MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

Here’s a picture of the beets I canned the other day.  I pulled 1/2 bushel of beets.  Pretty good for the first time I ever raised  beets here at the farm.  From that 1/2 bushel I canned 9 qts.  This will taste really good this winter with pinto beans and cornbread.  The other jars are pureed tomotoes.  The tomatoes were the yellow striped variety thus explaining the color in the jars.  I had forgotten how much work goes into canning beets.  Quite a lot but as you know most things worth having require  work.  Today was homecoming day at church.  We had a really good day.  Lots of people showed up, good music, good preaching, good eating.  The temperatures are still cool at night here with beautiful sunshine during the day.  Wonderful fall weather.  I think I will take my Daniel bible study and my bible and go out and enjoy some of this wonderful weather God has decided to bless us with.  Enjoy 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.

Pumpkin growing in our garden

This year as a gift from God we have pumpkins.  Quite a lot of pumpkins.  We have decided to harvest them a little early as bugs have decided they like them too.    The pie was made completely from scratch as you probably can tell.  The crust is a very simple recipe that doesn’t require being rolled out.  I like things simple.  The filling recipe came from an old lady at a farmers market we visited years ago.   If anyone is interested in these recipes let me know and I will post them.  Today has been a good day.  The girls played piano at church today.  Grace played the special and Julie played the congregational.  Big step for Julie-playing while others sing with her.  They both did great.  When I hear them play like that I think all that money and time for lessons was REALLY worth it.   It’s almost time to leave for Sunday Night Bible Study at church.  We are using John MacArthur’s study on the book of Daniel.  It has been a very interesting study so far.  The pie is for church tonight.  After bible study we always eat(Its the Baptist way)  Tonight we will be having a feast.  Pinto beans, cornbread, onions, tomatoes, hot dogs, cole slaw, and pie.  Who could ask for more.  As I tell my oldest daughter, we really do study, the food is just extra.  Gotta go and God Bless.

Fall must be quickly approaching Floyd.  The geese are back.  Lots of geese.  We counted at least 40 this morning on our pond.  They are very interesting to watch however they are quite loud.  I haven’t posted anything in a day or so as we have been really busy.  We went back to Jess on Monday and worked more on her bathroom.  It is started to look more like a bathroom now.    We were planning on going back tomorrow but they all have a cold so I think we will just stay here.  We went on a picnic today with good friends of ours at a little park here on the parkway.  We took the puppy so all the kids had a great time playing together(especially the puppy)

I wanted to show you this strange cucumber(yes it is a cucumber)  I raised it on the back porch in a large pot.  The plant did fairly well but this one is pretty strange.  I put some tomatoes and cucumbers in pots this year.  They did okay but required me to remember to water and I am not really good at this.  All in all though it was a good experiment.  Night has fallen here on the farm.  Katydids and crickets are making a joyful noise unto the Lord.  I think I will go out on my swing and enjoy.

I have been asked to post my salsa recipe.  This is a very good recipe and can easily be divided to make less.  This recipe makes about 10-12 pints depending upon how thick you let it get when simmering.

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!

Well that batch of salsa is done.  We got 11 pints.  It took up the major part of the day.  From morning till lunch chopping.  We were blessed to use all fresh garden ingredients.  The tomatoes had to be scalded, peeled and then chopped.  Then from lunch until about 6:00 was dedicated to simmering and then canning.  If I knew how to do pictures, I would show you pictures of the jars.  The salsa is very pretty in the jars and taste wonderful.  Today we will be working on some more corn.  At last count we had a little over 200 ears in the freezer and around 30 cans of corn.  Thank you Lord.  Last night was church night.  We have been working on establishing a youth class on Wed. and last night we had 7 youth.  Pretty good for a small church.  I think this is one of those stretching times from the Lord.  I have never taught youth before(only my own) however this has truly been fun.  My prayer would be to see more kids show up and that they would learn more about our Lord through this class.  Well I gotta get some work done.  I need to go down to the barn and get some milk.  We get our milk fresh from the cow.  The girls however now have a hard time drinking what we call store milk.  They say it doesn’t taste good.  Thanks for reading and may God bless you throughout this day.