Roasting vegetables

 

Green beans

 

Peaches

 

Making sauerkraut

Rosemary

Freezer

 I purchased a small chest freezer this summer, and have experienced great satisfaction as I've filled it up and organized it.

Peaches

Herbs

Tomatoes

I can't take any credit for these, except taking the picture. 

Canning tomatoes

I canned tomatoes last week.

On Saturday, I picked the tomatoes (from Lauren Mae's garden) and washed them.

On Monday, I sliced them and ground them (at my mom's house since my blender had a mishap with a spoon a few months ago).

On Tuesday, I ladled the tomato sauce into jars and canned it.

On Wednesday, I reprocessed the jar that didn't seal.

On Thursday, I removed the rings.

On Friday, I and washed the outside of the jars.

On Saturday, I took the jars down to the basement and arranged them on shelves. 

Herbs

In a pickle

Cherries

Jerky

Venison

Logan shot a buck earlier this week, and he and Libby and crew spent hours Friday processing the meat. Charlie was thrilled when I gave him a leg bone.

Cherries

 Mom, Lauren Mae, Naomi and I drove north to cherry land last Friday. We went to Rennie Orchard where three of us picked over fifty pounds of cherries in less than an hour.

Ready for winter

Spaghetti sauce

Mom and I canned spaghetti sauce last week. It was a messy process.

First, we waded out in the field, in mud up to our ankles, to pick the tomatoes. The forecast called for more rain and we didn't want the tomatoes to rot on the vine.

If that wasn't muddy enough, one of Brian's kids sized me up as a playmate and jumped on my back--not once but twice. My siblings were quite amused by the muddy hoof-prints on my back.

From there we hauled the tomatoes up to the house were I sprayed them with the garden hose before lugging them into the house for a more thorough washing. Then we cored and quartered them and ground them up with cloves of garlic, pounds of onions and fresh herbs.

By then the messiest part was done, though you might not believe it if you look at the stovetop. I left two batches simmering on the stove and, borrowing a canner, I took one batch to the Cookie House to cook down on my stove. In our respective kitchens, Mom and I ladled the spaghetti sauce into jars and processed it in canners. My batch yielded eighteen pints, which should last me well through the winter. 

It was a lot of work--from growing the tomatoes and herbs to carrying the jars of spaghetti sauce down to the shelves in the basement. But, homemade spaghetti sauce is just so much better than what they sell at the store that it was worth the work and the mess to be able to open jars of spaghetti sauce all winter long. 

Snapping beans

Strawberries

Friday was strawberry day. We girls and Mom picked eighty pounds of berries at a farm near Bay City. We spent the rest of the day preserving the fruit. We stashed thirty-five quarts of berries in the freezer. We saved some of the berries to eat fresh, but smashed the rest to make fifty-seven half-pints of strawberry jam. In the evening we rewarded ourselves with bowls of homemade vanilla ice cream topped with fresh strawberries. 

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream 

4 eggs

2 1/2 cups sugar

6 cups whole milk

4 cups cream

3 tablespoons vanilla

20 lbs. ice cubes

coarse salt

Beat eggs in a medium sauce pan. Add sugar and 3 cups of the milk. Place sauce pan on medium heat and stir constantly until mixture reaches 165F. Remove from heat. Add remaining milk, cream and vanilla. Store mixture in the refrigerator until ready to freeze.

Using a 1 gallon ice cream maker, freeze ice cream according to manufacture's instructions. For a traditional, crank-style ice cream freezer, pour ice cream mixture in the inner canister and insert paddle. Position canister inside ice cream freezer and secure crank. Layer 1 inch of ice between canister and freezer. Sprinkle liberally with salt. Repeat until ice/salt reaches the top of the freezer. Crank, adding more ice and salt, until ice cream becomes stiff, about forty-five minutes. Remove paddle. Serve.

Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the freezer.