It's Strawberry Season!!

 

Just when I said there was "nothing" going on here....BAM!  Strawberries!  I'll be busy over the next few days.  I am cutting back on how many jars of jam I can for us this year.  I canned too many last year.  I do can our jam reduced sugar, so it's more fruit to the jar.  I freeze some for smoothies, crumbles, crisps, and pancakes.  Of course we eat some fresh too.  

It'll keep me entertained indoors, as the Canadian wildfire smoke is choking us out in our state.  I noticed it two days ago.  The smoke is moving south, and we are in it's path, and it is very visible in the air (hazy).

On the extreme clean front, I am now pulling boxes out of my tiny office.  Keep in mind we boxed up the kitchen a year and two months ago, and some boxes from that job were still in there.  It's the last room with carpet too.

I found dishes from Mom's place, a lot of paperwork to shred or toss, 4 cones of black cotton yarn (gulp!), stuff that needs re-homed, some possibly donated, books to donate, and even toys the grandkids out grew already.  Sheesh.  Yeah, I will not be bored this week.

Oh, we finally delivered 5 boxes and one full bag of craft donations.  They were greatly appreciated, and my home has less "stuff" in it.

Strawberry season is here!

 

Strawberry season snuck up on me.  Canning season officially started yesterday.  I'll be even busier the next few days.  I was so no ready for this either.  I used my jam maker yesterday and got a small batch of reduced sugar jam made.

I had a horrible time finding the pectin I use for the jam maker.  I also had to go to 3 stores to locate liquid pectin.  Last year we couldn't find jars, or lids, and this year it's other supplies.

My new item for the island store.  I'm working on the packaging.  I'm thinking about getting some white sand from the Dollar Tree and glue a bit in the bottom corner with a tiny seashell.  What are your thoughts?  Leave it as is, or add the sand and seashell?  It will go into a plastic bag with our farm store label on the backside.

Grilling ~ New Recipe Tried ~ Dehydrating

 

We got more rain yesterday and woke up to a foggy start for the day.  More rain possible today.

Santa Fe Chicken Fajita marinade (for the grill). First time in a year to have to buy organic bell peppers.  There is a cold salad/relish that is great with this, but I do not have a green pepper.

New recipe tried - Strawberry Cheesecake Ice box Pie.  Yeah, I cheated on the crust, but I didn't have the crust ingredients on hand.  I froze it, then topped it with remaining whipped cream and froze again.   It's been tried and sampled.  It's not thick like a cheesecake, but more on the lighter side.  Everyone loved it.  The strawberries are pureed with a bit of orange juice.  I think it was called an "ice cream" pie, but I'll look for it and link it up here later.

9 trays of oregano went into the dehydrator.

I got my green onion starts in the ground before the rain arrived again.

 

Strawberry Season

 

Today I'll be freezing most of these bad boys.  We have already had a cold strawberry pie, but there is one more frozen one I would like to try.  It's been hot, hot, hot here, so frozen sounds great.

We got lots of rain yesterday, but it stopped shortly after dinner time and the sun came out.  Our road almost flooded, but this year, a farmer's son came out and cleaned the drain that goes from his field to a branch of the river and then out to the river.  Thankfully it drained.  However, more rain is in the forecast.

I feel like my to-do list keeps getting bigger and bigger ha ha!  I am trying to balance some indoor jobs based on when the rain is going on outdoors.

My additional grow bags finally arrived, so we'll be busy filling those this week.  Our mower quit on us.  We had to borrow a trailer an haul a borrowed mower in for our "mower guy."  Hopefully we can get ours fixed.  

The garden work has put a huge limit on my handiwork time.  Heck, reading a book has been on halt for a long time too.  

Sigh....me inwardly groaning about what I need to get done today, ha ha!  Oh boy.  

Strawberries ~ Strawberry Vodka ~ Pie Crust Crumbles and other Tidbits

I finally got strawberries at the last picking of the season (not mine).  I have yet to re-vamp our strawberry patch and sadly have about 4 June bearing plants currently (with plans to move them and add many more next year).   

I started a double batch of strawberry vodka.  We like this.  Recipes are all over the internet if you are interested.  I have more strawberries to freeze today.
I made a batch of freezer pie crust crumbles too.  It makes 6 pie crust crumbles.  I use the recipe on King Arthur Flour (available online).

My tip to do this recipe:  I cut the butter and put it in the freezer first.

I then measure out the flour etc. and add a bit of it to my food processor.

I toss in the butter and pulse it until it looks like this.

I then add it to the rest of the ingredients and measure it out using my scale, and freeze them.  All I have to do is thaw it a bit, and add ice cold water and roll the dough.  I have been using this recipe for a while now.

Anyway, that's what's happening. 

Standing and walking helps keep the worst pain away. If you have had sciatica, you know what I am talking about (and I have not planted Arnica this year - totally forgot about it {insert sad face}).

I want to bake and deliver another meal to our friends (wife of the couple had a heart attack).  Praying I feel up to it.  


We caught Mom and 2 kittens.  One kitten may have gotten taken by a raccoon (we have seen some lately).  We are on the job this morning, locating a Humane Society that will take them.  Cross your fingers we do.  It's not easy this time of year for any to take them, as it's kitten season right now.  One kitten is very friendly, the other and Mom are not happy with us.

Sadly, we are heading into a very hot week with no chance of rain until July 7th.  Watering is almost daily, so I hope the garden still progresses during this trying time.

Rain ~ Strawberries ~ Green Onions

I tried to enjoy the pretty sunrise just before it clouded over Wed. morning, but it wasn't clouds that sent me inside.  Darn barn cat Aurora, gifted me another rabbit.  Directly under my feet.  Had to leave the area until said animal disappeared.

(homemade flourless brownie, ice cream, homemade whiskey butterscotch sauce)

I didn't have to cook Wed. night due to leftovers, and they were delicious.  I have to stock up on chicken when I locate it again (true organic, locally raised).  I still want to visit a farm about 1 hour from home, but I'm waiting for Hubby's looooong work days to end first so we can go together.

Bad photo, but I got out to buy another flat of strawberries - 8 qts.  I figured the rain will delay their picking, and when that happens, they don't offer a deal on them, and they are limited or out.  

Before I tackled freezing some strawberries, I headed to the herb garden and unburied the green onions.  This was before.  Lots of rain, lots of weeds.  I was tickled to plant 7 starts though.  I got it 90% weeded out until I ran into more ants.  Had to stop anyway, it was getting very hot out.

Rain fell all night long and it's still raining today.  I hope to have a handiwork post for you soon.

Strawberry Margarita Jam

Saturday the rain  came back again with a vengeance.  I forgot one item at the grocery store - limes.  I had planned on canning jam first thing, but had to go back to the store first.

However, on Friday, I picked up a flat of locally grown strawberries.  Hubby got his cold strawberry pie for Father's Day, and I got some to can jam. 

 

I made strawberry margarita jam for the first time. I did an immediate taste test -  super sweet but very good.  Just a dab ol' do ya'. The recipe is in Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publication:  Canning, preserving, and freezing and drying (Sept. 2013).  The recipe is also online.  

With all the rain coming, we forfeited the last of the sweet potato slips.   I hate to do that, but it's a weather crisis, and I don't want to spend the extra cash on buckets and a truck load of dirt.  Did you know organic soil for vegetables is $6.77/bag (2 cu. ft.)?  I am hanging onto about 6-7 to plant if I can, but that's all the tilled space I have, and we are running out of time.  They take much more time than regular potatoes.

We are getting more rain today.

New Pie!

Although the weather cooled down, my downstairs was pretty humid and warm.  It was cooler to be on the porch, so after a good bathroom cleaning, freezing more strawberries, and baking a pie, I high-tailed it to the porch to crochet.  Even though I should have been weeding, but....


...rain arrived during the night and well, it's we again.  The battle of planting continued.  Not to mention the weeding.

New pie for me.  Believe or not.  We missed out on getting a stockage of strawberries the last two years.  Not this year.  I made my first baked fresh strawberry pie.  Hubby was in heaven on this one too.  It was sadly the last two pie crust crumbles I had in the freezer.  I guess I better dig out my recipe and get that on the to-do list now.

Strawberries, Peas, Wild Black Raspberries and Weeds

My mother wants to know why she hasn't heard from me.  You probably laughed at that, right?

And here is why.  Grab a cup of your favorite beverage....it's sort of, kind of, a long post.  Or come back when you need an excuse to just sit for a spell.

Aside from that mess of a barn we have to clean up (felled tree #2 is still on the ground too)...

We picked up 4 quarts of fresh strawberries.  We used to pick up 12, but we are well stocked with strawberry jam right now. Thankful for that too.  Even if I have miss-counted, we have more than enough of the other fruit jams.  And we are needing to stock up less with the shrinking household.

Three quarts went into the freezer, and 1 quart went into a fresh strawberry pie for Father's Day.

More Rain ~ More Jam

I'm canning more jam.  More strawberries went into the freezer, but I have four quarts left.  It rained off and on, so I could not get into the garden early anyway.

After the first morning batch was made yesterday, I was summoned to take school photos (albeit a bit late this year).  We do not purchase many school photos, due to the high cost, and the girls like to pick out their background here on the homestead.  

Canning Season Starts ~ Strawberries ~ Random Tidbits

Ideally, if we don't get any of one vegetable or fruit, we just do without.   However, we picked up 12 quarts of strawberries.  I took care of six quarts yesterday, but only canned jam once.  Many went into the freezer.

Picking Strawberries ~ Wild Turkey

I picked over a cup of strawberries, and decided to make muffins with them.  I had a few last bags of blueberries in the freezer to use up too.  They are so good.  I was so happy to find a jar of applesauce in my pantry too.

It's the extent of my work yesterday, other than washing a load of laundry.  Storm clouds moved in, but no rain, and just more humidity.  Hot, muggy and uncomfortable.  The kind of weather where you have to peel off your clothes at the end of the day.  My tummy was back to normal about bed time.

Reading, Recipes and Stocking Up

While the internet and cable was out, we did a lot of reading around here. We've been visiting the library much more often this season.  I was able to can a few things too.
 

One of the books I read, was A Killer Maize, A Farmer's Market Mystery, by Paige Shelton.  It was pretty good too.  In the very end of the book, the author shares recipes.  I have never made strawberry syrup, so I saved up 2 lbs. of my Ever-bearing strawberries and made some.  Although the recipe states you end up with 7 - 1/2 pints, I had 5.  Not sure why, other than the strawberries I used maybe.  Next time, I will use more if I have them.  This giveaway is closed now.  Winner is posted.

Honey-Ginger-Lime Fruit Salad Dressing & Severe Storms

Although my naughty hens got into one strawberry beds, I was able to pick enough for a delicious summer fruit salad.  Here is the recipe for the dressing: