canning on my own! I learned a few other tricks. One-don't leave so much head space (or empty room in the jars). Fill them up and they will last longer! Two-picking and preserving fresh local food may become addictive. I had to go back for round two. This time we chose to put berries in bags to go in the freezer for smoothies. We also got a flat of blueberries at the farmers market and put away 10 pints of blueberries this way. We love smoothies!
We've been making kale berry smoothies. Kale, spinach, frozen berries, banana and a bit of yogurt-water if necessary. Delicious! Daddy took the night boys camping. Mommy and the girls were left home to play.
My baby turned one a few days ago. We decided maybe it was time for a new riding toy. Garrison liked the idea. Everyone wanted to help put it together. Garrison could hardly wait to get on it. The next day, Mama and Papa brought some more fun. Tractor and ball and firetruck. I think he's a happy boy.
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