Creating Sweet Stuff

I've been on a real sweet stuff kick lately. I think it has something to do with stess and worry. I'm pretty well covered tho since I like my sweet stuff. Living self sustained, all the desert and snack type things that are considered sweet have to be created right here. So, each year as fruits in my area come ripe, I get going on making things to put up for those "gotta have something sweet" times. One of my favorites is apple butter and apple pie filling. I use the Ball Blue Book recipes with a few minor changes. You can the Ball Blue Book in pdf form via the net for free. Google search says the site is safe but you can make your own determination if you want to download from it or not. The Ball Blue Book is also easily obtained from just about any retail store(Rural King, TSC, Walmart, major grocery chains) and also available at amazon.com etc.

For me, the Blue Book is like a preserving bible. Everything you'd ever want to put in a jar and store in your pantry is covered in that one little book. There's recipes for every single thing you could possibly grow on your garden. Every home canner should have one.

Never underestimate the satisfaction a hot apple pie coming out of the oven can give you for that need for something sweet!

Waiting on the Nasty

Well, here we are, waiting on the nasty weather to come in. We're supposed to have some snow overnight and then sleet/rain tomorrow. Yay-rah, I so love the ice, not.

I spent a little time with my goats today, i should have taken the camera out with me but I didn't think of it. I need to snap a pic or 2 of her, she looks like a house. the baby goat production is apparently going along well, Molly the goat is most certainly preggers. I really need to get that sheep butchered so I can feed her some goat mineral. Ah, maybe tomorrow if it's not too icky out.

I whipped up some meat sauce today for some pasta, the kids really like it and it's a quick meal for when we're busy. while the sauce was simmering down, I canned myself up a couple pounds of butter. There's lots of info out there on both sides of the fence as to canning butter. some say it's not safe and others say it is. I can say for me that I'm eating out of a jar of butter that's been in storage for 13 months and I'm still alive.

If you're interested in trying this for yourself, here's what I do to can my butter. If you don't feel safe doing this, just skip down past this part :)

I preheat my oven to 250 degrees and then place my jars in the oven for 30 minutes. I heat my rings and lids per any canning project on the stove in boiling water. While the jars are heating, I melt my butter over a medium heat and stir it pretty much constantly so it doesn't scorch. By the time the jars are ready, the butter is melted and hot. I use my canning funnel to pour the butter into the 1/2 pint jars, keeping the butter stirred well so the butterfats don't seperate out. I leave roughly 1/2" head space so I can shake the jar contents to keep the fats mixed in while the butter is cooling. Carefully wipe the tops of the jars off to ensure a good seal and place your lids and rings on snug. I place my lidded jars on a kitchen towel to cool until the lids ping. Once the lids ping, I shake up each jar every few minutes to keep the fats mixed well as the butter cools. I continue to shake them up until the butter no longer seperates. The jars will still be warm. Once the butter stops seperating, I place them in the fridge to cool down completely. Once they are cold, I set them in the pantry for storage. If kept in a cool, dark spot, butter can and does keep in jars for up to 5 years.

I ordered some goji berry seeds a couple weeks ago. They've arrived and I'm really looking forward to planting them come spring. I've read some good things about the goji and I hope they do well here. I'm also thinking about planting some Greek Olive trees. I've been reading how they can be pruned short and produce well as a container plant. the seeds take between 6 and 8 weeks to germinate, boy will I have a case of the nervous nellies waiting on those seedlings!

I also picked up some giant bell pepper seeds from the same seller, they are supposed to be a natural hybrid and produce the same offspring from their seeds. the description says the peppers grow up to 14" long. I'm going to try them. won't those be zingers for a meal of stuffed peppers! You could feed an army with just a few of those babies! If they are a true natural hybrid, they could be a novel addition to the garden.

Oh, if you get a chance, check out an article in Newsweek magazine written by Jessica Bennett. it's called Rise of the Preppers: Americas New Survivalists. It's actually a pretty good article and some of my "net" friends are interviewed in it.

the goings on's around the farm

I've been missing in action for a few days, not by choice tho. It's been miserable hot here, in the mid 90's every day with 85% humidity. Sticky yucky! Hmmm, is that proper sentence structure? Okay, let's start with the biggest news of all, something I'm pretty proud of.... drum rollllllllllll- I quit smoking. Yup, cold turkey last Sunday. Now that doesn't mean I will quit growing tobacco, I just decided to not indulge anymore. Geez, I have no bad habits left!

Okay, now for the farm news. The wild blackberries are finished, I ended up with 3 dozen jars of jam. Not bad from all wild blackberries. The corn finished out, I ended up with 5 dozen pint jars. The deer, corn worms and the weather were all pretty hard on this years harvest. My field corn is starting to make ears, pics of that in the next day or so. The melons are doing well, lots of babies on the vines. None close to ripe yet, I'm watching closely for the skunks to start showing up. We had a storm blow thru here this afternoon, some nasty winds and hard rain kind of beat up my sunflowers a bit. Tomorrow they should stand back up in the sunshine. None of the heads are even close to cutting stage. It's nice to see the honey bees all over them tho. I will try to get a pic or 2 of them. They scare me a bit as I am allergic but bees are a welcome sight here, they are the best pollinators.

The root cellar hole is a mess, it's got 3 foot of water in it! The ducks have been swimming in it, having a grand time with the pond we've built or them. I guess we'll put a bit of the dirt back in the hole to sop up all the water... was kind of stupid to dig it without having the concrete, gravel and blocks ready. Pretty much how it goes here, someday I'll go into depth about why it is like it is here........ long story.

Woohoooo! My new this year chickens are starting to lay eggs. I'm pretty pleased as now I have enough eggs to cover what I want from day to day and left overs to sell. I'm just at 3 dozen extra a week but have found a customer so all is good!

I also found a rabbit customer. All the rabbits I have for sale every month. Not too bad, I usually have around 10 or so I would be willing to sell without putting a dent in what I need to eat. Every little bit helps.

Oh, I got the haybine fixed! I will be cutting a couple small hay spots when this rain goes by. I'm still several hundred bales short of what I need or the winter so I'm not upset about it raining. Rain makes the grass grow!

I'm working on a wheel of co-jack cheese today. I know I said I wasn't going to make any cheese while it's still hot out( awful unbearable in my kitchen right now) but I'm dying for some cheese! I'll share pics when it comes out of the press.

Speaking of cheese, I've had a few people ask me about the cheese making. How about a cheese maker day here on my farm? I'm in southern Illinois, way down south, closest major city is Marion. Would anyone be interested in attending a cheese making day? There's a couple hotels within 15 miles of the farm and even Rend Lake Resort. Ah, just an idea...... it would be later in the year, October maybe...

A Cool Sunday

A beautiful day, nice and cool for the season. Never got over 70! First thing, I took the tractor up the road a few miles with the baler for a neighbor to use. Then, I should have worked on the haybine but I went blackberry picking instead. Took the hubby with me and we picked a 3 gallon bucket full. Got home right before dark, picked up all the fresh chicken eggs and hit the house for berry mashing. Got em all washed and mashed, another batch of seedless jam on the counter cooling off. I've still got a gallon of pulp in the fridge for tomorrow evening after we pick up the 500 bales of hay that will be on the ground early tomorrow afternoon.

Still waiting on the tomato crop to be ripe in bulk for the sauce canning day. 10 or 12 at a time isn't cutting it. Another week or so and I should be good to go there. I checked the cantalopes today and there's several out there and all the plants are flowering. The sunflowers are making heads and the beans look great. I've also got cucumbers everywhere. That's a good thing tho, I love my cucumbers!

Farm Breakfast- self sustained living style

It's breakfast in style this morning. Yesterday I sweated my hind end off and got in a waist deep patch of poison ivy to pick more blackberries. It's worth the effort, to me anyway. Another gallon of berries to add to the 2 already in the fridge. All washed and run thru the food mill so I can have seedless jam. Simple process, 9 cups of mashed berries with 6 cups of sugar, bring slowly to a boil then cook rapidly to gel point and I've got 8, 1/2 pint jars of jam plus another half jar to eat right away. Which, of course, I munched on with breakfast this morning!

Breakfast here is always worth eating. Fresh, home baked bread every day with farm fresh laid eggs, fresh butter or if you prefer, apple butter or now blackberry jam, fresh milk, home grown coffee. Also, if you'd like, this can all be cooked over an open fire in the quiet of the morning. This morning I made a tomato, basil and onion egg dish, all fresh from the garden.

How good is that? Now this is living!

More Harvesting going on

Time to get back at it. Even tho the weather front has passed, I'm still suffering from some hip troubles. This has been by far, the worst year since the surgery. I just gotta keep at it tho, nobody is going to do it for me.

I've about given up trying to keep ahead of the weeds and grass growing in my garlic/onion patch. I weeded about 1/3 of it last night, got ate up from skeeters, again, and harvested 22 lbs of garlic, 12 lbs of red onion and 38 lbs of yellow onions. Plenty more is ready but I need a break to make more blood! Those skeeters about sucked me dry last night.

A pal told me to try Listerine to repel skeeters. I'm going to give it a try tonight. According to the directions I got, take a baby wipe, pour a little Listerine on it and wipe your arms, legs, any exposed skin with it. It dries quickly and isn't sticky. Sounds like a plan to me.... I don't have baby wipes, hope it isn't part of the trick....

The first planting of corn is about ready. If you recall, the crop didn't go so well and is seriously stunted. The ears are pitiful. I may just let them fully mature and dry on the stalks and use them for seed corn next year rather than try to harvest those tiny ears for eating or food storage. The second crop looks great tho, it's due the end of the month.

A small tragedy today, the Californian doe (rabbit) kindled and killed every one of the kits. Never even pulled fur and had them out of the box. Strike 2 for her...

The chickens are all doing well and the ducklings are growing like crazy! I have one more nest being set on, hopefully I can get another 6 or 7 ducklings. I've cleaned out all the old nests so the chickens and ducks will go back to laying eggs for me.

I've been working on my food storage and my disaster preps too. Reorganizing and making lists of things the kids and hubby have liberated out of it. They've wiped out every single piece of candy in it and all the chocolate! If that doesn't qualify as SHTF, I don't know what does, LOL. How dare them eat all my chocolate stash!

I noticed I'm down to the last dozen quart jars of tomatoes, good thing this years crop is coming on! We eat lots of tomatoes throughout the year and since tomatoes are so easy to grow, there's no reason to even be out of them. I'll be setting up to can tomatoes this week.

More farming updates soon........

Every day worries

Evey single day I can find some piece of MSM that worries me about the future. I give up, I'm not reading any more news stories. I just won't be up on all the "current events". Let's face it folks, we're in a tight spot. Jobs are not going to magically appear just because the President says "have faith" or "the recession is over" or some other pile of cow offal he thinks we're going to believe. Things are NOT going to improve, the jobless rate continues to increase. Everything we all are currently buying with our hard earned, taxed to death dollars is going to continue to cost us more and more.

So, what do I plan to do to combat these things? What I always do, grow my own food! We just suffered, and I mean suffered(rods in my back told me so) thru a nice little cold spell with a bit of freezing rain. No worries tho, I've got all my warm weather plants going good indoors in the sunny kitchen windows. The cold weather stuff didn't even notice. Onions and garlic are still going strong, still waiting on the lettuce(seed might be bad). If the lettuce doesn't pop up by the end of the week, I'll replant some.

I've still got a good supply of food I grew last year in the pantry so I'm not real upset over when I'll get produce so that leaves me some time to enjoy the plants growing. I am out of onions and potatoes tho.....

It's time to decide which way you want to go. Do you want to continue to try to buy all your food and possibly not have enough because of prices or shortages due to world drought(read your almanac) or will you grow your own? You're running out of time to decide...


Stay safe and keep prepping!

Surviving More Job Losses

An interesting story today in the US News & World Report about 15 companies predicted to fail in 2009. Most of them are companies that don't have outlets near me anyway. Sirius Sat. radio tho, I'd miss that one!

For those of us that are still working, stocking up the pantry for unemployment is looking better and better. The money we'd get from unemployment benefits will feel like an insult compared to the paycheck we used to have. Eating out every day, going to the movies, the daily trip to Walmart, it's all over now. After the initial shock of it all, the bills start piling up. Now, we have to decide if we eat or pay bills. If you're already a prepper, that decision isn't one that's going to bankrupt you. Pay the bills, you're going to eat just fine.

Come spring, plant yourself a garden and renew the stores of food you ate up during the cold months of unemployment. Even living in the city on a lot with no yard to speak of, a few 20 gallon buckets with potting soil in them will grow you some food. Check out this blog I just came across of some folks in Chicago that are growing food for themselves in what appears to be an apartment. It's called Green Roof Growers.

This is what I've been talking about. This is how I grow myself fresh food during the winter. I save hundreds of dollars a month by growing my own food. Think of the extra money you'll have to pay the bills that keep coming in. For buckets, try freecycle in your area, garage sales and even construction companies/sites, bakeries and restaurants.

Stay safe and keep prepping!

Self Sustaining-urban vs. rural

The idea of growing food for yourself is becoming more attractive to people by the day. Fear or common sense, it doesn't much matter anymore as long as the idea is followed thru. "Urban homesteading" is the latest fashion trend. What these people fail to realize is that growing a garden, learning canning techniques and actually doing those things isn't enough. Having a small pen full of chickens isn't enough. Eating wholesome, organic foods isn't enough. Only what you can hang onto is all that matters.

Self Sustaining, what's that mean then? Taking care of yourself, feeding yourself, doing for yourself. Everyone can do it with a little effort and applied know how. What makes country folks better at this than city folks? Country folks have the correct mindset already. Every day something goes wrong! We've learned to adapt and overcome, we live with frequent power outages and things that break down. We hunt, we farm, we raise livestock every day of our lives. City folks can learn that too is the argument I hear all the time now. Sure they can but what happens when the power goes out? There's a thousand of them all trying to get thru the same intersection in traffic all at once! People become rude, even violent when they can't buy their Latte... getting my point? So, here you are, the perfect "urban homesteader", you've mastered all the skills you need and your chickens are laying tons of eggs every day and the power grid goes down. All the sudden your neighbors start to panic... what do you think is going to happen to your garden and your chickens in that nice little box? Only what you can hang on to matters.

Will it be better in the country? I think it will, for a while anyway. I don't think it will take long for the hordes to find country gardens and country chickens to eat. With any luck, they'll be thinned out some before they get to me.

So, for the urban homesteader sheltering in place- keep your head on you shoulders and have a plan for alternative living arrangements. Find a small lot of junk land away from the concentration of people, fix it up and be prepared to get there. Me, I'll be right here......

Canned butter adventure

I'd give credit if I could remember who it was that wrote the post with this idea and a link to Green Apple Orchards blog for the directions on how to do this neat little project. Hermit just canned himself a batch so I felt a little left out ;). Just a 1lb batch of home made brown swiss cow butter in half pint jars for my pantry. I was distracted during the process by hubby who took my kitchen over for a while and the butter cooled down too much to shake/mix so I had to put it in the oven at 170 for a few minutes to fix it. Seals stayed good thru it, I re-shook the jars until cooled properly, all seems as it should be. I'm counting this as a success!

Christmas Ponderings

I'm just messing around today, trying to get out of cooking because there's a pile of dishes needing washed first. I was on eBay looking for a deal or 2 on canning jar lids, none to be found, and under related searches was "survival foods" so I clicked on it. 101 items listed, some were priced reasonable, some not. MRE's, canned chicken, peanut butter, etc. Interesting....

Anyway, my thoughts of the day were about canning jar lids. I've got plenty of jars, most of them full of what my garden produces to feed us. But it struck me that the lids are a one time use item. So, of course, that nagging little voice in my head tells me I need to check my lid stock. Turns out, I've only got about a year and a half of lids! For me, that just will not do. I can't help but feel that the troubles this country is headed for will last longer than a year and a half. So, now I am on the hunt for more canning lids. Easy enough to find but this will still drive me crazy until remedied.

LOL, no rest for the wicked I guess...


Christmas wishes for everyone and thanks to a few more...

Hermit, Degringolade, Pearls, Scout, Bullseye, Scavenger, Chris W, Green Apple Orchard,Survivalist News, Urban Survivalist, Mayberry, Shy Wolf, Ozark Momma, Bison Survival, Andy and Mel, Jeff and Farmergeek...
Thanks for joining me, helping me, entertaining me and teaching me...

Merry Christmas and God bless