Pioneer Woman at Heart

Just 2 days after finding out we could set up meals on wheels for my Mom, the newspaper printed an article about food shortages and "problems" getting meals to seniors.  I sighed.  Just when we found a solution, the darn covid issues stomped them.  The article mentioned bulk food prices for them went 4 times higher than in 2019. They are making adjustments. Our local schools are experiencing the same food shortages, and now they lack enough bus drivers due to covid and sick drivers.  They had an emergency meeting.  They may have to go back to in-home schooling again.  Currently, they are asking parents to share rides.  Some parents are not able to do this.  We gave family and friends with kids in that school system. My husband worked all weekend.  We were up early drinking coffee and I realized I need to get the garden hoses off the house and put into storage.  It also meant I needed to pull the beets and carrots (need the hose to wash t...

Conversation while taking the laundry off the clothesline. Me:  "Honey have you seen what I've gotten done in the garden lately?" (which is a small start) Hubby: "Yeah." (looking out at the garden) Hubby: "Do we really have to take all that out?" Me:  "Well we can't very well till it in." Hubby: (after a long pause and sigh) "I guess we can't" (lowers head) Lots of hard work in the garden, and I imagine over the weekend.  We'll see what gets done I guess.  Potatoes have to cure for about 10 days before going in our potato bin.  This puts me in a bind for space.   No less, I dug the remaining Kennebec and more sweet potatoes on Friday, and brought in another 30#.  My kitchen will be a mess for another 10 days plus.  I guess I can live with that.  I just hope the food sharks (dogs) don't run off with any during the process.  The one thing I did not thing about - where am I storing the sweet potatoes...

The carrots are all out of the ground - 7.7# more. I got them all out after a day of rain, but it was so wet out there.  I could not pull dead plants, and then the rain returned this morning.  With a vengeance.  This puts all garden work, and barn work to a halt.

Pears are about ready to be picked.  Hubby brought in 5 or 6 and some were hard as a rock, so we have time yet to pick them.  Thank goodness. Two of them were ripe however, so I used one to can carrot cake jam for the first time.  Using our homegrown carrots, a home grown pear, and a few purchased ingredients.  I used this recipe:  Carrot Cake Jam. It uses the same amount of sugar that most recipes online require, but a mix of white granulated and brown sugar.  I have wanted to try this recipe for years, but put it off.  We didn't get any carrots last year either.  I can't remember why, but we didn't get beets or carrots.   Anyway....

If you think I crossed off my to-do list yesterday (Happy Homemaker Monday post), you are incorrect.  And you are probably happy to see we all can't get everything done in a day, ha ha! I got half of the carrots dug up.  They are not all the best in size, but there are plenty.  Some are fairly large, so we are happy regardless.  I still have half the row to dig up.  I'll be weighing these this morning.  Most will go into the freezer, considering we do not have a basement, root cellar or other.  More popcorn was brought in, but

I have found yet another way to use sorghum molasses - flavored butter for winter squash, sweet potatoes, or carrots.  If you don't want the extra brown sugar on your acorn squash this winter, it is a nice substitute.

I pulled the last two bags of garden carrots from the freezer.  I added them to dinner last night, and made Honey-Ginger Carrots.  It's very simple to make too.   (Homemade tuna and noodle using homemade mushroom soup and soy free tuna, honey-ginger carrots and organic peas). Boil the carrots

I tried a new white bean soup recipe - White Bean Soup with Greens and Rosemary.  I found it in a book my Dad gave me years ago (Super Foods Rx), but there are many versions of it online as well.  The rosemary in this soup makes it taste wonderful, along with a pinch of cayenne.

I'm not really a fan of baking yeast rising breads when it's colder in my house, so I wanted to try this 1969 cookbook recipe for a sandwich bread. Homemade Bread, By the Food Editors of Farm Journal © 1969. The recipe caught my eye, because it uses carrots in the recipe.  My first choice in "shortening" in this recipe would be real lard, but I do not have access to any.  I used organic, non-hydrogenated shortening.  If I keep coming up with reasons for lard, Hubby may reconsider raising our own pigs too.

Saturday we got a good amount of work done - one trip to recycling (huge load because for some reason we had a ton of cardboard), one trip to Goodwill, several bags to the garbage, swept up the back area by garage, washed curtains and windows.  I found a cute tin for my tea, and for only $.50.  I just need to wash it up. We finished up more work on Sunday. 

The temperature here dropped to the 20's last night, so I made soup to warm us all up.  I admit, I had my doubts that the kids would eat this soup, and I was pretty sure a few would refuse to even taste it. I've been experimenting this week with sweet potatoes.  They were on sale, so I stocked up on some.  This recipe comes from Allrecipes , and contains sweet potatoes, carrots, an onion and an apple.  It also contains freshly grated ginger and red lentils too.