What did you do to prep today?

[ChristieAcres]

Canned Beef stew, beef stock, ham stock, beef barey soup, and chili. Reorganizing storage room.

Great prep day! As I looked at my drying room, that very thought came to mind- time to reorganize! Now, that is on my list... I brought in some canning jars, but that is all the further I got with my original plan (wanted to make Apple Chutney). I did get the Chanterelle & Shaggy Mane Mushrooms cooking, right now, in fact. They will be sealed/frozen. I pulled up our Tomatoes, and will be hanging them upside down, in my garden cabin, tomorrow.

[Summerthyme]

Timbo... I hate to be a wet blanket, but don't count on those trees as firewood. MAYBE you'll get lucky, but we're finding out that whatever that verdamnt Ash Borer does, the trees go from "healthy and alive" to "sawdust and worthless" within about 18 months. Hubby has cut a lot of big ash's and found that many of them (TOO many... this is awfully expensive if you're counting on them for firewood) are dry rotted to the point where they aren't worth cutting up.

I wish people would think about the tremendous "hidden" costs of all those "cheap" imports... the imported pests have cost this country trillions of dollars in damage, and done irreplaceable damage. We've lost the American Chestnut, the American Elm, and now the White Ash to foreign diseases and pests. The gypsy moth has cost untold billions in damage to every species of tree.

But by gosh, the Dollar Stores are filled with cheap widgets and crap for people to buy! That must be worth it, right?

Sorry. Rant off/

I've been picking apples like crazy. Got all the semi-dwarf trees picked, with great yields. My little Golden Russet tree hasn't ever produced (well, it did have three apples on it last year!), mostly because it's a little too close to a gigantic Norway Spruce, and hence is crowded and shaded. Well, this year it finally decided to produce anyway... I got over 2 bushels of perfect apples from just that tree. I don't know if it's the Russet skin, or the fact that it's sort of "tangled" in the spruce tree so the pests can't find the apples, but there was barely half a dozen apples with any insect damage at all... this with absolutely NO spraying of any kind.

Actually, I had a lot less damage than usual on all the apples; maybe some of the pests died out over the last two years where we had NO apples at all due to untimely frosts? That would be an unforseen, but very welcome benefit!!

I got 2 1/2 bushels of Golden Delicious apples (plus culls) and almost 4 bushels off my Liberty tree. The young MacFree (a disease resistant MacIntosh cross) gave me half a bushel... only it's second year producing. Huge, red apples with great flavor. I'm hoping the Gala tree we planted the same year will start producing soon.

I did spend quite a bit of time thinning apples in June, and it really paid off. We got a large percentage of really big apples which were perfectly shaped. Because I don't spray, they aren't pretty... the skins have a "sooty blotch" problem which really ruins their looks. But it's only skin deep... it doesn't affect the taste, storability or usefulness of the apple at all. So, the root cellar is packed with apples, and there is a bushel in the barn in front of the horse stalls... treats they really look forward to.

Plus, hubby helped me pick wild apples all over the farm one afternoon... we were blessed with a gorgeous day in the 70's and took full advantage. We took them down to an Amish neighbors who have a press, and we got 27 gallons of apple cider! This was the family whose house we helped save a couple of springs ago because we happened to see smoke coming out of both ends of the attic when we were driving by. God allowed us to time that perfectly, and we managed to help them save all their household furniture and belongings (with help from passersby as they saw what was going on), and the fire department managed to keep the damage confined to the upper stories. The fire was on a Monday morning... they had the house completely rebuilt by Friday evening!!

Anyway... they wouldn't take any money for pressing the cider, no matter how much I tried, so we ended up with some very good cider for free.

I canned 18 gallons of it in 1/2 gallon jars, gave a gallon to a few neighbors, saved a couple gallons for us to drink fresh, and then started a 5 gallon batch of apple- raspberry wine.

Because we have dozens of different varieties of trees on the farm, it makes a really tremendous cider... pressing just one or two varieties, especially if they're sweet, "eating quality" apples, tends to make a rather bland, insipid cider. Hubby was doubtful when I insisted on putting some apples from trees which produce very tart or even astringent fruit... but the proof was in the drinking.

We STILL haven't had a killing frost here... pastures have been growing, and my VERY late-planted heirloom grain corn is actually ripening well. A frost will help it finish drying down, although that probably means I'll be picking corn in gloves and a ski jacket in November. I'll be praying for a nice Indian summer (we don't consider it Indian Summer unless we've had our first snowfall, and then get warm weather) around the time it's ready. With the price of corn, I'm sure hubby will help me pick it... every pound we can produce to feed to the chickens and horses saves us money we desperately need elsewhere.

We're also building another bunch of shelf units for my canning jars... our Amish neighbors routed out the uprights for us, and I bought the plywood Monday. Hubby is working every decent afternoon in the woods, splitting and hauling the last of the firewood, so the shelves will wait for a rainy afternoon. Organizing has been my big focus lately, too... I need to get back to making quilts and clothes for the little boys (I'm making shearling slippers out of some lovely hides I bought and stashed in my preps several years ago for the toddler for Christmas) and I need to figure out what I'm doing for Christmas presents and get busy on those. For sure, we won't have an extra penny to spend, thanks to the insane grain price. Arrghhhh!!

Summerthyme

[therosery]

summer, how do you make your applesauce and what kind of apples do you use for it?

[timbo]

Timbo... I hate to be a wet blanket, but don't count on those trees as firewood. MAYBE you'll get lucky, but we're finding out that whatever that verdamnt Ash Borer does, the trees go from "healthy and alive" to "sawdust and worthless" within about 18 months. Hubby has cut a lot of big ash's and found that many of them (TOO many... this is awfully expensive if you're counting on them for firewood) are dry rotted to the point where they aren't worth cutting up.

Summerthyme

We've been fortunate ST. All the trees we've felled have been all good firewood. Some of our trees were dead standing for over 3 years.
I'm burning some now as I type!

BTW, sounds great on the cider!
Every year I have to get through that first glass (Running galumpahs don't ya know) and then I'm good for the rest of it.
Been like that since I was a kid.

[Summerthyme]

For applesauce, I use my Victorio/Squeezo (whatever the brand is.. they all work the same) strainer. I cook the apples just to tenderness (after cutting in quarters) and then run them through the strainer, which removes peels, cores, etc.

We sweeten to taste- and that really can vary year to year, depending on variety. I try to use a blend of at least a couple of varieties... the tarter "cooking apples" tend to have richer apple flavor, but require sweetening, whereas some like the Delicious or Galas are sweet, but alone can be sort of bland.

A combination of 20 ounce plus some sort of eating apples works well most years. But you use what you have... applesauce is pretty darned forgiving.

Summerthyme

[ChristieAcres]

Harvested Celery, Celery, and Grapes. The latter shall soon be "raisins." I also harvested Marigold Seeds. DH is finished with the sub-flooring/foundation of my garden cabin, and now has the back wall up (re-building a 10X20 garden cabin from our last property that was dismantled and moved here). His goal is to get it semi-completed (missing insulation and interior finished walls) before it gets much colder & wetter...yep, the race against time is on! The other three walls won't be as difficult. He used his F250 w/boom crane, and winch, line around a tree up on the embankment (behind the cabin), and I assisted in operating the winch, while he also pushed up against the wall (less strain on the tree). All went well! I was glad one window was damaged. Yes, I typed that right! We were given all kinds of nice windows and now we can use one of them instead of that aluminum framed one. When the building is done, we won't get to paint it again until Spring.

The Apples are still calling my name, but I am starting with Chutney. The Applesauce can wait until next week.

[islandgirl romy]

I had a great prep come my way by inviting a friend to dinner. As we got home on our boat, I scurried around making everything nice and inviting...while hubby was preparing homemade pizza..it was the fastest thing we could do. We get the message that "the eagle has landed." Which meant he was here so quickly, his boat is faster than ours....he left after we did...but..we pulled it off. Dinner was ready when he walked in the door. This very big guy sets 45 pounds of wheat berries on my front porch and brings in this lovely wooden Mill to grind it into flour as I need to he says! He called it the community Mill that will reside here at my home til someone needs to grind wheat berries...oh did I forget something? Not one person here is growing wheat.....:) He was sure to tell me that he has two more buckets at his place.

[ChristieAcres]

DH put up another wall, a few trusses, and got further along with rebuilding the garden cabin! Today was a rather light day, making Saurkraut shortly. Otherwise, more of a planning day. Met our new neighbors, renting the property next to ours, a retired LEO of 23 years, currently an instructor at the Base (terrorist awareness training), and his 14 yr old son (clean cut, clear eyed, dog-lover type). Hey, I was actually rather pleased, not knowing who would rent the place next, but figuring it would be someone who "checked out," as the owner is Special Ops FBI. Our other closest neighbor is a Fireman w/a nice family, too.

[carol b]

I continue to get more involved with the local food pantry with training at the state food bank. Food security for the community is important too.
Understanding the system will help us all.

[burtw276]

I wandered across a scrap dealer, started a conversation and mentioned I was looking for a diesel fuel tank. He had a 70 gal tank that came off a cotton picker. Gave it to me free!
also stored 2 gal honey and #10 cans of FD corn.