My Greatest Weakness

I have a confession to make.  I'm not perfect.  Nope, not superwoman, not supermom.  In fact, I'm only human. 

My biggest flaw is that I lack the superpower to stretch time.  I do in fact only have 24 hours in the day, without exception.  I even have to waste some of that time sleeping and, upon occasion, going to the bathroom (although that is a speedy process.  Somehow, going to the bathroom is a guaranteed way to start children screaming in the other room or draw them to me.  No privacy for Mom!).

With these ridiculous time constraints, it is a sad fact that I don't get everything done.  With kids (who don't even go off to school to give me a "break" to get more done), homeschooling, taking the kids to dance or soccer or whatever, taking care of the garden, putting up stuff for the winter, taking care of the husband, dishes, laundry, and routine cleaning (oh, and there is that little blog thing I do), each day's to-do list frequently spills over into the next day.  I have to have priorities.

Obviously, the kids come first.  I have to make sure they have clothes and food daily, make sure they get where they need to go, and on top of that I'm legally required to see that they get some sort of education (well, the 6 year old I'm legally required to.  The younger ones are more of a moral obligation at this point). 

Next, I need to take care of the garden and the processing of food.  Funny thing about real food--it rots.  If you don't get to it in time, it goes bad.  It isn't like those McDonald's burgers or Twinkies that will wait for years for you to get around to doing something with them and even then would probably still be okay.  Nope.  With fresh food, you have a matter of days before you are S.O.L. if you haven't done something with it by then.  That makes this time of year super busy for me.  Being in Michigan, the growing season is almost completely over.  I have maybe another month before the fresh food is gone.  Completely gone.  Well, unless I do something drastic like set up a garden with some grow lights and space heater in the garage or something (which I'm actually considering).  So right now, for the next few weeks, I am swamped, constantly trying to defeat the evil hunger monsters, or at least poor-quality-food-we-had-to-buy-at-the-store monsters.  Yesterday, I put up 7 more quarts of pears and need to go back to the "pear place" as my son calls it today to see if more have dropped.  I also put up 7 quarts of tomatoes, possibly the last tomatoes I'll get to can (plain, anyway) for the year.  I didn't get around to the apple-tomato salsa I wanted to make or the ground cherry jam I needed to do.  Those got bumped onto today's to-do list as well (silly soccer practice seriously cut into my canning time!). 

So now what I had been planning for the day, getting the house cleaned up and get caught up on folding laundry, got pushed back again.  That's been happening a lot lately.  Unlike the kids and the fresh food I need to see about storing, clutter keeps.  Unfortunately.  No matter how much I stall on doing it, it is always there waiting.  Not only that, but it gets worse.  With three little ones, boy does it get worse!  Even in the winter, when I have far more time to clean, I can clean one room, start working in another, go back to the first room to put something away, and discover that it looks like I never did it in the first place!

Some of the other moms at my son's soccer practice were discussing how they, without there gardens and with much older children that don't puke toys everywhere, were thinking about getting a cleaning service to come in once a week or so, to do all those little things that they don't get around to.  I wish I had that option.  Life would be much less frustrating and downright depressing if I had a little help like that.  They were talking about what a great deal it would be for them to do this and it's "only" about $60 a time they come out.  I deflated when I heard that.  There is no way I could justify that in my budget.  Sometimes it sucks being thrifty.

Well, like I said, the kids and the food won't keep, but the messes will, so I guess I'll just keep plugging away and get things done when I can.  Winter will be here to let me catch up soon enough.  I guess.

Easy Cinnamon Applesauce

Night before last, I was surprised by a wall post by a friend on my personal Facebook page that said, "the zucchini fairy strikes again."  I sprinted from my bedroom, where I'd been working on my computer, to the front door, where I'd left an offering of pears for the zucchini fairy a few days prior.  My kids thought I was nuts as I swung open the door until they saw the bag that had mysteriously appeared there.  I swept up the bag and took it to the table to examine the contents and discovered, to my delight, apples!  Yay for the zucchini fairy!


One of my favorite things to do with apples is make applesauce.  When the kids are left loose in the house with whole apples, we end up with a lot of waste, since the kids will raid the fridge for them when I'm not looking and I'll find nasty old partially eaten apples all over the house every time I clean.  With applesauce, they usually need help to get it, so there is more portion control and a lot less waste.  Plus it is tasty as heck!  It's also surprising easy to make.

Applesauce

apples

water

cinnamon

Peel (some recipes say the peeling is optional, but my children tell me it is not) and core apples.  Cut into slices or chunks.  Put in a large pot with a little water, about 1 1/2 cups per 5 pounds of apples.  Cook until tender.  Mash with a potato masher until desired consistency.  Stir in cinnamon to taste.  Ladle hot applesauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace (do NOT overfill.  Cleaning the canner after a jar's top pops off is no fun).  Adjust 2 piece caps and process in water bath canner for 20 minutes.  May also be frozen, if preferred.

A Tale of Two Salsas

It was the best of tomatoes, it was the worst of tomatoes....okay, not really.  I just couldn't resist!

Yesterday, I asked people on my Facebook page for good tomato salsa recipes.  I quickly noticed there seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to making salsa--those that advocate chopping up everything into little, tasty bits and those that think it should just be thrown in a blender or food processor after being cut into large chunks.  I decided to try both, since I'd never made tomato salsa before, so I wasn't sure what camp I was in.

For the first batch, I used something resembling an actual recipe (found below).  It was an apple-tomato salsa.  I figured it would appeal to the same tastebuds that find my favorite peach salsa wonderful.  For the second batch, I just peeled my remaining tomatoes, removed the seeds and pulp, removed the seeds from my assorted peppers, peeled an onion, and threw them all into a blender along with my chosen seasonings (honey, apple cider vinegar, garlic, cumin, red pepper, sea salt, and oregano, if I remember right).

If the only thing I was looking at was level of effort required, the second salsa would definitely be a winner, since it was a lot easier just to throw things in the blender and let it do the work.  If effort was how I made such decisions, however, I wouldn't have even needed an experiment like this though, since I'd just do the easiest thing of all and not make salsa at all, just go to the store and buy it like "normal" people.

The second thing I noticed was visual appeal.  When I was pouring the second salsa out of the blender, it looked more like vomit than salsa.  I decided to cook it for 10 minutes before canning, since that seemed to be the thing to do, based on the zillions of salsa recipes I looked at before tackling my own salsa experiments.  After cooking, it did seem a lot more like salsa and less nasty, but the first batch was still prettier. 

Next, I tasted both of them.  Since they weren't the same recipe, I wasn't looking at overall flavor, but they were both delicious.  I was just interested in texture and eating experience for this test.  I was still undecided after this.  The first, chunky salsa was more fun for my mouth since it had different flavors with every bite.  The second clung to the chip better, so that was a plus as well.

After my experiment, I decided I don't have a clear preference.  It really depends on the type of flavor experience I'm looking for.  With just a generic tomato and pepper based salsa, the blending method is fine, since it is a lot less work and doesn't adversely affect the finished product.  For most salsas I really enjoy, like the apple-tomato salsa, the peach salsa that I still have to buy since I still don't have a recipe for it, or my black bean and corn salsa, the chopping method is necessary to give it that multi-flavored salsa experience that I like so much.

Apple-Tomato Salsa

3 cups tomatoes, peeled, diced, seeds and pulp removed

3 cups apples, peeled, cored, and diced

1 bell pepper, seeds removed and diced

2 chili peppers, seeds removed and diced

2 hot peppers, seeds removed and diced

Don't know what it is, but this is what I used for "hot pepper"

1 red onion, diced

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

2 tsp honey

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Boil and stir 10 minutes.  Ladle into hot canning jars.  Adjust two-piece caps.  Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

We Be Jammin'

That is, of course, a royal "we", since my jam session was a solitary endeavor.  Still, I managed to churn out three kinds of jam in one day, so I'm pretty proud of myself. 

The raspberry and blueberry jam recipes are one and the same.  It also works for blackberries, boysenberries, dewberries, gooseberries, loganberries, and youngberries.  I actually wouldn't be surprised if it worked for ground cherries as well, since they are apparently naturally high in pectin, without any additional pectin added, but I couldn't for the life of me find a pectin-free ground cherry recipe to compare it to and didn't feel like experimenting, so I used a tried and true recipe with added stuff.  Maybe at some point I'll play around searching for a pectin-free (and therefore a lot cheaper!) ground cherry jam recipe, but probably not this year, especially since I don't even know for sure that my ground cherry plants survived the night since there was a chance of frost and I don't know if my covering of them was sufficient!  In the meantime, here are both the recipes I used for my jam session this week.

Berry Jam

 Adapted from Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving

9 cups crushed berries
5 cups sugar

Combine berries and sugar in a large pan.  Bring slowly to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.  Cook rapidly, stirring frequently to prevent sticking, until the boiling jam drips off a cool, metal spoon dipped into it in a single flake or sheet.  (If you prefer perfect measurements, find out the exact boiling point for your elevation and add 8 degrees F to it.  That is the "gelling point".)  Remove from heat.  Ladle jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Put on two-piece caps and process in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes.

Ground Cherry Jam

 Adapted from some random sites on the internet.  Disappointingly, the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving does not seem to mention ground cherries anywhere within it.

3 cups ground cherries, removed from husks

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup water

6 tbsp powdered pectin (or one box)

3 cups sugar

Wash ground cherries.  Combine fruit, lemon juice, water, and pectin in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  When ground cherries begin to burst, mash them well.   Add sugar.  Return to boil and boil an additional 1 minute.  Ladle into hot jars.  Put on two-piece caps and process in a boiling water canner for 5 minutes.

The Ant and the Grasshopper Revisited--a Trailer Park Homestead update

Usually on Wednesdays, I share a bunch of photos to show what's going on at my tiny little homestead.  This week, that isn't happening.  My phone that I use to take all my photos doesn't appear to be on speaking terms with my computer, so I wasn't able to upload any pictures today or yesterday or the day before.  Maybe I'll get some pictures of the garden up later in the week after I fix the other reason I'm not showing off my beautiful garden today...

The garden looks like crap.

I've been neglecting it a bit as I can up a storm in the house, plus we've started up the school year and, unlike parents that ship their kids off to be indoctrinated into who-knows-what beliefs and the questionable socialization of picking up all the other kids bad habits in addition to the ones they already have, as a homeschooling family, that means more work for me.  So far this year, the homeschooling has been going pretty well.  The major complaint from my son is that I haven't been giving him enough worksheets!

Back to the canning though, since that's what has been taking the most chunks of time and it yields the more impressive results for now.  Years from now, when the kids are highly successful in whatever it is they want to do with their lives, I'm sure the homeschooling will be more impressive, but for now, check out what all I've been able to put up since my last Trailer Park Homestead update last Wednesday:

15 pints of tomato sauce
9 pints of diced tomatoes
5 quarts of diced tomatoes
3 1/2 pints of blueberry jam
4 pints of dill pickles
2 quarts of dill pickles
2 pints of peach honey
3 quarts of peaches in honey syrup
19 pints of peaches in honey syrup

In addition to the canning, I've also frozen:

3 1/2 bags (measured for my triple chocolate zucchini muffin recipe) of shredded zucchini
1/2 bag of diced green pepper

It is still a far cry from where I'd like to be in terms of getting ready for the winter, but it is still a lot better then I was doing even just a couple weeks ago, so I'm pleased with the progress.  It is still August after all!  I still have a bit more than a month than the likely first frost for these parts (October 3), plus, with my small garden beds rather than a large traditional garden, I should be able to extend the harvest for at least parts of the garden that would otherwise die with that first frost. 

So there's where I stand as of today.  Maybe today I'll get the garden looking pretty and figure out why my phone isn't talking to my computer (Lover's quarrel?  Or something more technical?) and get some pictures up for you.

Putting Up Peaches--Peach honey & honeyed peaches

I'm not being as thrifty as I could be with canning my peaches, I admit it.  I'm using a honey based syrup rather than sugar based, even though it is quite a bit more expensive, based on the idea that it will taste a lot better and be more healthy than refined sugar.  (Plus, it is part of my plot to convince my husband that I should start keeping bees just as soon as I can figure out where to keep them.  Don't tell him though.)  I guess I'm making up some thrifty points though, since I'm using the peels too!

Here's how I've been doing it (please refer to someone or something that actually knows what they are doing, like the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving for more tips on how to do this stuff.  I really don't know what the heck I'm doing--just kind of muddling through, following the book):

Canned Honeyed Peaches

peaches
honey
water

Wash peaches.  Dip peaches in boiling water 30 to 60 seconds then immediately immerse in cold water.  Peels should slip right off (if they don't, a paring knife or veggie peeler works as well).  Reserve peels.  Cut peaches in half or quarters and pit.  Pack in jars as you go, covering with syrup once filled.  Leave a 1/2-inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles.  Put on two-piece caps.  Process pints 25 minutes, quarts 30 minutes, in a boiling water canner.

Peach Honey

peach peels

water

sugar

Place peels in a saucepan.  Cover with water.  Heat slowly until peels get mushy.  Strain, pressing down on peels to get as much liquid out as possible.  Discard peels and return liquid to pan, measuring how much there is.  Add 1/2 as much sugar as there is liquid.  Stir in and heat rapidly to boiling.  Boil down quickly until it reaches consistency of honey.  Pour into jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Put on two-piece caps.  Process in a boiling water canner for 5 minutes.

Top 10 Things I've Learned About Canning This Year

This year, I've decided I need to get fairly serious about canning.  Last year, I dabbled with some blueberry sauce, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes.  This year, I actually bought a real water bath canner instead of using a stock pot, plus my husband bought me a pressure canner that I haven't used yet, but am dreaming of using post-hunting season when (hopefully) my freezer will be overflowing with venison and I'll need to find another place to put some, like in jars, probably largely in stew or chili form, for homemade heat-and-serve type meals.

Taking my home canning to a whole new level has been quite a learning experience for me.  Here are the top 10 things I've learned so far this year:

10.  The pop after lifting the jars out of the water is one of the happiest sounds in the world.  It isn't proof positive that you got a good seal and it is safe to eat in a few months, but it is a nice hint.   Plus it sounds cool.

9.  Wear comfortable shoes.  Usually, I'm a barefoot kind of gal, but standing for hours chopping and stirring and doing who knows what else can make the footsies a little tired.  Not to mention stepping on a stray peach peel that you dropped 10 minutes earlier has a serious ick factor to it.

8.  Make sure things that you are going to can are properly ripe.  I learned this one after battling with peaches that were seriously underripe.  Instead of the skins slipping gently off like the instructions I read said they would, I was fighting them for their lives, oftentimes with the peach making a break for it with amazing leaps and twirls that a gymnast would find absolutely inspiring.

7.  Take the weather into account.  The kitchen will get hot.  Very, very, very, dripping-with-sweat-in-a-most-unattractive-manner hot.  It might be best to can on a day or evening that isn't so hot.

6.  If possible, don't harvest more than you can process before you can get a chance to process it.  A lot of the stuff I'm canning this year is coming from a farmers market, so, to some extent, that's dictated when I get what I have to process.  On the other hand, I really didn't need to go back to the farmers market to get blueberries and tomatoes two days after I'd bought the peaches that I still hadn't canned plus I still hadn't done anything with some of the stuff the zucchini fairy gave me.  That's a recipe for a stress sandwich right there!  There are only so many hours in a day--it is a good idea to plan accordingly.

5.  Having enough cupboard space in the kitchen or pantry isn't a requirement for canning tons of great food.  As long as it is in a cool, dark place, the jars of yummies aren't going to care where you keep them.  I probably will end up keeping some of my summer treasures in a jar under my bed or in my bedroom closet over the winter, or maybe tucked behind books on the bookshelf.  I vaguely remember my mom keeping her home canned goodies in a downstairs linen closet, so I'm not the only one who has ever put food in unusual places.  Just don't forget where you stash it.

4.  Having the right tools makes the job a lot easier!  Last year, I didn't have anything that was actual canning gear except the jars and two piece lids.  I used a regular funnel with a pretty narrow bottom for getting the stuff in the jars and salad tongs instead of an actual jar lifter.  This year, I splurged on an actual utensil set with a real jar lifter, funnel, a tool for removing bubbles, and a magnetic lid lifter.  So much easier--plus it is fun to pretend that the lid lifter is a magic wand.

3.  It's all about the acid--and somethings might be more acidic than you think.  I knew from last year that blueberries and tomatoes were acidic enough to just need a water bath canner, but I was surprised to find that I didn't need a pressure canner for peaches or applesauce.  I probably would have canned a lot more last year if I had realized that.  Then again, it might have been a good thing I didn't tempt fate more than I did, since I hadn't yet learned.....

2.  Know what the heck you are doing!  After I started reading the Ball Blue Book, my new canning bible, I was seriously amazed that we lived through the previous year of my incompetent dabbling in last year.  Obviously, just starting out, you aren't going to know everything, but find someone who does to teach your or a very, very thorough instruction book, like the Ball Blue Book.

1.  Canning is fun!  Okay, it really isn't.  It is a long, labor intensive process that will likely lead to the aforementioned aching feet and sleep deprivation.  However, it is very empowering to realize that no one is in control of your food but you and you will be able to feed your family the very best food there is all winter long.

Now, I'm off to do more canning!

Is It Nap Time Yet?--a Trailer Park Homestead update

I am tired.  So much so, I'm starting to look forward to winter, so I can take a bit of a break for a while!  This time of year is insane!  Right now, I still have to maintain the garden that's been there (weeding and watering and such), keep up with fresh plantings of greens, harvest whatever I can, put up whatever I can for the winter, gear up for another year of homeschooling, get the kids registered for their extra curricular activities, plus the regular stuff of dishes, laundry, keeping the house tidy, taking care of the kids, cooking dinner, etc.

The house is not particularly tidy. 

Right now, especially after the anxiety issues I mentioned last week, I need to be focused mainly on getting food for the winter.  With that in mind, in the past week, I've froze a couple baggies each of snap beans and corn, canned a few jars of tomato sauce, a few black bean and corn salsa, and 7 quarts of peaches.  Today, I have a couple good sized boxes of tomatoes from the farmers market to do something with (mostly canning, maybe can some more sauce too), a few more quarts of peaches to do something with, some blueberries I want to make into jam at the kids' request, and some zucchini I want to turn into triple chocolate zucchini muffins for freezing, since I think the finished muffins would freeze better than just shredded zucchini and that's what they'd turn into anyway. 

It is going to be another looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong day.

In the meantime, my garden also looks like crap from all the pests and disease that have been taking over, since I don't know what the heck I'm doing here, but giving it my best effort anyway:

Obviously, the watermelon looks happy, since it is taking over half the front yard, but it doesn't seem to be producing very much, so I don't know what the deal is.  More importantly, I don't know what the deal is with these tomato plants, but they are starting to look half dead!  I originally thought it was the heat reflecting off the patio that was making them look sad, so I moved them to the front of the house, but now they look even sadder!  I don't know if it is a watering issue (even though they get watered as much as my other tomatoes in buckets) or the cold nights we've been having at times or what.

While not technically a pest related picture (although the trailer park manager has had her moments, hasn't she?), I just think it is funny how perfectly some of these calendula flowers coordinate with the bright orange buckets that are officially not being used as pots but really are.

I think I'm losing the battle of the squash vine borer, since this pumpkin plant looks worse daily.  Such a shame too, since that dangling pumpkin is so cool, and I was looking forward to it being joined by more.  I haven't given up the fight yet though!

The large holes in the bean leaves are brought to me courtesy of the Japanese beetles, who seem to like the beans themselves as well.  Fortunately, the children think it is great fun to pluck mostly chewed up leaves full of the dang things while they are sleeping and crushing the heck out of them.  If it wasn't so late in the season, I'd probably start thinking of someplace to hide some of those Japanese beetle hanging bag traps, but I don't have time these days to go looking for a good spot.  The beans plants are kind of being a pest to the corn as well, since they seem to be mobbing just a few stalks rather than spreading out more evenly.  Oops, my bad, I guess!  The corn stalks that have a bunch of bean stalks on them are falling over!

Super Easy Basic Tomato Sauce

Last year, I made the tomato sauce in an older edition of the book Stocking Up.  We were not all that happy with it though.  It was a pain to make, didn't thicken up really well, and it gave my husband heartburn.

This year, I decided to learn how to can right (I'm actually a little amazed we survived the year with all the things I did wrong last year and, no, I don't want to talk about it).  I received the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving for Christmas and it is a-maz-ing!  Among the many, many, many treasures I've already discovered is a super, simple, basic tomato sauce that only contains one ingredient if you eat it fresh (tomatoes) and two if you can it (tomatoes and lemon juice).  Perfect!  Whenever I use tomato sauce, I end up seasoning it anyway, so I don't really need it to be seasoned in the jar and would rather it be untainted until I'm ready to mold it into the favor I desire.

So I did what I do with all recipes I use:  I changed it.  Yeah, I know I called it perfect before, but I decided it could be perfecter (yes, I know that is not grammatically correct.  Sometimes I like to throw in made up words for a touch of whimsy.  I do it when speaking as well because I find it amusing.  I try to write exactly like I talk as much as possible so people recognize me when they meet me in real life.  Well, I guess I do swear more in real life...).  Here is my new and improved  super easy basic tomato sauce:

Super Easy Basic Tomato Sauce

tomatoes

lemon juice (if canning)

Core and cut off the blossom ends of the tomatoes.  Quarter and stick into a large pot (how large will depend on how many tomatoes you are doin' up).  Simmer for about 20 minutes.  Remove from heat and puree in a food processor or blender.  Return to pan and simmer until it reaches about half of its original volume.  Remove from heat and strain briefly (don't force it.  Just dump the stuff in a strainer and let it piddle out for a minute or so).  Return thicken sauce to pan and combine with about half of the juice that was just strained out.  Freeze the remaining juice in an ice cube tray (bag up in freezer bags once frozen) for use in flavoring sauces and stews.  Let sauce simmer until ready to can or package immediately for freezing.  

If canning, add 1 tbsp of lemon juice per pint of sauce.  Process in a water bath canner, pints for 35 minutes, quart for 40.

If you don't know how to can, take a class, learn from someone that's been doing it for umpteen trillion years without killing off anyone from food poisoning, or get the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving.  Seriously.

Piles of Peas

Yesterday was a day of peas for my family.  Quite appropriate for a Sunday, don't you think?  I spent most of the afternoon picking peas out of my mom's garden with some help and even more "help" by the kids.  I ended up with a paper grocery bag full of them.  Who knows how many countless others were sacrificed in the "field" as impromptu snacks or "quality checks".

After we got home and had dinner, the shelling began and went late into the night.  The kids helped some, motivated by watching almost the entire first season of Malcolm in the Middle on DVD.  Eventually, crankiness took over for helpfulness and I had to send the littler ones to bed.  The work continued deep into the night (this time with Monty Python and the Holy Grail playing).

Finally, about 3am, I was ready to blanch the peas.  This step seals in the goodness, like vitamins and minerals, and makes them taste even better than they do fresh off the vine.  I got my pot of water boiling, scooped some peas into a metal colander, and set the colander in the boiling water for 90 seconds.  Meanwhile, I put some ice in a ginormous metal bowl to cool the peas quickly once they were out of water.  When the timer went off, I dumped the peas in the ice and stirred them around to make sure they cooled evenly.  I repeated this until all the peas were blanched.  (I think I need a bigger pot!) Once all the peas were blanched and cooled, I bagged them up in dated and labeled freezer bags and set them in the freezer.

All in all, the entire day's work yielded about 8 quart bags of frozen peas.  For the amount of effort that goes into those things, they are green gold!  Hopefully that will last us at least a couple months.  Here are some of the main ways I use the peas:

• Foil-wrapped dinners
• Creamy tuna casserole
• Meatballs with mashed potatoes and peas
• Chicken stew with dumplings
• Chickenherder's pie
• Chicken fried rice (I'll have to post that recipe another time)
• Cold chicken or tuna pasta salad