Been AWOL for awhile, but I’m back
20 Jan 2010 Leave a Comment
in cooking/preserving, Countrylane Beads and Things, homeschool, Lord's blessings
It’s been busy. The harvest of the garden was better than I thought. Looking back at the notes I kept showed that the Lord blessed us mightily and we are so thankful. It was a bad year for tomatoes, but ours did well anyway. I can’t imagine what they would have done if it had been a great year. 
For the first time, I logged the canned veggies and fruits in the pantry:
Canned tomatoes: Puree in quarts: 6 in pints: 15 Juice in quarts: 14 Stewed in quarts: 3
Canned apple sauce: in quarts: 5 in pints: 7
Canned green beans: in quarts: 24
Canned bread and butter pickles: in pints: 17
Canned bread and butter veggies: in quarts: 1 in pints: 7
Homeschooling is doing well. The twins are progressing in reading and math. They love science and history. They really love anything about Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. And space. One of the twins still loves trains. It hasn’t turned out to be a passing fad, but he really is infatuated with them. #1 son is doing well, too, though I want to pull out my hair at times. He has learned things in grammar, but forgets to apply them. 
But he really enjoys math, science (Botany this year), and history.
Beading has been doing well. I haven’t had any more parties, but orders do come in steadily. Most of the older necklaces, the ones that I don’t wear all the time, I’ve taken apart for the beads to use in other things.
Hubby stays busy, though at times it looks as if it will be very slow, but then the Lord always provides a load.
canning/freezing veggies
25 Aug 2009 Leave a Comment
in cooking/preserving, Lord's blessings
The Lord has blessed us with a bountiful harvest this year and I am trying to put up every little bit that I can, except what we eat. Sometimes, though, fruit flies detect a bad tomato or cuke, sooner than I can do something with them. I am in the process of canning bread and butter pickles and a concoction of bread and butter brine, but used with a variety of veggies. Looks real pretty in the jar and mom-in-law says “tastes really good”. Of course, I won’t know until about 4 weeks from now. (That’s how long it takes for the contents of each jar get “good and tasty”.)
I’ve also been shredding (for baking), slicing and chopping (for stir-fry) zucchini and summer squash. THis I put into the freezer. I’ve also helped mom-in-law with sweet corn, which she then gave me all of last year’s frozen sweet corn for my freezer. She also taught me how to use a pressure cooker and we canned 24 quarts of green beans for our pantry. (We did much more for her pantry.) I also have been blanching and freezing any beans that have come out of our garden.
The peas are doing well and should be seeing the pods filling out soon. More green beans are on the way. The butternut squash and pumpkins are doing well. So are the spaghetti squash. I think the yellow squash are done. More cukes are ready to pick about every day. I am so thankful that it doesn’t come on all at once! Oh, yes, the tomatoes are doing well, even during the worst “blight” years seen for awhile. Tomatoes like it hot and dry, and it hasn’t been either of those this summer. (So much for global warming!)
The Lord truly is gracious and merciful to His children, who are so weak and helpless without Him.
Party and books
15 Apr 2009 2 Comments
in books, cooking/preserving, family, gardening
Been doing inventory of the stuff I’ve made. I have to write it all down, then number them, and attach numbers to the items for the show. When I see things other people have made, they don’t mark them with generic numbers, they name their pieces! I’m not that imaginative for that. I am hoping to have a big turnout, even though it’s a bit late for invitations I sent out. I’m also thinking about making out a card to advertise that I will do home parties. THe hosts, of course, will get to pick something out at the beginning of the party that will be theirs free! Maybe that will help get things rolling…
I truly can’t wait to get my hands in the dirt again and get beds ready for little seeds and seedlings! Mom brought over two bee balms that I had ordered. They are “raspberry” bee balm. I have two outside already from last year. I’ve been planning on an herb garden off the south end of the patio. I have already started a dry “river” bed there (hiding a drain pipe) and would love to have a garden there, though I can already foresee that I need to put in another path to cut through there. The dog, boys, and hubby don’t want to “go all the way around” there! Anyway, I am also planning a new bed out front. Actually it’s combining two beds into one large one. Last week I planted 3 cherry bushes along the road, except they are only about one and 1/2 feet high.
School with the twins is quite interesting. But, I am learning to accept what we do do as learning time. They are not the kind to sit down and do workbooks, at least not yet. So we do workbooks orally and with me sitting with them on the couch. They take turns and point out the right answers. We also go through the Highlights magazine that big brother gets. They point out the silly things in the pictures or the hidden things. Makes them think and decifer what’s right and not. We’ve been talking about seasons and I read them stories that pertain to the seasons. One book that I read to them yesterday was “Wake me in Spring” by James Preller. This is such a sweet story about a friendship between a bear and a mouse. Another book that I started reading to them and spurred much conversation today is “Owl At Home” byArnold Lobel. The first chapter was how Winter does not make a nice house guest. Another book that I will start reading to everyone in the afternoon is “Ollie’s Cabin in the Woods” by Robert and Katheryn Hessong. THis will go great with what #1 son is learning in school. He’s studying Indiana history and this is a true story about one of the earliest pioneer families in Indiana! It has illustrations. Good book!
The frost is on the pumpkin…
22 Oct 2008 1 Comment
in cooking/preserving Tags: applesauce, tomato puree
Borrowing from Mr. James W. Riley, when I say the frost is on the pumpkin. Really, this morning, it was on the tomatoes. So this morning, I made more seasoned tomato puree. About 117 oz. of it! Some I did not put away into the freezer, but will use it tonight when I make pizza. Tomato puree consists of, obviously, tomatoes. It also has carrots, celery, green peppers, garlic, and onions. Today, I didn’t add the onions. Guess I didn’t want to mess with them. The recipe calls for cooking all this stuff down, then run it through a sieve. Well, I put it all through the juicer, then cooked it. Really saves time.
Also put up about 4 quarts of apple sauce. This I also put through the juicer, with the skin on. Then added cinnamon and sugar, cooked it for a while, then put away into freezer bags. Normally, I would have canned all of this, but I didn’t want to pull all that stuff out. One quart of applesauce, I left out for us to eat on after the pizza tonight. The kids are crazy about homemade applesauce.
