My New Thing

I have a new addiction.  I just want to preserve everything in sight.  I love the idea of going to the pantry or the freezer all winter and enjoying the food we grew this year, and bought from local farmers.

We’ve dried strawberries and peaches this year, and I’ve frozen many quarts of peaches as well.  We’ve frozen several quarts of peas and beans.  I’ve got peppers hanging to dry, and have frozen several quarts for cooking later.  I also found a recipe for pepper jelly, so I gave that a shot.  It’s absolutely delicious.

Pepper Jelly

My brother called Saturday night and asked if I’d run to the orchard a few miles from my house and get some apples for him because he couldn’t get there before they closed.  While we were there, I got 1/2 bushel of apples to make apple butter.  I”ve been waiting all summer for apple butter!

So, Sunday I cooked the apples all day.  Mid-day dad called to see if we’d be home later, saying he had been to the orchard Saturday (same orchard) and got us sweet potatoes and 1/2 bushel of apples .  Bring ‘em on! I told him.

I got 6 half-pints of apple butter made, I’ll have to cook 2 pots next week to double that up.   I made an apple crisp for dessert, and put 4 quarts in the freezer.  That was all before I cut my finger and put a real damper on the evening.  I decided to call it a night, but can’t wait for next weekend to do more of the same.  Still have 1/2 bushel of apples, so I’ll do more apple butter and probably make up some apple crisps for the freezer, to be cooked over the holidays. 

Final product, apple butter

FUN!

Weekend in Review

We had a wonderful long weekend at the FF. I took a long needed day off from work on Friday to make an extra long weekend, and it was so nice. I stayed in and baked, cleaned house, drank pots of coffee, watched news…all those things that I usually try to squeeze into two weekend days.

We have some very good friends, W and G, that have a birthday celebration (blow-out) every Labor Day weekend for W’s birthday. Well this year was a big birthday, and they let us come by on Saturday and help prepare a bit for the Sunday party. We didn’t really do that much, but it was great to sit and visit before Sunday when the dozens of people would be there. Then on Sunday we had a great day of eating, visiting, laughing, eating…these folks go all out…there was smoked turkey, brisket and ribs, along with all the fixings including the traditional peach cobbler. It was a great day.

We planned for a low-key day at the FF on Monday, doing a few chores but mostly relaxing. Then dad came by for a bit and visited, which we enjoy so much. Then, much to my surprise, my kids called and said they would like to come out. BOTH kids. Together. It NEVER happens! I was so excited. We ate hamburgers, played with the dogs, chilled out and just caught up. It was awesome.

Courtney

Adam and Court

Court and Gu...a happy doggy

It was a great weekend…a few chores, and a lot of family and friend time.

Things About Me #6 – Turning 50

The year I was turning 50 years old I decided I would celebrate my ½ century by doing something really awesome. About 15 years earlier I had seen a Travel Channel program on the island of Maui, and was very intrigued by cyclists going to the top of Mt. Haleakala, a dormant volcano, before sunrise and bicycling down the 35 miles or so to the base after the sun came up. I decided right then that someday I was going to do it.

So when my 50th birthday was approaching, I decided there was no better time. I loved cycling, loved traveling, and just thought it would be a great way to celebrate being alive.

Atop Mt. Haleakala in Maui

What an incredible experience, standing atop the volcano amidst the clouds in the shivering cold, waiting to see the sun peek above the edges. When that moment came, it was nothing short of spiritual. Of course no picture can do it justice, but it was an indescribable experience.

When the sun rose fully, we got on our bikes and rode the 35 miles down, stopping for breakfast at a little roadside restaurant and shedding layers of clothing as we descended into the warmth below.

I also zip-lined while on Haleakala…imagine soaring over gulches and through the trees along the slopes of one of the world’s largest volcanoes. I’m terrified of heights and can’t climb above the 4th rung of a ladder, but the exhilaration of speeding 50 miles an hour hundreds of feet above the forest floor overcame any fear. At least I didn’t wet my pants. I don’t think.

I can’t imagine what I’ll do to celebrate 60 that can surpass it. I do have awhile to think on it.

I’m a Bad Blogger, and Where has the Summer Gone?

I’ve been a bad blogger. Summertime has just taken me over I think. There’s so much going on all the time, yet when I think about blogging, nothing really seems blog-worthy. I decided today that I don’t have to make it more than it is…it’s just a place I can document all the many things going on, and I don’t have to be entertaining or necessarily informative. So with that in mind…

…we’ve been having a great summer. We finally met with our realtor Friday to sign the papers to get our old house on the market. That will certainly be freeing, knowing we have nothing else to do there except keep the yard in order there, and we can finally concentrate on all the many things left to do to the new house.

We’ve loved having friends and family spend time at the new house with us this summer. It really is a calm, peaceful get-away. My niece was in town from Ft. Lewis, Washington, visiting my sister last week . They came out over the weekend along with my dad and a few other people. She had not seen the house yet, and when she got here she said she then understood why I said I could just stay there and not ever leave. It just does that to you.

And I always love having my ‘faux sister’ and BFF out to hang out on Friday night.

Then there’s the garden. Our little “last-minute-let’s plant some stuff really quick because we’re late” garden. It’s been great fun, and we’ve enjoyed just going out and harvesting a basket full of stuff and making dinner out of it. We’ve had tomatoes, various peppers, peas, watermelons, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash…and have pumpkins, cantaloupes, okra and more peas coming in. It will be nice to actually work the soil and plan a bit better for the coming season. Still, we’ve had pretty good luck.

 

Alabama Zucchini…yeah, we grown ‘em big here

Peppers a plenty

Love having the watermelons

There’s been a lot of preserving and baking. We have a great orchard near our house that has the best peaches. We treated ourselves to an awesome new dehydrator this year to replace the 20+ year old one that we had, and dried a lot of the peaches.

I started something this year that I know is going to consume me in the future…canning. I’ve only made peach preserves so far, but I’m loving the canning. Dad was over the other day and saw preserves on the counter and said “those are pretty”. That made me smile, they are pretty .

Pretty Peach Preserves

And of course the berry cobblers and pies. We’ve eaten so many berry cobblers and pies!

That’s been our summer so far, and we’re hoping to squeeze in more of the same before it ends. I hope your summer has been just as incredible.

Things About Me #5 – I grew up as an Army brat.

My mother married my stepfather, who was in the Army, when I was 3 years old. We immediately moved to Ft. Bragg, N.C., where we remained for 2 years. From there we went to SHAPE, in Rocquencourt in the Versailles suburb of Paris, France, where we were stationed for 3 years. I started school there, and went through the 3rd grade before returning to the States. I went on to attend 7 schools between 1st and 8th grade. My father retired when I was 14, and we moved back to Alabama, where I finished high school. There are people here now that are my age that still hang out with their childhood friends, friends they have had since elementary school or before. I can’t even imagine that. I am a bit of an introvert and am slow to make real friends, which I think I can attribute to always being on the move, having to make new acquaintances every year. At the same time, I experienced a lot of things and places that a lot of people never get to experience, and I don’t regret that for one minute.

Things About Me #4 – I Can’t Just Watch Television

I can’t just watch television – I have to be doing something when it is on other than ‘watching’ it. I get bored, antsy, sometimes feel guilty because I’m not being productive…just generally uncomfortable. For my husband, on the other hand, it’s his total form of relaxation. He can sit in front of it for hours after working all day. So in order to spend time together after dinner I’ll sit in my recliner and half-way listen to the television and chat with him, but I have to be emailing, checking work stuff, playing online games, reading, writing…something. Sometimes eating at the same time. I can’t just sit there and watch.

Weekend in Review

The weekends are always very, very busy around here, doing things we love to do.

We did a second round of planting in the garden. We planted:

bush limas

sugar snap peas

pole beans

radishes

11 more tomato plants

pumpkins

okra

two more pepper plants

moved 11 herbs from pots on the porch to the garden

We are harvesting tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, a variety of peppers, watermelons and purple hull peas.

Harvest

There are tired, sore muscles here today, but worth every ache.

See my previous post…they do look alike . OK, maybe if you are really, really tired.

Z's and C's