When Dave & Jess were up for the weekend, we all went riding in the “bumpy” truck.  This is one of Daniel’s favorite things to do when he comes to our house.  It also is one of Grace’s favorite things to do.  She took this beautiful picture of the sunset. 

Yesterday, we went to a friend’s house.  Her sister has thornless blackberries and she had said we could come and pick.  We picked about 1 gal.  They are very easy to pick.  No thorns-I really like that.  We then went back to my friend’s house and had a cookout.  We had hamburgers, pinto beans, cole slaw and watermelon.  It was a really nice day.  We got 3 pints of blackberry juice and 4 pts of blackberry jam, plus saved back about a quart to eat. 

I have some aprons to deliver today, then we will be going over to the Horn’s for a visit.  After that, the girls have piano lessons.  I need to get one more apron made before we leave so I guess I better get busy.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Our blackberries are doing much better than I thought they would.  Today makes 3 gal. I’ve picked. YUM!

Yesterday we finished the pears.  Later, we went up to the garden and SURPRISE!  Lots of beans were ready.  We canned 15 quarts and had enough for dinner and lunch today.  

Tomorrow we will be going down to Jessica’s.  Sam has a doctors appointment so the girls and I will be playing with Daniel.  Jess is going to make supper for us before we come back home.  Last night’s menu was fried chicken, green beans, and rice.  We had cantalope and watermelon for dessert.  It certainly has been hot here for the last few days.  Hotter than usual I think.  Oh well, fall will be here soon and everyone knows what follows fall.  I think we better enjoy these hot, summer days.  Cold winter days will be here before we know it.

I think the girls and I will make pizza sauce to can today from the tomatoes we picked yesterday.  The recipe I use is:

1/2 cup oil, 4 med. onions chopped, 4 cloves garlic, 1/4 cup dried parsley, 1 gal. tomato juice, 2-12 oz cans tomato paste, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tsp. oregano, salt, and basil, 2 bay leaves, 3/4 tsp. black pepper.  mix all ingredients, simmer about 2 hours.  Process pints 30 min on 10 lb pressure.  Yields about 12 pts.  I will be adding banana peppers and some hot peppers to mine today as I have quite a few of these in the garden.

I guess I better get busy with these projects.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

The girls and I made salsa yesterday.  We ended up with 19 pints.  Counting what we made the other day, I think this is enough to last us through the winter.  We will be canning peaches today. 

Temperatures here are still cool and comfortable, 67 degrees.   Very overcast.  It is supposed to warm up throughout the week with a chance of thunderstorms.  I really like the cooler temps, I just wish the sun was shining.  Oh well, God knows what He’s doing. 

I was wondering if anyone out there had a good pizza sauce recipe.  I have one that is pretty good but I am always looking for new ones to try.  I guess I better get busy-peaches are calling.  Take care and God bless.

Saturday while down at Jessica’s we went over to David’s mothers.  There we found an apple tree loaded with apples and ready to be picked.  She said we could have them.  We did get a surprise though.  They are not your normal apple.

We gathered about a 1/2 bushel and brought them home.  We had never seen an apple that looked like this one.  I’m not sure what their name is but they are difinitely different.  What fun we had today working with these.  Grace of course loved them as pink is her favorite color.

After cooking them and running them through the sauce maker, they turn a beautiful, darker color.

We canned 9 pints and put 1 qt bag in the freezer.  I think they look very pretty in the jar.  Tomorrow, if all goes as planned, we will be making spaghetti sauce.  We have  a bushel of tomatoes to work up.  Our pastor’s wife gave us her spaghetti sauce recipe, so I think we will make it tomorrow.  She gave us a can to try and we all thought it was very good.  The recipe I have made before does not get thick enough so I have been on the search for a new one.  I’ll let you all know tomorrow how it turns out.  Take care and God bless.

We were extremely impressed with the food strainer.  It was super fast compared to the old food mill and had very little waste.  We processed a bushel of apples in about 4 1/2 hours.  We used both big canners.  We got 12 qts and 24 pints.  YUM!  I have always used the hot water bath canner to process applesauce.  However, I read in my Mennonite cookbook, they could be processed in the pressure canner.  We tried that yesterday and it went very fast.  15 min. on 5 lb. pressure.  Much faster than using a bath canner.  Vicki and I had a great time and of course the kids had fun.  It is so much more pleasant sharing canning with a friend.  I am so thankful the Lord placed our families together.  Good friends are sometimes hard to find and I consider Vicki one of the best.

  The girls and I are planning a “girl day” out today.  We are going into C-burg to run some errands.  This will include Wal-Mart and Goodwill.  Temperatures have been very warm here in Floyd.  On the farm though, it isn’t near as bad as it is in town.  We are usually a few degrees cooler.  In the summer this is a plus, in the winter not so good.  Thankfully, we have quite a few shade trees in the yard and that really helps. 

Time for us to get ready to leave.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

I thought you might enjoy the view from our dirt road.  I know lots of you don’t have the luxury of dirt roads anymore.  There are quite a few still around in Floyd.  This one leads to our driveway, turn left at the big barn.  I was coming back from the milk barn and thought how pretty this is.  So I took a picture.  I am getting into this picture taking. (Hubby took the ones for this morning).  Notice the big maple tree, already starting to show some color.  I guess thats what temperatures in the low 40′s will do.  I canned 10 pints of spaghetti sauce today from some tomatoes we gathered last night. (Yes I said last night)  At church they were talking about how it was supposed to be colder than the night before, so we took a flashlight out to the garden and gathered tomatoes.  Hey, I’m not taking any chances.  I want these fresh tomatoes to last  as possible.   I made homemade pizza this evening for supper using the sauce I’d made.  The crust recipe was not as good as I would have liked.  I guess I’ll have to do some more searching.  The sauce, however was very good.  Everyone seemed to like it.  I’m glad.  It was a lot of work.  It sure did make the house smell good though.  It’s getting late.  God Bless.

Salsa

7 qts tomatoes chunked
6 cloves garlic chopped
5 med. onions chopped
5 green peppers chopped
1/2 cup hot peppers chopped(this makes med. hot-lower or increase amount for your preference)
2 cups vinegar
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp cilantro
2 tsp chili powder
Combine all ingredients.  Simmer until thick.  I  simmer 4-5 hrs.  Process in hot water bath canner 20 min.  I use pints.

Enjoy!