It's Beginning to feel like fall!

Hope everyone has been having a lovely start to their fall!  It is finally starting to cool off some here in South Alabama.  This past weekend it rained just about the whole time, which kept me indoors, which forced me to do a few projects!

The first thing I did was can some potatoes.  My first time trying and it was super easy!  I got 20 pounds at a great discount at the grocery store, so I decided to try it out.  Haven't tried the potatoes yet, but they look really good.  I was so afraid they were going to turn to mush.

Next, we made some candy apples.  This was my husband's request (I prefer caramel apples!).  I don't know if I enjoyed making these.  They were messy.  Maybe it was just because I don't really eat them that I didn't enjoy it?  They stick to my teeth so bad I can't stand it, but I thought they turned out really pretty :)  Nothing says fall like some apples, or candy/caramel apples for that matter.

And then...While I watched the Alabama game with my husband (ROLL TIDE!), I made my daughter a hat with the Knifty Knitter that my Grandmother got me.  It didn't take long at all and my daughter loves it.

In other news, pecan picking season has begun!  That also means chasing off cows while we are picking pecans!  I had my I-pod on the tailgate of the truck playing music while I picked and one actually put it's nasty nose on it. I thought she was going to eat it LOL. 

Have a great week! It's over halfway over YAY!

Canning Dried Black Eye Peas

One of my friends and I did a canning session with dried pinto beans.  We went by the instructions in the Ball book and they turned out great.  I have already used them for taco soup.

Well she found where you can do the dried beans without having to cook them first.  I have done some kidney beans and black beans this way and they have turned out great.  Today I was working on some black eye peas.

First you get your hot jars ready and rinse off the beans.  Next, you add 2/3 cups of dry beans to each pint jar and 1/2 teaspoon of canning salt.  Make sure you just do the 2/3 cup because the beans expand a lot.  My friend didn't think it looked like enough so she added more in hers and she could hardly get the beans out when she was done!

Next, you fill the rest of the jar with boiling water. 

Make sure  you have any air bubbles out, wipe the rims of the jars with a clean rag and add your lids and put them in the pressure canner.

Leave them in the canner at a pressure of 15 pounds for 1 hour.

That's it!  So simple, I just love doing it.  Makes me want to go to the grocery store and buy a bag of every kind of dried bean they have there.  I will definitely be using these up this winter. 

Some people have asked why I would take the time to can the dried beans.  Well, if I have all the different types of beans that I use for chili dried in bags in my cabinet, I probably will not use them for the soup.  It takes awhile to prepare the dried beans and if I have these on my shelf, I will be way less tempted to just go to the grocery store and buy cans of beans to use for my recipes.  Now of course, fresh peas and beans to can is a way better option, but I don't always have those types of fresh beans available to can, especially the black and pinto beans, although I will have to look into that.

One more thing, one 32-ounce bag of dried black eye peas made 10 quart jars! I could not even fit one in the canner, so I guess I will let that one sit and use it for supper tonight :)

Dodging the Hurricane

We got all worked up this weekend thinking a hurricane was headed our way (we are in south Alabama), but now it looks like it is heading towards Mississippi and Louisiana.  Lots of prayers heading to those states and also praying that maybe it will lose some strength.

During all of our watching the news and such, I started thinking how some people have teased me about canning and such and isn't it funny now that I'm not having to run to the grocery store to get canned goods because I probably have enough on my shelves to get us through a few weeks without power.  Now that is the best revenge Ha!  :)

My husband's uncle was actually teasing me Friday night because I had just canned some jalapenos and banana peppers and I told him that he was not allowed to come get any when the hurricane rolled in.  Joking of course (maybe LOL)

Last week I finished up that basil I was working on.  I can't wait to use it.  It dried really nicely and I just put it in a small jar. 

Sorry for the bad/blurry pictures! I've got to figure out the trick to taking good pictures of jars and inaminate objects.  I do a lot better with kids. 

Speaking of the little devils, here they were on the first day of school, all excited and ready to go.  Ya'll have a great week :)

Ramblings From the Day

Since it has been just me and my 6-year-old today (my girls are at summer camp), we just kind of did our own thing and wandered around the yard looking at everything, pulling weeds, watering the plants in the greenhouse, feeding THE chicken and just playing around.  I took a peak at my new squash plants popping up.  The others succombed I think due to a combination of the heat and squash bugs.  I have one bigger squash plant left and after reading online, I have been diligent about squishing bugs on the plant and scraping eggs of the backs of the leaves.  Gross!



Here is my little yard helper and his dirty hands :) (sign of a great day)

I have been experimenting with growing all kinds of vegetables in pots and surprisingly, okra has been the most resilient.  Tiny okra are forming on the plants now, so we will see!

The chickens left me one sweet banana pepper plant, but it has been a good one.  I have already pulled several peppers off of it and canned some.

I have a couple okra plants in the raised bed as well.

My Roma tomatoes are doing great.  Regular tomatoes...not so great :(

I grew some jalapeno plants from seeds, and finally...I spy a pepper!

At one point today, we decided to run to the feed mill for chicken feed.  Well they were closed and I just couldn't help but stop by our local farmer stand.  They had bushels of pink eye purple hull peas already shelled so I bought some!  I attempted my first lone act at fresh peas in the pressure canner. 

I think they turned out great, but some didn't have much water in them.  After doing some research, I realized I might have opened the canner too quickly, not giving the jars time to adjust to the temperature, which may be where I lost my water.  So these ones will be used first and I have some quarts going now and I still have some more left over.  Might have to freeze them or go buy some more jars!

Hope everything is going great your way!

Gonna Eat Me a Lot of Peaches

I've been working on peaches today!

My mom, sister and all our kids went to a "peach farm" yesterday.  On the way there, my sister played that song "Peaches" and ever since then "Moving to the country, gonna eat me a lot of peaches..." Keeps playing over and over in my head.  Yesterday it was fun to sing on the way to the peach place, but today I wish my brain would pick another song! :)

I was disappointed in where we went.  I was kind of expecting a farm, but it was just a glamorized, over priced farm stand on the side of the interstate.  They had more cafe and gift shop than they did produce for sale :(  And it was expensive! But we still got peach ice cream and I bought a couple big baskets of peaches.

First I did peach jam:

Then I did canned peaches in light syrup.  My ball book said to use 5-1/2 cups of water and 1-1/4 cups of sugar for light syrup.  I was really nervous because it didn't tell me how many peaches to use, but it worked out!

And I still had several left so I looked up online and found you could freeze them with the skins and I was so happy because I was tired of peeling peaches by now.  Even though I used the easy peel method (30 seconds in boiling water, then 30 seconds in ice water, peel right off!)

I'm seeing lots of peach cobblers and smoothies and hot biscuits with peach jam in our future :)

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