Other People's Harvests

As my harvest has been sporradic and lacking I have been reaping the rewards of other people's harvests. We got free peaches and apples from my in-laws, a large bag of cheap apples from the farmer's market as well as a bag of apricots, and 3 huge zucchini from a neighbor. When it comes to the peaches and apricots, I can't bring myself to make jam. We just don't eat a lot of jam, so why have it sitting around for 5 years? So, I've been trying to come up with more creative ways to use this abundance of produce.

Since I couldn't think of what to do with the peaches and apricots before they went bad, I froze them. The zucchini I plan on drying. And after a week of the apples sitting on my counter and racking my brain, it suddenly hit me that I haven't made apple butter in years and I've been craving a good apple butter! If you've never tried apple butter, go to the store and at least buy a jar. (But don't buy Smuckers! They have no idea what apple butter is supposed to taste like.) It is so spicy and divine! Maybe it's a mid-west thing because anyone I've asked out here in the west has no idea what the heck apple butter is.

I might get creative and make some apricot butter too. Mmmm. That sounds really good. Here's to abundant harvests!

A few thoughts

I successfully canned some salsa the day after the cucumbers. I would have prefered to rest. This pregnancy has been exhausting, but I muscled through and finished the salsa because I didn't want my tomatoes to go bad. I really liked how the salsa turned out, but I'm not sure about cumin in the recipe. It's a weird flavor to me for salsa, so I might leave it out next time to see how it tastes.

Drying laundry by clothes rack has been wonderful and not the pain I thought it might be. I finally got another one this month and having two means I can do, at the most, two loads of laundry in a day. We also have a good length of fence which works wonders for the bigger and heavier things. We have had to use the dryer only twice since getting the racks and one evening I realized I had left wet laundry in the washer. Since the sun had almost set I was afraid I would have to dry the clothes in the dryer, but then realized I could just let them dry on the racks in the living room. It worked great!

One unexpected side affect from using a clothes rack is that I have this delicious sense of peace when I put the clothes on the rack and glance out my window to see them drying in the sun. There's just something so silent and satisfying about it and I don't miss the dryer at all. I really was not expecting this feeling, but I think deep down, I have been craving the need to slow down and to appreciate the little things in life like the sun drying the clothes my family wears. It's something so simple but it's amazing the difference that it has made in my life.

My Latest Canning Adventure

I guess when I get an idea in my head, I don't think about whether I can actually do it or not or if it's feasible or if I have the time or resources. I'm just one determined person! Well, when I went to the farmer's market, one farmer was selling pickling cucumbers 10 for $1. How could I pass that up? I bought $1 worth, but realized that wasn't enough, so the next weekend I bought another $2 worth.

So, I had 30 cucumbers and I was determined to pickle them. Never mind that I had never made pickles in my life. Never mind that I was out of canning jars. Never mind that when I finally got everything I needed all together it was 7 o'clock at night! I got my toddler in bed, and despite my exhaustion from the day I made those darn pickles. In fact, I made mostly chips with only two jars of whole pickles. And don't they just look beautiful? There is something so amazingly satisfying about seeing the rows of freshly canned produce that we'll be able to enjoy weeks and months down the road. I sure hope they taste good!

My next project - salsa. (I just got 2 bags of tomatoes from a relative and we eat a lot of salsa around here.)

Chicken & Sheep

I took this amusing picture at an historical village. Maybe it's amusing because I'm not that familiar with the habits of sheep or chickens, but it's still pretty darn cute!

Drying & Stuff

It's official! I am saving electricity!! After seeing our atrocious electric bill for last month (blasted, but wonderful A/C!) I decided to do something drastic. Yes, I turned off our A/C at least some of the time, but I also don't know why I haven't done this before - I bought a clothes drying rack. Now I can dry my laundry in the sun! WOOOO! And it's completely free, free, free, that amazing sun is.

Of course this does mean that I have to rearrange how and when I do my laundry and I'll probably have to buy one or two more racks, but what an awesome investement, don't you think??? One obstacle to clothes drying: I don't like the smell of sun-dried clothes. Call me crazy, but I think it smells weird. And your clothing comes out stiff. However, I heard of this trick. Sun dry your clothes and then toss them into the dryer for 5 minutes (with a dryer sheet if you so desire) and PRESTO! Soft laundry without the hours of electricity burning away. Genius!

Here is a picture of some of my garden bounty. See those tomatoes back there? I grew those!!! (Ignore the avacados. I have no idea how those got onto my counter... but they sure made an amazing guacamole!)

What the Zukes!

So, I was one of the lucky ones to be given some huge zucchini from a friend's garden. I didn't grow any this year, so I was actually excited to get some! Well, after the excitement wore off, those three big dudes sat on my kitchen counter until I could figure out what to do with them. I didn't want to freeze them since we'll be moving soon and that would be a waste or I'd be a 2nd generation giver (heh heh). And right now I'm not that into stir-fry. So... what else do you do with zucchini? I cracked open my Ball Blue Book of Preserving because I was sure it would tell me something I could do with zukes and I was right! It said I could dehydrate them. Wow. Why hadn't I thought of that? It's brilliant! Dehydrated stuff takes a miniscule amount of space to store and they're fast and easy to use. And if the electricity goes out they don't go bad like frozen stuff.

So, I busted out my hand-me-down dehydrator from the '70s, cleaned it out and sliced up those zuke daddies. My dehydrator has about 6 or 7 shelves and it took 2 1/2 of my zucchinis (plus a couple of Bloody Butcher tomatoes)! And I really think I'll be able to fit all the dried chips into one quart mason jar. AMAZING!!!

I love this article in Mother Earth News about drying food. It got me really excited about drying food because usually canning stuff is the star of the preservation show. I am amazed at what you can dehydrate and the fact that you can do it all in the sun (indoors or out!) is even more awesome! I'm really paranoid about running my dehydrator at night (risk of fire???) so it's taking longer than it probably has to, and I'm not too fond of how much electricity it's taking, but I am excited about my proactive streak and not letting the zucchini go to waste. :-)

Why Old Time

I found this video from Cold Antler Farm. It looks really fabulous. I'd love to see it. I've grown up with the drive to make my own music - taught myself the piano and the harmonica and a little fife. I'd love to learn one of those mountain instruments like dulcimer, fiddle or banjo. It just feels a little harder and more complicated as a mom and wife. I should have no excuses though. I need some of my old childhood gumption back and just do it! (Did you know that I used to practice the piano 3 hours a day just because I loved it so much? Man, that is drive for you - and someone with oodles of time!)