Sauerkraut is bully*

Well, it's official: I just put the last jar of sauerkraut into the canner, thus completing this year's food preservation. Admittedly, I should be using the remainder of naptime to clean the kitchen, but instead, I thought I'd write a little update on what we've been doing this past month.

This guy's busier than ever, walking over to investigate
and explore everything he comes across

While I went down to help my parents with a painting project, Tres and Silas bought 100 pounds of apples. The following weekend, we (S-L-O-W-L-Y) made them into 31 quarts of applesauce. We went with McIntoshes again, as we were really happy with the sauce we made from them last year. As usual, our handy dandy slicer/peeler was worth its weight in gold (even if we have use a clamp to attach it to the table) and I discovered that, since the Macs are so soft, we could grind them without an initial cooking. Despite our time saving, it still took us the better half of the day to get through them all. I'm excited for a winter's worth of delicious applesauce, though. 

75 of our 100 pounds

That same weekend, Tres shredded enough cabbages to fill his birthday crock with this year's batch of sauerkraut. It fermented for about three weeks before today's aforementioned canning.

Don't mind the small photo bomber on the left

There are some new babies around here these days too. A few weeks ago, we received 25 Plymouth Barred Rock chicks from the hatchery. They've been hanging out in a cozy box in the shop, Tres has sold 11 thus far, and we're hoping to end up with a flock of 8 (9 on the outside) hens ourselves. Silas has been very excited about the new arrivals and likes to watch them, while hooting loudly - they might not be quite as excited about him . . .

These are photos I took a few days after they arrived - 

they're in full on gangly awkward mode these days

They have plenty of room, they're just not huge fans of the camera

* Found this while googling Sauerkraut - oh, you Nova Scotians.

You'd better stop the things that you're doin'

Happy Halloween!

I hope that those of you on the east coast are safely riding out the storm and its aftermath. We've been thinking about you lots and hoping that the repair and recovery period moves quickly.

The cool rain here feels like the Halloweens of my childhood and makes me nostalgic for hot cider, also this:

Yes we're going to a party party

One year ago today, we were doing this:

and now we're doing this:

Everyone says it, but it truly is amazing how swiftly the time flies. Happy, happy birthday, sweet boy - we've loved our first year with you and can't wait to see what the next one brings.

Breeze blows leaves of a musty-colored yellow

Ok, so leaves haven't exactly started falling (although I have seen some starting to change color this week), but we're definitely getting into the fall mindset around here . True, the weather has changed a bit (it's getting cooler at night and, while lovely, sunny, and warm during the day, it doesn't have the same baking heat we had last month), but I think our transition has more to do with our activities over the past couple of weeks. 

Tres harvested the sweet potatoes, potatoes, and squash from the garden and brought them up to the shop to cure and store. We've been dipping into them already and they're pretty great. Silas is a big fan of the sweet potatoes and has enjoyed all of the squash we've tried so far. Guess he's a fall boy.

A couple weekends ago, we hit up the farmer's market and came home with about 40 pounds of Bartlett pears. We haven't preserved any since we were in Seattle (which is over 2 years ago now - wowee) and I was really hankering for some. As you can see below, they were quite green and hard when we first purchased them. I was interested to learn that pears are one of the few fruits that should be allowed to ripen after they have been picked, as those that ripen on the tree become mealy and mushy. Who knew?

I started off trying out a recipe for preserves that seemed similar to some Tres longingly remembers from his childhood. That involved peeling and slicing the pears, then letting them sit overnight in some sugar, before cooking and canning the preserves the next day. I used this recipe (good name for a blog, huh - I swear that's not why Tres chose that recipe : ) ) and what I tasted was pretty darn nice. It's quite, quite sweet, so I suspect a little dab will do you, but it has a lovely intense pear flavor.

Next up was pear butter, my impetus for buying the pears in the first place. Tres made amazingly delicious pear butter the last year we lived in Seattle and I hoped to make something similar. So, more peeling and coring, then pureeing (I used the mixer's meat grinder attachment, just like when we make applesauce), and heating in the crock pot with spices overnight. It was this day that the prep started to weigh on me. Forty pounds hadn't sounded like that much when I started, but the vegetable peeler and I aren't really friends (you'd think we'd have come up with something easier/more efficient in this modern day and age) and it takes FOREVER. Despite my enthusiastic helper (see below) it was a slow, messy day. I was pretty happy with the result, when all was said and done, although I'm not it measures up to my memory of Tres's . . . we'll see how I feel with some distance from the process.

Now that I was really ready to be done with pears, I still had about 10 pounds left. I ground them up (after peeling them of course - ugh), added some spices, heated the puree, and canned them. I think they should go over big with Silas this winter. So, that's my saga. Pears are delicious and, ultimately, I'm glad I got them, but man, I wish there were a shortcut for dealing with them!

L to R: butter, preserves, and sauce (the lighting
is poor, but you get the general idea)

Just think, in a couple more weeks it will be time for applesauce (at least we have a corer/peeler for that)!

Lemon tree very pretty

Woof, this past week's been a real doozy. The small one has readjusted his waking time to 5 a.m. and no amount of otherwise manipulating his schedule (new naptimes? fewer naps? later bedtime?) has changed his mind. To be fair, there's a lot going on with him right now - he's started walking (he takes 5 or 6 steps at a time and is pretty Frankenstein-y with stiff, bowed legs), looks to have 2 new teeth coming in, and has officially outgrown most of his summer clothes. While it's very exciting, none of that changes the fact that I'm seriously sleepy. Therefore, in lieu of a new entry today, I leave you with a photo essay from making lemonade earlier this summer.

I've still been keeping myself plenty busy and will have a more informative entry to share soon; here's a preview:

Old friends, new friends

We've done some good visiting this past month. While Tres was away for two weeks for work, my mom came up to visit for a few days and we constructed Silas's Tripp Trapp (my childhood chair), made jam, and did our best to stay cool.

Trying out his "new" chair

I didn't get one of them during the visit, but
here's one from the wedding this summer

The next week, Silas and I then made a quick trip down to see the folks. We had a dear friend and her son, who is just one month older than Silas, over for a visit. It was pretty funny to watch the little boys play "together" and of course a welcome opportunity to do a little catching up with each other's lives. The next day, Silas and I met another old friend (she and I met in Camp Fire in 3rd grade!) for a lovely walk and picnic in the park.

Silas and Landon last November

And a few weeks ago

The following weekend, we had a quick visit from good friends from Seattle - I taught Z for two years (first in preschool and then Pre-Kindergarten) and, in the process of getting to know her, also became friends with her mother (and later the rest of their lovely family too). They came bearing gifts, sweet dears, of a hand-me-down bed for Silas (it's super sweet - it has a slide!) and a hat for me. We tried to repay them slightly, with some tasty treats from the garden. It was really wonderful to see them and share a bit of our life here and I hope that there will be another opportunity for all of them to come out and stay with us sometime.

I (foolishly)failed to take any photos of our visit,

but you can admire my sweet hat!

Over labor day weekend, we had a visit from one of our oldest friends. We kept her busy, hiking, visiting an outdoor music festival, cooking, and making peach butter (and of course, the ever popular emptying the dishwasher), but still had plenty of time for visiting and hearing about her exciting future life changes too.

Regrettably, this is the only photo that
I have from her visit (silly!)

A few days later, we had yet another old dear friend (I know that those adjectives are becoming repetitive, but I can't come up with any as appropriate) and his new fiancee stop by. It was really fun to show them the house and the property, hear about their recent road trip, and for them to see how much Silas has grown and changed in the past few months. Added bonus: banjo time!

Learning to play the banjo

There must have been something
interesting on the ground. . .

Finally, Tres's dad was out this past weekend to finish our deck, by building a bench in one corner. It turned out beautifully and we promptly put it to good use, eating dinner on it that night. It is most excellent and I look forward to many more family meals on it.

Trying out the bench

Since moving out here, it's been my hope that (despite being a significant distance from all of our friends and family) our home could be a desirable weekend destination. I feel like we finally got a taste of what that could be like these past few weeks and it was really great. Life can feel pretty isolating out here sometimes and there's nothing like having some guests to rekindle your social skills and, most importantly, reconnect you with people you love. While many of them live near each other, it is rare that we get to visit everyone when we are nearby and it's been really nice to be able to focus our attention on individuals while they were here. Hosting visitors can really give a wonderful perspective on what you love in your life too. While I can often feel overwhelmed by the seemingly never-ending process of moving in and setting things up (we have been in the house for over a year now and still have almost nothing on the walls, except for in Silas's room), our house is comfortable, we get to do lots of things that we love to do here (cook, preserve, garden, raise animals, eat, spend time together), and it really is slowly coming together too. So, thank you everyone for coming out to see us and if you're reading this and haven't made it out yet, what's keeping you?

Yes, I can, yes, I can!

Ah summer, you're the busiest time of year and thus most blog-worthy (or at least full of the most fodder) and yet also, due to said busy-ness, leave so little time to actually write anything down. Case in point, I started composing this entry on August 9th and it is now, well. . . no longer August. It's been a good month and I'll do my best to talk about all that's gone on, although likely not give it quite the focus it could/should have. To begin, the garden has been a little slower this year than last, in that we've only been completely overwhelmed by tomatoes, eggplant, melons, and pumpkins for the last few weeks, rather than for the past two months. Tres is talking about downsizing a bit next year, as two years of trials have given us a pretty good idea about which varieties we like and do well here. Perhaps he'll want to talk a little bit more about that on here sometime this fall/winter.

A few minutes picking yielded a bowl full of tomatoes (my favorite, "Katja")

I tried to make and freeze cucuzzi bread again, but unfortunately was a bit behind on my harvesting. I got a biggie I was sure would yield lots of bread, unfortunately it was way too far gone. It was well on its way to gourd-dom, with skin so hard it was virtually impossible to cut and full of big seeds on the inside. As we're up to our eyeballs in pumpkins right now (or rather the garden is full, but it will be time to harvest them soon), perhaps I'll try to make and freeze some pumpkin bread instead. 

giant cucuzza, incredulous face

As the garden winds down, the pantry continues to fill.  Two Saturdays ago, Tres picked about 100 pounds of tomatoes for us to can. With Silas in the mix, we were definitely slower than in years past, but we finished by mid-afternoon and still had some time for other work and even a little relaxing at the end of the day. There are more tomatoes still ripening, so we will likely do one more batch in another week or two.

Time to do the tomatoes

33 quarts of tomatoes

A few days later, we headed to the local orchard and picked about 45 pounds of peaches. We ate and baked with a number throughout the week and the following weekend, with the help of a visiting dear friend, we turned them into 17 half pints of peach butter and 8 quarts of peach halves in syrup. I managed not to take any photos of the peaches or, more importantly (and sadly), our visitor, but here's what the pantry's looking like these days and a current inventory:

So, from the left to right, we've got the aforementioned peach products, 11 half pints of amaretto cherries, 6 half pints of  blackberry/raspberry jam, 6 half pints of blackberry jam, 7 half pints of blueberry jam, a few quarts of last year's leftovers (including sun-dried tomatoes in the foreground), 14 half pints of strawberry balsamic syrup and jam, 13 half pints of nectarine jam, and, of course, the tomatoes up above. Toast is going to be exciting this winter!

Also, two giant squash and about 7 more down in the shop, not to

mention the many, many still waiting down in the garden.

Time to get roasting and pureeing!

Despite the above evidence to the contrary, we've been up to a bit more than cooking and preserving this month, but I think this is plenty long, so I'll write a bit about our visitors and visiting in another entry (and post it before another month goes by, I promise). In the meantime, even though the time has flown by, I find myself looking forward to fall and enjoying the feelings of change in the air.

We'll all be gone for the summer

Sorry again for the radio silence around here. I had really hoped to get a post up before we headed out to Montana for Tres's sister's wedding last week, but it just didn't happen. We're back and (mostly) recovered now, so I'll try to catch up. Since chronology hardly seems to matter at this point, I'll lead off with a few photos from the trip.

The photos above are from our visit to Yellowstone -

how sweet is that bison?

 Pig races!

 A little pre-wedding wiffle ball

This one's for AR: 

Proud Papa

 The happy couple, their officiant, and the ring dog

All duded up

Meeting other babies

My side of the family

Friendly competition?

Scotty tries to share

We have a dance

It was a beautiful, super fun wedding and a wonderful trip. 

A couple of weeks ago, my dad picked us a flat each of blackberries and raspberries and I did something I've been wanting to do for years now: made caneberry jam. I made a batch of blackberry and a batch of raspberry/blackberry. I adapted recipes from The Blue Chair Jam Book, which I've borrowed from the library, and I'm really happy with how they turned out. I may have to buy a copy for myself - while not all of the recipes are relevant to us (many include ingredients/seasonality specific to California), the ones I used were spot on and it's really a lovely book to look through and read. The few recipes I've tried have already taught me a lot, especially that making jam in small batches is much easier than trying to double or triple recipes. While this shouldn't be that surprising, I hadn't really considered how much longer the process (essentially cooking enough water out of the fruit for it to thicken) is made by increasing the amount of fruit. Following the method* Rachel Saunders describes made the whole process so easy and it turned out so well, that I think I am officially converted to a multiple small batches girl.

Ingredients heating

My trusty assistant

The weekend after that, we made our second annual trip to pick blueberries. It was shaping up to be another hot day, so we were glad we headed out early.

Silas was fairly content to play with the bucket and crawl around and then was happy in the carrier for awhile, but had had enough after 45 minutes or so. Luckily, we were most of the way there and I was able to entertain him while Tres filled up the last bucket (it helps to be married to a former pro blueberry picker). We picked a little over 20 pounds and it was more than enough to freeze 26 pint jars, make 7 half pints of jam (another winner from the book mentioned above!), and still have plenty for fresh eating.

I've got some nectarines macerating in the fridge now and once that jam is done, it will be time for peach butter and canned peaches, followed quickly by tomatoes (canning that is, not jam). The garden is going gangbusters - we're eating as many melons, tomatoes, and eggplants as we can manage and sharing plenty with the neighbors. These are delicious, exciting times, if a bit busy.

* I followed her directions explicitly in cooking the jam, but used a water bath to can, rather than her oven method, as I felt more confident with it.