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Salsa
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.
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Peaceful Scene
We did not get to have our breakfast picnic yesterday morning at the park. Weather was too bad. VERY foggy here. Most people would not have been able to find the park . Everything is wet, wet, wet. We did move it to the church, however, so we still had breakfast. Just not outside like originally planned. Lots of good food though. The pastors sermon was on the Lord’s Prayer. It was a very good message.
I have been told this strange looking flower is called a Naked Lady. The name suits it. There are no leaves on it what so ever. Just a tall stem and then the flower. They have filled out more since I took this picture however I could not get a new picture. It is too foggy and dreary today. The girls and I will be busy making more salsa. I did not like the recipe in the Ball canning book as much as I like my old recipe. It was given to me by a Mennonite friend, Judy. So today we are making her recipe. Much better. Temperatures have been cooler here. Low’s in the upper 50’s, high’s in the low to mid 60’s. Wet, foggy. Nice days for doing work inside or just curling up with a good book. I think I’ll try to work both of these activities in today. Enjoy your day and God bless.
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Pastor’s House
I think you can learn a lot about a man by his hands. These hands say I work hard. I am married. I love to work the land. I’m sure if I were a good writer I could write a story just from this picture. This man loves the Lord. Not only in word but in action. We are very blessed to have him as our pastor. Thank you Lord!
A picture of his grapes. He has several different types of grapevines growing. I forget what he told me the name of these were but they were very sweet and delicious.
The girls and I have been busy with beans. We canned 11 quarts yesterday. One of them broke in the canner so we only had 10 to add to the canning list. I picked a gallon of blackberries this morning and we’ll can those later today. We love to make blackberry dumplings and cobblers. I also want to make salsa today. I think we have enough tomatoes. They are mostly yellow tomatoes so it will look a little different but hopefully taste just as good. Maybe even better. I know we have enough peppers.
Sunday morning is our Sunday School breakfast. Every year we have a big breakfast at Smartview Park-a small picnic area on the Blueridge Parkway. After breakfast we do Sunday school. Tom will proably have a message as well. We love all our little get-togethers we have. Our church is really big on fellowship and I am glad. I think it is an important part of being a church family. If I remember the camera I will try to take some pictures to show you all.
I guess I better get busy. Take care and God bless.
I
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Orchard
Friday evening we went to our Pastor’s house. As I mentioned earlier, he gave us some peaches. He has a small orchard at his house. All his trees were so full of fruit. It was beautiful.
These are only a few of the trees. Grace took lots of pictures. I will try to post more of them tomorrow.
This is a view from his yard. Very pretty. We also ate supper at his house. Almost everything we had was home grown. I love to eat this way. We had hamburgers on the grill, cucumbers, onions and tomatoes from the garden, fresh homemade applesauce, and fresh peaches. Delicious!
The girls and I did not get to can our beets yesterday. As it was raining most of the day, we decided to run a few errands in town instead. Jess had given me some coupons she had for canning jars and lids. We decided to go to Wal-Mart and get these. They are a little cheaper there than there are at our local supermarket. We will be canning the beets today.
The sun is shining here nicely today. Temperatures have cooled down some, thanks to the rain yesterday. Outside temperature is about 80 degrees. This is one of those weeks when things begin to start building up. Much to do. Beans are ready to pick, berries are ready, beets are ready and I think we might have enough tomatoes ripe to make a batch of salsa. I love to can and put away food for my family however when I start getting behind, it is easy for me to allow that to become a stressor in my life. I do not want this to happen. God has given us this bounty and I thank Him for it. When I was growing up, the garden and canning controlled our summers. I do not want that for my girls. I want the garden and all it involves to be enjoyable and fun for my girls. I want to keep a balance. This is hard, as old habits are sometimes difficult to break. Pray that I will do this well-that my girls will have a love for gardening and canning and not see it as just hard work.
Enjoy your day and God bless.
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Peaches
We were very blessed to have these peaches given to us. They are called Saturn peaches or donut peaches. These are very small and I was not really sure how to best use them.
As you can see, we had quite a few. We decided to make something like an applesauce from them. We used the food strainer. We made a pie from our peach sauce yesterday to see how it would taste. It actually was very good. Hubby was home yesterday and he helped. Thanks, Babe.
Temperatures here are hot. We are getting a small shower here this morning. Much needed. However the sun is already back so it probably will get hot fast. We are headed into town for piano practice. I also need a few spices for the beets. Enjoy your day and God bless.
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Baptism
This is David Donna’s Son-In-Law, I am posting this for her so if you view this before she gets a chance to change this text just keep checking back as she will be adding some more description soon.
This is me. My thanks to Dave for putting the video on. Yesterday was a wonderfully blessed day for us. Both our girls were baptized yesterday. Praise the Lord! We had church at this beautiful pond. Then we did the baptism. Our girls and another young man were baptized. After that we had a potluck meal. You know we gotta eat. Dave, Jess, and boys came up to spend the day. It was a very special day to a mother’s heart.
Take care and God bless.
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More Spaghetti Sauce
Yesterday we had 12 more quarts of spaghetti sauce. I think this will be all the spaghetti sauce we make unless we have lots more tomatoes. I want to make salsa and maybe try our hand at ketchup. We also usually just can tomatoes and tomato sauce for use in soup and chili. Temperatures here have been hot and humid. Low to mid 90’s.
Jess talked to her mother-in-law yesterday and she said the name of this apple is Scarlett Apple. She thinks she ordered the tree from Stark Bros. I typed it in on Google and found all kinds of information about it. Very interesting.
Today is bible study day so I better get busy. We have decided to do it at Barbara’s house. It is so hot here and Barbara has air conditioning. Enjoy your day and God bless.
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Spaghetti Sauce
Our spaghetti sauce turned out really good. We got 12 qts from a half bushel of tomatoes. Today we will do the other half bushel. The recipe we used:
Scald and peel half a bushel of tomatoes (we used our food strainer instead), 6 cups chopped onions, 4 chopped green peppers, 1 clove of garlic. Cook for 1 and a half hours, stirring frequently. Add 1 pt crisco oil, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup salt, 1 tbsp oregano, 1 tbsp crushed basil leaves, 1 tbsp italian seasoning, 1 tbsp parsley, 5-12 oz cans tomato paste, 4 jalopeno peppers. Cook another 45 min stirring frequently. Put in jars. Heat lids and seals to boiling. Put lids and seals on jars. Cover jars with towel and let sit overnight.
This recipe does not call for processing as the liquid is so hot when you put it into the jars. However, if you are uncomfortable with this method you can process in a hot water bath canner or freeze the sauce.
We better get busy. Lots to do today. We need to get busy on the other spaghetti sauce and on cleaning house. The ladies will come tomorrow for bible study. Take care and God bless.
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Pink Apples
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.
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Just a Swingin
Sam really loves his swing. He does not however like his car seat. He was sooooooo ready to be home Saturday after shopping. He wanted his swing and some sleep. Us girls got up early and went blueberry picking. We picked 2 gallon-1 for us and 1 for Jess. We came home just before the rain started. Good timing. It rained most of the day there.
Afterward, we all went out to eat at Golden Corral. Then we went to look around at Lifeway. I purchased a new bible study. It is Ruth by Kelly Minter. I think this will be our next Friday Ladies Study. It looks very interesting. I saw so many new studies that I want to do. We even picked out one for the girls to do for their bible class this coming year. It was a great day. We all had lots of fun.
We are getting some much needed rain today. Temperatures are cooler too. 74 degrees right now. I like that. Did you all notice my drying log on the right. My darling baby girl, Grace, did that for me. She told me she watched David put the others on. I was very impressed with her knowledge as I have no idea how to do any of that. Thanks Grace.
Church was very nice yesterday. Our pastor’s sermon was on what it takes to make a man. It was a very good sermon. Then we had communion, followed by a fellowship meal. LOTS o f good food. Then we had more good food last night with our Sunday Evening Study. All in all it was a really good day. I better get busy. Take care and God bless.
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