Canning!

As Summer comes to a close the veggies are coming in at the road side stands, farmers market and the farm I volunteer at. Since July I have been going once a week to a community farm to help harvest vegetables that are donated to the local food pantry. The farm is owned by a 76 year old man there are 3 other volunteers that are retired and me. They have the hardest time finding volunteers which surprises me. We are only there for an hour or two once a week. For my time I get to take home a bag of produce. With all this produce I have been busy with my new electric pressure caner. I made sweet corn relish, beets, salsa,  corn in water & sriracha sauce.

With the salsa I start off my charring all the veggies on the grill then I peel them for salsa.

The Sriracha sauce turned out great! I added more garlic than the recipe called for. Chop up all the chilies and the garlic, cook it down until it no longer smells like raw peppers, add in the vinegar, fish sauce, honey and tomato paste, run it through the food mill and can into jars! It's super easy and quick.

 My blackberries came in and I had a bumper crop this year! I made smoothies and a blackberry pie. The pie was less than wonderful, it was all seeds and too crunchy. I make a leaf lard crust and that is by far the star of the show. I will never make a pie crust again without leaf lard.

 I made a special nerdy treat for my husband and son. Chocolate Han Solo frozen in carbonite. next time I will use white chocolate with gray dye.

                                                                                                                                                        

 With the Blackberry harvest I was able to add in my last fruit to my Rumtopf. I have cherry, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and blackberry. Now it will sit until Christmas. I really love the bright magenta color it is turning.

The mosquitoes have finally thinned out since the flood puddles are drying up and the temps at night are down in the 50s- high 40s. We made a list of all the projects we need to get done before winter. most of which is splitting wood to heat with and getting fencing around the fruit trees.

WE HAVE RUNNING WATER!! My husband got the sink in the kitchen and the bathroom plumbed in. No more heating water on the stove top to do dishes. Now we need to rent a trencher and get the gray water system hooked up. I can't wait to not have to constantly dump the gray water bucket outside. Big projects like this are slow going, we can only work as fast as we have money for.

 

We have been going on many mushroom walks.  We have found several edible mushrooms including lobster, puffball & oyster mushrooms and hundreds of non edibles that just look cool. We have been spore printing caps and just examining them. My son loves finding mushrooms.

The three of us took a relaxing summer vacation to Madeline Island on Lake Superior. I got to pick blueberries in peace and quiet, all alone. Sitting in silence with the smell of pine forest and picking berries was truly wonderful. I'm not sure how many people actually get to sit in complete silence once they have children, I know I never do. I'm pretty sure everyone takes it for granted.  My son loved riding on the ferry from the mainland out to the island.