Canning Adventures

Belatedly, as this took place in early July...

Cucumbers shredded for relish

Onions cleaned, to be diced for relish

Dye for lime pickles

First round of cherries being washed.  36 lbs total

Various pitting tools...
We broke the spring-loaded pitter, and in the breaking decided how we would completely redesign it.
By the end, we were pretty efficient with knives.

No words...

My first canning casualty, it exploded promptly on being placed in the canner.
What a sticky mess!

End of the day...
Many, many jars of sweet cherries in light syrup
One batch of lime pickles
One batch of relish.

Onions were grown at Purgatory Ranch.  Pickles came from our in town garden or (mostly) from our good friends.

With gratitude to the friends who picked up the cherries, cut the onions, and pitted the lion's share of cherries (this includes James!), I declare we had a successful canning day, even for the two pregnant women involved.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Leftover Lemons

It's going to take many more lemons than I thought to make strawberry lemonade concentrate.  In the meantime, before I buy the 30+ lemons I still need, I wanted to show you what I did with the lemon left after juicing...

You should always wash your lemons first... and removing the peel might be easier before rather than after juicing, but I didn't think of this before, and it wasn't too bad.

Remove the peel from your lemon.  Only the yellow, not the white, please, as it is bitter.

If you are a sensible person, you might boil your peel in 1/2 c. water and 1/2 c. vodka to remove impurities or wax, but since the directions don't say to discard the boiling liquid, I would assume your impurities are still in the final product, so I didn't boil.

For every one lemon's peel, add 1/2 c. vodka.  Shake up bottle and store in a dark place.

Lemon extract!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

In Town Harvests

Rainbow carrots, blackberries, a cucumber, and onions...

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

The morning after...

the driveway

tomato damage

smithereens of rainbow swiss chard

pounded cukes

luffa

sweet potato

OUCH!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Homemade Tortillas

Today, since it was chilly in the house, I made a double batch of flour tortillas.  Last time I made tortillas, the experience ended in a rush to minor emergency for a double ear infection.  This time, the day was quieter, the process smoother.

Making tortillas first joined my list of recipes to try because the local Aldi's stopped carrying the smaller flour tortillas, and when I looked at the salt and fat content, I knew I needed to try my own.  Many websites called for tortilla presses, but they are either expensive or poorly made, and I don't need another kitchen implement that has limited uses.  Besides, the girls LOVE rolling out tortillas.

The basic recipe:

4 c. flour (I used half whole wheat and half white)

2 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

2 T. lard

1 1/2 c. water

Mix together first three ingredients.  Add lard.  I cut it in with a pastry blender, then smooshed it around in my fingers, but you could go straight too smooshing it with your fingers.

Add water, stir in.  Because my home-ground whole wheat flour can be slow at absorbing water, I mixed in the water, then let the bowl sit while I mixed a second batch before dumping onto my counter and kneading.

Start heating your skillet(s) to med high heat now.

 Add flour to the counter, then knead into a smooth ball.  It won't be stretchy, but little excess flour should be on the counter.  If the ball is sticky, stop.

Cut it into pieces.  The original recipe (whose source I lost) called for 24 pieces, but I was afraid the pieces would be too small.  I opted for 16.

With a WELL-FLOURED rolling pin, roll out each chunk until it is as thin as you want.  Mine are not perfectly round, and some are thicker than others, but they will all taste great.

Drop into the skillet.  Cook for 1 minute, then flip and cook for another minute.  Because I forget to start my skillet early enough, my first tortillas took longer than one minute on each side.

I used two skillets to speed up the process and may try the grill some time when my husband is home.

Enjoy your tortillas.  They're quite yummy!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

"Koi Pond"

 Ah, the joys of owning an old home on clay soil with a high water table

Potato Preparation

Start with seed potatoes.  Lots of seed potatoes, if you're as crazy as we are.  This year, we're planting

31 pounds of Kennebec (2011's champion)

10 pounds of Yukon Gold (2011's least productive)

15 pounds of Purple Viking (2011's middle in productivity)

15 pounds of Dakota Crisp, new to us this year

5 pounds of Red Norland, another new potato to us.

(76 pounds!) 

Also, 5 pounds of All Blue will be coming in a few weeks.

You also need a good, sharp knife.  I used a knife from my kitchen..

 Each of my potatoes was cut into smaller pieces, about the size of a hen's egg, and each piece had to contain at least 2 eyes, although some contained plenty more.  I noticed the Yukon had a bad habit of being full of eyes at its narrow end, but then the bulk of the potato had no other eyes.  Does that coincide with productivity in any way?

Some people recommend cutting the potatoes several days in advance, then lying them out to dry and heal, but I cut mine the day before since I don't have space for 76 pounds of seed potatoes to lay out.

After cutting into pieces and discarding any moldy/rotten parts, I loaded the potatoes back into their bags and into the back of the van for moving to their planting sight.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

katie z.

Dryer Free Month

I didn't turn on my dryer this winter until November 30.  Thank God I was using it during the Great Vomit, as I think in the space of a week and a half, I washed 12 or more loads of laundry.

At the end of December, I realized certain members of my family were still operating under the delusion that I didn't use my dryer, so I decided to try not using it again for all of January.  After all, I had strung lines in the basement and received a new drying rack for Christmas.

It turned out, other than timing loads and the necessity of washing each and every day, it was no more labor intensive than throwing the clothes in the dryer.  Certain clothes belonged on hangers and the rest required folding, regardless of how they dried.

I did learn to throw in a load every night, or, at the latest, first thing in the morning.  I had to be prompt about hanging up clothes and turning on a fan at night if clothes weren't drying fast enough.  We've had an incredibly mild winter, so between a lack of dryer use and lower heating costs, the gas bill is half of last years'.  If the winter were colder, our basement would be chillier, which might make it difficult for me to keep up.

Now to see how long before I turn it on next...

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

The week in review

We visited the land on Sunday since our neighbor Uncle Bruce had called to say he found a solution to our uncapped well.

Who knew a rusted out chicken feeder would fit so perfectly?

Today, at the store for a few fresh essentials, I discovered canning lids in the CLEARANCE section!  At 60% off, almost 360 lids, which should safely take care of next fall's canning (unless Myle and I get REALLY adventurous)!

I seem to have trouble getting the Barn Hop picture (again).  See what other homesteads have accomplished this week.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

A Christmas Gift I can use...

Frequently, my mother-in-law and I have very different views on what I would like to have for a gift.  God bless her, she has amazing taste and buys very lovely things... it's just not my taste and not my lovely.

Imagine my excitement when she actually clicked on the links I sent her and received THIS for Christmas!

A pioneer drying rack from Forgotten Way!  James frowned when I asked him to help me assemble this, and oh, dear, I need a drill, but once he realized it was just a few screws to hold the dowels in place, we were both very happy with how quickly this assembled.

Our only hiccup came when James returned to the house with his electric drill, which I had found run over by the van (I don't know which of us committed such an atrocity, but there it is!), which would NOT work to drill the pilot holes.  Then, as James said, he "went Amish" and fetched the hand-powered drill I had purchased for his Christmas gift in 2010.  Don't you love it when you buy a good gift?

Until next time, remember,this is not paradise, it's Purgatory Ranch.

Adventures in Luffa

Or loofah, as you please.

These long-season plants, similar to cucumbers, grow MILES.  This year, our second in attempting to grow them, finally proved to be a success.  Their flowers are beautiful and attracted lots of bees in the fall.

I think I might have waited too long to begin peeling mine, but I had tried to peel another and was too quick, so I decided to be good and sure!  

We chose the floor for our peeling experiment because it was MESSY.  Here, the kids are picking out the seeds so we can try again next year!

She's so proud of herself for gathering seeds (and she closed her eyes on purpose).

Bear Cub Q wanted a picture taken too.

The leftovers.  It's supposed to be easier to peel than this, if you peel earlier,

but I didn't know that until after the fact.

I will be washing it next, and bleaching if necessary.

If you would like some seeds, please leave your email.  I'd be willing to send out a few envelopes of 10 seeds for anyone who would send me a SASE.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Homemade Chili Powder

This year, I had plenty of chilis, so I made a double batch.  If you want a smaller amount, cut the ingredients in half!

2 c. dried chilis
We use any kind of dried pepper.  The hotter the peppers, the hotter the powder.
Last year, I made a pretty mild version, using plenty of bell peppers, but, since the the peppers are fresh instead of having sat on a grocery store shelf for a while, the taste is still much stronger than I was used to from my old chili powder!  Use at your own risk.

2 t. paprika
2 T. dried oregano
4 T. garlic powder

4 T. toasted cumin seeds
(toast over medium high heat, shaking frequently)

Throw in the blender until a fine powder is formed.
Please don't open it for a little bit, or all these fine particles will be in your eyes instead of
in the blender, and you don't want that!  (Neither do I!)

On the left, remnants of last year's batch.
I used more green peppers, so you can see it has a more greenish cast.

I'm looking forward to trying it!

I *think* this is based on an Alton Brown recipe I found last year, but since I didn't note it on my recipe card, I'm just not sure!  Check out other homestead blogs on the Barn Hop at Homestead Revival.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.