The garden is nice

I have to admit it is more like Rodger's garden this year. He has done all the hoe work and plowing and keeping weeds out this year. It sure does look good so far. Our potatoes are dead so its time to dig those. I told him this evening when we were in the garden I think it best if we just dig maybe a 5 gallon bucket at a time so I can can up the smaller ones so we don't lose them from shriveling over the storage. We picked enough cucumbers to make 8 pints of dill pickles while we were in the garden. And I found 4 small ripe tomatoes.

The green beans are trellised on fence panels. They are full of bloom and beans. Next week will be picking beans.

The sweet corn has tasseled and has ears formed. It should be ready in a week or so. Yummy!!!

I think we planted enough sweet taters to supply a few counties. They look really nice and healthy if the deer will stop eating the leaves. They haven't done a lot of damage but ya know they been in there.

My tomatoes did not get staked and I guess you can say we do them the lazy way. Just them fall over and run all over the ground. They have lots and lots of green tomatoes on the vines. I did find 4 small ripe ones this evening.

We have about 30 ft of cucumber plants trellised on fence wire. This is where we picked enough to make pickles this evening.

If ya look close enough in the vines you can see the green beans hanging in there. At least the bean picking can take place in the shade this year. Either of us can walk under the trellis so at least on hot sunny days it might make life a lil more bearable.

More onions to get sliced and dried tomorrow, and herbs to pick and dry. Another busy day for me.
Not much else happening here on the farm. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Wet season, garden is pitiful

It has been abnormally wet this season and our garden sure has suffered for it. Not that I can complain much tho. So far we have not had to haul any water for the well as it is up to the top full right now. The grass got a big head start in the garden and it sure makes it hard to trellis beans when its hard to find them in the grass. But it was dry enough this evening that Rodger did get the beans plowed out and he said if no rain tomorrow evening he will try to stick one patch of beans. I feel so bad that I cant stand the heat and get out and help him but the heat makes me very ill. I get dehydrated really quick and sick if I get hot. So seems I am banished to the house for now till cooler weather. We for sure must plan the garden better next year so as to not get so far behind and have to fight the grass in the mud. Rodger got the grape vines in the vineyard tied up to the trellises last evening and he came back in soaked it was so hot. Cant imagine how hot it will be to try and pick blackberries. They are getting ripe too. Rodger brought in about a pint other day when he was out driving the farm and found some ripe. I would like to have a few gallons canned but not sure about getting out in the heat unless we get a drop in temps for a few days. Which is not suppose to happen till this weekend. We shall see.

I finally got around to making my lil "saddle bags" for my car. Just bags to hang across the gear shift to stash things in like cell phone, inverter and such. I kinda like em>

 

I like the pink tiger stripe. Guess this will keep the fellers from wanting to drive my car. Naw, they will just take em off and toss em in the back till they get out. I know them. Anyway the evening I was working on the bags I had to go out to the car to measure the length I needed for the handles and got a heck of a surprise. My passenger floor was full of water. I was a little upset to say the least. We drove the car thru monsoon Mary and it didn't leak a drop and sitting in the drive way its full of water. We assumed it was coming from the moon roof and ordered a new seal for the window. Until it comes in I ran the risk of sucking water out of the floor every day after it rained so I coerced Rodger into helping me solve the problem till we can get the seal installed. This is the result and it works like a charm.

 With duct tape, WD-40 and baling twine you can damn near fix any thing on the farm. I told Rodger when I take the car to the shop to have it fixed I will take full responsibility for the duct tape repair. So I am sure the shop will get a good laugh out of this. But by dang my carpet wont be ruined in the meantime. Rob thinks we are true rednecks. But we raised him so am thinkin that makes him one too. His just don't show so much. 

So far this summer we have made 18 quarts of bread and butter pickles and more to come. Tomorrow we should have more cukes ready to pick. I think we will be making some dill slices from those tho. I am still working on getting the 50 lb bag of big onions dried and stored. Then it will be on to the celery and carrots. So I will start more onions in the dehydrator in the morning and they will be done the next day. Its taking a longer time to dry them crisp with all the humidity right now but they need to be dried. 

After I start the onions in the morning I am gonna try to get some weeding done in the herb bed before it gets hot outside an I cant take it no more. Then maybe try to get some carpet cleaned and major house cleaning. At least I can do that if I am gonna have to be stuck in the house. So we shall see what all tomorrow holds when we wake up. 

Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

A hot busy weekend

The weather here is so dang hot especially if you need to work outside. The humidity is high along with the heat makes for some tough garden harvesting. But none the less we have picked sweet corn everyday this weekend and been cutting it off the cob and freezing it. On Saturday we picked 14 of the 50 lb feed bags full of corn. We cleaned 4 bags and cut that off for us to freeze and sent the other 10 bags home with Josh for him and his parents. I still have more corn than I know what to do with. Rodger and I pulled 6 more feed bags full and brought it to the house. Got 3 bags cleaned, cut off and froze. The other 3 bags will need to be done early in the morning and its all up to me on those. We did pick a few tomatoes this evening and enough cukes to make 4 pints of dill pickle spears. Tomorrow evening we will be going to visitation for my aunt Geraldine (dads youngest sister, last one living) that passed away on Friday afternoon at the age of 89. I did get time in all this canning frenzy to visit with family a bit. Her funeral will be on Tuesday morning and she will be laid to rest in the cemetery where my dad is buried. As I was picking corn on Saturday I had to reflect and remember that I am a lot like aunt Geraldine with my gardening and canning. She always had a huge garden and canned everything she could every year. Her root cellar still sits with all her jars of canned stuff lining the shelves. It has been there for several years now and is probably not good. Most likely with the door not insulated the jars have frozen and thawed and probably unsealed. But her place sits as it always has. She loved pretty things and kept everything people gave her. And her lil house reflects this. Rest in peace Auntie,. You surely will be missed.
Probably on Tuesday afternoon I will be picking green beans again. I think we will only be planting 1 variety next year. It will likely be the Ky Wonder bush beans. No staking needed, they produce well and are really good tasting beans. I do still have some Tobacco worm beans and they are good also but we never got time to trellis them and they are a mess to try and pick. I think next time I pick those I will just pull the vines out and pick off all the beans and let that be it. I might leave a few plants and let them go to seed just to keep the seed as they are an old heirloom variety. Will also need to leave some sweet corn on the stalks to mature for seed for next year as well. I really do need to get cabbage seed sown soon or there will be no late cabbage on this farm. So much to do and the season is quickly passing like life itself.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Planted grape vines, more rain

This evening after supper I had the guys plant the new grape vines I had started from cutting off the seedless Concords we have out back. I had 9 really nice healthy specimens to plant. They are planted in a row perpendicular to the strawberries in the field. We did space these correctly and put them 10 ft apart.

Somebody got the row crooked. Not mentioning no names here. But thas ok, dad alas said you could get more plants in a crooked row. After we got the grape vines planted we had thunderstorms and torrential rains. So the plants got plenty of water.
This morning I got in the herb bed and harvested the lil Mexican sour gherkin cukes. I had enough to make 2 half pints of lil dill pickles.

I think they look like tiny lil watermelons. Kinda neat looking, and be nice on relish tray. Will give them a few days and then see how they taste. There will me many many more on the plants.
Not much else happening here today other than the intense heat. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Its time to get busy!

The last several days have kept me hopping here. Our beans are ready to be picked, the corn is almost ready, as in probably later this week. The tomatoes are getting ripe. Not long till I will have those to can as well. Still need to plant more cukes and no I have not done that yet. I have made a few jars of kosher dill pickles, not nearly enough tho. In the past 2 days I have canned 38 quarts of green beans. Still have about 170 or so to go to meet my goal. We have had a good bit of rain for about a week or so. Even then I still needed to weed the herb bed. I did finally get that done as well as the onion bed. I pulled all the lil sets off the walking onions and will replant those when I get time to work some compost into the soil in that bed.

This is part of the new herb bed. The big tomato plant is here so it doesn't cross pollinate with anything else and I will be able to save seed from it as it is the heirloom variety Brandywine.
On the other side of this bed I planted some Mexican sour gherkin cukes. I did it more for the novelty than anything but my goodness they have take off. The lil vines look so fragile and the cukes are cute as can be. Imagine serving these on a salad. But I am thinking I will make dill pickles with them.

They look like lil tiny watermelons.But talk about a pain in the azz to pick. Yeah like I need another piddly project. I may have to get out there early in the morning and pick those. When the sun comes up it is far too hot to be out. Our weather today has been nearly unbearable. Guess it was good I got the green beans canned earlier before the heat.
Over the weekend I was really happy to get to visit with some cousins I had not seen in forever. My cousin Judy, her hubby Gary and daughter Tracy were in town visiting. I was so glad to see them but not under the circumstances of visiting my aunt who has been given a short time to live. Tracy has taken a canning class in her town and is really interested in learning to can her own food. So as you all know that is right up my alley. Sure would be nice if she lived closer and we could spend some time in the kitchen together. Who knows how things may work out.
So I guess its off the bed for me very soon so I can get up and beat the heat tomorrow and get a few things done. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

A close call, cleaning the cellar

I think I might have mentioned on here a few times about how I don't like snakes. Well yesterday evening I was weeding the flower bed near the cellar and dead-heading the hollyhocks that had finished blooming. I got in there with the pruning shears and cut the stalks down and tossed them to the other side of the side walk so I could dispose of them. I then proceeded to pull the weeds our of the bed, the few that there was. I had put a large section of a post in there to keep Luna from sleeping there when the plants were lil. Got to the last handful of weeds and started to reach for another weed and THERE it was . A copperhead, coiled an ready to strike. And my hand was about 6 inches away from the dang thing. I screamed, Rodger came running with the shovel and killed it. My guardian angel was working overtime last night. I had been walking around that dang thing for probably a half hour or more. So blessed that I didn't get bit. Doing some serious thinking about digging out all the flower beds when I have experiences like that.
The weather was nice here today, a lil hot but still you could work outside without burning up. I did get my outbuilding straightened up again before it got too hot to work in there. I thought it was about time to clean the cellar out and mop the floor and get it ready to put more canned stuff in there.I had a crate of fresh onions in there that I had got last fall and some of them had started to sprout. Took those to the summer kitchen and sliced those and they are now drying in the dehydrator. Should be done tomorrow so they can be crushed for onion flakes. I had a few jars of food to empty out that had changed color and a few had unsealed. Got all that out and the jars washed an ready to be re-filled. After supper I finished weeding the herb bed. The weeds sure grow fast in there where I didn't get mulch put down. But its clean now so maybe that will hold it for a week or so. My lil tiny Mexican sour gherkin vines are so pretty, but tiny and fragile looking. I guess they are supposed to look that way. I did see a few blooms on them too. Tomorrow I will need to check on the cukes in the big garden to see if I can make some pickles. Yuck! I still have 2 rows of strawberries over there to weed as well. Rodger has been trying to get the mowing done so he don't have to worry with that over the holiday weekend. We are hoping to have a family get-together on Sunday for Rodgers family so they can see Rob and Amoy. Yeas! my lil boy will be home this weekend. I cant wait to see them. Its been a long time since Thanksgiving. Rob called earlier this evening to say they were leaving Elko about 6 pm their time. They will arrive here in the wee hours Saturday. Please say a prayer for their safe travel. A 30 hour road trip can be kinda tiring.
Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The canning season has begun

The canning season has begun for us finally. Went to the garden today and pulled the beets. I had about a bushel an a half of em to work up. Got those all washed and if ya ever washed beets you know they need many washings to get all the sand off. Finally got them in the 2 big water bath canners to cook. It really don't take lone to get them done but my body just don't hold up like it used to. Got those 2 cookers done an had to clean one canner of em so I could re-load it with more beets to cook. I had raised 3 different varieties of beet this year, cylindrical, Detroit dark red and some golden beet seeds in the mix. And a few were totally white. Not even sure where those came from. I did learn the cylindrical beets are firmer and take longer to cook. IF and when I ever order beet seed again (got a 1/4 lb) I will be getting all Detroit dark red. They are not fibrous, easy to cook an dark in color. Any way I ended up with 12 quarts and 9 pints of beet pickles. So yummy. And my body knows I have been on my feet all day too.  Dang how do I get thru this canning season. I should have a ton of green beans in a couple weeks. The Ky wonders and the tobacco worm beans are both blooming really well. The tomatoes have green tomatoes setting on and they are getting big. Hard to believe the sweet corn is tasseling. We did dig a mess of new potatoes today after we pulled the beets. It is early yet but if the ones we got today were any indication we should have nice size potatoes when we dig them. I cut some of the broccoli that was ready and pulled a few carrots to have some fresh veggies and dip with my creamed new potatoes for supper. Rodger had green beans and new taters. My plan is to cut the cabbage tomorrow evening or Monday and get the kraut made. I have a lot of nice big heads that are ready. I am really wanting some good kraut, my belly just needs it. Crock made sauerkraut has lots of good probiotics in it that are very beneficial to the human body and aids in digestion. My kraut has all the good stuff in it because I do not heat treat the kraut at any point. So I am really looking forward to packing my German fermenting crock full of shredded cabbage.OK enough of the good food stuff.
Last evening I was outside for longer than expected cause Jason thought I was in the house taking a nap when he left an locked me out of the house. I sat out with the lil chickens and was entertained by them for a good while. I found a few earth worms for them to peck at and they were so funny. Once they decided they must be edible the chase was on. I picked the Japanese beetles off the grapevines and gave those to the chicks too. Those bugs will stick to anything and one bug got on one of the chicks wing feathers. Kinda reminded me of me when I see a snake. Lots of hollerin an dancin around. Guess it don't take much to keep me occupied.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The last of the tomatoes,peppers, beans are producing

I went to the garden this evening while Rodger was taking the fence down and getting it ready to mow over. I picked the very last of the tomatoes and more bell peppers. Our tomatoes were a bust this year. We barely had enough to can what we need to do us. I have maybe 2/3 of a 5 gallon bucket of green and ripe one to use up before they rot. The peppers are plentiful but smaller than they have been in years past.

I got to get a good look at my tobacco worm beans this evening too. Gosh the bugs had a field day while I was gone on vacation. I did get them sprayed and the top part of the vines are doing good and are loaded with beans. The beans on the lower part of the vines are bug bitten but I think I can salvage enough for a mess for supper tomorrow night. The beans would be so much nicer if we got a little bit of rain on them.

They look like they are dying but they are pretty and green toward the top where the bugs didn't make it too.

All 9 pints of my pickled chopped jalapenos sealed and are ready for the cellar. But thas tomorrows project. the cellar needs to be cleaned up and better organized too.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

More pickled peppers

I finally got the jalapeno peppers taken care of this evening. I had a bright idea, or at least I thought it was bright. I had thought of making and canning chipotle in adobo sauce using the jalapenos. I got to checking and didn't have enough propane in my small tank that goes to the smoker to do them. Dang it!! and I was all happy thinking I would make chipotle and can it. Oh well such is my life. But instead I just chopped them in the food processor and used the banana pepper recipe to can them as chopped jalapenos. I do like to use those in scrambled eggs for breakfast when I decide to make breakfast. Only thing is I just hate having to chop just a few. So these jars will be a big convenience for me.
Rodger took the weed eater to the garden this evening and mowed the tall grass back from my tobacco worm beans and the remaining pepper plants. Maybe I wont get ticks and chiggers every time I get in the garden now. I hope to get some tobacco worm beans picked and canned the end of this week. If not then surely by the first of next week I should have some. Fall is fast approaching and we are trying to get things out of the garden so it can be plowed up and the chicken houses cleaned out and manure spread on the new garden spot. While Rodger was in the garden I had ask him to pick my bell peppers and bring them in while I was canning the jalapenos. So now I have a 5 gallon bucket of bell peppers to seed, slice and freeze tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow I can find time to do some house cleaning and laundry. Provided my knee don't act up like it has today. Some how I twisted my left knee last week and it is not really getting any better. Gosh I sure don't want to go to the doc for this. Sure glad my house is single level cause I sure cant do steps right now.
So til next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Picking more peppers, picked seed corn,canning peanuts

The day started on a sad note with my friend Deb leaving. She and her hubby Danny headed  back to Mississippi this morning around 7 am. Dang I miss her already, house seems empty. The kids have all gone home now too. We really had a nice weekend with Deb, Danny, Josh and our kids. I am waiting on a phone call from Deb to let me know they have arrived safely at their house. And sure looking forward to many more visits with them.
Later this evening I went to the garden and picked my jalapeno peppers and gathered my sweet corn that I want to save for seed. The jalapenos will be chopped and pickled. I like the peppers in scrambled eggs but just hate to make the mess chopping just a few. That prompted me to just chop them first and pickle the  chopped peppers to make it easier. I also think I will have some green beans to can after all this year. The tobacco worm beans that I planted after fathers day have beans on them and they should be ready to pick this coming week. I got a lot to do this week. The apples on the tree at the old farm house are ripe and ready to peel and dry, so those will need taken care of. And the bell peppers are getting ripe and I need to get those sliced and frozen and some dried. Then hopefully I can finish butchering chickens this coming weekend as well. I didn't get the roosters butchered from the young birds that I have when Deb was here. I am thinking I will make and can more gumbo.
Saturday evening after Danny got here, Deb and I started canning the peanuts that he brought up. I have learned that in the south boiled peanuts are much more common than roasted. But the boiled one must be green and still damp, not dried in the shell for roasting. The process is easy. You soak the peanuts in several changes of water to get out all the dirt and parboil them for 10 minutes in clean water. Then you make a brine of 1 cup of salt to each gallon of water and bring to a boil. Pack the peanuts into jars and pour the boiling brine over them, put on lids and process at 10 lb pressure for 50 minutes for quarts and 40 for pints. They are really good.

 
We also got some raw peanuts for roasting and I got those roasted last night. Just put in roasting pan in 350 degree oven for about 1 hour stirring often and check after about 45 minutes for doneness. Remove from oven and cool and store. Not hard to do and tasty.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Pickling peppers, making jelly

We got a few things done today that we wanted to accomplish without working ourselves to death. We had picked almost a bushel of peppers last evening and we planned to pickle some of them for Deb to take home. We had them in the salt water over night. For the 2 gallon of peppers you need 1 gallon of water and 1 1/2 cups salt.  This morning we drained and rinsed them and packed them into jars. While Deb packed the peppers I made the pickling solution. It consist of 10 cups vinegar, 2 cups water, 1/2 cup sugar and about 1 tablespoon chopped garlic if you like the garlic flavor. Heat to boiling and pour over peppers in the jars. Cap jars and they will seal. If you want you can water bath them to help with sealing, this would need 10 minutes for pint jars. I don't water bath.

We had picked wild plums earlier in the week to make jelly and I got as far as making the juice. We went back to the tree today and picked a few more plums to make a lil more juice as I didn't have quite enough. After straining the juice I had enough to make a batch of jelly and 1/2 cup left over. Plum jelly is one of Rodgers favorite jellies. It is a really pretty jelly once it is made.
Debs hubby Danny will be here tomorrow so I thought I might try to have some extra things cooked to feed everyone this weekend. So I have 2 pies in the oven, 1 apple and 1 cherry from the pie fillings I made and canned a couple years ago. They are sure smelling good. Am thinking they would be good with some ice cream.
Our weather is supposed to be really nice this weekend. Saturday day temps are posed to be mid 70's, and night time lows of high 40's. Just perfect for a get together with family and friends. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

More canning experiments

You remember yesterday I tole ya that Deb and I had went to visit Rosie and I always go to the Amish salvage store. Well we got several things to stock up on that we needed and when we were checking out we saw a sign on the counter that said "Free 10 lb jowl bacon with $10 order". Well Deb and I both got the free jowl bacon. Deb had canned some regular bacon before to use when they go camping in Mississippi but this was a new one for me. So today we skinned and sliced the jowl bacon and put it in pint jars for canning. You slice the bacon and place it in the jar till it is as full as you like without packing too tight and don't add any liquid, put the lid on the jar and process in pressure canner at 10 lb pressure 75 minutes for pints. When they were done there was a layer of grease in the bottom of the jar and the bacon strips were still strips. Deb said you simply take the bacon out of the jar and use the grease to fry as usual till crisp. No refrigeration or freezing needed. This way if the freezer goes out or we have a power outage my bacon will still be good. Pretty cool idea.
This evening we went to the garden to pick banana peppers to can for Deb to take home and ended up picking nearly a bushel. And no we are not pickling all those. (pickle recipe in previous post)We do have about 3 gallon in salt water over night and then we can those tomorrow. Now we need something new to can, or at least something one of us hasn't canned. While we were in the garden I sprayed my Tobacco worm beans for bugs. They do have little beans on the vines now and Idon't like the bugs leaving spots on my beans that I want to can. The tomatoes are all but done. We did harvest most of the winter squash and some cushaws for Deb to take home with her.
Our weather has been so nice this week. Sunny but not unbearably hot. This weekend is posed to be high in the mid 70's, just perfect for a cook out.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Canning pickles, pickin tomatoes

Yesterday we started a batch of sweet lime pickles and finished them today. I had cukes that I did not need as I have made more pickles than we can eat in 2 years so we made these for Deb to take home with her. We have had a nice time visiting and just relaxing. This evening we went to the garden and picked tomatoes. I might have a half bushel that we are gonna make juice with tomorrow.
It is time for the wild plums to ripen and I hope we can get some this week to make jelly with. It is Rodgers all time favorite jelly. I like having bagels or English muffins with butter and jelly for breakfast. I think the garden season for us is kinda winding down as  far as vegetables go. We are now at the stage of starting on fall fruits and jelly making. The pears should be ready to pick in a couple weeks. Some of the apple trees here on the farm have apples ripening now so they should be picked and made into something. I don't need pie filling as I have many jars still left from a couple years ago.
While Deb is here and after we get all my laying flock butchered we are going to make some gumbo and can it. We had gumbo the night we arrived at Debs house in Mississippi and it was so good. She makes and cans her own Gumbo base then adds the meat and shrimp when she gets ready to serve it. Hopefully I can post the recipe for ya on here when we can it. I can tell you it was delicious.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

We made it home, back to canning

We finished our trek across the country on thru Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi then stayed over night in Mississippi. We spent the night at my friend Debs house.When we left there on Wednesday morning Deb took us to see Elvis birthplace and tour there before leaving there to head on to Kentucky.

We also had breakfast at a local diner where Elvis frequently ate when he was young. Kinda neat to step back in time. I do love visiting the old historical places in the country, most of them off the beaten path.
I have to say I am glad to be back home. We got home to some perfect weather. Temps in the 80's. Deb said when we got to her house that day it was the coolest day they had had all summer in Mississippi.We did have a wonderful trip this week. I got to spend time with the kids and got to pick up a friend in Mississippi and bring her home with me..I had talked to Deb for a couple  years online and we have talked many times on the phone and knew we had a lot in common. It was so nice to finally meet her in person. We got a lot planned for this week too. I am not a souvenir collector but all the way across the states I did purchase a coffee cup from each state. Kinda nice to drink coffee and remember the trip. It really felt good  to sleep in my own bed for a change too. We haven't done any major canning today other then Deb and I started some sweet lime pickles that we will finish tomorrow. Tomorrow we will also be picking tomatoes to make juice and can that. Hopefully we can go back and pick the wild plums that are ripe and make jelly. We shall see what tomorrow holds. Might just hang out an do nothing. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

It was hot today!

This is one of the hottest days we have had this year. I know the weather man says a lot of things but my thermometer spoke up today and confirmed my suspicions. It was 100 degrees and the thermometer was in the shade today around 11 am.

If red means danger, then it was in the danger zone today. Late this evening near dark we got a lil bit of rain, and I just know it will be that much hotter tomorrow.
I got another 7 quarts of tomato juice made and canned today in spite of the heat. Tomorrow evening I will need to check on the green beans and see if there are some to pick and can. Yesterday I had harvested the rest of my grapes and was thinking of making wine with those as I had already made 12 pints of grape jelly. But this evening I just went ahead and extracted the juice from the grapes and made more jelly. That should do us for a few years. This weekend I need to check on my pears and see if they are about ready to be picked. I sure do like pear preserves or as some call it, pear honey.
I weeded the onion bed out back where I have walking onions growing and I have a bunch of lil green onions in the bed. I planted some cucumber vines down there as well in case I didn't have any in the garden. Garsh, I got more cukes that I know what to do with. I will likely make more dills with the cukes that I am getting now. Jason ate a quart of dill pickles this evening while he was here messing with his computer. AND drank the dang juice. He did that when he was wee little too. Ya go to the fridge to get dill pickles and they were in the jar and the juice was all gone.
I think this watermelon here on the table needs a few slices taken out of it, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The dog days of summer

We are having the typical Kentucky weather for the past few days. Hot and humid, kinda drains the energy out of ya. Had a long night last night, didn't get finished canning and git in bed till around 4 am this morning. So that made for a late morning for me, which is normal. After I finally got up and moving around, had my coffee and got started on the day. I went to the summer kitchen to wash off all the jars of canned stuff from the night before and get them ready for the cellar. I had picked some hot banana peppers the evening before and was thinking of slicing them to pickle. Then I had second thoughts. Well ya know, I wear contacts, and can not imagine how painful that could be to have hot pepper on your hands and then stick ya finger in ya eye. Nope not me, so Rodger volunteered to de-seed the peppers. Well now he is complaining, but we ain't goin there. Anywho this is the recipe for the pickled peppers.

1 peck(2 gallon hot or mild banana peppers)
1 ½ cups salt
4 quarts water
10 cups vinegar
2 cups water
½ cups sugar
2 tablespoons chopped garlic 
Wash peppers, cut off stem end and split length wise and take out seeds. Mix water and salt to dissolve and add peppers. Let set 12 hours or so. Drain and rinse and drain well. Make pickling solution of remaining ingredients and heat to boiling. Pack peppers into hot jars and pour boiling solution over them in jars. Seal. If you choose these can be water bathed for 10 minutes. This made 5 pints.

I don't think we will need any more hot peppers for a bit. But if there are more on the plants, I reckin I would have to can em.
The blackberries that I had taken out of the freezer yesterday had thawed enough today that I could mash them up and get the wine started. So that is doin its thing in a big 6 gallon bucket in the kitchen.
I went to the cellar to get jars for the peppers and be dang, I noticed my crock of kraut. Gosh it has been in there for seems like a long time. I got it down and toted it to the kitchen to see if I had let it ruin or if it was kraut. Well it was kraut and dang good at that. I will need the crock in a week or so and decided to just pack the kraut in canning jars for storage. As you know I got this new vacuum sealer thingy this year and we decided to give it a try on vacuum sealing the kraut. Well it worked like a charm. I don't like to heat the kraut because that destroys all the good healthy bacteria that is in there that is good for your belly. The German fermenting crocks are a neat trick, they have a rim around the top that you fill with water to make a sort of water lock to keep out air which can cause kraut to mold and get soft.
So here I am packing it in jars.

The kraut needs to be pushed down and pressed and have enough of the liquid from the crock to cover it. This will help prevent it from becoming dark as it sits.

Now this is a proud vacuum sealer operator after the jars are sealed. Now they are stored in the cellar just waiting for me and my fork.
Then Rodger went off to get the yard mowed before it rained again. This is the first year that we have been up here on the hill that we have had what you could call a yard. We really have grass now, and no weeds. We didn't use any chemicals to accomplish this either, just mowed on a regular basis and it kills the weeds out. Now we still need to trim, but thas minor detail.
Oh and I forgot to share a beer with ya last night too. Gosh how rude of me! But anyway the pale ale that we bottled last weekend is the one we were sampling last night. After tasting the ale, I don't think I can drink any store bought beer now. This was smooth, one of those you could drink yourself into a stupor and not know till ya couldn't walk. The alcohol content was at 9% which is perfect for me. More adventures on the beer making later. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Back on the farm now and canning

Well I am back on the farm now after the hectic first part of the week. I was really busy over the weekend and on Monday. After the guys got in from work on Monday evening we had to go pick the sweet corn, maters and cukes and PEPH peas. They prefer I wait for them to help with this cause I have trouble toting heavy things. I was really trying hard to get caught up while hubby had the use of both his hands. Really we were not sure how much pain he was going to have after surgery .OK maybe that sounded selfish, but golly with all this garden a girl needs all the help she can get. We picked 3 big 50 lb feed bags full of sweet corn that was gonna need to be cleaned to can. By time we did this it was like 10 pm and I was far to tired to stay up later to can it and good thing too. We had to get up at 4 am to leave and go to Lexington for Rodgers surgery. The surgery went great, he ended up having a cyst on the side of his finger where it had to be amputated 3 years ago after a crush injury. Initially they left a small piece of nail bed on there and a nail had started to grow under the skin and caused the cyst. That was removed and the finger kinda reshaped. He is doing good with it and is hoping to go back to work tomorrow. But he cant use his finger for a good while till it heals. Which translates into no corn shucking, bean shelling and that kinda stuff. But he does pick up and do what his boo boo will let em. Any who, we cleaned all the sweet corn and I got it cut off the cob ready to can. As I have already said I don't want to freeze any more than I have to. So I put 2 big aluminum dish pans (yeah the ole fashioned ones like ya granny had) full o corn in the fridge to can when we got home on Tuesday afternoon. In the harvesting process Monday evening we had a 5 gallon bucket of maters, those were precariously placed on the bar in the real kitchen to let ripen a couple more days. Yeah ya know how that smells if there is a rotten one in there. Real nice!!!! Jason picked the cukes to the tune of about a peck or so, just set those in the house where it was cool to make sweet relish with. Then the bushel of PEPH peas were set in the summer kitchen to be shelled when we got home. I know we had a lot of things waiting on us when we got back. But its all good in the hood.
Hubby's surgery was started late for what ever reason. Never did figure that out unless the doc was on the pot or something. But we finally got out of there around noon. Now the ones that know me know I don't do mornings. And I had to be up at 4:30 to shower and leave around 5:30. This should have given me time fer at least one cup o coffee and a few smokes. I don't remember too much, translated into not enough sleep. Rodger did fine with the surgery and recovery stuff and was just a happy lil camper, no pain and as usual after surgery a lil goofy from the meds. Dang hind sight, should have ask em for a new truck while he was buzzin. Now THAT would have been mean. Any way we had a couple stops to make before we came home. One was to get something to eat as we were starving. Then to wally world, Sportsman's Warehouse (I like that place), then to liquor barn to get an airlock so I can get my wine started. I was so sleepy and tired, every time I sat down I would doze off to sleep. But I was the one that had to drive home. We made it home around 5 pm. I took a nap, cause they aint no canning going on till I did. Finally got started on the corn around 7 or so and as it was processing we shelled the peas. The last canning of corn was mixed with 8 quarts of peas and 8 pints of corn. They both process the same length of time so that worked out well for me. That finished up around 3 am this morning. Imagine I was dragging ass by time I got in bed after that last canner.
Today I made 5 quarts of mater juice, which is not much but it helps, and got that canned today. I had the cukes to use for something so made some sweet relish with those. I so hate to see any little thing not get used. This is a good way to use those OOPS cukes that you missed day before yesterday when ya picked that are long as your arm and still green. Although if the cukes are really big, I will take out the seeds, I don't care for big seeds in my relish.
The recipe called for bell peppers, so instead of making the trip to the garden I just used some that I had frozen. Here's the recipe for the sweet relish that I make. It is just the perfect balance of sweet and tart for use on  hot dogs and such.

Sweet Pickle Relish


4 cups chopped cucumber(I chop in food processor)
2cups chopped onion(also in food processor) (I'm lazy see)
1 cup chopped green pepper (yep this too, an mine was from the freezer)
1 cups chopped red sweet pepper(uh huh this too)
1/4 cup canning salt

Mix the salt with the veggies and cover with a layer of crushed ice and cold water and let stand for about 2 hours or so. Then drain and squeeze dry. I use my hand to get all the liquid out that I can. You do want to do this as the liquid is kinda salty. After ya get it all squeezed, put in heavy kettle.

Pickling mixture

3 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups white vinegar(just looks better than the darker apple cider but the flavor would be about the same)
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon mustard seed

Heat the pickling mixture till it gets hot then add the veggies. Ya want liquid in there but not too runny, about like runny mashed taters. Not that I would know what those are like. hahaha!!
Heat the mixture to boiling and gently simmer for 10 minutes. Ladle into hot jars, your choice of size, pints half pints, quarts, don't matter. I use pints tho. Wipe the jar rim well and put on the lid an tighten down.
ALL done now. I don't use a boiling water bath but if you think you must,  process pints 10 minutes in boiling water bath. This recipe will make about 5 pints.
When I canned the peas last night I had 1 jar that didn't seal for me and a couple pints of corn cut off that I didn't want to process beings there were just 2 pints so we had the peas for supper tonight with corn, fresh maters, mashed taters, and a jar of canned beef with gravy, biscuits (from a bag). We obviously eat pretty hardy around here as there were not any left overs to speak of and there is just 3 of us. Tomorrow its back to the garden and start the process all over again.
So till then blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Garden seed rip-off

I am so mad at the seed companies this year. I ordered my seeds from Shumway like I have been doing for several years. Up till now they have been good and true to variety. Not this year. First it was the sweet corn, the Golden Bantam that turned out to be anything but Golden Bantam. Now I am really mad about the tomatoes. I started mostly Rutgers, the few that are getting ripe are not anything like the Rutger that I remember growing up. The tomatoes are small and it is not the plants. The plants are healthy and have lots of blooms, just really small tomatoes. I am thinking I will be buying tomato products at the store unless the tomatoes improve and I really don't see that happening. I had this same problem a few years ago with white half runner beans. White half runner beans will get big enough to have a good sized bean inside them and the hulls will still be tender. Not the last ones I ordered from Shumway. OK enough of my rant.
Tomorrow is chicken killing day. So I have lots to do. Not to mention we have to stop by noon and get ready to attend a wedding. Then back home to finish canning the chicken.
I got 12 more pints of Paul's sweet lime pickles canned up today. This time I added a few cinnamon sticks in the pickling solution. Rodger likes them with the cinnamon flavor. I normally make 14 day pickles for him. These are much easier to make so hopefully this will keep him happy.
I haven't done a lot today other than try to keep my chickens from getting too hot. The heat was worse today that it has been all summer in my opinion. I pretty much stayed in and did get the house cleaned so it wouldn't get condemned.
I got to talk to Rob today for a bit. He will be finished with his internship on August 19th. He has invited me to come with Amoy to Nevada and take the road trip back home with them. I'm kinda excited about a road trip. The general plan is for Amoy and I to fly to Las Vegas and Rob pick us up there. The go south east thru Flagstaff Arizona and maybe to Roswell New Mexico just because. Then thru Texas and not sure where from there. It should be a fun trip. Don't think Rob is going to be permanently working in Nevada so this trip probably wont come around again in this lifetime. So I think we should make the best of it.
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

Making pickles

Well today I finished the sweet lime pickles from yesterday. And oh my are they good. They are so crisp, more crisp than a Vlasic pickle if you can believe that. The recipe came from Paul in Kansas who posted the recipe on a forum that I frequent. So here is the recipe as Paul posted it.

Here's the pickle recipe that you asked for. It is a really good recipe. I only use sliced cucumbers for it.

Soak the following for 24 hours:
7 lb cucumbers
2 gallons water
2 cups lime
Rinse. Let set 3 hours draining.

Mix the following:
2 qts vinegar
4 ½ lbs sugar
1 T salt
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp cloves
Pour over cucumbers.
Let set 12 hours.

Bring to boil and simmer slowly for 40 minutes.

Pack in hot jars and seal.

(No pressure or hot water bath needed.

I hope you enjoy it. I know this recipe is at least 100 years old. It came from my great-grandmother that died in her 90's in 1944.

NE Kansas - 100% off-grid since May 1998.

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http://cedarshillfarm.com
"Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, Or do without"

 

 

 

Yeah I know, I know it says to simmer them for 40 minutes and you are thinking this will make them soft. Well I am here to tell you it wont. I kept mine hot enough to see a few bubbles occasionally and they were like super crisp when I put them in jars. Just trust me and try em!
I went to the garden this evening and picked more PEPH peas and will get those shelled and canned tomorrow. It was cuke pickin day too so I started another batch of the pickles from the recipe above. Earlier today I tossed another bag of grapes in the freezer till I get time to make juice and jelly. Not much else happening here on the farm.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella