She cut off their tails with a carving knife

I've been feeling pretty farm wife-y this past week, as I've been moving away from unpacking and settling into some domestic tasks around here. Before a whirlwind trip to Portland, Tres picked all of the ripe cucumbers and I whipped up a batch of bread and butter pickles. Slicing them in the food processor saved a lot of time (and made them WAY more uniform than I ever could) and I cut the few small ones into spears. Next, it was just a matter of heating the brine, heating the cucumbers and onions in it, pouring both into hot jars, and water bathing them. All in all, not too difficult or time-consuming and, hopefully, delicious.

sliced and ready for pickling

pickles

 We came back on Saturday to hot weather and LOTS of stuff ready for picking in the garden. On Monday, I picked all of our ripe tomatoes and canned our first batch. Our plan this year is to can a batch (7 quarts is a full canner load) every time we have enough tomatoes ready, rather than our former method of canning all 60 pounds for the winter in one weekend. It makes sense with our garden's production, but I'm not convinced it makes much sense in terms of our time. It took me about 5 hours, including picking, to process all of the tomatoes, which ended up filling only 5 quarts. Now, part of this was due to the fact that I couldn't locate all of our equipment (using a regular kitchen pot meant multiple loads, rather than the one or two I could have processed in our large pot), but after a very tiring morning, I was not sold on  the new plan. Time will tell and, as we do more, I may change my mind . . . we'll see.

first batch of canned tomatoes

My  mom was up for the morning and afternoon on Wednesday, so while I baked loaves of cucuzzi bread to freeze, she graciously took on another task on my to-do list: making baby wipes. I had long been intending to hit up Goodwill for flannel sheets, but hadn't quite managed to get around to it, when I came upon a package of brand new cotton flannel sheets while unpacking. Now, I wouldn't normally repurpose a brand new item, but these were (seemingly, although no one remembers their provenance) a relic of our college years and for an extra long twin sized bed, not a size we will ever need again. So, while I baked, my mom dilligently tore the sheets into 8" x 8" squares. The next day, I started sewing them together (I made them two-ply and finished the edges by zig-zagging around each one twice - it uses a lot of thread, but, I hope, will stand up to repeated washings). They aren't beautiful, I'm working quickly and am frankly not a great sewer to begin with, but are definitely functional and super soft. Plus, when you consider their purpose, beauty doesn't seem like it should be much of a factor. . . I'm a little over halfway done with the flat sheet and will have 58 wipes when I finish, which feels like a good start.

stack to sew

completed wipes

I baked and froze 8 loaves of cucuzzi bread over the course of two days (and didn't manage to get any photos, as I was too involved), which used up some of our surplus squash, although not as much as I'd hoped. Next, it was more tomatoes. One of our varieties (Principe Borghese) is mainly grown for drying, as it's not too exciting as a fresh tomato, so we were eager to give it a try. I halved them, spread them in pans, sprinkled on some salt, covered them with cheesecloth (to keep off dirt and bugs) and set them out behind the house.

sliced and salted

drying in the sun

After one day, they looked like this:

After two, they looked done, so we put them into a jar and started a second batch. They taste pretty darn good (and I am notoriously not particularly enthusiastic about sun-dried tomatoes) and we're excited to experiment with them this winter.

after two days of drying

our first batch

I also did all of our baby laundry, including pre-washing our cloth diapers. It wasn't a huge amount of work - everything is so small, it fit in two loads - but it felt good to get ourselves a little more prepared for October, which seems to be coming on faster every day.

drying diapers

all of the clothes, burp cloths, etc.
fit in one load - amazing!