Making it easy on myself for a while

I am getting a lil bored with doing tomato products now. I have been at it for near 2 weeks. Still got a ways to go tho. I went to the nursing home to visit mom for a while today and took her some fresh maters and cantaloupe that I had cut last night. Gosh it was so dang good. This is what it looked like before we cut it. Not to mention I have 3 more at the house just like it.

This thing was 12 inches long, really ripe and sweet. I think I will try freezing a few containers of cantaloupe again this year to enjoy this winter. Easy to do, just peel melon and pack in freezer box or container and cover with light sugar syrup. Freeze and when ready to serve allow to only partially thaw out. Really good.
I haven't done anything with tomatoes today. I worked a lil bit in my herb bed and got the sage cut again and in the dehydrator. Then cut the ground cherry plants back some so I could pick the ripe ones up off the ground. I got a 2 gallon bucket full of them in the husk. I finally got them husked out and ready to make ground cherry and orange jam. There are still thousands of them still on the ground that I may get later and try dehydrating some to see how they are. I'm sure they would be good in bread or muffins, or even in cereal.
When I went to visit mom I stopped by the dollar store to pick up some jar flats all to be told they didn't have any and would not be getting any more this season. Dang it! So I stopped at the grocery store and paid double for 3 dozen cause I need them badly. They also had Mrs Wages pizza sauce mix and I picked up 2 packs of that and one for salsa. I can make pizza sauce from scratch but with all the tomatoes I have to do this will save me a good deal of time and standing in the summer kitchen on my feet. The older I get the more I appreciate being able to cut corners anywhere I can. So pizza sauce and salsa will be my projects for tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow evening I can get the ground cherry and orange jam made. If I can remember to ask Rodger to bring home 3 oranges.
Last evening when we picked tomatoes we picked off all our sweet corn that we had left on the stalks to dry for seed. So those are neatly hanging in the outbuilding to dry real good and then get shelled off and put in the freezer. After we found the cayenne pepper plants I picked those off as well and have them in one of my drying boxes to dry and then grind em up to use as seasoning. It will take a good deal of hot pepper flakes to make all the sausage this fall when we butcher hogs.
Nothing else happening here so I need to go do laundry so we all got clean drawers this week again. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Still up to my ears in tomatoes

I still have more tomatoes than I know what to do with. Monday was spaghetti sauce, Tuesday was 8 quarts of  barbecue sauce, Wednesday was 15 pints of  taco sauce, today I made 15 pints of diced tomatoes and canned those. And still have tomatoes waiting to be made into something and more tomatoes in the garden. I was so happy today when I went in the cellar and found a big crate of canning jars that I didn't know I had. So now I can can more mater stuff. This evening I have okra to slice and freeze to fry or use in gumbo or soup later. I think maybe tomorrow I will take some time off tomatoes and get some sage cut for drying and some other herbs that I am low on. With this arthritis my hands and wrist are giving me fits. I'm sure its not from over use or anything like that.
It is hard to believe how nice the weather has been today. The sun was shining and it was actually pleasant outside. Not too hot and its supposed to get down around 56 tonight. Now that I can handle. The weekend is going to be nice as well. So maybe I can get some things done that have been put off with all the canning. My herb bed is an overgrown mess right now. All the plants in there need to be dead headed and raked up. Some herbs are still producing and those I will be cutting to dry. My lil Mexican cukes are still producing and they need to be picked as well. So many things to do and seems so lil time. Still think I need to clone me.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Life's lil ups and downs, making spaghetti sauce

And goodness knows I have my share of ups and downs this time of year. Woke up far too early this morning. Didn't sleep well last night. I cant drink coffee late like I used to. I guess that is because I haven't had Mt Dew in the house in nearly a month now. And I drink my 2 cups of coffee in the mornings and then drink water, Gatorade or lemonade the rest of the day till bedtime. I drank a cup of coffee last evening while we were working up the rest of those tomatoes and just was restless last night. Makes ya feel like crap the next day too. But none the less I got up early and had to get started in on the pasta sauce I had cooking down in the crock pot. Went out to check on that and it still seemed watery. I decided to take another approach in making sketti sauce. We had made 2 huge stock pots of tomato puree last evening and I was intending to drain the excess water off top the puree to make it quicker to cook down. But to my surprise there was not any on there. I did a lil experiment when we did the last tomatoes. I usually wash them well, core, cut in chunks then run thru the Squeezo strainer for juice or puree. Most of the clear liquid in homemade tomato juice come from the liquid in the seed pockets. So when I cut the tomatoes up last evening I squeezed them a lil after I cut off the tops and got most of the seeds out. This made for a much thicker juice and took a lot less time to cook down to a good consistency for sauce. This is my "recipe" for spaghetti sauce or more like method to my madness. Remove about 1 quart of puree from the container you are using to use later. I use the puree that is thick and add finely chopped onions to suit me, finely chopped bell peppers, garlic powder, salt, pepper, oregano and basil so the puree taste lightly seasoned. Note I say lightly seasoned because the herbs and such sometimes increase in potency when processed in a pressure canner. Let this mix simmer for a few minutes and taste. If it has a strong acid bite, add a lil brown sugar and taste as you add. Once the sauce taste like you want it too let it simmer while you make the thickening. At this point I added the sauce I had cooked in the crock pot to the kettle of puree and just mixed it in. I almost swear tomatoes vary from one season to the next depending on rainfall, heat and all kinds of things. So I cheat and add a lil cornstarch to the mix so it tightens the sauce up but not make it thick. Use the quart of puree you reserved (this depends on the size of kettle you are using)(I was making 20 plus quarts of sauce) and add cornstarch in the amount you think it would take to thicken you kettle of sauce and then slowly add a small amount of this slurry to the simmering puree. When the sauce has tightened up a good bit and is a consistency you like let it simmer while you brown your burger to add in. I used 5 lb of deer and beef burger for the 22 quarts of sauce I made today. Once the burger is brown add it to the puree. Now that you have the sauce made you can ladle it into jar, put lids on and process in pressure canner. (refer to the ball blue book for processing times for your area). I finally got done with all this about 3:30 this evening. Had a total of 21 quarts of canned spaghetti sauce and 1 quart for supper. It was really good.
This afternoon we got a good thunderstorm here. No damage , just plenty of rain. My poor Luna is so scared of storms. She was right beside me when I was outside before the rain came and when I opened the door to go in the summer kitchen she darted in beside me, which she never does, and went to the back corner and laid down. Her pitiful eyes begging me not to make her go out. Needless to say she stayed right there till the storm was over and then she willingly went out the door and on about her business.
It was far to muddy to pick tomatoes this evening so that is a task for tomorrow. Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

These late nights are tough

We have been keeping late night for a week or so now and it sure do get old. It takes a while to go thru 10 bushels of tomatoes and knowing there is more waiting to be picked is getting kinda depressing. Well not really, I do enjoy lots of tomato products. We just came in the house from running about 4 gallons of juice with the tomatoes that have been picked for a few days. I will let it sit overnight and let the clear liquid come to the top of the kettles and drain that off. That should make it faster to cook down into spaghetti sauce. We use a bunch of spaghetti sauce over the year so I hope to be able to make a good deal of it. With a few additions the sauce can also be used in lasagna. I want to make some salsa this year also. I made some a few years ago and it was good. It is just a lil more time consuming to make than juice due to the fact you need to peel the tomatoes and chop them then add other ingredients and cook and jar it up. So maybe in a couple days I can do that.
I have been letting my young chickens run out during the day and they are out back of the summer kitchen. I have a big pan out there where I can put tomato peels and such for them to enjoy. I didn't have any treats for them in the pan earlier to day and they took it upon themselves to enjoy my Brandywine tomatoes that were growing out back near the house. So up goes another temporary fence. Sneaky lil varmints. I was really surprised to find that when it got dark they had all went back into the chicken house with me having to chase them in there. As long as they behave they will be allowed to run out. So far so good, but I do know chickens get brave and wonder farther from their house every day.
Not much else happening here right now. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Seeing red!

No I'm not mad, just seeing lots of red in the tomato patch this year. We picked 7 - 5 gallon buckets of tomatoes this evening and only picked about 2/3 of the patch. We will get the rest tomorrow. I ran out of containers. I see lots of spaghetti sauce in my future. And maybe some salsa, tomato sauce, juice and no telling what else. I think this will be a good year for us and tomatoes. So I am a happy lil camper up to my eyeballs in maters.
Just thought ya might like to see a pic of some of our heirloom variety cantaloupes we have this year. I sure do hope they ripen and don't rot. They are huge melons.

There are several of them in the patch too. I do hope to save more seed from these melons cause they are a variety that i was tole originated here locally, cant be certain on that tho. None the less, they are wonderful sweet melons and enough to feed the whole party. Not much else happening here. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Another day on the homestead

Another hot day here on the farm. I got an early start on working up the tomatoes that we picked last night. I decided to make juice with the really ripe ones and then turn that into veggie soup to can. I ended up canning 10 quarts and 1 pint of wonderful vegetable soup. Rodger likes to have veggie soup if I'm gone so he don't have to cook much. And if I am home in winter we usually heat up a jar of soup on Saturday and eat on it all weekend. At least we get our veggies in that way. I think now I have enough canned to last till next season. Dang it is hard to believe we are this far along in summer and headed into fall. Seems like only yesterday I started getting stuff from the garden to can. We went thru the sweet corn last night and picked off the last of it and Rodger mowed it down. That will make it easier to get in and pick tomatoes too. My green beans are almost done producing now and I did get lots canned to do us. The tomatoes are just starting to ripen in large numbers. We picked 3 - 5 gallon buckets last night. We gave some to the fellow that came to get the rest of the sweet corn. I made several phone calls while I was waiting on Rodger to get back with the tractor trying to find someone who could come get corn and finally after about half hour an lots of calls found a taker. So he got a bonus bucket of tomatoes too.  Sad when you cant give garden produce away. But its all done now.
This evening after work we got a chance to finish the landscaping stuff I had started over the weekend. We got the weed barrier down where the flower bed in back of the house was and got the gravel put on it. It does look neater back there but I know I will miss my flowers blooming in summer. We got plastic put over the soil in the bed near the drive that I am gonna use for fall garden stuff. It is black plastic and should produce enough heat to kill out most of the flower roots and weed seeds left behind. It might make it a lil easier to keep weeded. I guess my next project will be to dead-head the herb beds. The different mints have bloomed and fallen over and look pretty shabby right now. I should have some free time tomorrow and get more herbs cut and dried for later use. Probably next tomatoes will be turned into pasta sauce and canned and I will need the basil and some others from the bed. Will cut herbs if it don't rain, but they are predicting rain for tomorrow. We shall see.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

If I build it, you can bet I will tear it out later

Several years ago when we got out moved into our house I had the big idea to build several flower beds up here. One was near the driveway, one on the west end and a small one near the front sidewalk. I had planted all perennial plants in them. They actually looked pretty good till maybe 2 years ago. With my physical limitations I could not keep all the weeds out of em. So needless to say they looked kinda shabby at best. I had got out a couple weeks ago and pulled the weeds to no avail. They still looked crappy. So I tole Rodger I was gonna pull all the plants out and move em to a place near the end of the driveway and re-do the bed areas. So that is what I have done this weekend. The one small one by the front sidewalk I replanted with a row of Lariope (monkey grass) that wont take over the sidewalk. So now when the monkey grass gets taken off at least it wont cover the sidewalk lights at night. So that one is done for now. The bed near the drive I took all the plants out except the one tomato plant that I had in there to save seed from. I am gonna put down a layer of black plastic and let it sit for a couple weeks and that is where I will plant some fall garden crops. It is narrow enough I could make a tunnel with pipe and plastic and maybe have a couple tomato plants in there most of the winter. I will plant some late cabbage, maybe rutabagas, and lettuce in there as well. So that one is planned. The biggest bed on the west end of the house is all out and dirt put back to fill in the low spots where we used the tractor to scoop out the plants and soil. This left low spots that would not drain well so we filled em in and leveled the area off. Now a layer of weed barrier goes down and then landscape gravel or maybe, just maybe pavers to make a patio like area. After all it is near the summer kitchen and we could make a shaded area to do green beans and other veggies that make a mess if done on the porch. But am sure gravel will go in tomorrow, then maybe later pavers of some sort.
After we finish the landscaping stuff tomorrow evening we must pick beans and tomatoes again as well as cukes and zucchini. Later in the week I am planning on getting my carrots pulled out and canned up. We had a lil break in the garden produce this weekend is the only reason I had time to tackle the landscaping projects. Gosh it seems like this has been a really short summer for some reason. Maybe its cause we went from winter to hot summer and now its is August already and it will start to cool down in the evenings now. That will be such a nice change. I love summer and all its busy-ness but the heat is hard on me now days. Love the gardening and canning and growing things. I did finally get my late cabbage seed sown today. So I know they will be late and thas OK cause I will have them in the former flower bed and can cover them if need be to protect them from hard freezes. I think maybe tomorrow I will clone some tomato plants to plant in that bed as well and see just how long I can keep fresh maters into fall and winter. Be fun just to try. Never know, I might succeed.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella