A Milestone

This cute

little boy



cut his



First TOOTH!

He's growing so fast!!

[Busy] Weekend Homesteading

Lots going on here! I am keeping  busy, that is for certain.

and, in all my 'busy-ness', I am still trying to get my Halloween decorations out! This is WAY late in the season for me to still not have them out! The boxes are in the living room, though!

Market time is busy for us and we're pretty much into full fledged apple picking. This week I am making Pear Butter, Apple Butter and Apple Sauce for next weekend's market.

Yet, in all my 'busy-ness', I managed to pick 2# of grapes from our grape vines and made Homemade Grape Juice. After I saw the post on Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Kitchen, I knew I had to try it out!

I also made my first batch of Homemade Yogurt. After I read about Stacy doing it, I knew I wanted to try this too! I go through a lot of yogurt; I like to throw in my own jams and granola and eat it at work for breakfast!

I had a speaking engagement this past week and Apple Meatloaf was served. I HATE meatloaf! I have tried, so hard, to find a meatloaf I like. I have yet to be successful, however, this Apple Meatloaf might just have changed my mind! Stay tuned .... recipe coming!

Leaving your Husband Home Alone

Yesterday was an extremely busy day for me from before sun up until way after sun down! I was traveling for my day job and had a guest-speaking appearance to talk about our Orchard in the evening. I probably clocked 500+ miles driving yesterday.

In any event, yesterday was my moms day to watch the babe while I was at work and she was able to watch him into the evening as well. This, I figured, would be easier for my husband so he could get some picking done in the Orchard when he got home, and hopefully accomplish a few other things, since our to do list is as long as the miles I clocked yesterday.

So, hubby is home alone all evening. All he has to do is turn out the horses (and bring them back in for the night with some dinner), feed and walk the dogs and at the least, pick.more.apples.

When I got home, around 10ish, the sink, which was empty and clean when I left in the morning, housed enough dirty dishes for a dinner party for 3-ish!? And I guess he thinks the dishwasher houses boxes of food because he clearly doesn't get that it holds DIRTY DISHES.

This morning, he came in frazzled (whats new!) after he fed the horses; seems the donkey was sharing a stall with Romeo (because someone forgot to lock their divider door) and Romeo was still wearing his halter and lead from being brought in from the pasture last night!!!

Now, all I need to do is figure out what the heck could have caused such chaos for the husband, being home alone last night, for him to have left things in such disarray! I assume it was because I wasn't home to hound him ;)

Getting over the Hump [Wednesday]

Looking for a snack before bedtime!

I know today should be the Apple Harvest Party, but once again, I haven't had time to do anything with apples other than pick and sell! If you did though, leave the link to your apple post in the comments, and then I will add them to the post!

Happy Wednesday!

Method: Sun-Dried Tomatoes

My co-worker came through with more tomato's! And of course, pressed for time as usual, I decided to try and make 'sun-dried tomatoes' this time since the majority of the process all happens while I sleep!

I can't take credit for this idea - I spied it over on Food in Jars! And Marisa's defintely look nicer than mine, that is for sure :)



One thing I learned, that I believe Marisa touches on in her post, is to try and keep the slices uniform in size so they 'cook down' at the same rate.



I had some slices that took longer than others, which turned out to be a tad of a pain in the morning, when I was expected to just take them all out and store them! I had to keep waiting on a few to schrivel!

As Marisa suggests, I put these in a 200 degree oven for 12 hours (like I said, a tad longer on some if the thicker slices). I didn't see any issue in running my oven overnight but some people gawked when I told them I had my oven going all night long?? Who knows, maybe I will gawk too when the next electric bill comes!

 

Once they cooled, I threw them into a Mason jar and into the freezer. I suppose I could have zipped them into baggies with the FoodSaver, however, this is my first time doing this and who knows what portion sizes I will need when. So, though my freezer space is at a premium (read: we have no freezer space!), one quart sized mason jar seems to be fitting just fine!

Do you dry out any tomatoe's? What is your method?

Recipe: Homemade Cornbread

There was just enough of a chill in the air this past weekend for me to convince myself to make some Chili! So of course, chili calls for Cornbread. This is a slightly adapted recipe from on I found by Cat Cora.

Homemade Cornbread

5 tbsp butter, melted

3/4 Cup Cornmeal

3/4 Cup AP Flour

1.5 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Kosher Salt

1 Cup Kefir

2 Eggs

---

Mix your dry ingredients in one bowl, and mix your eggs and kefir in another. Then add the melted butter to the egg/kefir mixture. Now add in the dry ingredients just until mixed in. Pour into a 6-8" cast iron skillet and bake on 425 degrees for 20 minutes or so...remove from the oven as soon as it starts to get golden on top and tooth pick comes out clean!

Never Forget

In Memory of those Loved & Lost

We'll Never Forget