End of summer

I love this time of year! The leaves are beginning to fall and the scent of autumn is in the air. The warmth of summer is still smiling down on us and it's color scheme is all around

We have been as busy as squirrels harvesting our garden and putting away food for the winter. 

 Today we harvested 6 lbs of tomatoes making a total of 12 lbs so far. We still have a long way to go

 We didn't plant as many onions this year, only 3 lbs

 11 lbs of carrots

 Even the carrots are putting on their winter pants

We have also gotten a good 20+ lbs of zucchini, most of them this size and larger

 Dehydrated bananas, nectarines, apples and pears.

We have also froze corn, blackberries, peaches, nectarines, blueberries and watermelon. Homemade salsa and pico.

And of course we needed some pie after all that work                                                                                      

Canned gold, at least in my house

I have never canned peaches before. I recently bought a 20lb box of peaches with that exact goal in mind. I got my peaches, they were so lovely and perfect. I was surprised to see that 20lbs wasn't that many. But, I had a goal, can the peaches and put them in my ever growing food storage. Then came some small challenges. The first one being, my husband LOVES peaches. He ate three of them within hours. My second challenge was, I have a glass top stove and the 2 pans I have to can in don't come to and hold a boil on it. The pans are just too big and my glass top was meant to look pretty (my theory). This was not stopping me though. I wanted to learn how to can peaches and darn it, I was going to do it, even with my husband eating all the peaches and not having a proper stove to can them on.
I truly love my church family, they are all amazing. If you need any kind of help, they will be there. So, I called a lady that I knew was a canning peaches kind of woman. She was more then happy to help me. So with my now 16 lbs of peaches and my case of quart jars in arm, my oldest daughter and I went over to a wonderful lady's house where we spent the afternoon canning ours and her peaches. We had a great time and it was so easy. Even my daughter who is 18 and hates everything domestic, liked canning.

We took our peaches home, 1 DOZEN sized quart jars FULL of delicious peaches. I had to fight the children off. They too love peaches and they wanted to open one of the still hot jars.
Later that night, we had a few people come visit us from our church and I couldn't let them leave empty handed so I sent 2 of our beautiful jars with them.We still have 10, but after breakfast this morning we will still have 8. What can I say, they call us, lure us with their golden deliciousness

Oh yes, canned peaches are a beautiful thing

Do you meddle with stinging nettle?

While my family and I were picking blackberries this evening, my arm brushed  against some stinging nettle and Ouch! It wasn't a large area but enough for me to call it quits so I could take care of my stinging arm. Now, I have never encountered stinging nettle. I had only ever seen pictures and not since I was a child but, I knew what it was that had caused my arm to sting. At home, I gently washed it and put some camphor on it. That didn't work very well so I looked stinging nettle up on the internet. Wonder of wonders one of the things it said I could treat it with was baking soda. Baking soda is an amazing thing and I could go on forever about it, but, I will save that for another post. I applied a fancy little baking soda paste on my arm and not only did the pain stop almost immediately, the baking soda also eliminated most of the swelling and redness within a 1/2 hour!

While I was looking around for remedies for my stinging arm, I also came across useful things you can do with stinging nettle. There are So many. For starters, did you know you can eat stinging nettle? You probably did, but I had no idea. soaking it or cooking it will remove the stinging chemical and it tastes similar to spinach and cucumber(I'm starting to like stinging nettle). There are many medical uses for stinging nettle as well. Stinging nettle can be helpful for hay fever, dandruff, water retention and arthritis to name a few.

Stinging nettle is an invasive plant like mint, so if you are thinking of growing it, keep a close eye on it so you don't have a stinging nettle takeover. Oh, and don't forget the long sleeves, long pants and gloves.

Food dehydrating for food storage

I have a glass top stove that actually prevents me from canning. I plan on remedying this but for now one of my favorite ways to preserve food is my food dehydrator. I have an 8 tray American Harvest that I got from the thrift store for $25! It is amazing. I have dried tomatoes, green beans, blueberries, apples, pears and I am getting ready to dry peaches. I use the dried tomatoes in salads, we snack on the green beans and dried fruit makes a healthy and tasty snack for kids. Dehydrated food also stores well so it is a great addition to my family's food storage.

The farm dog

I used to think of a farm dog being a sweet collie or maybe an Anatolian shepherd. When I was young I had a friend whose farm dog was a mix of different breeds, but he was a medium to large size dog.
 My farm dog is none of these. His name is Julio (aka Hoolie) and he is a chihuahua. He couldn't fight off a wolf (he would make a tasty snack for the wolf though). But, I call him the farm dog because where I go he goes.When I am working in the garden or in the yard he is right there. Chickens are bigger then my little guy but he keeps them in line. We are temporarily chickenless at the moment because we are moving but one of Hoolie's favorite things to do is to help collect eggs. His job is to keep watch.
He is a little man with a big heart and to the other animals at my house, he's the boss. He takes his job very seriously.

Homemade almond butter and green bean crisps

I always have a very long list of things I plan on making, even animals I plan on raising. I am a bit slow about getting to them.When I decided to raise chickens, I spent 3 years researching. I didn't want to get myself into something I wasn't going to be comfortable with. When I finally got my adorable little 2 day old girls I was well informed that in a matter of weeks they would look like homely little creatures. Chickens are hilarious and watching them in the mornings is a great way to start off your day.
When I decided to make my own chapstick (I know the complete opposite of raising chickens), I spent several months collecting the ingredients and altering the recipe I planned on using. Now I have a chapstick designed just for me and my family and we love it.

 So what's on the list this week? Almond Butter and dried green bean crisps!

Let's start with the green beans. I actually decided last week to make these, probably my fastest homemade decision EVER! I have been wanting something we could snack on that wasn't a chip(I always want chips for some reason but rarely give in to the cravings) but would ease the chip cravings. These crunchy little beans do just that. I just put 2 lbs of fresh green beans in my awesome food dehydrator(it is one of my favorite things), and after about 8 hours they were done. I mixed them with about a teaspoon of olive oil and sprinkled them with salt. They are a little funny looking but really yummy.

Almond butter is so expensive at the store but cheaper and so simple to make at home. I have been contemplating making it for about 6 months. I know, who takes that long to make almond butter??

Just add a cup or two of almonds to your food processor and turn it on. I had to scrape down the sides several times but that was my only job. the food processor did everything else. It took about 15 minutes.
I made an Almond butter and banana sandwich after it was done. Best Sandwich Ever!!

Do you menu

I see a lot of menu makers from other blogs. I go back and forth on this one. My problem is not making the menu itself but shopping based on a menu. I buy my groceries first. I have also in detail figured out the cost of making my menu first and then shopping or shopping my usual grocery list and then making my menu and guess what? It cost the exact same. I even had different things for my menu. So I like to stick with my basic list. How about you, do you grocery shop before or after you make your menu?