This year we actually got some cherries from our tree. We picked these on Saturday and there's still more to pick! It looks like I'll have enough to can a few quarts!
Jesus loves me!
14 years ago
Showing posts with label canning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label canning. Show all posts
Monday, June 16, 2014
Cherries!
This year we actually got some cherries from our tree. We picked these on Saturday and there's still more to pick! It looks like I'll have enough to can a few quarts!
Thursday, July 19, 2012
What's Been a Happin'
With coming back from the trip to see my family, summer kicking in and misplacing my camera for a week we've managed to stay pretty busy. Here's a few photos to show you what we've been up to...
 |
| Canning cherries from our tree |
 |
| Checkin on the piggies |
 |
| Gooseberries from our bush |
 |
| Future Lawn Mower of America |
 |
| Hayin' the field |
 |
| Berry smoothie mishap |
 |
| Pickin' some berries |
 |
| Someone is tired of watching the picking! |
 |
| Our wealth of berries (round 1) |
 |
| 1st batch of raspberry jam |
 |
| Cookie clean-up |
Friday, May 21, 2010
Our Basement Project
Shortly after moving into our house, my DH and I undertook the job of cleaning out the basement so that we could us the area for storage. There was one bookcase type shelf that I used for my pantry/canning goods since I don't really have a big cabinet type pantry in the kitchen. That has worked out well but we really wanted to add some more shelving so that we could organize the "storage" in our basement better.
This last week we hired a friend to build us some shelves in the basement. We had him build them on two walls so that one set could be used for food items and the other set could store all the boxes, unused canning jars, paper goods, etc. Here's a smilebox of some of the before and after pictures. (Note: I haven't finished organizing the shelves but I'll post pictures when I'm finished with that part of the project)
This last week we hired a friend to build us some shelves in the basement. We had him build them on two walls so that one set could be used for food items and the other set could store all the boxes, unused canning jars, paper goods, etc. Here's a smilebox of some of the before and after pictures. (Note: I haven't finished organizing the shelves but I'll post pictures when I'm finished with that part of the project)
 |
 |
| Digital slideshow created with Smilebox |
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Grape Juice
This last week I've been working on grape juice. Our dear neighbor allowed us to pick his grapes and with the help of my mother-in-law we have canned quite a good amount and there are still green grapes that aren't quite ripe yet.
Oh, and we did finish painting the carport/shop. The only picture I have of it painted was taken through a rainy window but it at least gives you an idea of what it looks like.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Just Peachy
Canning season is in full swing and last week my mother-in-law and I got into peaches. We spent two days plus I spent a third day canning. After picking 200lbs of beautiful peaches we dug right in and canned 45 jars of peaches and 21 jars of peach pie filling. Not to mention about 8 pints of jam, two fresh cobblers, some smoothies, and of course we had to eat a few fresh ones ourselves! We had a lot of fun but by the time we finished two days of canning we were ready to be done with peaches at least for now...
 |
|
| Make a Smilebox slideshow |
Saturday, August 15, 2009
A Fun and Busy Week
It is hard to believe the week is almost over. As I was out on a walk this evening I reviewed all the activities of the past week and I have to say it has been a great week!
Monday day wasn't to exciting as I did laundry and grocery shopped but in the evening my DH and I had a wonderful dinner of Tuna steaks, yellow squash (fresh from the garden), and french bread with a yummy olive oil/herb dip. We enjoyed the nice quiet evening, eating our dinner out on the deck.
On Tuesday I went out to the back field and picked blackberries and made 5 pints of jam, plus I made 3 1/2 quarts of applesauce from the apples a friend gave us! They both were very tasty!
Wednesday I went down to my in-laws and my sweet sister-in-law and I hung out and did some cooking. I canned salsa with tomatoes and onions from our garden. My sis-in-love canned beans and made fresh salsa! We were going to make pies but my DH, JB and I had to go pick up a few calves. We did make it back to my in-laws after prayer meeting were my sis-in-law fryed doughnuts while I glazed them. They were sooo good! It reminded me of going out for donuts with my dad. We might start a tradition with this!!!!
Thursday morning I discovered that Callie has met a friend in the night and even though she is a friendly dog this new friend didn't take to well to her. Her friend was a skunk. I know I should have expected it sooner than later but wow, was it a scent!! JB and I gave her a bath in tomato juice, which made her white fur turn a slight shade of pink!
When my DH came home he gave her a second bath! Poor Callie girl. She hasn't been in the house since then!
I also had a very new experience as I cougar watched with my DH and JB for about 3 hours that night. My DH's cousin had a cougar attack and kill their pet goat the night before and it continued to stay around the property. My DH's cousin and his wife stayed up most of the first night watching for it but never saw it. Since my DH has a cougar tag he spent several hours the next night watching for it and JB and I tagged along. We never saw anything and we found out the next morning that the cougar had been back sometime after we had left. Who would have thought a year ago I would be doing that!!!
Friday was a fun busy day as I swept out the shop and added the wood shavings to the chickens' nesting boxes. Then JB and I picked 2 gallons of yellow plums, 1 gallon of strawberries and about 1/2 gallon of blueberries. Of course we ate a few along the way! :)
Today I made strawberry jam and I'm going to try a new recipe and see if I can make strawberry-lemonade concentrate! That will be tasty to have.
We also spent a good few hours of the day catching cows. Though I have been told that the cows are typically more afraid of you I still get fairly nervous when one starts running towards the gap that I'm guarding! If anyone would have seen us trying to corral those 4 cows they would have been laughing. The first 2 cows only took us 45 minutes to get caught and loaded into the trailer. The other two were quite a pain to round up. We tried to get them loaded in with the first two but one wouldn't be caught and the other one went into the chute and then broke through part of the fence to get back into the pasture. We came home dropped the first two cows off and went back when the owner had brought the other two into a smaller fenced in area. It then took us close to an hour and a half to get them loaded into the trailer. Though it really wasn't that fun I did get the giggles watching the cows go in every direction but in the trailer! We finally got them in and what a relief that was.
The next thing that happen makes me just laugh. Once we got the animals all dropped off I went to check on how the 4 pork steaks were thawing. I discovered meat bees all over the bag and only 1 pork steak in the bag. Apparently Callie had gotten into the bag while we were gone and had eaten all but 1 steak! One can only laugh and quickly switch to plan B which turned out to be hamburgers!
Looking back, I can say it sure was a fun and busy week! :)
Monday day wasn't to exciting as I did laundry and grocery shopped but in the evening my DH and I had a wonderful dinner of Tuna steaks, yellow squash (fresh from the garden), and french bread with a yummy olive oil/herb dip. We enjoyed the nice quiet evening, eating our dinner out on the deck.
On Tuesday I went out to the back field and picked blackberries and made 5 pints of jam, plus I made 3 1/2 quarts of applesauce from the apples a friend gave us! They both were very tasty!
Wednesday I went down to my in-laws and my sweet sister-in-law and I hung out and did some cooking. I canned salsa with tomatoes and onions from our garden. My sis-in-love canned beans and made fresh salsa! We were going to make pies but my DH, JB and I had to go pick up a few calves. We did make it back to my in-laws after prayer meeting were my sis-in-law fryed doughnuts while I glazed them. They were sooo good! It reminded me of going out for donuts with my dad. We might start a tradition with this!!!!
Thursday morning I discovered that Callie has met a friend in the night and even though she is a friendly dog this new friend didn't take to well to her. Her friend was a skunk. I know I should have expected it sooner than later but wow, was it a scent!! JB and I gave her a bath in tomato juice, which made her white fur turn a slight shade of pink!
When my DH came home he gave her a second bath! Poor Callie girl. She hasn't been in the house since then!
I also had a very new experience as I cougar watched with my DH and JB for about 3 hours that night. My DH's cousin had a cougar attack and kill their pet goat the night before and it continued to stay around the property. My DH's cousin and his wife stayed up most of the first night watching for it but never saw it. Since my DH has a cougar tag he spent several hours the next night watching for it and JB and I tagged along. We never saw anything and we found out the next morning that the cougar had been back sometime after we had left. Who would have thought a year ago I would be doing that!!!
Friday was a fun busy day as I swept out the shop and added the wood shavings to the chickens' nesting boxes. Then JB and I picked 2 gallons of yellow plums, 1 gallon of strawberries and about 1/2 gallon of blueberries. Of course we ate a few along the way! :)
Today I made strawberry jam and I'm going to try a new recipe and see if I can make strawberry-lemonade concentrate! That will be tasty to have.
We also spent a good few hours of the day catching cows. Though I have been told that the cows are typically more afraid of you I still get fairly nervous when one starts running towards the gap that I'm guarding! If anyone would have seen us trying to corral those 4 cows they would have been laughing. The first 2 cows only took us 45 minutes to get caught and loaded into the trailer. The other two were quite a pain to round up. We tried to get them loaded in with the first two but one wouldn't be caught and the other one went into the chute and then broke through part of the fence to get back into the pasture. We came home dropped the first two cows off and went back when the owner had brought the other two into a smaller fenced in area. It then took us close to an hour and a half to get them loaded into the trailer. Though it really wasn't that fun I did get the giggles watching the cows go in every direction but in the trailer! We finally got them in and what a relief that was.
The next thing that happen makes me just laugh. Once we got the animals all dropped off I went to check on how the 4 pork steaks were thawing. I discovered meat bees all over the bag and only 1 pork steak in the bag. Apparently Callie had gotten into the bag while we were gone and had eaten all but 1 steak! One can only laugh and quickly switch to plan B which turned out to be hamburgers!
Looking back, I can say it sure was a fun and busy week! :)
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Pickling
Here's a quick peep at one of the things I've been doing...pickling. I've never done it before but the other day I tried my hand at it.
I used 18 cucumbers from the garden, cut them into spears, soaked them in ice water to make them more crispy, than packed, seasoned, and canned.
I have to say they sure look good but, the real test will come when we open them up to eat. It will be about 4-6 weeks before we can even think about taste testing them.
I used 18 cucumbers from the garden, cut them into spears, soaked them in ice water to make them more crispy, than packed, seasoned, and canned.
I have to say they sure look good but, the real test will come when we open them up to eat. It will be about 4-6 weeks before we can even think about taste testing them.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Time flies
How can it be almost a month since I last posted?!?! Where has the time gone and what in the world have I been during. Well, I will say I haven't been sitting around eating bonbons so if that not the case what have I been doing....
Canning-I have been trying my hands at that new skill and since my last post I have canned 6 half-pints of raspberries jam, 8 half-pints of blackberries jam, 7 half-pints of pear jam, 8 pints of plum jam, 9 quarts of halved pears, plus lots of jars of stewed plums. Our larder is becoming pleasantly full!!
Juicing-Our neighbor let us borrow his 100 year old apple press so we have been picking, pressing and canning/freezing apple juice. We have pressed over 20 gallons of juice and my DH and I have canned 17 gallons, froze 2 gallons, and shared many with family and friends. There still are a lot more apples to press so we will probably get a few more gallons before the fall is over.
Freezing- I was also given a recipe for freezing fresh corn from my DH's grandma. You just cut the raw corn off the cob mix it in a water, sugar, and salt mixture and freeze it. I managed to freeze 18 cups of corn.
Cows-Yes, I spent a day with my DH and some friends from church working their cows. All the calves were rounded up, tagged, giving shots and dehorned and castrated as needed. (Hmm sounds a lot like what our friends in MT do! :) It was quite an experience not to mention my DH also pregnancy tested 3 cows. My job was to hold the shots until my DH was ready to give it to the calves.
During the past month we have also had guests for a week, celebrated my DH's birthday, gone on several hikes, had dinner with friends and family, worked on a septic project, visited my DH's job site and a few other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. So with all that said it sure has been a busy last month. No wonder I haven't had time to post. I really do want to try and do better and now that the weather is getting cooler it should make it easier!!!
Canning-I have been trying my hands at that new skill and since my last post I have canned 6 half-pints of raspberries jam, 8 half-pints of blackberries jam, 7 half-pints of pear jam, 8 pints of plum jam, 9 quarts of halved pears, plus lots of jars of stewed plums. Our larder is becoming pleasantly full!!
Juicing-Our neighbor let us borrow his 100 year old apple press so we have been picking, pressing and canning/freezing apple juice. We have pressed over 20 gallons of juice and my DH and I have canned 17 gallons, froze 2 gallons, and shared many with family and friends. There still are a lot more apples to press so we will probably get a few more gallons before the fall is over.
Freezing- I was also given a recipe for freezing fresh corn from my DH's grandma. You just cut the raw corn off the cob mix it in a water, sugar, and salt mixture and freeze it. I managed to freeze 18 cups of corn.
Cows-Yes, I spent a day with my DH and some friends from church working their cows. All the calves were rounded up, tagged, giving shots and dehorned and castrated as needed. (Hmm sounds a lot like what our friends in MT do! :) It was quite an experience not to mention my DH also pregnancy tested 3 cows. My job was to hold the shots until my DH was ready to give it to the calves.
During the past month we have also had guests for a week, celebrated my DH's birthday, gone on several hikes, had dinner with friends and family, worked on a septic project, visited my DH's job site and a few other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. So with all that said it sure has been a busy last month. No wonder I haven't had time to post. I really do want to try and do better and now that the weather is getting cooler it should make it easier!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
