Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[Denim Deb]

One thing at a time is the best way to do things!

 

[hqueen13]

Hilarious about the duck.
I don't know that I know how to do only one thing at a time....

 

[Britesea]

Grocery shopping done for the rest of the week. I got a nice large bunch of organic bananas for only 46 cents a pound because they were getting overripe; perfect for banana bread and banana pudding! We had mini meat loaves and a nice big green salad for dinner, with strawberry sundaes for dessert. The sauerkraut I started is bubbling away- I had a 3 1/2 pound head of red cabbage that just nicely fit into a 1/2 gallon mason jar with a ziploc baggy filled with more brine weighting everything down (if it springs a leak, the brine ensures no dilution of the cabbage mixture)

The garden is finally moving into high gear; and it looks like it will be a banner year for apples if they can ripen before the frosts hit. Even if we end up getting a frost I could still juice them, but I really want to get some for drying, and apple pie filling and cider. We still have plenty of applesauce leftover from last year.

Poor Lucky the Drake was trying to woo one of the new Golden Cascade ladies... but he's so much smaller than she is! He had her by the neck, and she was submitting and had her tail up, but he couldn't quite stretch far enough. I think he finally managed it, but I'm not sure... she may have just gotten bored and left. The Cascade drakes don't seem to be too interested in sex yet- they are only 10 weeks old. I need to get them butchered before they start molting. The older ducks already are, and look pretty bedraggled as a result, but the younger ducks are looking really pretty.

I did some seed shopping today... it's time to buy garlic and shallots; I decided on Grey Shallots because they are supposed to be the very best for flavour, and Siberian garlic because it's extremely hardy and reputed to have the highest levels of allicins (sp?). The other thing I want to do is dig out the asparagus bed to get rid of the couch grass that has been taking over. I think I will need to put some weed-blocking fabric down and then put the bed frame over it. DH isn't at all happy about it because we only just started being able to harvest spears, but I'm afraid if I don't do this, the couch grass will completely take over. The strawberry bed is doing ok- the strawberry plants appear to be able to hold their own against the couch grass. The only thing I don't like about the weed-blocker is that it will also impede the movement of earthworms and such.

Well, I'm falling asleep over my keyboard so.... g'nite!

 

[Denim Deb]

I don't know how many times I've sat at my computer and found myself falling asleep-especially this week! Hope you got a good night's sleep.

 

[Britesea]

I did get a good night sleep @Denim Deb, thanks!
We took off this morning for the Farmer's Market and picked up some nice green beans to make Dilly Beans since I never got around to planting mine (DH's accident pretty well ended my planting efforts)
We also got a pint of blackberry honey (nice! it will be lovely on toast!), some tasty looking heirloom tomatoes since mine got damaged by pesticides, and some grass fed Eye of Round beef for dinner, along with a couple ears of sweet corn for tonight's dinner, and a couple of pounds of lovely ripe peaches from a farmer over by Medford (bless him for coming over the mountain to our market- peaches don't grow here). Should I make a Peach Gallette? Yes, I think so too. Then DH had to buy himself a packet of habanero spiced peanut brittle (he knows I won't touch it, lol)

Note to self: In the future, unless I am going to be making pickles, ONE cucumber plant is plenty! We've been eating them with every meal, giving the overripe ones to the ducks, and offering them to all our neighbors. I planted 2 Lemon cucumbers and 1 Burpless. I never got a trellis set up for them, so now the vines cover a space approximately the size of our master bedroom.

The peas are ready to pull out finally, after I've stripped the dried seed pods for next year's garden. I'm wondering if I want to try another variety though; these are Green Arrow which are extremely prolific, but the flavour is a bit wanting. Maybe I'll just seal the seeds with my vacuum sealer and pop them into storage for use another year, or in soup.

The Tromboncino squashes are also slithering across another quarter of the garden; I estimate a good 20 squash ripening on them, with more little babies at the edges that I will probably harvest as summer squash since I don't think they will have time to mature now (first frost expected in about a month). We ate our first one for dinner last night- I peeled and boiled a mature squash until it was tender in chicken broth, then mashed it with enough broth to make a saucy consistency along with some nutmeg and pepper and red pepper flakes and used it as a pasta sauce with a bit of sweet italian sausage. It was amazingly good.

I think I finally figured out what happened to my tomatoes, and it's all my own stoopid fault. When I was filling up the grow beds, I decided to sift the finished compost from a pile of rotting straw at the far edge of the garden and use it too. Problem is, the pile was VERY close to where DS sprayed weed killer to take down the weeds along the fence. I figure the spray must have landed on the straw, and I used the contaminated soil in my grow bed. We plan to dump the soil from the beds and spread it over the leach field (which doesn't have much growing on it anyway) where it will gradually lose its toxicity. I've made the decision to never use weed killer again on any part of the property; hoes were good enough for Grandpappy...

I haven't made the pickled peppers yet- they've been sitting in the fridge and need to be done NOW. Plus now I have 10 pounds of green beans to process as well... time to get crackin'

 

[Britesea]

Today I managed to can up 7 pints of dilled green beans from 5 pounds of green beans; I've got the other 5 pounds topped and tailed and ready for the canner, but I ran out of pickling salt. I called my neighbor to ask if she had any- she didn't, but said she would pick some up for me as she was going shopping today. She just got back and dropped it off, but it's too late to start canning tonight; I'll do it tomorrow.
I also got the 8 pounds of peppers trimmed and seeded. Tomorrow they get blistered and then they will be ready for pickling.

I also made banana nut muffins, and ham egg cheese scones.

DS picked over 75 lemon cucumbers this afternoon. About half were more mature than I like, so I quartered them and they will go to the ducks tomorrow morning.

Tonight I'm fixing easy baked chicken with cajun seasoning, and enough of the green beans to make a good side dish. DS requested the catfish in coconut milk again for tomorrow.

 

[Denim Deb]

Sounds like you've really been busy.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wow - you go girl! But, be careful with your back - relapses are NO fun!

 

[Britesea]

It's been a busy week. An acquaintance called and asked if I wanted to help harvest 2 of her apple trees that were ready NOW. I came home with 4 3-gallon buckets, 1 5-gallon bucket, and a box full. The utility room smells soooo good right now. As soon as I can clear the kitchen I can make some dried apples and can up some apple pie filling. I still have a fair amount of applesauce from last year.
Got hold of some boneless leg of pork for pretty cheap. I ran it through my meat grinder on coarse, pan-cooked it till there was no pink, and canned it in broth for the dog's food. Should be enough for at least a month and a half, maybe 2 months. I also got some inexpensive chicken that I'm boiling to pull and can up for her as well. I have to get that done today, before I can start on the apples.

Suzie is still sitting on her nest- I think we have one more week. The other ducks are molting, so I'm not getting a whole lot of eggs right now. That especially hurts because I found a box of 18 eggs that someone put in another room instead of the kitchen or utility room, perhaps while I was down with my back. They weren't washed, so they stayed good for a long time, but they were still old enough that I had to throw out about half of them. The others are still good, I'm hard-boiling them right now to make egg salad sandwiches for lunch, or maybe creamed eggs on toast for dinner.

The garden is still going strong. I've got kale, cucumbers, summer squash, swiss chard, beets, and radish pods, and peppers- the jalapenos are looking good; the hungarian blacks are plentiful but much smaller than I thought they would be. The Chocolate Bells are coming in red instead of chocolate- or do they turn red first? They're coming in really small too; does anyone know what might be going on with that? The winter squash is looking good too; I should have several for storing.

I need to make some patches for pants; I only have 2 pair of pants in good shape- all the others need repairs. I don't mind an occasional small hole in my pants, but when you have rents 4 inches long across each thigh- it's gonna be COLD this winter!

 

[Denim Deb]

I think they turn red, then black.

I have holes in most of my jeans. Those get worn only during the summer! I won't ride my motorcycle in shorts, so they help keep me cool. They get too bad, and I turn them into shorts.

Have you ever cooked apples w/onions and served it w/pork? It really taste good doing it that way.