Grab a cup of java. I apologize, this post ended up too long.
October was a busy month for us. We had so many plans, our plans had plans. Whew! Three weddings - one in another state up on a hill (they drove us up with a tractor and wagon) over looking a river, the other on a hill at a castle, and the third we didn't make it to.
There were car shows, trunk or treats for the littles, a long distance trip to re-stock baking/cooking supplies (it's hard to find organic non-gmo in our area), garden work, yard work and more.
One thing that did not happen, was our last camping trip, and it's probably a good thing considering. The state put a burn ban on the campground, and the nights were down to the 40's. The whole point to go camping (for us anyway) is to go off grid, enjoy nature, campfire cook, and enjoy an evening campire. No being allowed to have a campfire, was the ticker that crossed the last camping trip off the calendar.
Our days are finally approaching a slowdown (yippee!) for us here on homestead. My kitchen table overflows with squash and pumpkin to roast and freeze, but if you check our weather pattern below, it's been too hot to heat up the kitchen this week.
Weather
October 14th - 55°F High, 40°F Low, Rain, Cloudy
October 16th - Woke up to 37°F (windchill 32°F, Freeze Warning) with a high of 55°F
October 17th - Woke up to 33°F (Freeze Warning), High of 61°F, Sunny
October 21st - 81°F High, 49°F Low
October 24th - Woke up to 37°F, with a high of 62°F
October 25th - Woke up to 41°F and rain for the first time this month, high of 68°F.
October 28th - 32°F in the morning, High of 66°F, Sunny
October 29th - 81°F high, 63°F low, very windy
October 30th - 80°F High, 67°F Low, Cloudy, Warning day for unharvested crop fires due to drought
October 31st - woke up to 66°F (feels like 76°F due to 75% humidity), forecasted high of 77°F with possible rain (I will believe the rain when we see it - still in a drought here)
I tested our first round of frozen breakfast burritos, that I made late September. I wanted to make sure we had a breakfast for Monday mornings, after busy weekends and such. Oddly, I have never frozen breakfast burritos. I thought it would be better than sandwiches. Anyway, they tasted great and came in handy all month. I'd like to try freezing an egg combo muffin of some sort next.
Something else I did during our crazy month. . . I used a pill keeper to store my daily vitamins in, so when we were on the "run" going places I had them in this handy container to simply grab and go.
The next plan was to get some quick dinners in the freezer, other than stuffed bell peppers. Typically, I freeze chili or other hearty soups that re-heat nicely. We ended our bell pepper harvest (harvest was 203 this year) with stuffed bell pepper soup (using up an assortment of odd size peppers).
Pie pumpkin harvest was pretty sad. Two rotted, and only one grew to size. It was a bad drought year for us.
We also planted a new pumpkin, and we got one from that harvest. Crazy year for sure. It is a Jarrahdale blue pumpkin. It weighed in at 13 pounds 14.8 ounces.
The mashed potato squash harvest was a bit better than I thought. Some of the squash were small, but overall, we are happy with our harvest.
You can see one small spaghetti squash in that basket. We actually had 3 out there, but 2 rotted. Our drought year was a bit difficult this year. Last year we harvested 9 and it lasted us all winter in the freezer (you can read about my post where I froze them all HERE).
Two types of sage.
It was a race against mother nature, but herbs were put up for winter. Our freeze/frost came very early this year. There are so many medicinal properties in so many herbs and wild growing "weeds" for our health.
The month of October brought us a bunch of pesky Minute Pirate Bugs. They are tiny, but they are a pain in the rump. They swarm and bite, and will leave you a nasty welt. I tried to enjoy the porch on the warmer days, but the bugs were horrible. I found that if I sprayed myself down with homemade bug spray, and then also burned a citronella candle, it helped keep them away.
New recipe tried! We baked butternut squash fries for the first time, and oh my gosh they were delicious! We didn't even want to make the dip for them. The final coating is grated Parmasan Cheese. I did learn from this, that I need to oil my parchment paper. These will stick to the paper, and make it difficult to turn, but overall tasted wonderful.
The other new recipe we tried, is called Sweet Potato Chicken Patties, but I used ground turkey. I'll be back to share the recipe if I can locate it again. I love an "all real food" recipe. These froze great too. I accidently made the patties/burgers too thin, but I re-shaped them after they thawed. Recipe said 3/4 of an inch thick, and I used our grill burger smasher tool. either way, these were delicious.
We also tried a new 3 bean salad. The dressing is similar to other dressings, but overall we loved this one. I used garden jalapenos for it. The recipe is online from CleanFoodCrush. It's called Marinated 3 Bean Salad. There were two things I did not do as instructed by the recipe. One, I used the juice of one entire lemon (it was maybe 1 Tbsp more juice), and two, I chopped up about 1/2 cup of olives vs. one entire cup.
Other days have been busy in the kitchen, or in the garden. I have yet to replace my blender, so I made our basil pesto using my food processor instead. I am just not happy with what I am seeing in stores. I will keep looking.
The garden was completely cleaned out and tomato stakes put away. Our cheap fencing we put up for the green beans was finally taken down and rolled up for next year. We have tilled it, and fall garlic was planted.
Flower beds are being weeded, as the leaves continued to drop. As of today, the geraniums in our hanging pots are still blooming. It's crazy! We've typically taken down dead plants by the end of Septemeber, and put up outside Christmas lights by now.
Did we get any fun in our month of October? Well, sort of. In fact, I have a funny story about visiting an antique store.
We went into the store to look for a small table, and to simply look at kitchen chairs. We walked by a shelf of used books and my husband randomly pulled a book about a donkey. He said I should buy it and read it. To humor him, I agreed. As we walked to the cashier to pay for the $4 book, I hear him say I could have a donkey too. The excited me, turned around, only to see him laughing and holding a glass donkey! Oh, he thinks he's is so funny some days. We both got a laugh. I still want a donkey, ha ha!
I have yet to read the book, as my husband (oddly) has already started reading it and said it is very good so far.
I am so happy that we can finally slow down, or rather get things done that need done. Winter is approaching, where we spend more time inside, so I may be moving some furniture around, changing bed covers, washing curtains, and doing a deep cleaning here and there.
I finished the baby blanket with the new pattern (thanks to so much traveling this month). The pattern is from the Crochet Crowd online, and the pattern is free. I'll have to look up the actual name of it for you all. I love it, but now I want to make one in blue, and I have zero baby yarn in blue ha ha! Oh, boy. I may have to sneak some yarn into the house.
Lastly, I have questions for those who can and preserve. .
I think someone here mentioned this to me before, but I cannot find it on my blog, but is there a stainless steel water bath canner that is better to buy? Brand name or location to buy would be helpful in deciding on what to upgrade to.
Does anyone have a tried and true recipe, for making and freezing cold/flu bombs? I have two recipes, but the comments for both say to change a lot of the recipe. Anyone? These are mixed up (lemon, garlic, honey etc.), strained, and frozen in ice cube trays, to drop into hot tea for relief during a cold or flu.
Best cookbooks for sourdough bread baking? Believe or not, it's the one bread I have yet to even tackle, and I really want to do this. Tips? Suggestions? What not to do? Starter suggestions?
