Garden - Day 22

Well, our garden this year wasn't to spectacular. I killed everything except the cucumbers. I usually put hay around all the plants and this year, I decided to use some store bought wood mulch. It killed all my plants. I used hay around my cucumbers and they flourished! Here are some things we have been enjoying.

These squash and zucchini were the only nice ones we got this year.

Blueberries, I think we put up about 25 quarts of these beautiful things.

Lots of corn!

Cucumbers! Canned into sweet pickles and sweet pickle relish.

Okra

Figs!

What have you been growing in your garden?

Garden - Day 22

Well, our garden this year wasn't to spectacular. I killed everything except the cucumbers. I usually put hay around all the plants and this year, I decided to use some store bought wood mulch. It killed all my plants. I used hay around my cucumbers and they flourished! Here are some things we have been enjoying.

These squash and zucchini were the only nice ones we got this year.

Blueberries, I think we put up about 25 quarts of these beautiful things.

Lots of corn!

Cucumbers! Canned into sweet pickles and sweet pickle relish.

Okra

Figs!

What have you been growing in your garden?

Recipe - Day 8

RECIPES!!!!! I love recipes! I don't even know how many cookbooks, homemade and printed I have. I think I snapshot at least two to three a day with my phone.

 

The first one is a new recipe I tried yesterday. I haven't tried these yet but I am pretty sure they will be a hit.

 

 



 

 

 

 

PICKLED SWEET GREEN TOMATOES

 

16 cups sliced green tomatoes

2 cups sliced onions

1/4 cup pickling salt

3 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

4 cups white vinegar

1 cup water

1 Tablespoon mustard seeds

1 Tablespoon whole allspice

1 Tablespoon celery seeds

1 Tablespoon whole cloves

 

Wash and slice tomatoes and onions. Sprinkle with pickling salt and let stand 3 hours. Drain and rinse. Heat the sugar and vinegar and put the spices in a cheese cloth and add them to the vinegar mixture. Heat until sugar is dissolved. Add the sliced tomatoes and onions and cook 30 minutes, until the tomatoes are translucent. Put in hot jars and process in a boiling-water canner, pints 15 minutes and quarts 20 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also have a wonderful recipe using blueberries of course! Hope you enjoy!

 

 

 

 

BLUEBERRY POUND CAKE

 

 

 

1 cup of butter, softened

2cups sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup vanilla or plain yogurt, (not in original recipe)

3 cups of flour, divided

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 pint fresh blueberries or 2 cups canned blueberries,

drained and rinsed

 

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat until light and fluffy. Add yogurt and vanilla. Sift two cups of flour, salt and baking powder together and add it to the creamed mixture. Dredge blueberries in remaining flour and gently fold into batter. Pour batter into a buttered bundt pan coated with sugar and bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Enjoy!

 

 

God Bless!



In My Bag - Day 7

What's in my bag? Well, lots and lots of blueberries! This year we have been extremely blessed with blueberries. Gallons and gallons have been put in the freezer this year for us to enjoy smoothies, blueberry cream cheese pound cake, blueberry pancakes, blueberry chess pie, I could go on and on but I will stop.

 

 

 

 

 

I have also been blessed with about 20 gallons of cucumbers out of the garden this year. I am still processing pickles and sweet pickle relish. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel though.

 

 

 

I just brought these in from the garden today. My vines are yellow and dying so I think this is the last of the cucumbers this year.

What's in your bag?


God Bless!

When chickens give you eggs....,

Our chickens have been blessing us for weeks with lots of eggs. So I decided to pickle some. I have pickled eggs before but used a different recipe. I came across this recipe and decided to try something different.

 

 

First boil a dozen eggs, I am using smaller eggs that our sweet little Silkies are laying.

 

 

While your eggs are boiling, mix together your vinegar, salt, sugar and pickling spice.

 

When this pickling liquid comes to a boil, add 1 large onion, sliced. Let your liquid and onions sit for 5 minutes.

 

Once your eggs are boiled, peel and stuff them into your jars. Ladle your hot pickling liquid and onions into your jars. I used pints.

 

Boil your jarred eggs in a boiling water canner for 5 minutes.

 

 

 

Pickled Eggs

 

12 boiled and peeled eggs

4 cups vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

1 large onion, sliced

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon pickling spice

 

Boil your eggs and while they are boiling combine your vinegar, salt, sugar and pickling spice and bring it to boil. Turn you liquid off and add your sliced onion. Once you have peeled your eggs, pack them into your jars. Ladle the hot liquid and onions over your eggs. Boil in your boiling water canner for 5 minutes.

Apple Pie Filling in a Jar.......

This past week I went and picked up my Jonathan apples I ordered through my food co-op. Last year I made lots of apple sauce and apple butter for Betty Grace who turned a year this past August. She took care of all I made and we have been out for a while. This year I am putting up ape pie filling in jars. I usually freeze a lot but decided to tackle canning lots of everything I can get my hands on. For now it's 80 lbs of Jonathan apples. In the next few weeks I will be canning sweet potatoes and pumpkin. I love this time of year!

The possibilities are endless with apples! You can freeze them, make homemade applesauce, apple butter, apple jelly or apple pie filling.

I started this process today and doubled a recipe I found on www.mommyskitchen.net.

This apple filling turned out beautiful! I am so excited to use this for pies, cobblers, crisps and anything else that uses apple pie filling in the recipe.

I started with these beautiful Jonathan apples we are able to get from an Amish community in Illinois.

I started peeling, coring and slicing apples until I reached roughly 12 pounds. The recipe calls for 6 pounds but I have so many apples I decided to double it.

In a large pot I blended the water, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, cinnamon, salt and apple pie spice.

I cooked this mixture until it was thick and bubbly.

I removed the thick filling from the heat and packed my sliced apples into my jars like this

and then ladled the hot, thick filling into the jars over the sliced apples.

After I did this, I put my sterile flats and lids on and processed my quarts in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes. Here is how they turned put, Beautiful! Can't wait to make a pie!

APPLE PIE FILLING IN A JAR

4 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup cornstarch

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons apple pie spice

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons lemon juice

10 cups water

6 pounds of washed, peeled, cored and sliced apples

In a large pot, blend all the ingredients and being to a boil and cook until it is thick and bubbly. Remove from the heat.

Pack your apples in clean, hot canning jars leaving an inch of space from the top.

Fill with the hot syrup and close with hot, sterile flats and lids. Process in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes.

Remove the jars from the canner and let cool.

Canning Pears.....

I have canned lots of pears in the past. Just putting them in a light syrup and canning. I had a bottle of white grape peach juice on hand and it sparked an idea I had a while back!

Instead of making a light syrup for the pears, I just cooked my pears in the white grape peach juice and processed them.

They turned out beautiful and delicious!

Looking forward to some delicious apples in the near future! Love canning anything and everything!

amish pickled beets and eggs......

Our little Bantam chickens have been laying pretty regularly. They lay small eggs and they are perfect for pickling. I recently found this recipe and thought I would give it a try. They look great, just curious of how they taste! Guess we will see in about a week. I tripled the recipe because I had more than eight eggs!

Pennsylvania Dutch Pickled Beets and Eggs

8 eggs (already hard-boiled)

2 (15 ounce) cans sliced pickled beets, juice reserved

1 onion, sliced

1 cup white vinegar

3/4 cups cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 pinch black pepper

2 bay leaves

12 whole cloves

1. Place beets, onion and peeled eggs in a mason jar (if canning) or a non-reactive glass or plastic container. Set aside.

2. In a medium-size, non-reactive saucepan, combine sugar, 1 cup reserved beet juice, vinegar, salt, pepper, bay leaves and cloves. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

3. Pour hot liquid over beets, onions and eggs. Cover and refrigerate 48 hours before using, if you are not canning.

4. If canning, place jars in canner and process for 10 minutes.

a few happenings around the homestead....

We have been pretty busy around here lately. Tae Kwon Do testing, canning pears and baking up some delicious Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread.

Big boy just earned his advanced blue belt in Tae Kwon Do. We are so very proud of him. He works really hard in his classes and at home. Congratulations BIG BOY!!!


A few weeks ago, one of my dear friends called me and wanted to know if I was interested in some pears. Well, you know me, of course I was! The bugs and I loaded up and went to her home to pick them up. They had already picked them from the trees so all I had to do was go get them. She told me that they picked quite a few and to bring a good many containers with me when I come. I was shocked at the pears. I ended up bringing home five 5 gallon buckets full and 2 more large garbage bags full to share with friends. Now that's alot of pears.

I decided to put mine up in a light syrup, in quart and pint size mason jars. Take a look how pretty.

Another something we like around here is Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. It is our favorite sweet bread around this time of the year. We love Autumn! We still have a little pumpkin left from last year in the freezer so I figured it was time to get it out and bake a little of this bread. I have one really picky eater and he even loves it. For him to know what it is and still like it, it really has to be tasty!

Here is a loaf, still in the pan. It didn't last long after I removed it.

Click HERE for this yummy recipe!

Right now my kitchen smells like apples. We are in the middle of canning apples that we got from an Amish farm in Illinois. I will keep you up to date on that and as soon as I finish with them, I will post some pictures and how to's on  canning apples. Until next time!

God Bless!

Here lately we have been canning dewberries! We have gathered and picked close to 4 gallons. We so far have made a dewberry crumble, dewberry jelly, canned dewberries in a light syrup and in the near future, are going to make some delicious dewberry dumplings! I have never made them but my mother-in-law told me a simple way to do so. I am not one that likes dewberries too much. I can not handle the seeds. I do enjoy the jelly and feel as though I will enjoy the dumplings. I can make them by straining the juice off of the berries first and then drop the dumplings into seed-free juice! Here are the beautiful berries we canned just a few days ago.

I have quite a few of the berries frozen but I really like the fact that I can just pop open a jar  and make something very fast without having to wait for the berries to thaw! I can even make jelly with these berries in a jar. I have been thinking alot about  trying to do lots and lots of canning this year. I always can but not to the extint I want to this year.

I feel that if I can put most of our garden in cans, we are guaranteed food! I am always fearful of freezing everything and then down here in the south have some kind of bad weather and lose electricity. You know what that means.....a possibility of losing everything you worked so hard to put in your freezer! 

In about a week, we are going to be slaughtering about 25 meat chickens. I plan on putting most of them whole in the freezer. I don't know any other way. Maybe I am worrying about it to much.  I am wanting to try something I have never done before. Can homemade chicken broth. I usually freeze all of my broth but since I want to CAN almost everything this year, why not can chicken! I am really excited to see how it turns out. Just like the berries, I won't have to wait for the broth to thaw out. I can just open a jar of broth and enjoy!

Wish me luck!

God Bless!

unplanned events.....

Today was a planned day that quickly turned into an unplanned day. Mommy was too sick to do the fun "Pizza Party" unit study we had planned, so the oldest bug, decided to be very domestic today. She pickled eggs, made a couple different kinds of homemade butter and cooked a few meals! Her first attempt to pickle eggs was a success!!!! Here is how she did it.

She took some of our beautiful chicken eggs that we gather everyday and boiled them. Once they are hard boiled, put them into an ice bath and let sit a couple of minutes. This helps with the peeling process.

(The second bug helping in the peeling process.)

(The oldest bug showing off her button quail eggs!)

While the eggs were boiling, she made a pickling brine that consists of 1 quart of vinegar, 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup water, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder and a dash of cayenne powder and about 6 cloves of garlic, quartered. Bring this up to a simmer and then remove from the heat. Now she put her boiled eggs in jars and added the brine.

Be sure to leave a 1" headspace when filling your jars with the brine. Once the jars are filled, be sure to wipe the jar opening with a damp cloth before placing your flats and rings on. You want your jars to seal properly. Now place your jars in a boiling water canner and process for 15 minutes. Remove your jars from the canner and let cool for 15 to 20 hours to make sure they are sealed. Here is the finished product!

Such a blessing!