My "want to do" list, well, I won't even go there.
I really have to just settle for the necessities sometimes.
Though, my mind wanders to the far end of my house where my little craft room closet is, and I smile at the thought of once again being more than acquaintances with my sewing machine.
Or the mere thought of being outside in this rare beautiful weather, planning and planting my fall garden, feeling warm soil between my fingers and enjoying the familiar smell of the earth I’ve worked over for the last two years- just makes my heart pitter patter!
As for the collection of new spices and seasonings I’ve been working on or the stock-pile of organic staples I’ve been saving for some major baking… *sigh* I hope to see you soon too!
Ok, enough boobing. For now anyways.
Seriously though, I have so many big plans but not enough hours on the clock to execute them. Or when I actually do have a non-busy moment, like now, it is at a time when I can barely keep my eyes open or the promise to post to this blog at least twice a week.
Well, since I cannot share with you the fun and exciting things I have done (because I haven’t done them yet); I will share with you some of the busy work I’ve been up to.
Dehydrating, canning and freezing- OH MY!
Yup, it’s that time of year where the summers harvest is complete and the availability of apples, peaches, tomatoes, pears and corn are better than ever.
About three weeks ago I received the beautiful peaches I ordered from a friends’ family farm in Utah.
Seriously, they were the most perfect peaches in the world. They were pretty, not a bruise on them. Their color was a nice vivid shade of, uh, peach! Ha!
The smell was alluring and they were so juicy and sweet it was hard to save them all for canning!
But I gained some control and managed to make some jam, pie filling and bottled peaches while the bulk of them still remained.
The following weekend came pears.
Once again, I was delighted at how nice the produce was! There was no skimping when it came to the case of pears. That box was full to the brim of the big, hearty bright green fruit! I wasn’t too sure how long they would take to ripen. So I didn’t wait.
Besides, it was the weekend and what better time for it?! So I made no pear butter or jam like I originally intended. Instead, I peeled, cored and sliced up all but six pears (which I later ripened and made fruit leather out of) and just simply bottled them.
The kids have already enjoyed them in their school lunches twice!
Then came the tomatoes.
I was impressed with the size and quality of the tomatoes, however, I wished there would have been a little more in my box. Nonetheless, I didn’t have to throw away a single one, and they produced several bottles of tomato juice, diced tomatoes and even a few bottles of some really delicious pasta sauce!
(I’m wishing I would have made all pasta sauce seeing as I have already eaten one large jar!)
Must've been all those fresh herbs and seasonings I used!
Last weekend came the corn. Every September, my co-worker (and friend) Kathy, goes to Utah and fills up the back of her pick-up with ears of delightfully sweet (sweet) corn. She is gracious enough to let a handful of us take orders before she goes so we can get in on the fresh harvest too!
This year I ordered ten dozen. I kept five for my family and bartered the other five with my friend Annie for bed frame and mattress for my oldest daughter. (That corn was darned good, but I think I may have still gotten the better end of the deal!)
I’ve wanted to try dehydrating some corn, so I filled up my little round dehydrator and gave it a shot.
It only made about two pints of dehydrated corn, but it only takes a cup to make a batch of Kathy’s delicious creamed corn. So we can at least get a couple meals out of them!
The rest of the corn was shucked/blanched/cooled/cut/and then frozen.
My sweet husband agreed to help and we created a very efficient assembly line so it only took about an hour to get it all done.
All of this canning produced a nice contribution to the compost bin as well.
This weekend I have a case of apples coming. Yay for applesauce! Maybe even some apple butter too.
And now you have it. My excuse for not doing anything fun or creative. But hey, at least my family will eat well!
WOW! That is a lot of work. You must be very busy. But you are going to enjoy all this so much come winter. The pears looked awesome. I might have to do some pears and we've been making applesauce but it gets eaten faster than I can make it.
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