The first fruits.....

We went to pick raspberries and check on the garden this evening and got to harvest enough goodies for supper tomorrow night. Our potatoes are doing really well considering we planted later than normal and we haven't had enough rain. I found a cabbage head that was big enough that I cut it. They are not done growing yet. We picked about a gallon of strawberries and a a quart of raspberries too.

 Not bad size for taters, I think I can be happy with these. It will be another 2 months before we dig so they should be good size by then.

 One of our momma cats died an untimely death and we didn't know she had babies. Today when I went out to feed I heard a kitten crying and saw this one. I did manage to catch it as they were kinda wild having not been here at the house. I brought it in and tried to feed it and sat it on the table with a dish of milk(yeah I know, not good for kittens) and he had no interest. But he sure liked the smell of Rodgers dinner. He did share a piece of steak with the lil fellow. Cut in tiny bits the kitten can eat so I guess I will be feeding it till he get big enough to fend for himself. Later this evening when I went out to feed Luna's girls I heard another one. I cant catch it so we let this one go back with its sibling and left them a lil bowl of chopped up canned chicken for supper and maybe I can try tomorrow and see if I can pet the other one. I am thinking I got far too many lil critters all of a sudden. But I can let anything be hungry tho I know I will regret having too many cats.

I had my laptop on the table and the kitten walked across the keyboard till the puter started beeping and he decided that was not the place to be. At least the lil fellows have a full belly tonight. Trust me we do not allow animals on the dining table often. I have only had 1 cat stay in my house in 32 years and she never got on any thing. But this was just a lil baby. Oh my!! OK I have my weaknesses.

We have been having some really hot dry weather here. The yard looks pretty rough without rain and its too hot for the momma hens to being their lil chicks out of the building. So they scratch in the house and the lil ones are alas full so they eat good. I want to witness the puppies first encounter with the settin hens. That will be worth seeing. I am having to keep water bowls in various places for all the critters here and normally there is water for them in the drainage ditches and places so they don't have to go far for water. My herb bed is kinda scrubby looking too with the heat and lack of rain. I know ya probably thinking, "well water it". But we don't water here. If the plants are established they will do down deeper and find water and that in the end makes for heartier plants. This my dad taught me. I have seen it proven many times, so we wait for rain. I do water stuff that is in pots tho, such as the grapevine starts and a couple trailing tomatoes that I have planted.
That's about all the happenings here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

At the grist mill today

We got out kinda early this morning and went to get out income taxes done and out of the way. I got to visit with Pauline, a good friend who does taxes here. It was nice to see her and her hubby and both of them look great but are in bad health. With that finished up we had a noon appointment at the grist mill to get our cornmeal ground for the year. I had never been to that particular mill since the fellow got his building built and set up. It was  really neat to see the old engine he uses to grind with. The mill is owned by Glenn and Kathy Kincaid here in our county. Really nice folks. Glenn is partially retired from the school system and farms some on the side. The grist mill is his hobby and he says he will try to make it a lil part time business after he gets retired completely. The mill runs on propane but to start the engine Glenn uses a crank on the wheel and turns it several times to get it going. This is the old way of grinding corn after the hand grinder. I have about a bushel of wheat and ask Glenn if he could grind it on the mill and he said he had never done wheat but sure would like too. So if its not really too cold this week I will winnow the wheat we have and take it to him next weekend to have it ground into flour. That should sure make some yummy bread.

Building that contains the grist mill.

The grist mill in operation grinding our corn.

We had almost 2 bushels of cornmeal ground today and Glenn only charges like $10. Not bad to have a year supply of cornmeal for us and some friends for that price as it don't cost much to raise enough for our use. The rest of the corn will be used for stock feed this summer. I do know the chickens love it in winter time. We brought the meal home and I put it in  the freezer for about 2 weeks which kills any bug eggs in it and then vacuum bag it and store it in a barrel in the cellar.

It is so neat to hear and see the grist mill in operation. If this video will load I will share it with you as soon as I can get it downsized so it will upload in less than one day. Ugh! the pitfalls of satellite Internet. Speaking of Internet, ever since the solar flares occurred my Internet has been so very slow, far slower than normal. Not sure if that had some effect on it or not. If I were computer savvy I could probably re size it myself but since I am not I will have to contact my tech support (Jason) and get him to help me figure out how to do it.

After we got home this afternoon I let the laying hens out and left the hens with the babies in the building. The mommas are feeding and caring for the lil ones and the other chickens don't bother the babies so they are allowed to run together right now. I do have one extra rooster that I need to find a home for. I think our neighbor was wanting a rooster to crow at her house so I think I may call her and let him go live at her house. He is a bother to the hens. I think they are prejudice toward him and holler when he flirts with em and that upsets the buff roo and then a chase ensues. Not good for any party involved.
Not much else happening here on the farm. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.


Stella

The souse is done and so am I

On Monday I scrubbed the hogs head parts that had been soaking in salt water over night and got those all cooked to make souse. I left them in the pressure canner to cool over night so I could pick out the bones and chop the meat up. So on Tuesday that is what I did. I got an early start and got all the meat off the bones and into a pan to wait for seasoning. The bones I put in zip top bags and into the freezer for Luna and Delilah as they need em. Once the bones are out of the meat and the meat chopped. Add back to the meat some of the stock for the pot till the mixture is the thickness of mashed potatoes. Stir well and put into a heavy bottom kettle to cook. I used my enameled cast iron dutch oven.

 I did mine in batches. Add salt, black pepper, and sage to taste. It should have a slight hint of garlic from garlic powder and a notable taste of sage. Stir the seasoning into the meat.

In this 2 gallon kettle half full of meat I added about 1 cup of fine ground plain cornmeal. Stir in and turn on the heat and stir often and let it bubble for about 20 minutes.

I pour the souse into cake pans once it has cooked to let it set. The meat will get firm and can be sliced. Today I went to the summer kitchen and cut the souse into small blocks and wrapped it in plastic wrap and into the freezer. Once it freezes I will vacuum seal it to make it last longer. The fat content being very high and a cooked food it will get rancid fairly quick.
So now if some gives you a fresh hogs head you will know what to do with it. Although this is not something that everyone will eat. It is sometimes called head cheese or scrapple and to us in appalachia it is souse.

We have had drizzle all day today and it has been cold. Was kinda nice to work in the summer kitchen and not need heat or AC. I let the hens out while I was outside but they didnt seem to care much for the cooler weather either. The young pullets are laying pretty good. I get 5 or 6 eggs per day. So I have lots of nice eggs for baking. So maybe tomorrow I can stay in and bake something good.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Harvesting potatoes

The weather did cooperate here today with no rain. Beautiful weather here, not like the east coast with the hurricane. God bless those folks in the path of hurricane Irene. Much destruction from what the news is showing. But we got an early start and got our potatoes dug. I think we all here were pleasantly surprised with how well they did. We only planted 2 rows of Kennebecs about 150 ft long and 1 row about 75 ft of Red Pontiacs. I was very happy with the fact that they were all really big, in all total maybe a half bushel was considered small and would be a pain to peel if ya chose to. I plan to serve more taters with the peel on as that retains more of the nutrients that lay just under the skin.  We got 15 bushels total. About 12 of the Kennebecs and 3 of the Red Pontiacs. A bushel of potatoes weigh 60 lb per bushel so we had roughly 900 lb of taters and cash out lay was maybe $35. Not bad at all in my way of thinking. We have a special plow that goes on the tractor 3 point hitch to dig the taters with which beats all to hell the old way of using a tater fork and lots of back breaking work. The tractor drives up the row and IF the driver is watching his stuff the plow will be in the middle of the row and break it open and taters can be picked up behind the tractor. This is the way we did it. There are places in the one end of the garden where the taters were that I noticed the ground was very heavy clay like soil and ALL the taters in that lil section of the row had rotted. Maybe a 6 ft section. This is the place where my dad alas had his tater patch and raised a lot of taters. We did go back to the old original way of planting this year too. It was Jason's idea. For some reason we had got to putting in the fertilizer and mixing it in the bottom of the row by dragging a chain thru the row. Then drop the potato pieces and cover it all over with dirt. This year we dropped the taters about 1 ft apart in the trench we made with the tiller, I dropped about 3 tablespoons full of 19-19-19 fertilizer between each hill of taters and covered them over as usual.  This method seemed to have resulted in more good size taters for us. Some times the old ways are still the best. So from now on I think this is how we will plant taters. After we got them dug we took them to Jason's house and poured them out on the floor of an outbuilding to dry for a few weeks till the weather cools and then they will be put in our bins and stored in the cellar. I am so thankful we have enough taters to keep us supplied well till next summer. I couldn't help but make a big kettle of potato soup fer lunch today after we got them all dug. Really tasty with red taters, peel left on cubed up with lots of onion and garlic in there. Yummy!
My big plans were to get my old laying flock butchered off tomorrow but I really don't think that is going to happen. My arthritis is flaring really bad, especially in my wrist. I really don't think I could pluck a chicken if I was real hungry. Jason had agreed to do all the cutting up of the chickens if we could pluck em. Hopefully next weekend my joints will feel better. I think I will dig out my splint for my arm and just splint my right wrist (its the worst) and give em a rest for a few days and see if that will help some. I think maybe the past 6 weeks or so of all the prepping stuff and canning has caught up with my body.
I need to brag just a lil bit. My youngest son Rob is now a proud home owner. He bought his first house in Elko Nevada this past week and he and Amoy  are moving in this weekend. They are beyond excited. And we are so happy for them. We are really proud of his accomplishments this past year. After college he landed a good job, already got a promotion, and now at the age of 25 has a house of his own, all in less than a year. We sure do wish them lots of success and happiness in the years to come. Kinda makes me a proud momma.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Nice weather today, cleaning summer kitchen

It didn't rain today and the weather was fairly nice out. I watered in the greenhouse and sowed more tomato seeds, still need to do more peppers tho. The plants that are up are growing nicely. Everything outside is doing well right now. But they are giving frost for tonight. I sure hope it don't. I need to re-sow my lavender as it did not come up at all. I would love to have a whole bed of lavender to cut and make sachets for the linen drawers. Sprouting the seed is the hardest part otherwise it grows really well here. On the way back up to the house from the greenhouse I stopped and pulled what few weeds were growing in the herb bed by the driveway. Not too many I am happy to say. I went out back to weed the asparagus bed although it is not too bad either. And the asparagus is starting to come up. I should get a mess or 2 when it gets in full swing this years. But I didn't get any weeding done down there. I went in the summer kitchen to get a drink and got side tracked. I did manage to get the summer kitchen wiped down good and the rubber mats taken out and washed down. I scrubbed the floor really good. Not that it will help a lot, but for now it looks nice and clean. I still need to wash the ceiling but that can wait till tomorrow I think.
I think I killed all my strawberries that I had planted in the strawberry pyramid in the back yard. Back a couple months ago I weeded the bed really good and lifted each strawberry crown out and then replanted them. A few plants are green with bloom on them and the rest are still lil brown stubs. Oh well such is my dang luck. So I guess I can go the the garden and dig up some more of the ones that got plowed thru and move them over here to the pyramid. Add that to the to-do list.
The time is right here to plant corn and beans. Dad always said it was time to plant corn when the leaves on the oak trees were the size of a squirrels ear. And they are. Next time we get a couple days of dry weather and can run the tiller thru the garden to work it up again we will plant the sweet corn and green beans. They prolly wont be up outa the ground till after the last frost date for us. Potatoes also need to be in. I think the later you plant the later you dig the longer the taters will keep in the cellar. After all we grow them for storage mostly. I have a doc appointment tomorrow so I will look for some Yukon Gold potatoes to plant.
Not much else happening here. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Getting caught up

Things sure do have a way of backing up on the farm when you turn your head for a little bit. The past several days we have not been able to do much outside with all the rain. Then for me there is the inside stuff that needs to be done up. Routine house cleaning, laundry, ya know the kind of stuff. It was nice out today with sun and a lil breeze so I got some laundry done and hung outside to dry. I had gotten a clothes display rack from my aunt Ann so I could set it up on the back deck in summer to dry laundry instead of running the dryer for long periods of time. It works really nice too, heavy so the wind cant blow it over and very sturdy. I do love sheets dried out doors, makes them smell so nice.
A couple weeks ago Jason and I ordered a 250 ft roll of burlap to use some to make a shade cloth for the greenhouse. Imagine the mess that made when I unrolled it in the living room floor to cut the shade cloth. But I got the shade cloth made and cut 4 extra pieces about 8 ft long to make sun shades for the front porch this summer. The evening sun can get pretty hot out there in summer. Now all I need is to get the furrowing strips cut to length and the burlap tacked on those for shades. Seeing that I already had a mess in the floor I decided to use the 2 big king size comforters that I had bought about 2 years ago at the big 127 yard sale to make slip covers for the patio chairs. Got that done and the chairs will be just like new.  So there, a couple things done and the mess cleaned up.
I hope to be making some lye soap in a couple weeks. I have some lard that I will be using along with some oil that I need to wash. Yes you can wash oil. Sound strange? It is quite simple. You can wash any cooking oil to remove odors and bits of fried foods that end up in there. You will need a deep kettle to which you add about 1/4 as much water as used oil or lard. Heat till almost simmering and stir this mixture for about 5 minutes or so. The stirring helps the oil let go of the particles and they drop to the bottom into the water. Remove from the heat and let cool. If you are washing lard chill in the refrigerator till lard is hardened and gently remove the solid fat and blot the water off and store in a clean container. If you are washing oil, chill well and use a bulb baster to remove the oil from the water mixture or you can freeze the water and oil and once the water if frozen it can easily be separated from the clean oil. This is a good way to get more mileage from your cooking oil or clean it up to make soap. I have done this to remove odors from cooking oil and it ends up as good as new not to mention the money saved as expensive as good cooking oil has gotten.
In talking to some friends and chatting about whats for dinner I had mentioned that I had made some Cajun Pasta for supper last night. So here is the recipe/instructions for my version of quick Cajun pasta.

1 jar Alfredo sauce
1/4 cup chopped bell peppers
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 lb peeled and cleaned shrimp(small ones are best)
1/2 lb polish sausage, cubed
1 tablespoon of Cajun seasoning
1/2 teaspoon liquid shrimp and crab boil
Linguine pasta

In large kettle cook linguine pasta till tender while you make the sauce.
In skillet saute onion, peppers, shrimp and sausage in 3 tablespoons of butter till veggies are tender. Sprinkle in Cajun seasoning and shrimp and crab boil and stir well. Add the jar of Alfredo sauce and stir to combine and heat thru. Drain the pasta well and add pasta to the sauce using as much or as little as you like and stir to combine and heat. Serve with garlic toast and enjoy.
The above amount of shrimp and crab boil will give the dish a lil heat but not too hot. You can add more boil to make this dish hotter if you like really hot food. I like mine medium so I use about 1/2 teaspoon.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Some gardening changes...........maybe

I have been thinking alot lately about gardening and how and when to plant things. A friend and fellow blogger and some others were discussing onions last year when I thought mine were not going to be any good. He suggested that I try growing my onions from seed. So I ordered the seed. Should have prolly started them last fall but that didn't happen. So they will need to be started now. That is my plan for tomorrow. Maybe we wont have some form of precipitation to deal with an I can get to my potting mix and fill some flats and start the onions. My buddy did share some growing tid ibts with me tho about onions. They need warm 60 degrees to sprout and then will grow fine at cooler temps. He also suggest clipping the tops off the onions as they grow to help then make better roots and stronger stems. Then allow them to get some growth before setting in the garden. This I think I  can do. This will be my first time growing onions from seed as we usually try to find sets here early in the season. But I do hope this will provide us a better quality onion that keeps better in the cellar. Also in growing onions in the past from sets I have learned that onions do not need a lot of soil over the bulb. I have much better luck if I make a ridge in the row where I intend to plant them and set the sets on the lil ridge. As the bulbs grow they will push the dirt away and grow bigger. It also makes them easier to harvest, less bruising and breaking the stems off getting them out of more compacted soil.
There are several different kinds of seeds that need to be started really early like celery, cabbage, and broccoli. I was thinking again today about how we started plants when I was growing up here. At the time we raised tobacco and always burned the tobacco bed off. Build a large pile of scrap wood and limbs on the area for the bed and lit it on fire. This heats the ground and kills any weed seeds that are in the ground. The fire would die down and then we would rake the ashes off. We would build a frame with boards around the area the size to accommodate the canvas that went over the top. The bed was then seeded and in one end dad alas sowed the tomato, cabbage and what ever else we had that needed to be started. The bed was watered and taken care of till time to set tobacco and the tomatoes an stuff were big enough to transplant. They were then pulled from the bed an the roots wrapped in wet news paper and taken straight to the garden and set out. Now if this method worked well back then, why the hell am I starting plants in flats in the greenhouse. The one reason we stopped doing bed was the fact that the canvas material was no longer available when farmers went to starting tobacco plants in float trays by hydroponics. I think this year I might try starting the tomatoes and some cabbage in a bed like we used to. Pretty sure I can find some old sheer curtains to use as a  cover over the seedlings.
When you grow several varieties of a specific vegetable and you don't want them crossed so you can save your seeds you can plant at least 3 of each variety in a large flower pot and place in a separate area. Or better yet as I have done in the past, plant them in your flower beds. This way when I save seeds for different varieties of tomatoes I know the seed are not crossed because there is a good distance between them. When we plant our sweet corn we plant in blocks, several short rows in the same area instead of may 2 long rows the length of the garden. This will improve pollination of the corn and when I save some ears for seed I save the ones farthest from the other variety. I usually end up with a block of one kind on one end and another kind on the other end of the garden. In planting melons, the old was to dig out a hole about 2 ft across and fill it with manure and cover it with soil, flatten the top of the hill, plant about 4 seeds in each hill. We always had melons. Somewhere along the way we got lazy and started planting them in rows and they seem to get choked out by weeds. It does make bigger better melons if you fruit prune them when they start to set lil melons. Take all but about 2 off each vine and pinch off the tip end of the vine so it puts more energy into the 2 melons to make them big instead of several lil melons that are not as flavorful. So yep I think we might go backward in time a lil this year when we plant and do some things the old way and see if we don't have better results. Maybe spring will get here soon an I can put some of these things into action instead of sitting around do in all this thinking. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

They are messin with our stuff again

Leave it to some goober in gooberment to get the big idea that we lil peons don't need clean dishes anymore. Or that if we use the good stuff to get our dishes clean we don't have enough sense to dispose of the gray water correctly and it might make more algae grow in some stream somewhere. Goodness, ya would think they had better things to do. But apparently not. This is an article on how the makers of our cleaning products are now taking out the ingredient that makes them work. BUT restaurants can still get the good stuff. Yeah well they want to remove the sodium triphosphate from my dish soap or automatic dish tabs, so be it, I will just go to the near by hardware store and get a big ole box of TSP and add a teaspoon to the dishwasher and be done with it. I have started noticing that my Dawn even does not work like it used to. Not sure how many of you make your own soap and laundry detergent and such but I have in the past. Laundry detergent is really easy to make but combining products you can get really cheap.
For homemade laundry detergent you will need Fels naptha soap, ivory or Zote.Also you will need a box of washing soda, not baking soda. Washing soda is sodium carbonate and baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. So make sure it is sodium carbonate, washing soda. You can find it in most large stores in the laundry isle. You can also find the borax there. The recipe is as follows:

1/3 bar fels naphtha, grated fine
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax

Grate soap into a large kettle and add about 2quarts of water. On low heat stir till soap is dissolved well. I do this with a whisk. Add the washing soda and borax to the water and remove from the heat and stir really well till dissolved. When it is dissolved good add about another quart of water to the soap an stir well. Transfer the soap to a bucket that is capable of holding 3 gallon or so.  When you have the soap in your bucket stir in another 5 quarts of water and mix well. Let stand 24 hours before use. It will thicken a good bit. Once it sits for the 24 hours you can stir it again and pour into a jug to use. You will only need about a scant half cup for a normal size load of clothes.It can also be used as a pretreatment. When I make my own I add the detergent to the washer as the water runs in and about a teaspoon of TSP(tri- sodium phosphate) for heavy soiled work clothes. Normal light cleaning I skip the TSP. I can make 2 gallon of laundry soap for less than $3. AND I can add the quality ingredients that make it work. This detergent does not have a scent and it does not suds.  When the kids were small I made my own lye soap and used it for everything cleaning. Grate the lye soap fine and run in the blender with a small amount of water to make a thick liquid. I used it for dishes, laundry, mixed it in more water to mop floors.A rag dipped in lye soap water and wrung out will get nicotine off anything including windows. Yes windows! Wipe dry with paper towels.
Now to dig in my recipe idiot book and find my lye soap recipe and make me some soon. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The cornmeal is done

The fellow that has the gristmill that grinds our corn for cornmeal was up and running today. So Rodger had an appointment to be there at noon to get ours ground. It was close to 2 bushels of corn and he brought home 3 nice big pillow cases full of cornmeal. I set them in the freezer for the freeze cycle to kill any bug eggs that might hatch out. Will probably let them stay in there a couple weeks the then bag it up and vacuum seal it and store it. My good friend Rosie doesn't know yet but she will be getting a whole bunch of fresh corn meal when I visit her in spring, or just a couple months. But now we are finally done with all the fall chores here, and its January. I tole ya we got behind for some reason.
Not much happening around here right now, just planning the next seasons garden and making plans on where to build a pen for a couple pigs to raise for meat next fall. I do know the garden will be good size as usual, thas a given, still not sure about the pigs yet and where they are gonna live. Another project that will take place in really early spring is getting the chicken pen put up so the laying hens can run out in day time. With Rob moving last fall and we stayed busy all season it just was low on the list of to-do things. I had given some thought to maybe building the pen for the pigs near the chicken lot for ease of feeding. May have to take a closer look at that possibility.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Finishing up odd tasks

Yesterday and today were spent just tying up the loose ends after the butchering. I got the lard re-melted and put into hot clean canning jars and it is all sealed up and ready for storage. Easy to do, just get lard melted and really hot and pout into hot jars and put on the 2 piece lids. As the lard cools it will seal and can then be stored in the pantry. It will keep fresh without refrigeration for a year or more. Not sure how long as I havent had a chance to keep it longer.

  The lard is golden colored when it is fresh and still hot but changes to white when cool.

Now off to the cellar with the fresh lard. After I got this all done I started on making my hominy. Jason had about 2 or so gallons of dry shelled corn left from feeding Petunia and it was perfect for what I wanted. It was the same corn we shell for corn meal and is also used for stock feed. The open pollinated Boone County White. So I washed it really good and picked out all the bad grains and red and blue ones. Then let the corn set over night in the kettle with water to cover.

The corn was allowed to soak in the water, no lye, till the next morning. I knew this corn was very dry and hard and I soaked it to hopefully lessen the cooking time. It did help some but still took a few hours.

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 The next morning I added about 1/4 cup of Red Devil lye to the cold water in the stainless steel kettle with the corn. You must always use stainless or an enamel cooker for the first step as the lye will eat thru any other metals. Also use wood or stainless steel utensils to stir with as well. Ideally this step should be done outside as to not have all the fumes from the lye in the house but I am in the summer kitchen with good ventilation. But if you do cook the lye/corn inside and have a range hood, as soon as the corn is taken off the burner it is a good time to take a damp cloth and wipe off any greasy residue that has built up. Just a plus to cooking hominy inside. The fumes are strong enough to dissolve the film on your range hood.  Anyway back to the corn, you must have several inches of water above the corn level in order to be able to stir and keep the corn from sticking to the bottom of your cooker. It does need to cook at a gentle boil for a couple hours. You can test to see if it is done by taking a few grains to the sink and running them under water for a minute and then squeeze them,. If the corn can be mashed with your 2 fingers it is done enough to rinse the first time. Check it the first time after about an hour of cooking, then every 15 minutes or so as you dont want it too too soft. After its tender its time to get rid of the lye and clean your drains. I usually put the kettle in the sink and tilt the cooker a lil bit. Turn on the tap and let water run into the kettle till it over flows. The tilting will help you direct the over flow into the sink and not out on another surface. As you notice the water is a golden color when you add lye and are cooking the corn. Keep running water and stirring the corn around till the water is almost clear. At this point it is not likely the lye solution is strong enough to burn the skin but if you want to be absolutely sure you can turn off the tap and stir in about 1 pint of any kind of vinegar. This will neutralize any lye that is left in your corn but with the rinsing there wont be any vinegar taste either. Stir the corn well and if you have run cold water in the kettle it should be cool enough to be able to get your hands in there. Now the fun part. Stick your hands in the corn and gently squeeze hands full of the corn working all around the kettle. The goal is to remove the husk and dislodge the lil dark tips on each grain. But most of the husk part of the corn will have dissolved in the lye solution. The lil dark tips are perfectly fine to leave in there if you want. And trust me I never get all of them out of my hominy as you can see below. The lil tips are actually the heart of the corn and have nutrients too, so no problem, right?

 As you work thru the corn, pick up hands full and rub your hand together with the corn in there like you were trying to warm up the corn. Rinse the corn and put into another cooker. Keep working the corn and rinsing till all the corn is out of the first cooking water. Now cover your cleaned hominy with fresh water and put back on the fire and bring to a boil. From time to time check a grain or 3 by tasting it till it is quite tender, some what soft but not really soft as to go to mush. Remember it has to be processed in the pressure canner for at least an hour after this cooking. You will notice the water may not be totally clear with this cooking. If not drain and rinse and add more fresh water and heat it up again. The hominy should have been through at least 3 changes of water. This is adequate to get out all the lye and vinegar that is in there. Once the corn is pretty tender and the water has cleared its time to put the hominy in jars. I can mine in pints as that is how much I can eat at one time. You can do quarts if your family like hominy. Ladle or drain your corn out of the cooking water and into clean jars leaving about 2 good inches of head space. This allows for any expansion your corn will do in the jar and helps keep it all under water after its processed. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to each pint and cover with fresh water. Put the lids on and hand tighten and put them in your prepared pressure canner.  Process at 10 lb pressure 60 minutes for pints and 70 minutes for quarts. Let pressure drop and remove from the canner. For each gallon of dried corn you use you should end up with about 20 pints of hominy. 

I started with about 2 gallon of dried corn and ended up with 41 pints canned and had enough to fix me a good bit for supper tonight. It is good stuff I don't care what anybody says. Now you might say, well it ain't all perty and white like the store bought stuff. Well you are right but see we didn't bleach all the good stuff outta the corn either with other chemicals. Now you can enjoy ya hominy.

I need a dam hobby!!! I do love canning though. The weather was nice and I got some things done that needed doing and it is relaxing for me. While I was letting the hominy cook in the summer kitchen I had to take a picture of my poor lil late cabbages that got snowed on. I had tole my friend Deb on the phone that it looked like they had took a leaf and tried to cover their lil heads. Don't ya agree with me?

But ya know the leaves don't look like they are froze either, even thought it snowed on them. The heads are not hard enough to harvest so I am gonna just leave em alone and see what they do. They would be fine to cut and chop for cooked cabbage but I don't think they would make slaw, or maybe they would. If we had had a normal December they would have make some nice heads before the weather got too bad but with snow starting for us on December 1 they didn't quite make it. But better luck next time.
While I was pressure canning my hominy I thought of my 6 gallon pail in the house that had wine in it. So I toted it to the summer kitchen to strain out the berries and put it back to settle for the second racking.

Talk about smellin good. A total of about 5 gallon of blackberry wine that is back in the tank to settle out. It will get racked a few more times before it is sweetened and bottled and left to age. Now if only I could find my recipe and instructions so far I would post them for ya. As soon as I locate all that I will put up a recipe for the wine.
Gosh it has been a long day for me. Not to mention my babysitter. My girl Luna is always with me where ever I wonder to here on the place. She makes me feel safer as she is always on guard. I think she was posing here.

Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Finally got started

I finally got out today and got started getting some things ready for butchering tomorrow.I have the knives sharp and the salt cure mixed. That took a lil while. I had about a half gallon of dried cayenne peppers that needed to be ground. I started this in the food processor. Never mind trying that, it don't work to grind the seeds up. After crushing them in the food processor I had to grind them fine in the electric spice grinder. I was being extra careful not to get the fine dust on me but I did anyway. And then rubbed my eyes. Soap and water pretty much solved that issue. The salt cure recipe that I use is as follows:

6 lb salt
6lb brown sugar
1/2 cup cayenne pepper finely ground
1/2 cup black pepper

Mix all this together really well. I do recommend using rubber gloves to mix in the peppers as they will make your hands burn some.

This mixture will nearly fill a 12 quart dish pan to within about 2 inches of the top and should be sufficient cure to treat about a 300 lb hog. That is curing 2 hams, 2 shoulders, 2 sides of bacon and the jowl. Any salt left over can be stored in a dry place to use the next time we butcher hogs. OK so much for that.
The weather tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful. The temps are to be in the low 50's with night temps in the low 30's. Perfect for curing meat. It was nice out today as well. I actually went out today without a coat on. We are supposed to have rain and thunderstorms on Saturday tho when we will be rendering lard. That might be a bit tricky. Because you surely don't want to let any water splash in the cooking lard. It will cause an explosion and somebody will get burned. Don't need that happening.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Change of plans

The weather in winter can make you change plans for any out door activities. Our plan was to butcher the hog on Saturday and then on Sunday we would have the lard ready to render out. Which for us is also an outdoor activity. We use the big cast iron kettle, the same one with the same stir paddle that my dad used many years ago. But they are forecasting rain and snow for Saturday and it is really hard to keep scalding water hot in rain. I am sure my dad is sitting up there in heaven laughing at me about now for not planning this a little better. But he also taught me persistence. And we will persist and do the butchering on Friday now instead of waiting till Saturday. The guys are off work and Josh a buddy of Jason's and our adopted step son like will be able to help us. Josh is like one of our own and if we need help here he is always so good to come help out. We just love him and his family dearly. It is at times like this that I am thankful that my boys were good judges of character and have picked good friends. Any who, now thas the plan, but if the weather changes, that plan may change again. Or got forbid the hog be in season. That would postpone the whole thing for at least 2 more weeks.
So today I have gotten my containers ready to hold meat, and kinda now have a mental list of things that need to be done to accomplish this task. I have gotten the old butchering knives out that dad used and they will all be sharp and ready to go. When we render the lard it will get put in some of my stock pots till I can get it ladled into hot mason jars and sealed. The lard will seal and stay fresh when done this way. Long ago we alas strained the lard into metal lard cans to store it. But in my lil mind I have a better plan. We don't use as much lard as we used to and to keep it good and fresh I will be storing mine in the canning jars. The lard is hot enough when it goes in the jars to create a vacuum and seal them when it cools down. This will all be done on the second day. When we butcher we trim the hams, shoulders and middling meat for bacon and get that salted down and in the curing process on day one as soon as we can. Then we proceed to cut the meat to grind for sausage, slice the tenderloins for freezing, cut the ribs for freezing, cut the back bone for chops or stew, and then cut up the lard. Then on day 2 render lard, make souse meat from the head, and pickled pigs feet. Oh yeah, I am making souse and pickled pigs feet. I truly feel like a kid again. As a child growing up here on the farm I always looked forward to "hog killing time". Although it was a lot of work, the rewards were always worth it when the food was prepared.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Time changes all things

Life in general and times have changed a lot since I was a child. And its really not been that long ago. I remember growing up here on the farm and in spring we would go out and pick wild greens that mom would cook. We alas picked blackberries, huckleberries, wild strawberries and other things too numerous to mention. I have often wondered why people don't do those things any more. I remember helping mom pick the wild greens but for the life of me I am not sure I could safely do it now. I think that is one of the things I want to learn and document this spring. I know my friend Rosie knows about these things and the benefits of each of them. Maybe I will make a day when she has time, that might be a laugh, and go visit her with camera and note pad and pick some wild greens and identify them. I think it would be good to pass that kind of knowledge along to the younger generation. I guess what made me think of this was a news item I found today, the food trends for 2011. One of the trends will be foraging for food. People do some foraging now and to them the foods are a delicacy. When I was growing up if you foraged for wild greens people looked down on you like it was a sign that you were too poor to have food. Little did they know back then that it would come back.  So I thought I would share this  with you so you can be in the know on food trends for the coming year. Yeah right, like we care about trends.

So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.


Stella

Interesting reading

I was sitting here last evening thinkin, which alas has a bad end for me, and got to wondering about our forefathers and the pioneers that settled this country. I did a google search on "pioneer life" and found several interesting sites to pacify me for a time. One was this one. I read the essays there and continued to explore.Food was mentioned in the essays several times but not in any detail. So I found some info on food that shed some light on the foods available and how it was prepared. Even some of the methods used back then could still be used today if the need arises. I was impressed with the method of smoking meat. Very simple and effective. Any way just some food for thought on a cold winter day. I guess being able to stay in and kinda idle this time of year I think some silly things. Well maybe not too silly. As ya know I am 4th generation here on our family farm. Most thing we do today are still done by old methods, we may or may not use modern tools. Wouldn't it be neat to preserve all that history and all those methods, recipes, and knowledge that was passed down and keep things like they "were back then". Then it struck me, we do kinda do that. Really it is all I know, the things I learned from my dad and knowledge passed down thru 4 generations. It would make one think we are so far behind in the times, but the old ways work very well. Sometimes old methods require a lil more labor but the end result is the same. Only difference is the old ways are less expensive. I know I have enough knowledge of the olden ways that if I were transported back in time 200 years that I could survive and thrive just fine. People freak out over minor things these days. Such as happens when the power is off. Don't get me wrong, I do like some of the modern conveniences. But I can live without em. If the power is off, light kerosene lights, or have tallow candles, easily made from beef tallow. Yeah I know how. How to cook without power? I have cast iron cook ware that can be used over an open fire. To clean the skillets, just wipe em out with dry grass if thas all that is available. Well seasoned cast iron needs no other care that to be kept dry. As for water, draw up a bucket from the well, As for putting food on the table, simple as far as I am concerned. Hunt, fish, raise ya own. Butchering, no problem we still do our own, the old fashioned way. And preserve the bounty. I do know how. How to bathe or shower? In the warm season, there are creeks, in winter, heat water to fill a big ole bath tub. Most people generations ago did not take a bath or shower every day. After all it is really bad for your skin which in the long run washes off good bacteria that can protect you from other pathogens. Before indoor plumbing, which by the way I was raised without, people washed up every day in the wash pan that was kept on hand for just that task. In summer it was on the bench on the porch, in winter it was on the wash stand in the house. You heat your water on the wood stove and bathe. Although growing up I did wash my hair every day and used the water to wash up, it takes so lil water to feel and be clean. Long before washing machines, even wringer washers, there was the trusty wash board. I have 2 of em. I know how to use em. I know how to make the soap and have done it. I made and used lye soap for everything when my kids were little. Everything from baths, to dishes, laundry, mopping floors to washing windows. Great stuff by the way. People get all panic stricken when they think of how to make the modern stuff work in a primitive setting. Most of the modern stuff can be replaced in a heart beat with just a lil thought. The washer for example, think of the actions of the washer. It swishes clothes up and down in the water to which you have added detergent, right? So why not fill a large tub or similar container with water, wet a bar of lye soap and rub it on the spots on the clothes and toss em in the water. Let em soak for a bit then use a stick even to swish em around in the water. Take em out, rinse em in clear water and hang to drip dry. Even in winter clothes will dry outside on a clothes line. They may freeze but if the wind blows it will soften them like no fabric softener can do. And they smell soooo good. I have helped mom wash on the wringer washer and hang out laundry in winter. Not a pleasant task, but a necessary one. Here on the farm we did have electricity when I was growing up but it got here shortly before I was born. I remember at the table after dinner dad would turn off the dining room light. It got to be one of those "what did ya do that for " questions from a lil girl that warranted this response. " turn the lights off and save electric" I am sure that was a thrifty habit he learned from living thru the depression years and having the mind set that things are limited. Gosh what a change in how people think these days. Dad was one of those people who saved everything. Now as a wife and mother and living here walking in his shoes I can clearly see why. If only If I could make my family see that way now. But life is good and can only get better. I hope that maybe my ramblings can inspire you to take a look around you and see things for what they really are. Just "things" that have been invented to "try" to improve on old things. Mostly with not much success in my opinion.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The corn is in the crib

Well we finally got the corn in the crib and out of the wagon. Great weather today, warm and in the 50's with rain and snow on the way. The corn elevator is a handy thing to have on the farm if ya have to store ear corn. It works better than it ever did. With my best estimate we put about 50 bushel of corn in the crib. Now we just need to get some picked out and shelled for cornmeal and hominy. I was very concerned that the corn would mold and start to rot in the metal wagon. But an accident worked out in our favor. When picking corn with an old fashioned corn picker it is best to pick in early morning while the shucks are still only slightly damp from the overnight dew or frost. The picker will shuck the corn so much better at that time and you have far less shucks in the crib. But as circumstances would have it, we picked late in the day and the shucks were extremely brittle and dry. This fact I think is probably why the corn kept well in the metal wagon. A slight bit of moisture would have caused a lot of condensation and all would have been lost. We live and learn here. Now once again I see why my dad alas picked early in day.

The elevator does beat all to heck using a shovel. This crib will hold 100 bushels and it is about half full.

We aimed the end of the elevator toward one end and filled it then moved the wagon and aimed the other way. We used boards to kinda partition off an area in front of the door so ya can stand in there and shuck corn to be shelled. This crib is designed for optimal air circulation. Although it is in a bad location. It is at the end of our yard off the drive way a bit. Hard to get wagons in there because you cant back the wagons up. Backing those things is kinda like pushin a chain. Any who we had a piece of plywood under the end of the elevator as we unloaded corn and the corn banging around does shell some of it. I scooped the shelled corn off the plywood and tossed a feed sack full of shucks and corn in for the laying hens. They will have plenty to eat and the shucks for bedding.  Last evening we had shelled some corn into the box that has the corn sheller attached to it. This is Petunias feed.

The box this sheller is mounted on is older than me. But it still works well, unlike me.  So we bagged this corn up and took it to feed the hog for next week.

 

  Loaded up the elevator to transport to the barn for storage and to keep it in the dry. Cost too much to have parts made when something breaks after being left out in the weather. Rodger had to have some parts fabricated to remount the gears on both ends of that thing and those were not cheap. So back in the dry it goes.  Got the elevator unloaded and went and fed Petunia. She is a happy camper with her pile of hay for a bed and plenty of corn and water.

She has put on a good deal of weight since we got her home. She kept herself lean and trim when she lived at Rosie's place. She ran around with the sheep and cows. Now she has her own space here and all the food she can eat. She is a very good natured animal. Always calm and gentle. No trouble to take care of at all.
Now I am in for the night and it is starting to rain. The guys had to make a trip out o town to stock up on warm long johns and a few supplies this evening after the chores were all done. They had planned on going hunting this weekend but the weather forecast was for lots of rain and snow tomorrow, so they postponed that trip. But I am so thankful the rain held off till we got our corn in the crib.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

A day spent reading

I have spent most of today just reading stuff online. Well yeah I know ya cant believe most of what ya read online but some of the stuff I have been reading just confirmed my theories on some things. For one, I have been reading of the health benefits of stinging nettle. Who would a thunk it? A lil noxious stinging plant that is so loaded with vitamins and minerals that the infusion can contain the nutrients for a body for a whole day.
 Here ya go, read for yourself about stinging nettle .
And I do have a good deal of it dried too, which just adds to the fact that I will likely try it. With modern medicine as it is today, I think it would behoove us to have knowledge of some of the old remedies and know some things about natural ways to maintain our health. But it seems I start this kinda thinking every winter. Maybe its cause I am in the house with nothing better to do that read stuff that raises my curiosity. But the website I was reading from has tons of info on this herb and many other whole foods, how to naturally take care of your health. All on one cool site. Enjoy the read and I hope you can glean some healthy things from here.
We still have our cold temps this evening after night fall but today was kinda nice out. My thermometer was saying it was 40 degrees, but I think it lies more than the weather man. A lot of the snow melted but I think most of that was from the warm ground. Needless to say, I haven't been out there much today. Other than go to the freezer in the building to get something to fix for supper. We had venison stew with some "crunchy" not crusty french bread. Tomorrow it will be a nice big rotated chicken as Jason calls em. The last chickens I butchered we mostly left whole so I could roast them on the rotisserie in my toaster oven. I even have some cornbread dressing in the freezer from Thanksgiving that I will have with it. I might venture out to the cellar to see what else to fix with it. The fun part of the rotated chicken is gettin it all tied up so it will fit on the spit. I am sure if someone were watching me they would be in for a good laff or 3. I do have to say the birds look rather strange all tied up. Maybe I can take a pic to share with ya tomorrow.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Done picking corn, out to dinner

We finally got all the corn picked today and in the wagon. Well actually we filled the wagon the rest of the way up.
We still use the old type corn pickers and wagons then put the corn in a crib instead of combining it and storing shelled corn.

This is also corn for our corn meal and hominy. Probably a good 50 bushel or more on the wagon now. The guys had brought the wagon out to unload what they picked on Thursday evening and the grain conveyor would not work. It has some bearings that need replaced and will take a few days to get those ordered. So we decided to just load the wagon to the top and tarp it to keep the corn dry and let it set. I went to help Rodger hook the wagon and pick the corn. The way the picker loads it most of the corn ends up in the front of the wagon. If you dont stop and level it down the corn will roll off the front end. So I sat on top of the corn to keep it shoved to the back corners. I had made the mistake of going to the corn field in a tee shirt. In the process of moving corn while the picker dropped it in the wagon I got the shredded up corn husk all over me. And if you have ever had to pick corn by hand or be on the wagon while all that corn stuff blows around, then ya know what I am doing now. If the itching would stop I could assess the damage. I'm pretty sure by morning I will look like I have a bad case of mange. None the less the job got done, itches and all, and we got a heavy tarp over the load to keep it dry and the critters out. We can get it unloaded and in the crib as soon as we get the conveyor fixed and running.
After we got done with stuff here on the farm Rodger had planned on taking me to dinner at Red Lobster for our anniversary. After a shower we headed out to go eat. We had a nice dinner and my in-laws came to eat with us as the 16th is their anniversary. Back home with a full belly and I think I could sleep for a week. My body is sore from being beat around on the corn wagon today and I am sure that is gonna make for a long night plus itching. Then tomorrow is another day. I think I might sleep in if I dont itch to death while Rodger and Jason go deer hunting in the morning. We shall see. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Getting ready...........

Not a lot gets done when ya cant get motivated around here. But at least I did get out today and get a few more of the outside things done that needs to be done while the weather is nicer. It was cold today but not bad. Good sweatshirt weather although I did have on sandals. But thas just me having a hard time wearing shoes. Rodger and Jason did get the cover on the water pump house today so it don't get rained in. While they did that I got the corn crib cleaned out and ready for the corn. It needs to be picked like now. While I was out I got the heirloom sweet corn that I had saved for seed shelled off the put away for gardening time. The earlier part of the day was spent trying to get hunting rifles sighted in and ready for deer hunting. Opening day is next Saturday here and they will be hunting the farm opening weekend. Sure will be nice to have a good stock of meat in the freezer. Venison is as good as beef as far as we are concerned. And with the price of beef going out of sight I think there will be more deer hunters in the woods this year. I get sticker shock every time I go into a grocery store these days. With all the news online and on TV all saying the same thing I sure hope people have taken this as a warning and have a well stocked pantry. With grain crop harvest low this year and demand higher it makes the growers have to pay more for the feed to feed to animals that we eat which in turn drives the prices way up. I do wish I could get some people here to understand the need to be able to provide all our own meats and veggies. I know my dads family survived on this farm during the depression years and I feel we could do the same if we make every effort to be more self sufficient. With winter coming on heating bills will take a bug chunk of the budget and leave less money for food in lots of households. We do pay like everyone else to heat but then again we dont have to have a big grocery budget. For this I am thankful. But things happen from time to time that need to be paid for such as my truck needing some minor repairs that I have had to put off. Seems like when it rains it pours. OK off my rant now.
I think I had posted earlier this year about taking our dog to the vet because she was limping in her front leg. He tole us it was because the Great Pyrenees grow so fast that it makes the cartilage weak in their joints. From time to time she will do something to make it flare up again. That's what she did last week. When she was at the vet he just gave her pain meds and mineral supplements to take. So I had Rodger pick up a bottle of children's liquid ibuprofen for her. I have been giving her that for a couple days now and she does seem to be less sore. I am sure it also helped that she is not sleeping out on the ground now. She has a spot on a rug on the front porch to sleep. Last year I had bought her an igloo style dog house and she will not go in there for love nor money. So I have a new dog house, un-used sitting under the front porch that I should get rid of. Would be nice if I could find someone who would be willing to build me a real doghouse out of plywood in trade for this one. Probably wont find any takers on that tho.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Different ways to do things

As I get older I learn that there are more ways to do things than people to do them. And most people choose what ever method their ancestors used or what ever worked for their location. OK I not chasin my tail here. I picked up a magazine that I have had for about 28 years. Yep I kept them because they are "Home Canning" magazine. They have lots of really good canning recipes in them, all be it they are from 1982. I was reading in one of them today about preserving butter without the benefit of refrigeration. And it is really simple to do.
Butter can be preserved by storing it in a container covered in salt water. Make a brine of salt and water strong enough to float a fresh egg in. Make sure the egg is fresh because an old egg will float in plain water. Boil the salt water for about 5 minutes and let it cool. Allow to stand over night then strain being careful not to disturb the sediment in the bottom of the pot. Place the fresh sweet cream butter (sweet butter keeps better than salted) in a crock or like container. Cover with the brine solution. So you have chunks of butter submerged in salt water. Use a weight if necessary to keep the butter under the brine, cover the container tightly and store in a cool place. Stored by this method, butter will stay fresh up to 6 months. Good info to have in the event you lose power for an extended period of time and have a good supply of butter on hand.  Butter can also be clarified and put in canning jars while it is still hot and it will seal. Clarified butter is the best for frying. Not to mention the wonderful flavor it give to the dish. Of course the USDA would frown on this method but this is what folks did long before there was a USDA or refrigeration. Don't know why but I find this kind of knowledge interesting.
Maybe I been out in the heat too long. I finished shelling the PEPH peas this morning and got those canned up. The second batch of Paul's sweet lime pickles are in the pickling solution waiting to be canned tomorrow morning. Then it will be off to the garden to pick more cukes and peas to do later. Saturday will be butchering day. I haven't been off the farm all week and I do need to get out of here and buy some more canning jars before I run out. Am thinking this would be a good time to clone me. I got enough things to keep 5 of me busy for days on end. And if one of me don't clean the house it is gonna get condemned. Not to mention the siding outside that hasn't been washed all year. And the list goes on. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella