This month has been a whirlwind. I've been up to my ears in produce... most recently, apples. I made apple sauce and apple pie filling (still have apple butter from last fall!) and an apple crisp... and I still have more apples needing to be processed. I only started with 30lbs worth!
Other projects:
The Honeybee Festival at the Norfolk Botanical Garden. The girls got to uncap the honeycomb and then spin the frames in the extractor to see honey flowing. I told them they better pay attention, because next year we'll be needing all the help we can get!
The best discovery so far this summer has been the VA Beach Farmer's Market Produce Auction. The photo below was my haul from my first night attending (they are held every Wednesday through the end of Sept, I believe). I forgot what I spent, but I think it was like $63 for everything. And I had a blast.
The second time I went, I had a smaller haul but I was so pleased to finally score some pickling cukes. I made a batch of bread and butter pickles using my Aunt Audrey's recipe. These are the pickles I grew up on and I was tickled pink when I tasted them... exactly how I remember them!
I wasn't planning on buying zucchini, but they were selling two boxes and I bid $4 thinking it would get things moving. No one bid against me! Luckily, my neighbor took one box. I *ONLY* got 12 quarts of shredded zucchini out of what you see there!
There were 6 ears of field corn in the box I purchased at the first auction, so I dried them and ground them into cornmeal. Works like a charm on the pizza stone!
I made this lunch bag from a pattern I got online... it's designed to hold two pint jars for those looking to eliminate plastics. I was so thrilled with the way it came out, I bought a few more patterns and will be sewing some more bags this winter!
My basil was wanting to flower, so I 'trimmed' it and had to make several batches of pesto. Gotta love herbs!
This is what my canning shelf looks like (mind you, the jelly cupboard has been full for awhile!) I am officially out of room. But the vineyard opens 9/1 and I WILL be picking grapes for juice and jelly!
I didn't take any pictures, but this afternoon I finally got around to making mozzarella with the kit from New England Cheesemaking. It really wasn't hard at all and I can't wait to have fresh cheese for our pizza nights!
This week I hope to stock the freezer with items for the kids' snacks and lunches so that once school starts next week, it won't be such a chore packing them. Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment