Today’s pickings – a canner load of beans
8 large zucchini because I forgot we had planted them in that spot and I thought that was a different type of squash.
5 ears of corn – most of the corn didn’t do very good this year. I will have to deal with canning and making zucchini patties and bread the rest of this week.
Often when I get a new machine, they aren’t interested in what I have to trade in, so they sit here. It was time to clean all that out. So I pulled out the machines and readied for sale the ones that are working. There are two that don’t work well enough to sell them. Since they are electronic machines, I’m not sure what I can do with them. And I’m not sure if anyone will want the accessories that came with them. However, the machines are leaving here shortly. I just have to decide how to deal with them. The good ones will go on Craig’s list.
A new beginning because one needs to do something while waiting for the pressure cooker to do it’s job.
Yes, it took the whole day. I baked 18 medium loaves of no oil, vegan, zucchini bread and grated enough zucchini to fill 6 containers with 8 cups each to make a cream soup throughout the winter. Each package will make enough soup for 2-3 meals. And the recipe is so good! If you want the recipe, just ask and I’ll be happy to share.
Look at the size of these beets. They are huge! Tomorrow I will tackle them and can both plain and pickled beets. Does anyone have a wonderful pickled beet recipe. I looked up on the internet and many are recommending freezing them. I’ve not tried that and the freezer is getting full now. Only the larger beets were pulled so I’m hoping the rest of the beets can be pulled as we need them during the winter.
It is a bit warmer today, but I’m not going to complain as I remember too well, what the cold days feel like. Instead after the produce harvest this morning, I spent some time in my studio which is a cooler basement area creating a few more blocks.
The Sew Fun this week was put on by Lana Jones. She comes up with ideas in her sleep – of which she doesn’t need much. These 3 signs used sticky metallic paper on boards and mounted denim. Aren’t they cute?
Using a piece of tile that she found at Lowes, she put metallic paper on these “rocks”. And they did look like flat rocks. This is such a wonderful way to give a little inspirational gift.
These are made of “Ice Resin” a product to pour in molds. These would make lovely jewelry or nice for key chains.
This is where she caught me. I loved this lightweight jacket you see in peach and black. And it can be made totally on the serger. So I will be looking for fabric to make this.
This book also had some fun projects and the items in this book have both the patterns you can cut out or if you have a Accuquilt, they have a die by Edyta Sitar to make them.
This “Buddy Blanket Bear” has only a stuffed head, so if a young child likes to take a huggie to bed, one could either hand or machine embroider on the open skirt.
After all this, I took a brief rest on the deck. Isn’t this a lovely view? It was such a pretty day. Tomorrow will be more garden time and maybe zucchini bread baking. Don’t hold your breath on that though.
I did find time to make half of the trees before we went out insurance shopping. It seems insurance companies change
they were so good in our salad today.
Greek Marjoram
First, I went out to the back hillside garden to pick some of these lovely onions. I sautéed a large one, then added 2 cups of black beans and 2-3 cups of cooked rice I seasoned it with about 2 ounces of the above shown Costa Rican salsa (which we found on Amazon) and some salt. Once the onions are sautéed, the dish only needs to be heated throughout.
This photo is taken from the other end so you can see the bell peppers. The new lettuce on the right is starting to come up and maybe some beets. On the right at the other end is cauliflower which may or may not get heads. It is rather slow. And so grows what is in the hoop house.
149 little purple hats – 146 from one bolt of fleece and 3 were from left over purple fleece. They are done and waiting for me to find a box to put them up until Sept. It feels so good to have things done with time to spare.
The afternoon was spent playing with this. It takes 75 minutes to process a load of pints with beans after pressure is reached, about 45 minutes for it to cool down and then one must bring it back up to pressure and keep it there for another 75 minutes. Therefore 2 loads of beans takes about 4 hours. And I have to be there since the pressure changes “for no reason”. The stove is electric and doesn’t want to be constant. This time I soaked the beans for 24 hours, packed them in the jars without any cooking. It was so much easier, but next time I will put fewer beans in the jars and still fill them with water. I wonder if I could put salt in them or if that would keep them from getting soft. The top beans do seem a bit dry which is why I will try more liquid and a smidge fewer beans.
This morning before the sun made our part of the world warm, I was able to get out to the garden and pick some food for breakfast and lunch. I wish photos could show how good these berries are.
For lunch I dug potatoes (the blue round items are blue potatoes) and onions, then picked some cabbage which turned into an excellent coleslaw. I had a red pepper which I added and dressed it with avocado/rice vinegar. We had the rest of it for dinner tonight.