Apples coming out of our ears

Apples are the next thing that I planned to can, and probably the last thing that I would have a chance to can before all of the fresh produce is gone.  I ordered 4 bushels of apples from a fundraiser at the youngest's school but they won't be coming in for another week or two.  Then I heard about an apple festival fundraiser that was happening about thirty minutes away from us, and when I asked if they had apples, they confirmed that they did.  

So off we went.

The oldest was not happy when we got there and I told him what we were getting.  He was more unhappy when I told him that we would be canning all of these apples this weekend.  

We bought two boxes like this, a foot deep.

This will be the practice round for when the other orders arrive.  Wish us luck.

Canning peaches, berries, and pickles

A couple days ago I went to a local farm and picked raspberries, blackberries, and peaches.

The next day I got to work on some of the berries and peaches.  I made blackberry pie filling first and then froze a tray of blackberries.

Then I got to work peeling and slicing some of the peaches to can.

I ended up with 2 jars of blackberry pie filling and several jars of peaches in medium syrup.  Amazingly, things went smoothly, all of the jars sealed, and the kitchen was not a complete disaster area.

So today I decided to get to work with the rest of the peaches and berries because they were starting to go bad and to take care of the cucumbers from our garden.

Once I got the peaches and cucumbers sliced up, I realized that there were probably a few more cucumbers that had grown so I went outside to get the few I should add to my batch.

Twenty minutes later, I had pruned the tomato plants and collected all of the produce that was ripe.

Finally another zucchini, and those are yellow tomatoes :)

I ended up making a bunch of jars of pickles and three jars of peaches in light syrup.  I also got the rest of the raspberries and blackberries frozen in trays and I poured the left over peach syrup juice frozen in ice cube trays because I heard it can be used to make drinks later.

The small jar is a gift for someone

I just can't figure out why my back hurts more from working in the kitchen all day than it does when I work outside all day.

The Bounty

I wish we had more to show for the huge garden and all of the work I put into it.  I am really starting to believe that the lack of bees to pollinate the plants is the cause of our small harvest.  There's still time, so my fingers are crossed that we will get more.

A funny shaped cucumber

It already looks like a pickle

No matter how hard I tried, this pumpkin vine does not want to stay in the raised bed

The Goods

Freezing Herbs

I've been really behind on the garden projects and the herbs that are already dying and dead are proof.

Basil

Dill

Parsley

Rosemary

I was able to get half of an ice cube tray filled with the good herbs and a table spoon of olive oil.  I read about this idea online and figured I would try it.  Once they're frozen, I will seal them in bags and then can pull them out and drop them into a pan anytime a recipe calls for any of these herbs.

I'm disappointed that I didn't get more because I was too busy with other projects, but at least I have something.  I may try to plant and grow more before the end of the summer so that I can dry and freeze more.

A New Project and a Great Gift

We are hosting exchange students for a couple weeks in July and I needed to get more beds to accommodate everyone.  I bought a used bed online and planned to just use it and then get rid of it, until I realized how cool the bed was.  

It's a bunk bed with a third bed that looks like a drawer under it all.  Each of the two beds on the actual bunk bed have a shelf for books and storage.  In order to make things feel a bit more new I decided to take on the task of sanding it down and refinishing it.  I've never done this before but it didn't sound hard if I had the tools.  

So I bought them.

Any excuse to buy a new power tool makes me happy.

That's my new power sander, it's one of the few power tools I didn't own yet.
And that's one of the headboards "before" I got to work.

The youngest wanted to help.

And I made the oldest help.

It was looking exactly like it did before I started the task.  I'm not sure if that means I did a good job picking out the color of stain to match, or if I didn't do a good job making it look new.  :)

The right has the first coat of stain, the left has only been sanded down.

 It won't be put together until tomorrow and I still want to buy a new mattress for the youngest to have on the bed, but once it is complete I'll take a final picture.

UPDATED:  Here's the finished picture along with nightstand that I bought and finished.  I also got a small dresser that I finished but you can't see it in this picture.

And then I took on building my new grill.  :)  The parents pooled money to get me gift cards to Home Depot (among other places) for an end of the year gift.  I really don't think I will ever experience the kind of gift giving that I did at my old school.  Those parents were amazing, and I felt awkward as I'm not used to that type of stuff and it's unexpected.

Despite my desire to use the gift cards for practical supplies to build shelves for the canning supplies in the basement, I decided to get a real "gift" with them and I replaced our old grill.  This was the biggest grill that Home Depot had in stock.

Can't you just imagine how many steaks I can grill while also cooking corn on the cob, zucchini, and shrimp kabobs?  :)  Tomorrow we will grill our first meal of chicken and corn on the cob, and then I think I have one final package of pollo and carne asada.  :)

A day in the kitchen

The forecast said hot and sunny today so I promised the kids we'd go to the water park.  Then I woke up this morning to feed the animals and clean the coop and it was raining.  The weather report said rain and scattered thunderstorms all day and the waterpark actually posted to say they were closed for the day.

The only option was to swap our plans for later this week and try the water park another day.

So it was time to make some dill pickles.

We had picked up pickle size cucumbers at the farmers market last week but hadn't had a chance to pickle and can them.

The dill liquid

 We haven't tried them yet, so I can only hope they taste as good as they look.

We bought peaches at the farmer's market yesterday and while peeling them was easy one I did the boiling water dip, getting them off the seed and slicing them wasn't.

We only ended up with two quart jars, although I have enough peaches to make 2-3 more quart jars.  I was getting tired.

And then I made some biscuits from a new recipe I found.  These are all for the freezer and can go straight in to the oven when we want to eat them.

I may or may not have eaten a raw biscuit....

I was as tired as Faith looked

Done!

We just finished getting all of the strawberries taken care of.  Last night we made Strawberry jam and tonight we made Strawberry-Peach jam.  We also made more strawberry ice cubes (for summer drinks) and frozen strawberries to defrost as needed.  I'm so excited.  

Another Strawberry weekend

We did it again.  Saturday morning we went to the farmers market and then we drove out to pick strawberries.  We came home with 4.5 gallons of them, again.

Strawberry stained doesn't count as "dirty"

I managed to get about a gallon of them frozen and dehydrated, but the last 3 gallons are screaming my name.  I have to get them hulled and cooked into jams tonight or they'll be bad before I have time again.  Wish me luck.

Strawberry Projects, Take Two

I knew I had to get these strawberries taken care of before they go bad so I got in the kitchen and started washing and cutting this morning.

One gallon of strawberries

One gallon after they've been hulled

The parts the chickens will be thanking me for later

 I decided to start off with the jams.  My first batch was going to be a four-berry jam.  I found a recipe for triple berry, but the bag of mixed berries that I bought to go with the strawberries had three in it (blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry).

I had to mash up the fresh strawberries first.

And then mash up the mixed berries.

 And then the cooking got started.  The jam only has fruit, sugar, and pectin.  Pectin is what makes it turn into gel.

You're suppose to fill the jars up and I had this tool that had a cool way to measure how full the jar was.  The math teacher in me was all excited when I noticed it.

Things did get a little messy.

But things turned out well.

It tastes great.  The only issue was that some of the jars didn't seal.  This was my first time canning and I was doing the hot water method.  I have a few theories as to why they didn't seal so hopefully the next batches won't have the same issue.  This just means we have to eat the jam sooner than I planned.  I can't complain about that.

The youngest son declared it good.

I started another batch of strawberry-rasberry jam and my fingers are crossed that the jars will seal.  We've already tasted it, and it's just as good as the first batch.

 The dried strawberries were also done so I peeled them off the screen.

And sealed some for saving.

Then I made some fruit roll ups.  I made strawberry-banana flavored ones and I'm about to make 4-berry ones as well.

Last, I made some strawberry-lemonade concentrate.  I froze them in ice cube trays and later I will transfer them to sealed bags for storage.  I'll just have to add some water and it will make a great summer drink.

I'm tired, and it was a lot of work, but I'm so glad that I did it.  I need more practice to make sure I can seal the jars properly and find more counter space to work with, but hopefully by this summer I'll be a professional.

We still have a gallon of strawberries left so I'll be drying more of them tonight and then I'll be done.

Until we go picking again.