Fall is actually sneaking up faster than I would like. But dang I guess it is past the middle of August already and not long till cooler nights and days. I guess I really didnt pay much attention to the calendar till I noticed the spent sweet corn stalks turning yellow last week. Geez, we just planted that stuff other day. At least it sure seems that way. The damn crows finally finished off the remainder of the sweet corn that was not even ready to harvest. Those things are the most aggressive feeders I think I have ever known. If you shoot to scare them off, in just a few minutes they are back in larger numbers. And it sure dont take long for them to destroy a patch of corn. Not to mention they have eat on some of the tomatoes, peppers and pecked at some of the unripe pumpkins. Mean lil devils they are.
Our peppers are in full productions right now, with lots that are getting red and ripe. We use a lot of bell peppers during the year in cooking. I only planted a few jalapenos this year as I am the only one that eats them and sure dont need that many taking up freezer space. My big freezer is mostly full now with the carrots, corn, okra, peppers among other things I cant think of right now. The tomatoes in the garden are starting to slack off producing now and some of the plants are spent. The Money Maker variety I planted have produced tons of small tomatoes that are mostly used for juice but are small enough to be a total pain in the arse to wash and get the seeds out of to juice. I take the seed pockets out to reduce the amount of water or clear liquid that comes to the top on the jars of juice. It actually makes better tasting thicker juice. Also when I peel tomatoes to make my salsa I peel and squeeze out the seed pockets and it makes the salsa nice and thick. Yummy!!
The mustard and turnips I sowed a couple weeks ago are up. Oh my, and did I forever get them thick enough on the ground. I didnt use the seeder I just sprinkled the seeds on by hand cause it was a small space. The poor little seeds just laid there on top of the soil for well over a week till we got some nice rain showers. And they ALL came up. So soon or later I will have enough mustard and turnip greens to can. And I do love a nice sweet raw turnip in late fall after they have grown in cooler fall weather.
Tomorrow will be a grape harvesting day here. About 90% of the grapes on each cluster are ripe so its time to cut them and make jelly, juice and wine. If allowed to all ripen they will start to fall off the vine. Then its on to the peaches. I have a few left that the crows didnt get after I put aluminum pans in the branches to keep them scared off. Lots to do here as fall fast approaches.
I got a comment and question from an older blog post on gumbo. The sweet reader ask if it was possible to half the recipe to can. I would think certainly you could half or double or what ever suits the needs of your family or canner size. If I make the mess to make a batch of gumbo I just go whole hog and make a lot. Takes no longer to clean up from a huge batch as it does a small one. Good luck and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
stella
Showing posts with label wine making. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wine making. Show all posts
Friday, August 19, 2016
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
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.
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
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.
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?
n
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?
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.
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.
Stella
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Playing in the kitchen
Yeah I bet I know what you were thinkin. No Rodger was at work. I have been playing in the kitchen by my self. Well guess that didn't sound any better did it? OK so I will explain. I been making hand dipped chocolates. That sounds sophisticated don't it? Or in hillbilly terms, I been making candies. The candies are from the recipe from the previous post. But see ya know I don't do things according to a recipe. I have to tinker with everything. And that is what I did with the candy making too. So maybe I will post this as a recipe for Christmas candy-part 2. You make the basic mix of 1 12oz box of vanilla wafer, crushed fine, the finer the better, 1 stick or 1/2 cup butter and 1 lb powdered sugar. Mix this really well. It will be crumbly in texture. But thas OK. Then I separated it into 3 different bowls. In one of the bowls I added about 1/2 cup Baileys Irish Cream with a hint of caramel. Oh yeh! Ya know I like my Baileys. To another bowl I added 1/4 cup pina colada mix and about 1/2 cup of flaked coconut. To the third bowl I added about 1/4 cup of Kahlua and about 2 tablespoons of Hershey's baking chocolate (powder). I stirred em all up in each bowl real good to mix pretty well. Then I would get in there with my hands and finish the mixing and roll each batch into lil balls, these about the size of large grapes. I put these on a plate and set them in the freezer. After I got all of em rolled I melted my chocolate bark or Candi Quick and started dipping the rolled candies. Placed em back on a sheet pan lined with foil and set them in the fridge to harden. These things are so dang good. AND I bet ya can guess my favorite. Yep, Its the Baileys Irish cream. But the strawberry daiquiri is good too. And I do like the coconut ones. I might get brave tomorrow and try my hand at peanut butter fudge. Of all the things I cook and cook well, the ability to make really good cooked fudge eludes me.
Any way, with all this candy stuff I didn't fix a big supper. We had chicken soup with some stock I had canned and some leftover chicken from last nights dinner. One of the things on my to-do list for tomorrow is to siphon off or rack my bucket of wine. Dang I have put it off for a few months now. But it really needs to be done. Rodger kinda hinted at the idea of making a batch of beer pretty soon and the best place for the beer barrel is where the bucket is sittin with the wine in it. I had him stop at the hardware store on his way home and pick up one of those handy lil Kerosene siphon thingys, ya know the one with the bulb ya squeeze to get it started? Well I am gonna wash it really good and use it to siphon off the wind into another container so it can settle again and rack it the second time. After that its sweeten if need be, sterilize and bottle. Then off to the cellar to age. Maybe I will remember to take some pics to share with ya. Mouse trap mind here ya know.
I did go OUT side today. Don't laugh, I trudged thru the snow all the way to my summer kitchen. See thas where my food processor lives and I had to make vanilla wafer crumbs. It was not too bad cold out. A nice sunny day, the ground is still warm so lots of the snow we had melted today. You can see bare ground all over where the sun hit. But we posed to get slammed with more snow and freezing rain and possible 1/2 inch of ice Wednesday and into the night. I am so thankful I don't have to be out in it. But I do worry bout my guys and the many others that do have to be out on the roads and have to work out in the mess. Thas why I like to at least give them a nice filling hot meal when they get home.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Any way, with all this candy stuff I didn't fix a big supper. We had chicken soup with some stock I had canned and some leftover chicken from last nights dinner. One of the things on my to-do list for tomorrow is to siphon off or rack my bucket of wine. Dang I have put it off for a few months now. But it really needs to be done. Rodger kinda hinted at the idea of making a batch of beer pretty soon and the best place for the beer barrel is where the bucket is sittin with the wine in it. I had him stop at the hardware store on his way home and pick up one of those handy lil Kerosene siphon thingys, ya know the one with the bulb ya squeeze to get it started? Well I am gonna wash it really good and use it to siphon off the wind into another container so it can settle again and rack it the second time. After that its sweeten if need be, sterilize and bottle. Then off to the cellar to age. Maybe I will remember to take some pics to share with ya. Mouse trap mind here ya know.
I did go OUT side today. Don't laugh, I trudged thru the snow all the way to my summer kitchen. See thas where my food processor lives and I had to make vanilla wafer crumbs. It was not too bad cold out. A nice sunny day, the ground is still warm so lots of the snow we had melted today. You can see bare ground all over where the sun hit. But we posed to get slammed with more snow and freezing rain and possible 1/2 inch of ice Wednesday and into the night. I am so thankful I don't have to be out in it. But I do worry bout my guys and the many others that do have to be out on the roads and have to work out in the mess. Thas why I like to at least give them a nice filling hot meal when they get home.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Friday, August 6, 2010
Picking beans and tomatoes
We went to the garden this evening and picked the beans that were ready off the row of Kentucky wonder bush beans. Another seed that I had ordered from Shumway and they are everything but Kentucky wonder. We got total about 1/2 bushel. Didn't take long to string and break those and get them in the jars for canning. Lots of the tomatoes were ripe but you throw away 1 rotten one for every 3 you pick. Still got close to a bushel of those. I will make the juice tomorrow evening.
This weekend is the big 127 yard sale that runs from the northern Ohio state line to Alabama. Jason and I are planning on going to that to see what we can find that we don't need. This is one of those kinda sales that if you need one, somebody there will be selling one. Last year it was at this yard sale that I found my hand tobacco setter that we used to set tomatoes and all the other transplants in the garden. Rodger didn't want to go with us so he volunteered to keep the baby( Abby) so we didn't have to take her out in the heat. Last year Rob and Amoy went with us. But this year Amoy is in Jamaica and Rob is in Nevada.
I think I learned something about wine making. It is far too hot in my summer kitchen with the AC off to make wine. I think it killed my yeast. So this evening we filtered the must out of the juice and went ahead and added the sugar and more yeast to get it going again. It is already bubbling in the fermentation tank. So lesson learned, keep the fermentation vessel where the temp stays between 70 to 80 degrees. After straining out all the berries and putting the liquid back in the fermentation vessel we still had better than 4 gallon of potential wine.
Hope to get more sweet corn picked and canned this weekend after I get back from the yard sale. I am hoping the 3 patch of corn is true to seed. I pulled a few ears this evening and they look really good. They should be Stowells evergreen which is a white sweet corn. Open pollinated of course and if it is good and true to characteristic I will be saving some seed from it to plant next year.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
This weekend is the big 127 yard sale that runs from the northern Ohio state line to Alabama. Jason and I are planning on going to that to see what we can find that we don't need. This is one of those kinda sales that if you need one, somebody there will be selling one. Last year it was at this yard sale that I found my hand tobacco setter that we used to set tomatoes and all the other transplants in the garden. Rodger didn't want to go with us so he volunteered to keep the baby( Abby) so we didn't have to take her out in the heat. Last year Rob and Amoy went with us. But this year Amoy is in Jamaica and Rob is in Nevada.
I think I learned something about wine making. It is far too hot in my summer kitchen with the AC off to make wine. I think it killed my yeast. So this evening we filtered the must out of the juice and went ahead and added the sugar and more yeast to get it going again. It is already bubbling in the fermentation tank. So lesson learned, keep the fermentation vessel where the temp stays between 70 to 80 degrees. After straining out all the berries and putting the liquid back in the fermentation vessel we still had better than 4 gallon of potential wine.
Hope to get more sweet corn picked and canned this weekend after I get back from the yard sale. I am hoping the 3 patch of corn is true to seed. I pulled a few ears this evening and they look really good. They should be Stowells evergreen which is a white sweet corn. Open pollinated of course and if it is good and true to characteristic I will be saving some seed from it to plant next year.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Canning, growing odd things
As of right now I am in the summer kitchen processing more of those good PEPH peas. We picked another bushel last night and got them shelled out. I just didn't want to spend another late night out here canning them that late so chose to do them today.
The must is coming along for the blackberry wine that I got started. The berries float to the top when it sits and they have to be stirred down ever so often. I does have a wine smell even this early.
This is before it was stirred down.
This is after stirring. It is working really well. We can hope for some good wine in a year or so. Sure seems like a long time to wait for the simple pleasures in life. But I do reckin the finer things in life are worth the wait.
As soon as the peas get finished canning I am going make tomato juice. We picked nearly a bushel of ripe tomatoes last evening. I am sure glad to have the tomatoes because my tomato products are running really low in the cellar. Last year blight got the tomatoes and this year they seem to be quite slow in ripening. But all in good time I guess.
While I was in the garden I went off to inspect my vine peaches. I got the seeds from one of the seed companies this year as a lil bonus and decided to plant them just for chits and giggles. Well the vines look very much like cucumbers but have these little softball sized fruits on them. I was thinking they were a hybrid but from what I am reading they have been around a long time. Interesting huh? Here is some info I found on them.
http://www.ehow.com/about_6109992_information-vine-peach-cantaloupes-seeds.html
And this pic is of vine peaches from my garden.
They look neat if nothing else. They are also called mango melon. To me the taste and texture is between a cantaloupe and honeydew melon.
This is the extent of the excitement in my day. Till next time, blessing from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
The must is coming along for the blackberry wine that I got started. The berries float to the top when it sits and they have to be stirred down ever so often. I does have a wine smell even this early.
This is after stirring. It is working really well. We can hope for some good wine in a year or so. Sure seems like a long time to wait for the simple pleasures in life. But I do reckin the finer things in life are worth the wait.
As soon as the peas get finished canning I am going make tomato juice. We picked nearly a bushel of ripe tomatoes last evening. I am sure glad to have the tomatoes because my tomato products are running really low in the cellar. Last year blight got the tomatoes and this year they seem to be quite slow in ripening. But all in good time I guess.
While I was in the garden I went off to inspect my vine peaches. I got the seeds from one of the seed companies this year as a lil bonus and decided to plant them just for chits and giggles. Well the vines look very much like cucumbers but have these little softball sized fruits on them. I was thinking they were a hybrid but from what I am reading they have been around a long time. Interesting huh? Here is some info I found on them.
http://www.ehow.com/about_6109992_information-vine-peach-cantaloupes-seeds.html
And this pic is of vine peaches from my garden.
This is the extent of the excitement in my day. Till next time, blessing from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Sunday, August 1, 2010
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
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.
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
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Little bits of this and that
I haven't got a lot done today, just bits of this and that. Slept in this morning and got a late start on the day. But I did need to take care of the pickles that I started last evening. They are sweet lime pickles. The gentleman who posted the recipe on a forum that I frequent says they don't get soft. Well I can see that they might not as they are like lil chunks of ice after sitting in lime water over night. They are in the pickling solution now and will be finished tomorrow morning. I will let ya know and get permission to post his recipe for ya here.
I had some tomatoes that needed to be made into something but not enough to warrant getting the squeezo strainer dirty, so I just cooked em after they were washed and cut up and made some quick juice. Just 2 quarts but that's a start. An ya know, every kitchen should have a food mill. Well I used to own one and wore it out and never bought another one. They are great for small batches of juice and such. It is a big job to get the squeezo strainer out and set it up to make 2 quarts of juice. I love my squeezo don't get me wrong. But it was too much for the task at hand today. So I went to Amazon and ordered me a food mill, a hand crank lil fellow that will make quick work of a few tomatoes at a time.That will beat all to heck trying to force tomato pulp thru a strainer. Ask me how I know!
I have been trying to get things out of my freezer that can be vacuum packed and stored in the cellar. Today I took all the shuck beans or leather britches as some folks call em out. Ran them for a bit in the dehydrator to get any moisture out and then vacuum sealed them for storage. Also have been doing the same thing with cornmeal. I have a pillowcase full of bags of frozen blackberries that I am going to thaw out and make into wine soon. Not real sure what is in the big freezer than can be moved, will find that out tomorrow.
Some of my grapes were getting ripe, which I thought was kinda early, so I cut those yesterday and put them in a zip top bag and toss them in the freezer till I have enough to make jelly and then I will use those. To me it is easier to freeze the grapes a few at a time than to make a big mess making juice to freeze a lil at a time.
Now what do ya do with ground cherries? Dunno, but I will find some use for em. I picked about a quart of em this evening. Will let ya know what I decide to make with em.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
I had some tomatoes that needed to be made into something but not enough to warrant getting the squeezo strainer dirty, so I just cooked em after they were washed and cut up and made some quick juice. Just 2 quarts but that's a start. An ya know, every kitchen should have a food mill. Well I used to own one and wore it out and never bought another one. They are great for small batches of juice and such. It is a big job to get the squeezo strainer out and set it up to make 2 quarts of juice. I love my squeezo don't get me wrong. But it was too much for the task at hand today. So I went to Amazon and ordered me a food mill, a hand crank lil fellow that will make quick work of a few tomatoes at a time.That will beat all to heck trying to force tomato pulp thru a strainer. Ask me how I know!
I have been trying to get things out of my freezer that can be vacuum packed and stored in the cellar. Today I took all the shuck beans or leather britches as some folks call em out. Ran them for a bit in the dehydrator to get any moisture out and then vacuum sealed them for storage. Also have been doing the same thing with cornmeal. I have a pillowcase full of bags of frozen blackberries that I am going to thaw out and make into wine soon. Not real sure what is in the big freezer than can be moved, will find that out tomorrow.
Some of my grapes were getting ripe, which I thought was kinda early, so I cut those yesterday and put them in a zip top bag and toss them in the freezer till I have enough to make jelly and then I will use those. To me it is easier to freeze the grapes a few at a time than to make a big mess making juice to freeze a lil at a time.
Now what do ya do with ground cherries? Dunno, but I will find some use for em. I picked about a quart of em this evening. Will let ya know what I decide to make with em.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Friday, July 16, 2010
Playing catch-up
I feel like we have been playing catch-up as of late. The yard is way over grown with the rain. It is either to wet to mow or we don't have time with the garden harvest going on. So this evening we finally got the weed eating done and started mowing. We had a shower of rain today and the grass was wet under neath. So if we don't get more rain we finish the mowing and then head to the garden to harvest corn, cukes and probably carrots. The carrot tops have started to die back and once they do that they have a tendency to sprout and start new growth and get tough with the least bit of rain. The purple hull peas get canned in the morning and by the time I get them canned it will be time to pick again. Hopefully I will get to be home all next week and get a lot done as far as canning.
I took a friend to the big city today for her docs appointment and made a quick stop by the Liquor Barn. I did find some wine yeast that I was looking for to get some good blackberry wine started. Not sure if I want to try and fill my 6 gallon carboy or just make a small batch. I'm just having fun learning something new. Also the beer we started smells really good now. We are making a pale ale as our first batch of beer. It should be ready to drink in a couple more weeks. I think we are going to bottle it and let it set for another few weeks. Maybe Labor day weekend would be a good time to try it out. We shall see.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
I took a friend to the big city today for her docs appointment and made a quick stop by the Liquor Barn. I did find some wine yeast that I was looking for to get some good blackberry wine started. Not sure if I want to try and fill my 6 gallon carboy or just make a small batch. I'm just having fun learning something new. Also the beer we started smells really good now. We are making a pale ale as our first batch of beer. It should be ready to drink in a couple more weeks. I think we are going to bottle it and let it set for another few weeks. Maybe Labor day weekend would be a good time to try it out. We shall see.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Friday, July 9, 2010
Canning, we finally got rain
We finally got a good rain today. It rained some last night and a steady rain most of today. I'm sure this will make the garden grow. And the weeds as well. My new little beans really appreciated the rain. This should also make the late beets sprout as well as the melons that I planted late. Most of all I can appreciate the cooler temps. We had highs in the low 80's today, so nice to be out.
I managed to get some canning done as well. I had 10 lb of pinto beans soaked and got those canned up. I had 13 quarts and 11 pints when finished. Also finished up the blackberry syrup (6 pints and 3 half pints) to use for bedtime drinks in winter. I transferred my kraut that I had made from the red cabbage and got that in jars to store. It is rather tasty with the addition of caraway seed added to the cabbage before it was set to ferment. After supper we made 9 quarts of bread and butter pickles. Then 1 quart of whole baby dills. I had9 half pints of chopped dills to use in things that need chopped dill pickle. Just a convenience thing for me I guess.
I received my beer making kit in the mail today. This is gonna be fun. We got it set up to make a batch of beer. We should be able to enjoy this lil treat around labor day. I also got my wine making supplies today. Now this is something I am looking forward to. I am going to try to get some wine started tomorrow. Kinda excited about learning something new.
All the canned stuff should be ready to clean up and put in the cellar tomorrow and clear off my counter in the summer kitchen. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
I managed to get some canning done as well. I had 10 lb of pinto beans soaked and got those canned up. I had 13 quarts and 11 pints when finished. Also finished up the blackberry syrup (6 pints and 3 half pints) to use for bedtime drinks in winter. I transferred my kraut that I had made from the red cabbage and got that in jars to store. It is rather tasty with the addition of caraway seed added to the cabbage before it was set to ferment. After supper we made 9 quarts of bread and butter pickles. Then 1 quart of whole baby dills. I had9 half pints of chopped dills to use in things that need chopped dill pickle. Just a convenience thing for me I guess.
I received my beer making kit in the mail today. This is gonna be fun. We got it set up to make a batch of beer. We should be able to enjoy this lil treat around labor day. I also got my wine making supplies today. Now this is something I am looking forward to. I am going to try to get some wine started tomorrow. Kinda excited about learning something new.
All the canned stuff should be ready to clean up and put in the cellar tomorrow and clear off my counter in the summer kitchen. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
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