MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

This is an old barn that is at our pastor’s house.  I love old things, even old barns.  Yesterday we worked with the corn.  We got it all shucked.  We put some up in the freezer on the cob and some we are cutting off the cob. We will be finishing working it up today and then we will start on the peaches.

Our temperature this morning was 50 degrees.  Amazing!  All indications are that we will have an early fall.  Yesterday, we noticed the geese were forming groups.  Several groups flew over with about 40 geese in a group.  They were flying in the “V” formation.  So pretty!  This is another picture from our pastor’s house.  I hope I don’t bore you all too much with these but the girls took lots of pretty pictures at his house that I want to share with you all.

This is the view from his front porch.  Lovely!  Well, our little break is over so I guess I should get busy.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

We did make cookies this afternoon.  It seems like it has been a long time since we made cookies.   We have made lots of other desserts this summer, just not cookies.  Here’s the recipe I like to use:

1/2 cup shortening, 1/2 cup butter, softened.  1 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup white sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla, 3 cups self-rising flour.  I use 2 cups white flour, 1 cup fresh ground wheat flour.  Add 1 12 oz package chocolate chips.  I use the mini chocolate chips.  I think they do much better, makes you think there is more chocolate in each cookie.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 min.  We are enjoying them now with a tall glass of fresh milk.  Life is good!

We gathered the corn this morning but because of my back problems it had gotten a little bit hard so we are making pickled corn from it.  I really like pickled corn with brown beans and corn bread.  When I make pickled corn, I cut it off the cob-do not scrape the cob.  Then I put it into a crock, cover it with cold water.  Put a plate on top of this so the corn stays under the salted water.  For every gallon of water I need to cover the corn, I add 10 tbsp. of canning salt.  Let the corn sit in the crock for 1 week.  Drain the salted water off and rinse the corn.  Put into jars and process in water bath canner.  10 min. pts and 15 min. qts.  When it is time to eat it, we like to heat it up in a cast iron skillet with just a little bit of oil.  To make myself feel better I use olive oil.  The old way is to use lard.

More cookies are ready to come out of the oven.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Our corn is ready!  I love fresh garden corn.  We have been working some of it up this morning.   So far we have put 58 ears in the freezer and 9 pts cut off the cob.  I have a vacuum sealer which I use for the corn and other stuff.  It is a very handy thing to have.  I purchase items at the store in bulk at a discounted price and then separate them out into portions we can use.  Then seal them with the vacuum sealer.  It really makes a difference.  No freezer burn.

   The type of corn we raise is called Merit Corn or where I’m from they call it Garden Creek Corn.  The man who had the seed for it lived on Garden Creek, thus the name.  It is an excellent corn, very sweet.  It is called the silkless corn because when you shuck it the silks just fall off with the shucks.  I LIKE THAT!  Makes working the corn so much easy.

We have been getting quite a lot of rain here this week.  The temperatures have cooled down some though because of the rain.  Yesterday, the girls and I worked on apples.  16 quarts to be exact.  I used my new steamer juicer and extracted over a qt of juice from the peelings.  We had fresh apple juice with breakfast this morning.  Very delicious!

Better get busy.  Enjoy your day and God bless.