Updates from the Homestead

-
 


Life on my homestead is humming right along.  I spent more days in town this last week than I like, but that is life sometimes. A trip to town takes about 45 minutes one way.  For starters, I had one day in town with Tobin.  We ran errands and bought some new tires for our van.  Another day I took Leanne to the community college so she could take her Biology CLEP..  and she passed!!!  She now has 40 credits towards her degree.    We are so very proud of her.   


The next trip into town was to meet up with my oldest son and his wife and they took Jacob and Isaac to their home for the weekend (The big Halo party LOL ).  Then Leanne, Sierra and I went fabric shopping.  We bought fabric for Sierra’s bedroom curtains and some fabric for her to make a skirt out of a pair of jeans. After that we went home, had lunch, I made dinner, got hubby out the door to work and we turned around and went back to town to take Leanne to her dance class (she has been taking ballroom dancing lessons since last summer), or I should say she took me.  She is working on getting her license so I try and let her drive any chance we have. We were finally home after 11:pm.  


Finally my last trip to town I met up with one of my daughters for coffee and picked up Jacob and Isaac.  Life in the country often means a lot of driving LOL..  So far this week has only had one trip into town…  However, I really did not mind it considering it was with my super fantastic hubby for our weekly date.  We’ll see how the last part of this week goes!   


I was happy to have food in my freezer to make into quick meals for a busy week.  In between all that running around I did manage to get 8 loaves of bread baked and made a gallon of my lacto fermented salsa.  I have not made any of it since the summer months.  I canned a lot of salsa and we are just about out of that so I figured it was time to make some.  We had enchiladas the day the salsa was ready and everyone agreed..  there is “nothing”  better than the taste of fresh salsa!!   I have loved the convenience of my canned but I think we are all spoiled now by the lacto fermented salsa.   


The weather has been just beautiful here in the PNW; unseasonably warm and sunny.  I am enjoying this little look into spring!  It’s getting me excited to get the garden going.   


Today I have several things on my to-do list… orders to pack up, laundry to move through, vacuuming and dusting, a visit with my daughter and granddaughter, and if the sunny weather is still with us, Tobin and I were going to do a little work in the garden… we will see what the day holds!  


Hope you all have a great Wednesday on your homestead! 

Comments

  1. KBS2000February 10, 2010 at 1:46 AM

    Hi Crystal -


    I have a question on the salsa - first of all, could I use Romas that I froze (with the intention of canning more pizza sauce? and secondly, how long will a gallon of the salsa keep in your fridge?


    Kristi

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shell from OhioFebruary 10, 2010 at 9:23 AM

    You really have been having nice weather? Wow, I figured you were as snowed in as we were in Ohio. Did you send your weather our way. LOL


    I won't mind knowing how long that salsa lasted either. I might just try it. I have the NT book.


    I ditto dreaming of spring too. We are going to plant the starters downstairs this week. I growing jumbo amish paste, marigolds, petunia waves, cabbage, broccoli and then later cantalope and suger baby watermelon. I love the excitement of spring coming. Although, I have 2ft of snow outside and more coming. I think I'll go lurk a Ausi blog. LOL


    Keep bloggin; love it!

    Shell

    www.shellsgang.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. donna www.merryheartcrafts.comFebruary 11, 2010 at 12:15 AM

    I have a question on the salsa. Could I substitute anything for the whey? I'm so glad to hear your weather has been pleasant. We are dealing with one of the harshest winters we have had in a long time. I am definitely looking forward to spring. Take care and God Bless.

    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