Harvest

Waking up with a migraine, I've allowed myself to be cozy on the couch with a cup of my new favorite tea- The Tea Guy's Coconut Truffle Black Tea.

This has been a busy summer.  Once again, I quit my job (unsafe work environment!), so I have had a bit more time to keep up with the garden and fiber arts.  Somehow, all of this 'free time' does seem free at all!  I've been busy canning tomato sauce and pickles, harvesting dried beans, playing with baby rabbits...

I've named the grey one Sterling and the blue and cream one Pika, both males from the same litter.  We also got another grey male, Firari (runaway in Turkish after he nearly escaped!), who is six months old now.

Firari has bonded with the two kits, and I think they will do well together.  Tavie, our two and half year old male, is kept separate due to his age and inability to bond well with other males.

Why do we have so many males?  Our large outdoor hutch originally had three separate pens, but when we moved, we took those out so that everyone could have a large run and keep each other warm.  We couldn't keep any does with our male without the inevitable happening!  It turned out that our original male was too old or his personality didn't allow him to bond well with our new ones, but these new rabbits seem to be happy and carefree, so I now get to have four angora rabbits =)  I do plan on breeding them in the future.

The garden has been producing well, especially since we had only amended the newly overturned soil with loam.  I've never seen so many cucumbers!

I have probably 20+ pints of pickle slices and three gallons of sour mustard whole pickles in the basement fridge.  Tomatoes had late blight and didn't produce well at all, but I was able to buy 60 lbs of canning tomatoes from Sapowsky Farms and I put up 8 pints of ketchup and 7 pints of sauce from that.  Canning a couple pints of sauce at a time from my own heirlooms, I think we will have enough to last at least into the next year.  Next summer, I hope to have 30-40 tomato plants instead of 15, and I will find a drier spot to ward off rot and blight.  I have also put up 40 lbs of peaches (sliced and jam) from Breezeland Orchards.  If I can get another couple bushels of apple drops from Mt. Pleasant Orchard, I think we will eat well this winter!

One last summer market on the 23rd, and then I might been a vendor at Northampton's winter market!

I think the rest of today should be spent avoiding shelling more turtle beans, finishing the hat that I've been knitting, and watching classic Doctor Who.  Also eating cupcakes because it was someone's birthday and I made sure there would be leftovers.

Next post will be about buying half a freezer pig from Mockingbird Farm!

Peach Jam Recipes, Jon's new sweater, ice cream, and...moving again

Where to begin!  So much has been going lately with my family, the garden, and some big decisions.  We are moving again.  This time it is not a rush decision to get out of a bad situation, but instead a thoughtful decision to help Jon's family and finally be able to save up some money.  Jon's Gramma's house in Massachusetts needs to be looked after long-term.  I hate moving, and I'm not looking forward to being in Mass. again...but having a whole yard and house for very reasonable rent is too good to pass up.  Who wants to help me pack?!

And year, the garden seems to get ahead of me.  The apartment garden is right here, I don't need to get a ride, but I kinda gave up on it when I saw how slow things were and that I really should have improved the soil...which wasn't going to happen when I knew we would be moving sometime.  At my parents'...I should have been in there every day maintaining it, but that is impossible for me.  Squash bugs have now gotten all of my cucurbits (squashes, cucumbers).  Tomatoes are just starting to come in.  Rutabagas are the size of a cabbage.  I see two very large Amish pie pumpkins way out in the back.  Sunflowers are tall.  I'm not sure how it will work with moving and things still going in the garden.  I'm hoping to come back before a major frost.  I should have a very large quantity of winter squash, rutabaga, turnips, cherry tomatoes, green tomatoes and dried beans to share/trade if anyone is interested.  My parents also have tons of sweet corn, cukes, zucchini, summer squash, potatoes and tomatoes for sale!

Until I have my own orchard, I keep an eye out for cheap ways to get fruit and preserve it for the winter.  An orchard near Jon's parents', Breezelands Orchards, sells seconds peaches, a file box full for $10.  These peaches need to be used within 24 hours before they start to spoil...and this year, I got two boxes.  This led to a marathon of peach preserving that did nearly last 24 hours.  I took over my mother-in-law's kitchen and patiently worked over the stove, peeling peaches, stirring sugary mixtures, boiling water.  I still have no idea how many pints I ended up with because I have filled an entire cupboard.  Some of the nicer peaches were sliced and canned in a light syrup, the rest went to jam.

I do not use pectin when making jam, so I ended up taking a basic peach jam recipe and then making my own variations.

Base:
7 cups peach chunks
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 cups sugar

Variations:
Vanilla cinnamon: 1 tsp really good vanilla, 1 tsp cinnamon
Blueberry spice: 1 pint blueberries (then enough peach chunks to make a total of 7 cups of fruit), 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1 tsp almond extract
Apricot: about 1 cup diced dried apricots -or- 2 cups cubed fresh apricots (then enough peach chunks to make a total of 7 cups of fruit), 1 tsp almond extract, 1 tsp vanilla
Cherry:  about 1 cup diced dried pitted cherries -or- 2 cups cubed fresh pitted cherries (then enough peach chunks to make a total of 7 cups of fruit), 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp almond extract
Mango: 1 peeled, pitted, cubed ripe mango (then enough peach chunks to make a total of 7 cups of fruit), 1 tsp rum extract
Spiced peach: 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp allspice

*Try these at your own risk.  These are not proven recipes as of yet, just food experiments =)

I have also been experimenting with ice cream.  My favorite recipes come from David Lebovitz.  Jon's favorite ice cream is rum raisin, and he LOVED David's recipe so much that it lasted one day.  I can wait to try more of his recipes out (when getting the link I just stopped and stared at his recipes for ten minutes).  Maybe tonight will be avocado coconut...but for now, I'm working on Jon's sweater.  Again.  This time, I'm not pulling it out, now matter how silly it looks.  Pictures to come when it actually looks like something.

Peaches, Vermont, and Unemployment

The good news.  Peaches are wonderfully fun to bake with.

 http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1810,143179-235207,00.html

Yugoslavian Peach Cookies,

filled with homemade peach jam.

 They look like peaches!!!

My attempt to beautifully plate my homemade vanilla pudding with peach sauce.

Another piece of good news:  We are thinking of moving to Vermont!  Cheap health care, maternity included (someday...!), cheaper housing, and hopefully stonework for Jon!  Also, it is Not living with our parents-in-law.

The bad news: I stopped working as a nanny for the kids.  Their mom left her job (very good reasons for this), so they don't need me anymore.  I miss them so much!  I knew it would end eventually, though.

Better news: I have been getting quite a lot of translating work recently.  I have pretty much had enough to make it my entire income.  This will really work out when we move, because I have no idea when or where in VT we are going!  Any suggestions out there for good places to live in VT with lots of stone walls?  Jon needs to be able to keep up his work.  I have also had more time to catch up on knitting and baking projects, hence the peach cookies that took me an entire day to make.  I usually go crazy stuck around the house all day, but I am trying to keep myself busy and productive!

Raw milk and peaches

Today, Jon and I are going to go pick some peaches and pick up a gallon of raw milk that I ordered.  I'm very excited!  I've been wanting to make some stove top vanilla pudding- it's so much better than pudding from a mix, or even from a microwave recipe!  I grew up drinking raw milk and never got sick from it- I believe that it is good for you!  A farm that I know posted this link about raw milk:

http://westonaprice.org/press/press/government-data-proves-raw-milk-safe