Saturday, August 24, 2013

The End Of Another Week



It's been another long summer week here on the farm. Lots of canning going on. Batch by batch the freezers and pantry are filling. 


Like the old tortoise .......... persistence is the key!


My counters are filled daily with one crop or another. My nights are filled with plans of what will ripen tomorrow and what I need for the next day. 




I'm serenaded regularly by the ping of canning jars as they seal.


The okra is coming in daily now and we are again stocking up for not only that oven fried okra but also just plain sliced okra for those delicious hot gumbos through the winter. Heat was the key and this crop languishes no more!



The tomatoes also begin to ripen  again in the sunshine as they enjoy these 90 degree days of late.


I also replenish my stocks of sliced squash for those winter casseroles and zucchini for soups.


We've blanched corn on the cob and lots of small niblet ears just the right size for the grand babies.



And a few pints of jarred corn for taco and vegetable soups and just so I always have some corn on hand. 


And those extra 3 roosters from the neighbor are now freezing in my freezer. When the garden slows down I will pull them out and cook them down into broth and canned chicken meat. We know they will be tougher than a boot and pressure cooking them is one way to tenderize that meat. 

This Weeks Tally

2 bags frozen sliced zucchini
4 bags frozen sliced yellow squash
6 bags frozen breaded sliced okra
4 bags frozen broccoli florets
4 bags frozen blackberries
6 gallons frozen corn on the cob
5 quarts frozen bass fillets
1 crock sauerkraut fermenting
16 pints canned whole kernel corn
2 quarts frozen whole kernel corn
 8 quarts frozen chopped cabbage
3 roosters butchered and frozen for making broth and canned chicken later
4 LARGE bags frozen tomatoes for cooking down later into sauce
 ? quart bags of frozen sliced okra

Still Left

Still left to pick or process horticulture beans, red beans, okra, squash, tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe,  watermelon, sweet potatoes, carrots, potatoes, onions, apples, grapes, pecans, walnuts, more peaches, chickens, turkeys, turtles. (God willing)

Fall crops of lettuce, turnips, green peas, spinach, broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts are coming along nicely. 

We continue to pick both green beans and pickling cucumbers and sell them to the produce man when he comes by looking for them to take to the city. Yesterday O Wise One sold him two 5 gallon buckets of pickle cucumbers. Once we can all the okra we want then we will probably let him buy what is left of that also.   



Seeds

We have already saved 2 trays of dried Louisiana Red beans and 2 trays of dried Purple Hull peas as seeds for the upcoming years.

Half a row of Golden Bantam corn has been left in the garden to dry as well as half a row of Jade beans and Lina Sisco Bird Egg horticulture beans. Once good and mature they will be brought in and dried and stored stored.

We have a container of Straight Eight cucumber seeds sitting in water fermenting to separate the seeds for drying. 

We have already collected dried and stored green onion and chive seeds. We still need tomato, cantaloupe, squash, zucchini, okra and watermelon seeds.  

It's late Saturday as I post this and I am waiting for the last of the sliced okra to freeze so that I can bag it.


I am putting supper on now and I have one last towel of red beans to shell then I will be done till Monday morning.

 I look forward to my Sunday afternoon off as O Wise One anticipates his Sunday fishing trip. He already has his bait and rods ready. 

We hope each and every one of you reading this has a safe and happy weekend. 

Until Monday morning........

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter


14 comments:

  1. You're gonna laugh at this ... I have saved about 1/2 c. of butter peas & another 1/2 c. of black crowders & am excited about them. I would be ecstatic about a whole tray! That corn looks so delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love reading your blog. Way back, years ago, when I planted my first garden. A real garden. More than just flowers and a few green onions. Squash was one of the things I wanted in my garden. I dug. I planted. I worked hard and ended up with 17 hills of squash. Yes - 17! That was 5 plants per hill. I had 6 rows of green beans. I forget how many tomatoes - and 17 very pretty hills of squash. Oh my gosh - did I end up with squash!! I was picking about 2 bushels a day, and trying to can it as much as I could. I was giving squash to anyone and everyone I saw. And me and the kids were eating squash nearly every meal. In casseroles, in breads, in cakes...... No one told me when I was making the garden just how fast squash grew. And it was Zucchini, so it just kept coming. Smiles to you - Linda

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh my gosh I don't know what I would do with that much zucchini!

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  3. Excellent looking bounty, neighbor planted 4 mounds of zuchinni this year, my cows are enjoying the ones that have been hidded in the leaves and are now the size of large fat baseball bats, lol.

    Might be a good idea to get a good night's sleep tonight before OWO brings home a bunch of fish to be fixed for the freezer. You will enjoy the fruits of your labor come this winter.

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  4. CQ,

    Now that's what I call saving seeds. Recently, I dried a tray of Juan Canary melon, green Chile, and tomato seeds. We use brown lunch bags to hold them in until I can place them in envelopes and food save the seeds for the freezer. How do you save your seeds if you don't mind me asking?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Some I dry and put into jars and store in a dark container in my cool pantry over the winter. Sometimes Iput them in the freezer and as I save more and more I will probably have to freeze them.

      Delete
  5. I'd like to know how you save those seeds too!

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  6. Beautiful job & harvest.. You make me dizzy with the amount of work and bounty you have to put up. I love the way you guys have that place humming like a well oiled machine...
    I aspire to someday to a half of what you do there..

    I'd love to know what your weekly meals consist of. When I was much younger, I grew much of what we had to eat but I didnt raise any meat so we were mainly vegetarian for the most part.. While I have a fond memory of it, I could never go back to being a vegetarian..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Our breakfasts consist of eggs sometimes muffins, pancakes, biscuits and in the winter grits and oatmeal.

      Lunch is usually leftovers or maybe sandwiches.

      Dinner always has at the least a little meat and lots of vegetables. We eat lots of soups, gumbos and beans and rice. I bake a sweet about once a week anymore.

      Delete
  7. Happy Sabbath! Enjoy your rest!

    I am just curious- how often do you go to the grocery store? What percentage of food that you eat do your grow yourself, would you say?

    I am amazed at what you accomplish each week!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have a friend whose son and his wife raise 100 year old variety of okra and sell to the Hen House stores in Kansas City. They also raise goats and live up by St Joe. It just amazes me to see how much wonderful produce you put up.

    I have a question maybe one of you followers might help me with. I oven canned several pints of mixed dried beans in the spring. I put the little pack of meat flavoring in with them and now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have done it and whether it could make us sick. Any advice would be appreciated!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Powdered meat flavoring? I have never oven canned so maybe someone who has can jump in here!

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  9. When we get roosters that could be tough, we grind them up into sausage. MMMMM Thanks for this awesome blog, you are definitely an inspiration. Lisa

    ReplyDelete

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