Updates from the Homestead

-
 

Life on my homestead has been busy as always. On Thursday Tobin and I put our son Jacob on a airplane to head to Washington DC.  He will be staying with family while he waits for our son Richard to get out of the Army.  Next week Richard will officially be done with his service in the Army.  He will be picking up Jacob and the two of them will begin a fun little cross country trip from D.C to home..  a lot of miles to cover, but they are really looking forward to the trip and the time together.   


I spent a good amount of time in the kitchen yesterday.  I made some cabbage soup for our dinner and then made 3 loaves of Challah bread and zucchini spice cake for dessert (I also got a lot of extra zucchini grated and in the freezer).  It was a perfect meal for a cloudy, cool and rainy day.  I was going to can up some of my cabbage soup but discovered my pressure gauge was loose on the top of the canner.  I will see if this can be fixed.. if not it might be time for a new pressure gauge.. so the cabbage soup may be frozen.  


 The garden is still keeping me busy..  besides the spaghetti sauce and lacto fermented salsa that I have made, on Friday I made a few pint jars of Summer Salsa.  It is a fruit and tomato spicy sweet salsa.  It looks very pretty and tastes yummy.  I may make some more of it.  I got the recipe from The Complete Book of Home Persevering by Ball….


      Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving            


 This last week Tobin, Isaac and I spent some time working in the garden.  It was getting over grown with weeds and it was time to pull up some summer squash plants that weren’t producing any more.  While Isaac and I picked another 8 or 10 pounds of tomatoes and a big overgrown squash plant (how does that happen.. a couple days ago it was almost ready.. and then.. ??) and a few cabbages.. Tobin rototilled the unplanted areas of the garden.  Then he rototilled the area where I had pulled out all the green bean plants and I did the weeding between the plants.  By the time we were done working the garden was looking real pretty…




It will soon be time to put the garden to bed for the winter..   


I am working on a quilt right now that is almost done.. I have just run out of time in a day to work on it this last week.  I might get to it this afternoon.. we will see.. unless I need to do more canning.. But I really want to get my quilt project done (and share a pic with you) and move onto thinking about Christmas projects next..   


The first week of our homeschool went quite well.  This afternoon I need to line up the schedule for next week.   


That is all the updates from my homestead!  Have a blessed Sunday!! 

Comments

  1. simpleoldgurlSeptember 20, 2009 at 1:15 PM

    Lovely pictures! I have a Ball preserving book from 25 years ago that my Gran gave me..it is still very appreciated and used often!

    Many Blessings to you and yours,

    Bev

    ReplyDelete
  2. jimswifeSeptember 21, 2009 at 12:24 AM

    Your garden looks great. I just love your soil! Ours here in N. VA is very hard with lots of clay. It seemed easier and less costly to do raised beds and we have been happy with the results.


    Hope you sons have an awesome trip cross country. Being in the military ourselves, we have done it a few times, always taking a different route. It is a great way to appreciate our beautiful country. Congrats on son finishing his military enlistment. What will he do now? Praise God he kept him safe. Have a great week.

    Blessings,

    Lori

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 21, 2009 at 6:37 AM

    I love how pretty your garden looks! Your soil is much better looking as Lori said, I'm in NE PA and boy do we have rocks! I do raised beds but large raised beds.. Anyway, thanks for the pictures,

    Melissa www.thornbottomfarm.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lori in KY (leastofthese)September 21, 2009 at 11:54 AM

    I wanted to let you know I purchased your "Beans" ebook and I'm excited to try several of the recipes. It was a timely investment, since Dave (Ramsey) says it's time for our family to be eating "Beans and Rice, Rice and Beans!" :)


    Also, I wanted to tell you I appreciate what young men like your son are doing for all of us in their service to our country! I'm sure you're very proud.

    ReplyDelete
  5. CandyFooteSeptember 25, 2009 at 10:22 AM

    I really enjoy your blog.

    You always write in such an inviting manner.

    It makes me certain that I must know you!!


    ~Candy~

    ReplyDelete
  6. a1healthSeptember 28, 2009 at 1:55 AM

    The trip sounds like great fun! What will your son be doing after he finishes up in the Army?


    blessings for your week,

    ~Farrah

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All messages are moderated. After approval your message will be posted. Thank you for your comments!! Crystal :)

Popular posts from this blog

Canning Chicken Noodle-less Soup

-
Image
Today was one of those busy days that it seemed I was moving from the time my feet hit the floor until this evening.. But, I got so much done and that is a great feeling! :) One of my accomplishments today was canning 14 jars of chicken noodle-less soup. I call it “noodle-less” because you can’t can noodles. They end up falling apart. So I canned the chicken, veggies and broth. When I go to use the soup I will bring it to a boil and then add a handful of noodles (any type of pasta will work) and cook it until the noodles are done. Because I plan to add the pasta after the fact I wanted to make sure there was enough chicken broth to do this. So I only filled my jars about half to two thirds with chicken and veggies and then filled with chicken broth. Here is how I did this…. I started off with 2 chickens that were a total weight of about 10lbs. I put them in my 14 quart stock pot… I then added 2 gallons of water.. And 3 tablespoons salt.. I brought this ...
Read more

Canning Cabbage

-
Image
I had 4 large heads of cabbage that weighted about 25 pounds. We had some really hot days and I figured I better get the last of them picked soon. My daughter Sierra and I ended up processing 3 of them yesterday and I have one left for a meal on my menu this week. I made pickled cabbage and then canned up the last of the cabbage. Here is the recipe for the pickled cabbage (according to how I made it)… 8 pounds cabbage 1 large onion 1 ½ red peppers 1 lb carrots ¾ cup salt 9 cups water 12 cups white vinegar 10 cups sugar 1t mustard seed 1t celery seed Slice cabbage thinly. Slice onion and peppers. Grate carrots. Mix all veggies together in a very large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and mix in well. Let sit for 2 hours to soften veggies. Rinse veggies well.  In a large stock pot (mine was 14 quarts) combine water, vinegar, sugar, spices. Bring to a boil. Add cabbage/veggies. Bring to a boil. Fill hot pint jars with veggies using a slotted spoon. Fill jar with brine...
Read more

Canning Beef Stew

-
Image
In my last blog post I shared that I had bought 10 pounds of beef roast. I cut it all up and used 4 pounds in 2 crockpot freezer meals ( http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/2012/02/two-more-crockpot-meals-for-freezer.html ) . I used the other 6 pounds of meat along with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery to can beef stew. Here were the general proportions I used in canning 7 quarts of beef stew.. 6# beef 2# potatoes 2# carrots 1# onions 1# celery After I cut up the meat and got the freezer meals done I moved to the beef stew. I peeled and cut up the potatoes and carrots. I chopped up the onions and sliced the celery. I pulled out 3 quarts of veggie stock from my freezer to use for liquid in the stew. You can use beef or chicken stock or you can use water. I did not add anything to thicken the liquid as usually thickeners don’t hold up in canning. You can thicken the broth after it is opened if you would like. I added 1 teaspoon salt to each of my ...
Read more