It's not the flu!

I have all three of my boys home sick. I too have the same wicked COLD. Not the flu, it's just a nasty cold. It happens. Sometimes you can get sick with something else other than the current fad disease. I have always been dancing against the norm, it's just how I roll.

But today I get to play the roll of Typhoid Mary. Oh I can feel the love now. Make sure you have your Lysol ready so you can clean the screen that you are ready. I think I might just want to dress up as Typhoid Mary for Halloween. Large is going as Bruce Cambell. He is so my child. We just need to find a small toy chainsaw to complete the outfit. I don't know if too many people will get what he is without this little part. Not sure yet what the other 2 will be going as. We will work that out.

Some of you know that I really don't do the whole forum thing. But if you ever want to, you can find me at this forum over on The Modern Homestead.

For some reason yesterday's post about peanuts didn't show up as an update. And many of you read because a 3rd party told you to, so if you want to know a little sumpem sumpem about the peanuts, look closely at yesterdays post.

Currently in a small farm outside of Wichita Kansas it is 61F, breezy and sleepy. A woman sits watching her cattle graze and eying the storm that seems to be brewing on the horizon. And contemplating that she must indeed suffer from adult ADD, and it gives her the excuse to do this; Monday's Customer showed up on Monday, HA! Can you believe that. And brought walnuts with him. Small was instantly on hammer duty as soon as his father (that would bem y husband) told him what it was about. Oh the carnage. I felt bad however. I have no apples this year. In case some of you were wondering why my 2 months, non stop apple posts, ramblings and trivia were lacking. The people that I had the hook up with, up and moved. so no apple stuff this year. But no worries my little pretties, I have more than enough apple stories stored away from the previous years to keep you entertained.

Here is your mission if you so choose to accept it. What would you do if a large trash bag of walnuts showed up on your doorstep. (extra credit for uniqueness and wit) this message will self destruct in 5 seconds, this is for your COLD safety.

TAG!!! Apple Sauce!

I was patching up one of the fences Sunday, we share a fence line with several horses, and they like to bend the fences over because the grass is greener on this side (I guess). When I heard hooves beating the ground. I looked back and sunny was running toward me. I stood up, and he stopped, so I went back to work, keeping my ear out for him. He walked up, and nudged my hair. I turned, not wanting him to grab a mouth full of it. I have had the goats do that before, not fun. Sunny pushed against my shoulder, made a high pitch horse noise and ran off. I shrugged and went back to work. Sunny came back, and repeated the nudge. I reached up to scratch him, and he took off. The third time he did it, I stood up and followed. He stopped a little ways from me and waited. But as soon as I got into a n arms length of him, he booked. I turned around to go back to my fence, when he ran back around. Once again waiting until I was an arm length away, before running off again. We did this several times, before he stopped running and allowed me to scratch him. He pushed his forehead into my chest. I am still trying to get over the fear of horse bites. I have heard horror stories to that effect. (Like a kid who got an ear bitten off, and that woman on AFV that got her chest bit, still don't see how half those videos were ever funny).

I told my husband about Sunny's behavior, and he said that Sunny has done that to him before, he seems to like to play tag.

In canning news,

I worked on a bit more of my apples. Somehow a bad one got into my cellar stored ones, so process we must, before the whole bunch is spoiled. I made Spiced apple butter. Same as apple butter (plain) except replace the water you soak them in with spiced rum.

Also made Apple Pie Apple sauce. Taste like Christmas.

Apples soaked until tender in water, and but through a food mill into a crock pot. 2 tablespoons of vanilla, cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, cloves and ginger to taste. Cook on low until the preferred thickness of applesauce.

My Mommy and me

Many of you already know who my mother is. She did a wonderful job guest writing for me when I had lost my computer. She could have gone all parental on me and dragged up some very embarrassing info. Ah, but let us not tread in that direction.


Instead allow me to take a moment and tell you how my mother and I work together.

Yesterday, my youngest son, my mother and I went on a little trip. We drove an hour south from my house to the apple orchard on Eden. There we were confronted by a 200 lbs weimaraner (maybe not 200lbs, but she is a very fat dog) and we proceeded to fill the back of her car with 250lbs of red delicious apples and 30 lbs of peaches. We were quick and efficient, clearing out all the fruits we could reach and shake down. We did this in under 2 hours. Then back to her house where we unloaded and headed 30 minutes east to raid her s-i-l's grapes. We easily gathered 150 lbs of those. Once back to her house, we separated grapes which seemed to take much longer then the actual picking.

Now my mother is addicted to gleaning. On the way home, we discussed knocking on peoples doors that had apple trees rotting in their backyards and see if we could take them. My husband laughed when I told him and informed me that if I wanted to go into the apple butter business, that gleaning would take 70% of the overhead out of the picture. hhmmm. . .

Today my mother and I will be making grape jam at her house. My mother and I work well together, but we can be odd. We behave almost as if we are drunk without actually drinking. Those poor firemen that were forced to listen to us that one night.

Keep your fingers crossed that we don't end up losing half our skin to a fire bomb of purple goo.

That's just plain wrong.

I mentioned that I was going peach picking the other day. Yesterday we loaded up the car with baskets and boys, and took the hour drive south for free peaches. When we got there, it was discovered that someone had gleaned all the peaches without the farmers permission! He thought we had come out on Saturday and picked them while he was gone. No! We were very disappointed.

Luckily he had baking apples that were ready for picking. So we loaded up the car with those. Not as many as we got last time we were out there, but enough that it will keep me busy this week, as this weekend we will be going back out for two trees full of peaches that hadn't ripened yet. Let's just hope no one steals them before we get back out there. Beware of the apple tag, you might get more reading then you asked for!

On a personal note, my husband went in to quit that agri job this morning. The bike shop he was working for on Saturdays offered him full time work at a wage that he couldn't pass up. I get to see my husband again! Good thoughts for him if you would please. The agri job boss reminds you of a bad teenage girlfriend.

Tools Used in the Orchard

This is part 5 of the Tools {used on my homestead} series. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 can be found by clicking on the links.

Our orchard is still young. We were expecting are first harvest this year. But as some of you recall, to my horror, a late deadly frost covered my area, killing all the blossoms on my fruit trees. This list will be incomplete, due to my lack of experience with the orchard. Those of you that have fruit trees, please, feel free to add to the list of tools needed in the comments.

For Planting, your best tool is your local extension office. Believe me when I say, use them up! Not only can you find some great deals on trees, but you can take soil samples in to be tested for a small fee. Testing the soil in the area that you wish to plant in will tell you what you need to add, or subject from the dirt.

Next are your trees. Find trees suitable for your climate. I saw someone purchase a citrus tree just because the local farm store had one out for sale. But unless this person has an arboretums, I don't see it surviving in our brutal cold weather. Maybe it was a GMO, and spliced to make it here. I don't know, it was listed that I could see. Your local extension office will be able to tell you what tree thrive in your area, if you have any questions.

The next tool used is what ever was missing from the soil. As our top soil was stripped, we had a lot of "adding" to do. Mist of it was in the for of compost. Mulch is another thing to have on hand.

Once trees and your add-ins are on hand, planting is your next step. We use a spade for ours. One reason we use this and not a shovel is because we snap shovels, just like we snap those potato forks. We work in the add-ins to the loosened soil with that ever present Garden Claw. And depending on what the add-in is, we may wait a few days before planting.

Once the trees are in, we must use stakes and tape to keep our trees straight. Otherwise that old reliable Kansas wind will have our trees almost laying down. Hoses now come into play. We are in the process of turning a horse tank into a rain barrel (will update you on the project at a later date) A water source is important (another up coming project is a windmill)

Pruning shears and a field knife are also tools e use. Some trees require certain pruning to happen. Shaping the tree to keep them from going "wild" is said to improve the fruit quality. The field knife come in use when suckers begin to grow.

Companion planting your orchard is a good idea, this tool we will call the cover crop. I am trying to locate clover seed for mine (as the bee hives are in my orchard) but there are other cover crops good for your orchard.

Lay out of the orchard is a good idea as well. Placement for your trees can help with pollination, even those trees that claim to be self pollinating can receive benefits from a companion.

This is an outdated drawing, as trees have been added.

We are prepared for a harvest. Bushel buckets, ladders, and netting. Hopefully next year looks like our apple picking adventure of last year.



Remember, by clicking on my tags, you can see other posts on the subject.

Apple butter

My wonderful sponsor Polli asked if I have a apple butter recipe. And I do! I love apple butter.

I had thought I had it posted, but I looked and nope, no recipe. So here you go Polli, and anyone else that wants it.

• 4 lbs of good cooking apples
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 cups water
• Sugar (about 4 cups, see cooking instructions)
• Salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon

Preparing the Fruit

Cut the apples into quarters, do not peelor core them (you'll find much of the pectin is in the cores and flavor in the peels), cut out any damaged parts.

First Stage of Cooking

Place the apples into large pot, add vinegar and water, cover, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until apples are soft, this will take about 20 minutes. Remove from heat.

Measure out the purée and add the sugar and spices

Ladle apple mixture into a chinois sieve (or foodmill) and using a pestle force pulp from the chinois into a large bowl. Measure out the resulting puree. Add 1/2 cup sugar for every 1 cup of pulp. Stir to dissolve. Add a dash of salt, the cinnamon, ground cloves, allspice, lemon rind and juice. adjust seasoning to taste.

Second Stage of Cooking

Cook uncovered in a large, wide, heavy pot on medium-low heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Scrape the bottom of the pot while you stir to make sure a crust idoes not form at the bottom. Cook until thick and smooth {when a bit is spooned onto a cold plate and allowed to cool it is butterish in texture} (this can take 1 to 2 hours).

Makes a little more than 3 pint jars.

Apples

Unless some one leaves me a question we are going to do the alphabet of foods.

My long time readers now that last year during apple season I managed to get 250lbs of apples for free. We did a lot of apple recipes and apple trivia for that one.

Apples are on of the foods that you can find in the US that will be local. Forget your store bought apples from half way around the world. Apples can be grown in the US, anywhere. Look through your local papers, Internet searches and extension office to find a U-pick it near you. I found mine by asking friends and family if they knew where a u-picked for apple was, turns out there where in Eden. {the street the farm was on was named Eden} And not too far from my home.

For more on apples check out the U of I extension office site, or click on my tag that says apples. Just make sure to get back here in 30 minutes!

The White Queen has been dethroned

And the pheasants rejoice!

I found my English white silkie roaming the yard yesterday, she has finally come off her nest. I went to see if she left an egg, there was nothing there. Either it was eaten or there never was an egg. If her nesting instincts are this strong, I think I had better leave an egg for her in the spring.

My teens are a brave bunch. I found them out front again. I had fixed two openings that they were escaping from, so now I don't know where they are getting out. That means an early morning stake out for me. Now that sounds like fun! Anyone want to come hang out in 20F {-6c} weather, squatting behind some barn junk, waiting for the chicks to emerge with me? I'll make hot cocoa.

I have been, not neglecting, but simplifying some of my homesteading chores because I have been obsessively cleaning house. This is what happens after I do a marathon writing session. Things should get back to normal as I settle into Nanowrimo and severe weather starts cropping up.

Pork chopsh and appleshaushe

Actually Seared Pork tenderloin in an apple dressing. With noodles and homemade pesto sauce, homegrown mashed sweet potatoes and from scratch croissants. I told no one of my plans with the pork loin, everyone was caught off guard, but no complaints.

The pork tender loin is seared in a heavy skillet, salt and pepper on both sides of the meat, and olive oil.

Cream, Apples and Sage sauce

1 tbl unsalted butter
1 firm apple, peeled, cored, and cut into 12 slices
½ medium onion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup apple cider
3 tbl applejack or brandy
½ cup low sodium broth
2 tbl minced fresh sage leaves
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt and ground black pepper

Prepare your pork tenderloin and transfer to a plate. Using the same pan, melt the butter over a med-high heat. Swirl to cover pan. Add the apple and onion and saute until the apples start to brown, take about 4 minutes. Add cider and applejack {brandy} bring to a boil, scraping off the bottom of the pan to remove the brown bits. Boil for 2 ½ minutes, or until the liquid reduces to a glaze. Turn the heat up to high add the broth, sage and any pork juice that has accumulated on the plate. Boil until the liquid reminds you of maple syrup, about 3 minutes. And cream and boil for about 2 minutes, or until the liquid is reduced in half.

Reduce the heat to medium and return the pork to the pan. Turning to coat. Simmer for 3 minutes. Add salt and peeper to taste, serve pork on plate, pouring a little of the sauce over top. Serve hot.

A smattering of this and that

I woke up this morning ready to tell you about the tornado that came through and destroyed my house last night. Then I realized it was all a vivid dream. Too bad, it would have made a great entry.

The temperature has been dropping down to 25F {-3c} at night, and I have realized that I have not set the timer for the heat lamp in the chicken coop. As soon as it warms up enough where my hands will not stick to the metal gate, I will go do that.

The sweet potatoes are all wrapped up, individually, in newspapers and stored for the winter. I have a few of the smaller ones out to make some sweet potato biscuits. And my husband was badgering me about making sweet potato pie. Seems he is in no mood to wait until Thanksgiving.

Speaking of husbands, mine recently returned from Daytona Beach, Florida {where it was 80F {26c} at night}. He was sent out for Biketoberfest.While he was gone, I got to spend two weeks doing not only my own chores, but his as well. It got me thinking about pioneer women. They had to do just about everything themselves while their husband were away hunting, or travailing to find work. I don't know how they kept their sanity. Just his few farm chores put me behind on everything. I stumbled through the ones I didn't know very well, and didn't put the animal feed into the bin. Instead I placed the bags in the garage and filled a bucket to throw at them. I will not go back into that pen until that turkey is gone. I don't care how much he likes me {that's why I won't go in there}

My apple project has come to an end. I have done a variety of things with them. I will leave it up to you, if you would like to hear about apples let me know. Until then, I will leave you with this Apple Danish. Enjoy!

I am bad

I broke down and bought a very cheap juicer last night. I am hoping it will make it through at least a half bushel of apples. I am weak, I know. I will not be getting a press until next year, but I have so many apples to get rid of. My boys love apple juice. what else was I to do?

My sweet potato cuttings have rooted. I will transplant them today. I will write about that tomorrow.

I have lost track of how many pounds of apples I have processed. I am down to 3 bushels though.

The turkey is getting more desperate. I am buying my husband a caponizing kit for Christmas. {a lovely gift, isn't it?} but I don't want to deal with more horny poultry. Plus it helps fatten them up.

Yes, I am thinking about Christmas already. It's a great time to buy things that are wanted, more than needed here on the homestead. We don't need a caponizing kit, but it is a nice want and useful. I also thought about a straight razor kit. I wanted to get one for my husband and one for myself last year. But I couldn't find them. People prefer the disposable ones, I assume. They are everywhere. I would like to have a cast iron kettle {dutch oven}, a very large one with a tripod, that can be hung over a camp fire. Oh what I could do with that. Rustic cooking at its best.

So I was wondering, what are your homesteading Christmas wants this year?

Did you miss the apples?

Between the heart attacks and sick child, I did manage to process more apples this weekend. Everyone is doing well now, thank you for your well wishes.

3 deep dish apple pies

chocolate chip, apple and walnut cookie dough

apple strudel

I also wanted to clarify about living underground. Someone mentioned that the idea might terrify her. She described living in a basement or a dirt cave, with no way except one way out. This might be a common thought among my readers, because it is when I tell people face to face. {You guys are so quiet, I forget other's that are not homesteaders read this} Once the house in finished, it will look nothing like a basement. It will look like a normal house. It will not be dark or dank or have worms crawling about. {though that would make my boys very happy} Our plans do include natural lighting. {here is were I wish for a scanner} Those of you that have the $50 and up underground House book, please turn to page 56. The peaked roof house is similar to what we have in mind {though we are going with a more sloping roof} For those of you that do not have the book, let's see if I can describe it.

The front entrance is accessible from ground level, but you do have to walk down earth stairs or a slope to get to it. On either side of the house will be a sunken earth patio. There will be big glass doors that allow us to exit the house on either side. What we don't have is a back entrance.

The house will be done in concrete, because our water table is so low. We have looked into other, more green products. But none of the fit our needs. We are going with cork flooring instead of dirt because of the county codes here {My husband really wanted the dirt, I don't} Once the interior is finished, you will not be able to see the concrete.

I guess you need to check back in the spring when we get started to really understand.

Only 5 left

I don't know what Livejournal's problem is. It re-posted a ton of old posts last night, and I didn't mess with the feed here. Anyone else have problems with their feed?


Apples: 1 full bushel down

I made apple butter. I will not share this recipe because it isn't a very good one. It will be scrapped and I will do it again. The recipe called for many {and I mean many} apples and instead of pureeing them, it said to use a food mill. I was unable to get enough pulp in this manner, and the apple butter is more like an apple syrup.
Last night I gave in. I broke down. I ate apples. I know, but your sick of them! Yet I made a wonderful potato and cabbage croquettes and just needed something sweet to go with it. Hence making baked apples. Very easy and tasty.
You need one apple per diner. 1 Cup water, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon. boil the water, sugar and cinnamon on the stove for 5 minutes while you peel and core apples. Stir the sugar/water occasionally so it doesn't burn. Place apples in a baking dish, pour sugar/water over them. Place in a 350F {176c} oven for 45-60 minutes {Until soft} make sure you check them once in awhile, flipping them over to make sure they are evenly flavored by the sugar/water and cooked. Yes, this is served with the main course and not a dessert.

The All Foods Natural newsletter is out. I have a article on Harvest foods. It does have my traditional apple butter recipe included, guess I should have stuck with that one.

And for those that have asked, you don't need to bake your apple dumplings before freezing them. Separate them with wax paper. Or you can under cook them slightly before freezing.


Apple trivia to amaze {annoy} your friends with: When the first colonists migrated to North America, they brought apple seeds with them. The first recorded planting was in 1629 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Sweet Potato Harvest

Autumn has finally arrived in Kansas. Yesterday the temperature was in the mid 60's F {15c}. I was concerned about how cold it was going to get at night, and the news informed me that the overnight lows would be in the 30's {-1c}. As they called for rain over the next couple of days, I chose last night to dig up my sweet potatoes. They need to be dug up while still dry. My husband stayed inside to clean and light the furnace, my children giggled and screamed while playing on the trampoline, and I took my potato fork and dug a foot down and in a twenty foot row to dig up my beloved sweet potatoes.

I tired to get them all in one shot, they weren't keen on posing for me, so I had to take several pictures. {And with one of the feeds all screwy I condensed it into one} I pulled up 79 tubers. Not counting my first test batch.

I somehow managed to pull up a few of them that are bigger than my hand.
Now they need to sit out and cure before eating or storing. The bruised ones will have to be cooked up right away.

I am looking forward to eating them. Sweet potatoes are one of my favorites. If you missed my article on sweet potatoes and why one could live off of them, you can find it here; Sweet Potatoes are the Perfect Food.

Speaking of articles, recently I had one published with World Food & Wine. It's a cheesy little thing about Halloween and foods. Which also reminds me, This weekend we have to go and get pumpkins, not only for jack-o'-lanterns, but for food preservation.

Don't ask about the apples. I am apparently making enough apple butter to feed the state of Kansas.

Updates

A few weeks ago we put our chicks out into the nursery. They seem to be thriving, and are getting along just fine with everyone except the turkey.We do plan on keeping all these hens as layers, and not meat birds.



My volunteer pumpkin vine produced a total of 4 gourds.The first one I had made pumpkin butter from. Not sure yet what I will be doing with these. The USDA does not recommend canning pureed pumpkin, not just home canning but commercial canning as well. Pumpkin puree is too thick, and the heat is not always able to penetrate the center, increasing your chances of getting food poisoning. They suggest that you cut your pumpkin meat into cubes and then can them. {another reason to can your own}

On to the apples;

a total of 28 ½ lbs down

3 lbs were made into apple chips and dehydrated. And I use ½ lbs to make some apple muffins.
The recipe needs some work. As soon as I fix it, I will post the new, improved recipe.

Any questions, or need an update from something else I have posted in the past?

Too Tired to Think

Work here has slowed down as I try to get my father settled in. I don't expect things to get back to normal until the weekend.

The weather has been swinging pretty hard. On Tuesday it was 96F {35.5c}, yesterday 77F {25c}, last week 48F {8.8c}. I hear people saying that this is caused by global warming. I'm not completely convinced of that. It has always been like this, as long as I can remember. If there isn't an ice storm, or drizzle on Halloween, then I will consider the possibility. But even then, the ice storms are something that only began 10 years ago. Before that, Halloween was always pleasant. I am sure we are causing environmental problems, but I am not willing to blame everything on humans just because I am unable to recall what the season was like the year before. If anything it has been getting colder here, not warmer. let's call that my rant for the day, and the dawning of the new ice age. ~insert dooms day music here~


On to the apples;

25 lbs down!

3 lbs of baking apples were dehydrated yesterday. I thought I could make apple coffee cakes this winter.

Apple trivia to amaze {annoy} your friends with: Apple juice was one of the earliest prescribed antidepressants.

I think my oldest son brought an illness home with him, and I caught it. Bad timing

Sweet Potatoes and apples part 2

I was recently asked what I had done differently this year than previous years, with growing sweet potatoes. In the past I have talked about using the lazy bed technique to grow potatoes, but I did not do that with my sweet potatoes. Instead we moved them to a new spot in the garden. An area where the weeds didn't grow as well, and created a very large and long mound of earth. And trenches on either side to help run off any water. I waited until it was a warmer time in spring, the ground temps should be in the 70'sF, and did little in the way of weeding. I stopped watering and weeding them altogether once the vines had covered the mound. And I didn't freak out about the invading cooler temps, leaving them in the ground a little longer. {we have 2 more weeks until we should get our first hard frost, the remaining tubers will be dug up by then}.
Here is what is left from my sample dig. Sweet potatoes become sweeter in storage.

I had a few that the potato fork mangled a bit. They needed to be used immediately as they will not store. I went and scoured through my massive amount of handwritten recipes and found one that I was looking for.

Sweet Potato Bake {serves 12}

2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 ½ pounds butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2/3 cup light brown sugar, divided
3 large eggs, beaten
6 tablespoons butter, melted and divided
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 teaspoons Cinnamon, divided
½ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
2 apples, peeled and thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 350F. Cook sweet potatoes in water in a large saucepan until tender {20 minutes} drain. Cook squash in another saucepan until tender {10 minutes} drain.
Combine 1/3 cup of the brown sugar, all eggs, 2 tablespoons of the butter, all of the vanilla, 1 1/2 teaspoons each of the cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Reserve 1/4 cup of the mixture for squash.

In food processor, blend sweet potatoes with remaining egg mixture until a smooth puree. Spread in greased 13x9-inch baking dish. Top with nuts of choice.

In food processor, blend squash with reserved 1/4 cup egg mixture. Spread over the pecan layer. Arrange apple slices on top of the squash layer. Mix 1/3 cup brown sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon, then sprinkle over apples. Drizzle 4 tablespoons melted butter over top. Bake 45-50 minutes, or until set in the center. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Calories: 285

Total Fat: 14.4g

{I have a new program that will tell me the nutritional value of my recipes}

Onto the apples;

this was not something I wanted to see.

nor this,

2 of my applesauce cans did not seal correctly. The dimple was indented, and the lid did not come off when I removed the band. But at some point it did come off enough to allow air into it. 2 pints ruined. This does not make for a happy day.

Apple trivia to amaze {annoy} your friends with; The history of apple consumption dates from Stone Age cultivation in areas we now know as Austria and Switzerland

So many things and it's 130 am

I have discovered a wealth of new information and websites. Dealt with introspective. Contemplated different ideas. Wept from soreness and fatigue. I have discovered friends I wasn't aware of having, and some truths about personality clashes. I have learned that I have taken on more than necessary, and have few regrets about it. I have felt the crush of time lines, and crumbling of personal aspirations. I found myself lost and unable to breathe. I was given a hand to pull me out, and slept as the dead. All this over a period of two days.

So many things I want to share, things to discuss, and stories to debate. Unfortunately, that would take up a lot of my online time, and might be too much for even me to digest at once. True, I can be flaky, but now is not the time to allow that to become a common theme in my posts. I will take this week to go over things, taking on only one "deep" thought at a time, besides we have apples to talk about.

Bushels of apples everywhere, but I ain’t got time to spare!
I feel lovely, lovely . . .
Ha! La la lovely, oh-oh . . .

Oops, guess my age is showing. If you didn't recognize the slightly altered lyrics above, it was Lovely by Suicidal Tendencies. And it has been my theme song over the past week. I am in a sarcastic mood, and will try my best not to allow that to affect the feeling of today's post. Even if I normally have some sarcasm in my entries, I promise not to go over board with it.

Onto the apples;

33 lbs. down!

I was unable to process the entire bushel as I had planned. Without the cider press, it became a challenge that I was forced to declare defeat on. Though I quit under duress. My husband pulled me aside, and informed me that I could stop at any time. "Look at your hands." I did, and I saw the overwrought fingers. I could barely squeeze the cheese cloth any longer. I didn’t want to give up. But I wasn't, not really. Taking a break has to be a better way to describe it. There was no reason I had to juice an entire bushel at once. I can do it a quart at a time. I realized I had become obsessed with finishing this apple preservation task, not by one apple at a time, but by one bushel at a time. I had to step back, see the solitary apple and what I could accomplish with just the one, not the entire bushel. I cannot allow things to get out of hand.

Unless you have minions, do not get in over your head with anything. The pleasure of picking apples, and the ideas of what could be done with them drove us into gluttony, maybe greed. {No, not greed, doesn't feel like greed}

22 lbs. of apples got me 5 quarts of pure, unadulterated apple juice. I chose to freeze it instead of canning, just to make things a little simpler on me. {when freezing, make sure you leave some room for the item to expand. If you neglect to do this, the lids will pop off, or your glass jars will break.}
Apple trivia to amaze {annoy} your friends with; In ancient Greece, tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage; catching it was acceptance.

I will make another entry later for the Holiday Cooking Blogger Style post. And no, I have not forgotten about the sweet potatoes, that needs a post to its self. I will talk all about them, and a wonderful recipe I made over the weekend using butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and apples.

{my timestamp seems to be off}

Sweet Potatoes and apples

My camera is still missing, and I fear that the youngest of my boys has thrown it out with the trash. It wouldn't be the first time this has happened. And yes, we do get trash service out here. Everyone in the county does, no matter how far from a town they are. I have lived in places where there was no trash service available, but because of one man who started his own trash removal service, decided to give rural dwellers trash service {because he was rural} everyone here has that option. Burn bans are common here. Between the Kansas winds and the semi arid conditions, fires can easily get out of control. But I am sure that you are not interested in my trash removal habits.

It was a beautiful early fall day, yesterday. I was dragged out {kicking and screaming APPLES!} to the garden, where I was desperately needed. I can't gather food items from the garden, I won't be able to process them, not until I get these apples under control. Don't marry an intelligent man with high work ethics if you ever want to have your own way. No amount of appealing to his logic helped. I had to work in the garden. I could have walked away, but when I saw the state of my neglected garden, I was soon digging up my sweet potatoes. It is time to check them.

Sweet potato vines

I dug up two plants, instead of the one test subject. The roots had intertwined, and I was forced to if I wanted to save any of the sweet potatoes from the second plant. I pulled up 5 very robust tubers, the largest is almost a foot long. {where is my camera} and 12 smaller tubers, which I will can, yam style. This is my first successful year with the sweet potato. A feat I am most proud of. In the previous years, we were only getting the spindling, dry, long roots. Discovering these nice fat ones, makes all the work {not much real work involved, mainly planning} worth it.

I noticed that our green beans have dried up nicely, and they need to be seed harvested for next year. I also need to plant the fall and winter garden, and prep the remaining area for next spring. Peanuts will need to be dug up soon, and my tomatoes are attempting a second round of blooms. This year was a bad year for tomatoes.

On to the apples.

I am now at the point where I can confidently declare, I AM SICK OF APPLES! I can not tell you how many pounds I am down today. I had this brilliant idea to take a bushel and process the apples into juice. This is more work then expected. Late last night, my back burning, I wanted to chuck the apples to the hens, throw my hands up and declare defeat. It's so much easier just to buy apple juice. The cost of my labor is more expensive then the 10% real juice drinks. Yet, it didn't feel right just to give in like that. Not in a fit of my drama queeness. I put my work away in the refrigerator, and decided that things will be better in the morning. I skipped reading last night and went to bed early. Now as I sit here typing, I can see that bushel of apples, and they are mocking me.

My mood is not much better this morning. I am not looking forward to my back burning and pleading with me to give in. I do not have an apple press. My husband had me find some blueprints on one, and he has promised to build me one before next years harvest. That doesn't help me right now. I am using a food processor to shredded the whole apples, and cheesecloth to squeeze the juice out. It's a slow, trying way to do it, but it is all that I have, and must make do. Funny, if I had the money to purchase the much needed equipment at the time it is "needed", would I still want to do this? With what some of these items cost, it would be cheaper to buy the food stuffs at the grocer. As of this morning I could truthfully answer you as, no, I would not be doing this if I had more money to be able to "splurge". Yet, if I scroll down a few entries and recall the day out, picking apples with my family, I will have to reply to that question as, yes, I would still do all of this. I didn't have this kind of time, or blissful moments with my children when I was working third shift at the hospital. I ended up bringing work home with me.

Needless to say, I am still in the process of making apple juice. I have decided to freeze it, rather than can it.

To my question about apple recipes that do not contain cinnamon;

Magid suggested apples cooked with red cabbage, cider vinegar, and spicy sausage -apples in turkey stuffing (with bread, onions, mushrooms, etc, possibly also walnuts) -apple-[other fruit] jams

Cheryl suggested "This isn't really a recipe for an apple dish, but my kids love it and it might help get rid of some of your apples (and there's no cinnamon). It's for Apple Dip (tastes like caramel but is healthier). Stir ½ cup of brown sugar into 1 cup of cream cheese. Add 1 tablespoon of vanilla (sounds like a lot, but it's right). Stir until smooth and use as a dip for apple slices."

Marina sent me a recipe for butternut squash/apple soup.

Lynn S sent me to her site where everything she knows about apples are in one convenient place.

Merry asked if Venison and apples go good together. I don’t know, as I am not a hunter the only time I get deer is as a Christmas gift from my sister-in-law and her boyfriend that do hunt. I will see if I can find a recipe, and keep back some apples just in case I do get deer this year.

Sirannon informed me that she was going to ask family for any ideas.

Thank you guys. More suggestions welcome.

Some apple trivia to amaze {annoy} your friends with; Folk hero Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) did indeed spread the cultivation of apples in the United States. He knew enough about apples, however, so that he did not distribute seeds, because apples do not grow true from seeds. Instead, he established nurseries in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

I do hope there are no more problems with the feed for my blog. You should now be able to see the entire post. If you are still having problems, please let me know. Comments and questions are always welcome.

Overslept

I hate to say it, but we might need to light the furnace. The cool temperatures pushed me back under my warm quilt this morning, and I fell back to sleep. As much as I don't want it to be officially fall quite yet, the low temperatures do help the apples to keep longer.

I have signed up for the One hundred Mile Thanksgiving Challenge. This venture comes to you from Alisa Smith and James McKinnon that started the One Hundred Mile Diet. They ate only foods grown within one hundred miles of their home for one year. I have heard about the diet, as many of my homesteading friends have taken the challenge {between us, homesteaders have a slight advantage}. Their year of eating only locally grown foods has gained world wide attention. But none of these reasons are why I decided to join, except for one. Saving the small farm. And here is where I run into a problem, the small town grocer. Rural towns are disappearing, mainly because the children grow-up and move away where there are more opportunities, i.e. the city. I adore the small town, it's unique history, the way you can walk into the only gas station or bar, and there is a small group of elderly gentlemen just itching to tell you all the gossip since 1945. I understand that my small amount of spending in locally owned stores, doesn't amount to much, but with Wal-mart invading 200 acres of farmland just a few miles down the road, the local businesses need all the support they can find. That ,and I can not live without my coffee and sugar. Dandelion root and honey just isn't the same.

If you decide to join me and the other's that have signed up for the One Hundred Mile Thanksgiving, let me know. Maybe we can help each other out on dinner plans.

On to the apples;

Julie over on Flip This Body, is scaring me. She's a mind reader I tell you. She has suggested that I make apple dumplings, And I just happened to have one of my cookbooks open to 'Apple Dumplings' I will need to go into town this weekend to buy containers to keep things in the freezer. Right now I have nothing.

Alrescate suggested apple chips and baked apples. She did have concerns about canning baked apples, but they can be frozen.

Kf_in_georgia shared some family history with me, a relative of hers developed the Hoss {Haas} Apple. {you will have to scroll down} Very Cool.

My camera has disappeared. I am sure I will find it somewhere today with a bunch of 2-year-old's view of the world, photos on it. So bear with me.

11 lbs down! {4.9 Kg}

Yesterday I made apple crisp. {insert photo here}

After baking the dish, I realized I had nothing to store it in {see above about freezing apple dumplings} We ended up eating it. The serving size says it serve 6. My children will disagree with that. I have been instructed to double the recipe next time. Apple Crisp receives two sticky thumbs up. {insert cute little photo here}

Apple Crisp;

2 lbs cooking apples {5 ½ cups sliced} peeled, cored and sliced
1/4 cup water
4 tbl lemon juice
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup flour
½ cup unsalted butter

preheat oven to 350F {176c}

Place the apple slices into a 2 quart baking dish. Stir with the lemon/water. Make sure you do this as soon as you slice up your apples to keep them from turning brown. In a mixing bowl, combine the sugars, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and flour. Cut the butter into the flour mix until it resembles wet bread crumbs. Spoon out evenly over the apples. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 30 minutes.

Serve warm, or if you want the crisp crispier, allow to cool completely before serving at room temp.

Apple facts to amaze {annoy} your friends with: Americans eat about 19.6 pounds {8.8 Kg} of fresh apples annually, compared to about 46 pounds {20.8 Kg} consumed annually by residents of European countries.

Is there such a thing as an apple recipe that doesn't involve cinnamon? If you have one, please tell me about it.

A Nice Rural Buy

A few weeks ago, my husband saw an upright freezer for sale outside of a rural home. It was a little pricey, almost $200 US. We need a freezer, but couldn't justify spending that much on a used one. Yesterday he noticed that the freezer was back out in front of the house {it had been removed last week} and saw that the price was lower. He came home and asked if I wanted it. I, being in a bad mood, could have cared less {my 5-year-old, in a fit of being mad at me, smeared toothpaste inside of my towel cabinet} My husband took the truck and bought the freezer. Now I am glad he did.

It is 6 years old, barely been used. The house that he bought it from is also up for sale for almost $400,000 US. An elderly couple, and they took good care of it.{They said that someone had tried to steal it, but must have been to heavy for them to remove it, and that was why the freezer had been placed back inside the house for a while }

Brand new it would have cost us $300 US, we got it for $100 US. Now I don't have to can all those apples, I can make other desserts and main courses that use apples and freeze them. I also have a place for that turkey.


Apples; 9 lbs down.



Picture's a little crooked, isn't it?

Yesterday I made spiced apple rings. Mine are slices rather than rings, but they do eat the same. Warm them up slightly, top with whipped cream, and it eats like a crust less apple pie. Not too bad. {The recipe is being used in an article, when published will link to it, if you want it}

Apple trivia to amaze {annoy} your friends with; The Celtic word for apple, abhall, is still used in many place-names, and some towns and cities have particular associations with fruit trees Norwich was described in Tudor times as 'either a city in an orchard or an orchard in a city'

I dreamed of apples last night. One of the draw backs of processing the same food item over and over.

Thanks to alrescate, I walked around most the day saying "Porkchopsh and appleshaushe" thanks Brady Bunch!

Bug sent me her German apple pancake recipe that sounds incredible.

Any more apple suggestions?

on an amusing story note; I gathered some peppers out of the garden, they looked like hot peppers, but were in the sweet pepper area. I asked my husband to taste them, and tell me if they were indeed sweet. He tasted and told me they were. ok, so last night I cut them up and used them on the pizza. I then rubbed an itch out of my eye. They were hot peppers!