fermenting the cukes

Lately, my preferred method for preserving cucumbers has been fermenting.  Too bad we planted so many Japanese cucumbers because I could have used them this year.  Instead, I ordered a lug from our local organic farmer.  You don't know what a lug is?  Neither did I.  But, I ordered one from the farmer.  It turns out that a lug is just a measurement that they use.  In this case it was a box of cucumbers.  Maybe 20-30 pounds? Anyway, a lot of cucumbers!!

Obviously I decided I was going to ferment a LOT of pickles this year. You might say I love fermented pickles. And last year I didn't make enough.

I may have forgotten one little detail which is where the heck I'm going to store all these jars!  I always make things work.

I am now the proud mama of these beautifully, bubbly, cloudy, garlicky fermented pickles.  I actually got one more larger jar and filled that up.  My husband took all the really large cucumbers left over and made a batch of bread and butter pickles today while I was at the store.  I think we're set in the pickle department?!

Do you ferment?

sunny days

Although we could use more snow here in Nevada, I can't complain about these sunny days we've been having. It's important that I take advantage of these moments of goodness when I can.

I've been thinking more about what I'm going to grow this summer, taking inventory of our seeds and plotting my rows.  I love this time of year because it's still winter, yet I can take these warm days and really start to imagine the seedlings coming up, the sunflowers rising to the sky and the endless days of watering, weeding, harvesting and preserving.  But, I won't get ahead of myself.

This is what's going on in our garden right now.

The garlic peeking out.  It's under the the chicken wire to keep our chickens from scratching it all up.

Amelia's handy work.  She's made a fort in her garden with sunflower stocks and tree branches.

Solomon helped too.

Our silly broody chicken.  At least it's cool so she won't bake in the chicken house.

Are you thinking about summer?

before 8 and a surprise

All this before 8 am this morning.

Amelia holding her chin up as she listens to dad tell her all the corrections he would make to her essay that was due today (She takes a couple classes with a bunch of homeschooling teens twice a week).  I told her that if she's going to ask him what he thinks about her paper, she's going to see red.  After all, he writes technical papers for a living and he enjoys it very much.  Marking up drafts that is.  She looks pretty bored her but I assure you, we were cracking up at the whole thing.

And a spirited game of soccer in the kitchen.  Please tell me I'm not the only one who lets their kids play soccer in the house!?

And guess who left us a surprise today?

Yep.  Our girls started laying.  I wasn't expecting this because we got them so late in the spring.  I was so excited.  Happy Tuesday!

apple 911

Honestly, I've been staring at these bags of apples in my kitchen for a few weeks now, procrastinating and putting them further and further down on my to-do list.  Yesterday, when we certainly had more important things to do, I looked at my sad apples and knew I had to do something with them A.S.A.P.  

The ways in which I preserve them; apple rings, frozen apple slices, apple muffins, apple sauce, apple pie bars, apples crisps, apples stuffed into my crisper bins.  We still have a 5 gallon bucket of newspaper wrapped apples in the garage that we have to bury in the ground.  Sort of a make-shift root cellar.

This apple-peeler-corer has been one of our best investments.  We've used it many times since we bought it a few years ago.  It's a bit fussy at times but once I get in the groove, these apple slices pile up quickly.

One of my favorite ways I've discovered to preserve apples is by dehydrating them.  My freezer is stuffed which means we have to start getting creative.  At least more creative than we've had to be in years past when there were barely any apples on our trees to preserve.

We bought a sheet aluminum screen and used it in our oven instead of buying a dehydrator.  I thought about it, I truly did but I'm a minimalist when it comes to kitchen gadgets.  I like to keep it simple in the kitchen.  Depending on how long I kept them in the oven, they turned out either like pliable apple rings or apple chips.  I don't soak them in lemon water.  I just slice them and dehydrate them in a 170 degree (F) oven for about 2 hours.

Something else on my mind this past week has been the devastation caused by hurricane Sandy.  The kids  and I have had our ears peeled on the radio listening to what's been going on there.  I'm sending my good thoughts to everyone who has been affected by this natural disaster.

apples and clay

I changed my blog around a bit. I felt like I really needed it in order to feel inspired.  What I like about this format is that I can really see my pictures from the last few years in minutes.  I may not keep it this way but for now the change feels good, you know?  Have you ever just sat for an hour going down memory lane on your blog?  You can also view my blog in other ways by using the tabs on the top left of the homepage.

So, what have we been up to lately?  Two words could sum it all up. Apples and clay.  Or if I wanted to expand on that a bit it would include tomatoes and daily art.  Oh yeah and soccer and homeschooling too. I've been busy in a good way.  Just like every fall is for me, trying to wrap up the garden and starting a new school year can be chaos.

Our tomatoes.  They were abundant this year.  I've spent many a day roasting tomatoes two trays at a time, cooking them down, seasoning and canning them.  It's become second nature to me, this canning thing.  Two days ago, when the weather started turning, I pulled the rest of the tomatoes and our last volunteer cantaloupe in anticipation of our first frost which never happened.  But, it will soon.  We got our first snow in the mountains.

Oh, my apples.  Our trees were so full this summer that we had to prop them up so the branches wouldn't break off.  The lack of late frost was a bonanza this year all around town.  We have Pippin and Jonathan apples in our yard but these red beauties, came from a 75 year old tree in town.  The owner said that they probably didn't taste that good because the tree was so old and we could pick them.  They are the most crispy, sweet apples and a nice change from what we have coming out of our ears already.  Why is it that  I can go crazy over more apples when I have ten bags sitting all over the kitchen?  It's totally irrational but I think we'll be enjoying apple crisp for dinner this winter.  We will be gorging on apple sauce and apple rings like nobody's business too.  Joy.

 Daily art.  We've discovered the big, heavy weight paper is the best for everyday art.  First, it can be taken anywhere and the pencils won't poke through.  Second, it's big enough to draw large dragons, ninjas or castles.  Eli asked the other day to bring out the fermented pickles so he could draw them.  The two boys drew the jar of pickles (while Amelia was reading of course) and then ate them.

We've been tinkering with clay lately.  It's strange how we know certain things about ourselves.  For instance, I knew from a young age that when I grew up I wanted to drive a VW Bug.  I did and I also married a guy who drove a VW bug.  Funny how that is.  Well, I've also known that I wanted to work with clay.  A few years ago someone just gave us an old kiln.  I didn't even tell them how much I loved hand thrown ceramics.  My husband just recently got some work done on the kiln and we did a test run.  I'm so excited.

  Happy Fall to you and yours!

the hunters

When I started raising chickens a few years back, I had no idea how much I would get attached to them.  I'm pretty hooked on chickens.

They never stop amusing us.  Like last weekend we were at the kitchen table processing a gazillion apples and I noticed one of the chickens running around with something in its mouth.

Well, evidently, one of them had caught and killed a mouse and was playing keep away with the other girls.  Then they just stopped and stared at the mouse in the grass for a while....

until one of them decided to take off with the mouse in her mouth.  These girls crack me up.

note:  I'm sorry to all who may have been offended by this post (I changed the title too).  I guess I wanted to show you a little of what it's like to raise chickens and possibly my point should have been that chickens are definitely not just herbivores.  I had never actually seen my chickens catch mice although I've heard that chickens did.  I'm just always surprised by them and they really are very amusing.  Sorry also to the mouse.  Sorry little guy.

the week in pictures