Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon
- Thread starter Britesea
- Start date
Sounds like a busy but profitable day 
Your garden sounds like it is at the same point as ours, we're having nice warm fall days (75-78F forecast for this week, last week was warmer--into the 80s) but cool nights (42-46F lows). Our tomato plants are full of green tomatoes that have moved into the yellow-green stage so I'm really hoping I don't have to pick too many green ones this year to ripen indoors.
Hubs is almost ready to rig up a plastic covered "greenhouse" over two of our raised beds to which we'll add old windows as we find them (scored 5 freebies off kijiji last week--3 fairly large, 2 smaller) but may not get it put together before the frosts come.
Your garden sounds like it is at the same point as ours, we're having nice warm fall days (75-78F forecast for this week, last week was warmer--into the 80s) but cool nights (42-46F lows). Our tomato plants are full of green tomatoes that have moved into the yellow-green stage so I'm really hoping I don't have to pick too many green ones this year to ripen indoors.
Hubs is almost ready to rig up a plastic covered "greenhouse" over two of our raised beds to which we'll add old windows as we find them (scored 5 freebies off kijiji last week--3 fairly large, 2 smaller) but may not get it put together before the frosts come.
- Thread starter
- #63
Britesea
Sustainability Master
Hey ho...
Went into town yesterday to pick up the goat milk. The woman told me she's thinking of getting rid of her goats because now that she's working it's getting too hard to take care of them. I've noticed a slight off-taste lately in the milk; not real bad, just a little bitterness. DH thinks it might be the goats are stressed, like maybe she isn't milking them as regularly as she used to. *sigh* It was nice having fresh cheese...
When I came home, I found my new dehydrator waiting for me!
I've already dried a huge bunch of parsley, and a tray of tomatoes. Now I'm working on more herbs: thyme, sage, marjoram, and rosemary. My rosemary was really different this year. I planted it from seed, and it has much larger leaves than I've ever seen- some as long as 2 inches. It is so resinous that I had to wash my hands between each tray because my fingers were sticking together!
I also froze some basil, and a couple of 'logs' of tarragon and another of chives. I've found I really like tarragon in scrambled eggs
I started harvesting rose hips from the wild rose hedge behind the house. I have a pound in the freezer now. Tomorrow I will go to the other side of the fence (after asking permission from the owner of the adjoining property) and pick more. There is also another chokecherry just loaded down with fruit...
I made a dessert with some of our elderberries tonight
The rest of the berries are destined for jelly and syrup. They are on the stove right now, giving up their juices...
Went into town yesterday to pick up the goat milk. The woman told me she's thinking of getting rid of her goats because now that she's working it's getting too hard to take care of them. I've noticed a slight off-taste lately in the milk; not real bad, just a little bitterness. DH thinks it might be the goats are stressed, like maybe she isn't milking them as regularly as she used to. *sigh* It was nice having fresh cheese...
When I came home, I found my new dehydrator waiting for me!
I've already dried a huge bunch of parsley, and a tray of tomatoes. Now I'm working on more herbs: thyme, sage, marjoram, and rosemary. My rosemary was really different this year. I planted it from seed, and it has much larger leaves than I've ever seen- some as long as 2 inches. It is so resinous that I had to wash my hands between each tray because my fingers were sticking together!
I also froze some basil, and a couple of 'logs' of tarragon and another of chives. I've found I really like tarragon in scrambled eggs
I started harvesting rose hips from the wild rose hedge behind the house. I have a pound in the freezer now. Tomorrow I will go to the other side of the fence (after asking permission from the owner of the adjoining property) and pick more. There is also another chokecherry just loaded down with fruit...
I made a dessert with some of our elderberries tonight
The rest of the berries are destined for jelly and syrup. They are on the stove right now, giving up their juices...
framing fowl
On a mission
- Thread starter
- #66
Britesea
Sustainability Master
Oh Abi, I wish you could!
It turned out wonderful, with a big dollop of real whipped cream on top!
Recipe:
2 cups berries
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs, flour
2 Tbs. lemon juice
3/4 cup water
Combine all the ingredients, heat them gently and keep them warm while you make the dumplings.
3/4 cup flour, sifted
11/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon peel, grated
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
Add the other dry ingredients to the sifted and measured flour. Mix the milk and the egg in a small bowl and stir them into the flour combination until the dough is just blended. Now pour the hot berry mixture into a casserole and drop in small spoonfuls of the dumpling batter. Bake the dish at 400OF for 25 to 30 minutes until the pastry balls are lightly browned. Serve the dessert warm with cream or vanilla ice cream.
(for speed, I just used my home-made biscuit mix, and substituted whey for the milk because I just finished making some cheese)
It turned out wonderful, with a big dollop of real whipped cream on top!
Recipe:
2 cups berries
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs, flour
2 Tbs. lemon juice
3/4 cup water
Combine all the ingredients, heat them gently and keep them warm while you make the dumplings.
3/4 cup flour, sifted
11/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon peel, grated
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
Add the other dry ingredients to the sifted and measured flour. Mix the milk and the egg in a small bowl and stir them into the flour combination until the dough is just blended. Now pour the hot berry mixture into a casserole and drop in small spoonfuls of the dumpling batter. Bake the dish at 400OF for 25 to 30 minutes until the pastry balls are lightly browned. Serve the dessert warm with cream or vanilla ice cream.
(for speed, I just used my home-made biscuit mix, and substituted whey for the milk because I just finished making some cheese)
- Thread starter
- #67
Britesea
Sustainability Master
Well the day is winding down to a close here, and I'm smiling at all the nice things that happened. First, I found about 50 bricks for free on Craigslist... not sure what I will do with them yet, but bricks are so useful! Then, I went to the Farmers Market to pay the farmer that let me take home all the tomatoes even though I didn't have enough cash. He said just pay me the other $20 next week-- so I made darned sure I did that. He gave me enough 'seconds' peaches and strawberries to fill the dehydrator . He also asked if I would bring him a jar of my elderberry jelly next week, hee hee
So, I came home and processed the fruit for the dehydrator. DH went around to the neighbor that owns the land behind us, to ask if we could harvest the rose hips on his side of the fence. It's just an empty pasture, and I've never seen them doing anything in there except occasionally board horses, but I felt that we should ask permission first. He thanked DH for asking, and gave us permission to harvest any and all edibles we find on the land... this includes the roses, the chokecherry tree, and he thinks there is an apple on it somewhere
I checked how much juice I got from the elderberries, and I have enough to make two batches of jelly. One batch of 6 half pints is in the canner now.
I also got some beans, beets, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and yellow crooknecks out of the garden today!
. He also asked if I would bring him a jar of my elderberry jelly next week, hee heeSo, I came home and processed the fruit for the dehydrator. DH went around to the neighbor that owns the land behind us, to ask if we could harvest the rose hips on his side of the fence. It's just an empty pasture, and I've never seen them doing anything in there except occasionally board horses, but I felt that we should ask permission first. He thanked DH for asking, and gave us permission to harvest any and all edibles we find on the land... this includes the roses, the chokecherry tree, and he thinks there is an apple on it somewhere
I checked how much juice I got from the elderberries, and I have enough to make two batches of jelly. One batch of 6 half pints is in the canner now.
I also got some beans, beets, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and yellow crooknecks out of the garden today!
- Thread starter
- #68
Britesea
Sustainability Master
This morning we had a lovely breakfast of bacon, eggs scrambled with tarragon, and reheated sourdough pancakes with fresh goat cheese and elderberry jelly, with mocha heaped with thick cream.
Then, armed with sunhat and bucket, I sallied forth to the neighbor's pasture to do battle with the rose hips and all. I am going to have to use a tall ladder to get into the middle of the rose hedge where all the hips are- I was only able to pick about 1/4 pound. I then turned to the chokecherry tree and got nearly 5 lbs of fruit, while standing on the ground! I also got 3 1/2 lbs of the biggest, lushest elderberries I've ever seen- they were nearly the size of blueberries! (I measured and some of them were as much as 3/8" across). I also discovered that there are 4 apple trees, 6 more chokecherry trees, a juniper with a respectable amount of berries ripening, and another elder on the land. I also have permission to harvest the fruit from another neighbor house; the neighbor died last winter, and no one is living there-- there are apparently probate wars going on. So tomorrow I will be going over there to harvest what looked like some sort of golden plum (3 trees), and at least one apple tree that looked like it had ripe fruit. All the other apple trees in the area are still quite green, with only the barest hint of blush starting
Came home and cleaned the elderberries, then made a supper hash using leftover roast from last night, a leftover sweet potato, onions, and some rehydrated potatoes. I was curious to see how the dried potatoes would perform, and I am sold on them! They only took about 5 minutes to rehydrate, and they didn't get all mushy like fresh potatoes do in a hash. My next project is to buy a 25lb sack of carrots and dry them. DH used the Excalibur today for bread rising, and it did a great job.
I am so overwhelmed by all the good things happening to us! Thank goodness I have some room in the freezer for all this fruit-- I am just stuffing ZipLoc bags full in there, to either can or dry later. The nicest part is that I'm getting so much fruit I should be able to gift all these wonderful neighbors with some old-fashioned goodness as well!
Then, armed with sunhat and bucket, I sallied forth to the neighbor's pasture to do battle with the rose hips and all. I am going to have to use a tall ladder to get into the middle of the rose hedge where all the hips are- I was only able to pick about 1/4 pound. I then turned to the chokecherry tree and got nearly 5 lbs of fruit, while standing on the ground! I also got 3 1/2 lbs of the biggest, lushest elderberries I've ever seen- they were nearly the size of blueberries! (I measured and some of them were as much as 3/8" across). I also discovered that there are 4 apple trees, 6 more chokecherry trees, a juniper with a respectable amount of berries ripening, and another elder on the land. I also have permission to harvest the fruit from another neighbor house; the neighbor died last winter, and no one is living there-- there are apparently probate wars going on. So tomorrow I will be going over there to harvest what looked like some sort of golden plum (3 trees), and at least one apple tree that looked like it had ripe fruit. All the other apple trees in the area are still quite green, with only the barest hint of blush starting
Came home and cleaned the elderberries, then made a supper hash using leftover roast from last night, a leftover sweet potato, onions, and some rehydrated potatoes. I was curious to see how the dried potatoes would perform, and I am sold on them! They only took about 5 minutes to rehydrate, and they didn't get all mushy like fresh potatoes do in a hash. My next project is to buy a 25lb sack of carrots and dry them. DH used the Excalibur today for bread rising, and it did a great job.
I am so overwhelmed by all the good things happening to us! Thank goodness I have some room in the freezer for all this fruit-- I am just stuffing ZipLoc bags full in there, to either can or dry later. The nicest part is that I'm getting so much fruit I should be able to gift all these wonderful neighbors with some old-fashioned goodness as well!
framing fowl
On a mission
That's great news on all of the gleaning you are able to do! Sounds like you're going to have a busy week coming up!
