Off the Radar, Hash Browns & Eggs-a-Roma

I can’t believe how long it has been.  First of all I want to say I didn’t keep up with my training schedule or my diet since Week 1. I got a stomach bug over Labor Weekend and I grew lazy on my training schedule.  The race was really windy.  For only doing Zumba once a week, I still came in at a little under 43 minutes. Bill came in around 27 minutes. Go Bill!!

Applesauce and more kraut were put up. Horseradish and beets are still in the ground but otherwise the garden is all put to bed.

You know you have reached your egg casserole and quiche limits when Bill says “No offense but this taste like what we had last week.” Then your dog that has ate just as many eggs as you walks away from her dish after giving a look that clearly says “mom there better be steak served tomorrow night.” This actually was a good quiche.

Over the weekend I decided to make homemade hash browns. This really isn’t too hard. Simply bake the potatoes, cool, peel, grate and freeze on parchment paper for a few hours then place in freezer bags. Twenty potatoes made 6-2 cup meals.  Note: Don’t be lazy and try to use your food processor it turns to paste.

Finally the most exciting news, Mika is getting herself a new puppy. She is patiently waiting by the phone to get a call to pick up her new playmate.

We introduced two new members to the chicken flock. We are now getting between 9-12 eggs a day. Found this great egg recipe site, felt a little dumb when I stumbled on it. The Dutch Oven Pancake was a little odd with its puffiness but with some warm strawberries and syrup it was a real treat. Banana Foster Cheese Pie aka Banana Cheesecake was another first for me. I have never fried bananas and I am weird about what banana recipes I will eat but it ended up being a make again recipe. If you decide to make this recipe you really will need a second graham cracker crust.

Training For a 5k My Way

Day 1: Dear Diet Mt. Dew you are my best friend most days. You perk me up in the morning and make me very cheery in the afternoon. But today I must cut back and drink more water to get prepared for some hard workouts in my future.

Day 2: Today was my official first day of training for my third 5k. Bill and I will be racing on Oct. 15 in Germantown. My second race in March timed me at 40 minutes. My goal for this race is 35 minutes. Keep in mind other then farming I have only exercised once since June. I get easily bored with exercise so I plan to mix my routine up.

If you think you can’t work out with a video game you have never done Just Dance 2 for the Wii. After 5 minutes I was out of breath. After 38 minutes and 2 large glasses of water, I was sweaty, my chest burned and my shoulders ached. Wore my pedometer all day and racked 13,376 steps (5.04 Mile). I need to analyze this number if I want to get more in shape; I will set this goal soon.

Day 3: Joined a lunch time Zumba group fitness class at work. It took 3 songs before I was short of breath.  I thought this was a good sign until I found out those were just the warm up. Class was fun but this girl has no rhythm.  Went back to work and sat at my desk for 1.5 hours. I barely could stand up; I was stiff as a board. Note to self: Next Friday don’t sit so long. Drinking less Diet Mt. Dew is finally working out. Not hitting as many low spells and not craving it as much.  Step count 12,598 (4.77 miles).

Day 4: Day off training. Notice I didn’t say a day of rest. I managed to accrue 12,130 steps (4. 6 miles).

Day 5: After 51 minutes I managed 3.1 miles. Cardio wasn’t my real problem. It was my poor burning feet and my shins were hurting about 1.5 miles in. But I didn’t give up. I did a moderate hike in the woods with the dogs up 2 semi-steep hills giving me a total of 99 minutes and 20,008 steps (7.6 Miles).

Day 6: When I woke up this morning I couldn’t tell what hurt more my hips or my lower back. I can tell you 2 Advil may dull the pain but I can still feel most of my aches. I managed a light 28 minute hike in the woods to keep moving but not to totally put my body out of commission. I am ending the day with 10,532 steps. I have determined that on non-workout days 10,000 steps are acceptable and on workout days 12,500 should be the target steps.  I have to admit I did resort to an extra can of Diet Mt. Dew to get through today.

Day 7: Still a bit sore from Sunday and have hit a lazy patch. I had to really talk myself in to working out tonight.  I motivated myself by purchasing 2 new Just Dance 2 songs: Moving on Up and It’s Not Unusual. I did a solid 49 minutes of cardio and earned 11,915 steps (4.57miles).

Garden Harvest Time

It has been very busy here. Since August 9 we have canned 36 pints and 9 quarts of spaghetti sauce, 21 pints and 3 quarts of salsa, and shredded 10 pounds of cabbage; hoping that it will be sauerkraut. Bill got wild in the kitchen and made 11 half-pints and 6 pints of Satan’s Delight hot sauce. I also tried to make corn relish which looks more like its cabbage relish. Finally we froze about 60 ears of corn.

It is always all harmony in the kitchen the first couple days. But harmony is quickly lost. One finds themselves crying one too many times after you have handled 12 pounds of onions.  But all the labor will be well worth it come January and there is food from the garden to eat.

When Bill was told all he had to do was cut the corn off the cob, he responded “other than plant it, water it and pick it.” Love you, Honey.

This is mom hard at work cutting the cooked corn off the cob. Neither Bill nor mom trusts me with a knife with very good reason.

Around and around we go to get a full stock pot of juice. The food mill in the pan does its job. This is a treasured gem at the farm. It is always well cared for so it doesn’t rust.

Satan's Delight in progress. I have to say I am very proud of Bill. He did all the hot sauce on his own.  Seriously, if you are thinking about canning next year invest in a good canning book. Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving is cheap and very detailed.  It’s almost a Dummies guide to canning.

Mom thanks for the food processor at Christmas!!! I may have never figured out how to make salsa in it, but it shredded 10 pounds of cabbage like a dream.

Please, please turn in to sauerkraut.

The chicken, the chicken, the chicken is on the deck. This is what happens when you free range a bunch of spoiled birds.

I promise the next time I write it will be a non- canning topic.



Family 101

Sunday was our annual family picnic at Armco Park. After eating 2 plates of food and the heat I was down for the count. Talk about a party pooper.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.  In the last post I promised you would meet some of the family. You will hear about them all at one point or another.

This is Jimmy he is my oldest nephew. His interests includes video games, Anime and computers.

This is my sister-in-law Bettiann. You met her in my compost post. She is a nurse and enjoys fishing

This is my brother-in-law Steve. His interests includes gardening, fishing and couponing.

This is my brother-in-law Johnny. His interests includes rock hunting and walks in the woods.

Critters are family too. Sis will be 13 years old on April 13. She is a new breed called an All American German Beagle.  Her interests includes food and sleeping. Bill is tormenting her here with a bandanna.

 

Mika Keister is the youngest at 3 years old.  She is a lab mix and is very smart.  Her interests includes cheese and hunting. She is a wonderful companion dog; until she kicks you in her sleep.

You haven't met everyone, but over time you will. A very busy week is ahead with the garden being in high gear.

Beans & Salsa Puree (Maybe)

It has been a while since I have written; I did warn you. This time of year you spend days working on projects before they are completed. Last Wednesday through Saturday we spent a few hours each day pressure cannning green beans. I have to say Bill had the worse part of the job picking the beans in the high heat. Mom helped out a lot by cleaning them. By noon time on Saturday I thought I would be dreaming of beans. It didn’t help that on the first day of canning Bill was called away to bale hay and I was a little stressed out that I might actually have to try and operate the pressure canner myself.  Luck was on my side 10 minutes before the lid was ready to go on the pressure canner he came home.  After all was said and done the final amount of beans canned is 48 pints and 11 quarts.  

If you decide you want to try pressure canning please follow all the safety tips in the booklet. If not carefully monitored, I would hate to think what 240 degree water, glass jars and 10 pounds of pressure would do.  Here is a good recipe to can green beans http://www.greenbeansnmore.com/canning-green-beans.html. My family’s favorite green bean recipe is available at  http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/green-beans-ole/f5815dc8-85f9-4da1-a4f8-e992c98e124e.

This batch of green beans only made 16 pint jars of green beans.

Can you guess what these ingredients made? On Sunday there were about 35 ripe tomatoes and I wanted to test out making salsa in the food processor I got for Christmas. Let’s just say we could eat these four jars as soup. If anyone has any tips on making moderately chucky salsa in the food processor please share. I am afraid I can't share this recipe, a friend gave it to me.

So it is Thursday and you are wondering what I have done between today and Sunday. I would love to say I took a vacation somewhere. However, I am afraid it was taken up just doing normal day-to-day things like mowing grass, cleaning the house, playing with my dogs and hanging out with the chicks.  I have a feeling the next time I write you'll meet a few more members of my family.

Just Get it Done

I am the queen of half finished projects. Often times I run out of daylight hours or materials then something more important needs done and the project stays half finished for long periods of time. With that in mind on one of my FARMcation days I decided to weed and finish mulching two of my flower beds, I started last year.

Two wagon loads or 6 scoops of mulch were needed to complete this job. This mulch is from the shredded brush from the trees that fell at the farm during the big storm.

4 hours of weeding was made easier with the 4.5 inches of rain we got on Sunday afternoon. This photo shows the water standing off our deck right after the rain.

This is the bed at the top of our driveway half mulched in the spring. All the plants and bulbs in this area were given to me by co-workers or our friends the Burtons last fall. As plants flower I am always surprised with what might appear.

This is the first completed bed with plenty of room to add new plants this fall.

This area is known as the dip and is mostly wild flowers and features a white wild rose (Wild Willie) and pink one (Wild Ruthie). It was taken over by crab grass, Queen Anne’s Lace and clover.

The dip is mostly completed; it just needs a few more wheel barrows full of mulch to smooth out the edges. It will be a few days before I post again. Stay tuned to see what will be on the schedule next.  



Cleaning Day

All the chicken “ladies” demand a clean coop.  I got up at 8:15 am on Sunday morning to make my ladies happy.  

Not a corner was missed. My ladies are very picky.

Some of the ladies were making sure the job was done right.

When everything passed inspection the ladies went off to play in their run.

Yummy for the Tummy

After canning all those peaches I couldn’t resist making a peach cobbler. Bill got this recipe off his favorite cooking show. It was so yummy it was gone in two days. The recipe is available at http://www.cookscountrytv.com/recipes/print/detail.asp?docid=8593

Peach cobbler before it was baked.

Final product, note  take the leftovers out of iron skillet. Otherwise peaches tend to darken from the skillet.



Keep the Water Coming Bill

With the heat index making it over 100 degrees all week we have had to water everything at the farm four times. The first day we tried just laying the hose in a drain pipe to disperse water in the garden. This was an okay method but it was more swamp like at the top of the garden with very little getting to the end of the rows.

Bill (my husband) being the brains of this outfit used a broken garden rake connector to make what is now know as “the water cannon.” The water cannon can reach far and wide and gives a slower, deeper shower then our first method. One must be very strong to operate the cannon for any length of time.

The water for the cannon is pumped out of the spring fed creek that runs near the house.

Bill and his water cannon at 7:30 am this morning.

Peaches Galore

26 pounds of peaches, what felt like 10 gallons of water and 3 pounds of sugar equals 12 quarts of peaches.  I put another 6 hours total in on peaches Tuesday night and Friday afternoon. This time I canned them in a very light (5 jars) and light (7 jars) syrup.  The very light jars will be used for cooking. Detailed instructions on how to can peaches and several other fruits are available at http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/pdf/5343.pdf.

The left side is filled with 2 gallons of cold water, 4 tablespoons each of white vinegars and table salt. This solution keeps the peaches from browning.

Rinse the peaches extremely well or they will retain the salty flavor.

This shows a filled jar with a half inch of headspace. Proper headspace and clean rims are very important to making sure the jar seal.

This is the appropriate way to fill the water bath canner.

Final results, we have already opened a jar from Tuesday night.

Up, Up and Away

I worked a booth this weekend at the MidUSA Ohio Balloon Challenge. Our booth location was in a prime spot for a few good photos.  

The Purple People Eater was by far the best balloon there but was really too dark to be a part of the Balloon Glow.

Smile I'll see you soon.

Peaches Are In Season

26 pounds of peaches, 11 pounds of sugar, 8 lemons and 4 boxes of Sure Jell equals 18 jars of yummy peach jam.

I picked up 52 pounds of yellow Georgia peaches from Amatulli Produce across from the Madison Township fire station Wednesday night. My mother-n-law (who will be called mom from this point on) and I spent a good six hours over the next three days making jam.

It’s not costly or even hard to make jam it just requires PATIENCE and time. If you think you would like to try to make jam or jelly follow the recipe in the Sure-Jell box.  The most high tech tool required is a potato masher.

4 cups of mashed peaches

Cooked jam

The finished product, next up is canned peaches.

Berries Baby

So what do a former chimney and a mound of compost have in common? In this instant the answer is a new bed for berry bushes. About 6 weeks ago the farm had several trees blown down and a brick chimney blown off the roof in a wind and hail storm.  On Saturday, I had the brilliant idea of making a bed out of the bricks.

Bricks and compost loaded for the trip to our house.

The move: My first time driving this tractor by myself and up the hill of our driveway. A bit scary and my cry of triumph was heard down at the farm.

Materials are unloaded and ready to start.

Black Gold, proving the compost pile was active once upon a time.

After two days of high heat and no patience to wait for these weeds to die; I laid newspaper down and just went to work.

An hour later a finished bed is ready for baby berries to be planted.

Our cat Sir Buddy Grey aka “The Situation” helping his mom prepare for tomorrow’s project.