#everybitcountschallenge Week 6.
I have been plugging away at adding to my pantry and also my garden. I got some more seedlings today and a nice big bunch of Parsley which will going the dehydrator tomorrow. The dehydrator has been going pretty steadily. As I have lemon juice and lemon butter frozen I dehydrated my latest lemons that came from the swap tables last week. They turned out so well! (Thanks Stephanie!) Another time I dehydrated lemons and they turned out too dark. This time they turned out beautifully!
They are like health and sunshine in a jar!
I used my slicer dicer to get thin even slices. (It is just a kind of mandolin.)
And I did a lower temperature which worked perfectly.
I also did another load of Celery and a load of Capsicums.
Here I have plants ready to take to the swap tables and Celery ready to bring in to dry.
We had some beautiful sunshine which is helping my seedlings grow. A lot of my herbs have taken off and I am determined to harvest them at their prime. I am usually guilty of admiring them and missing that best harvesting time. Last year I had a beautiful amount of Thyme and I was so pleased with it. A week later the whole plant was dead. I missed the harvest. No more of that I will snip away this year as I get enough to pick!
I made a giant batch of Blueberry Muffins so I could take a tray to Mum and freeze a supply for myself. I used extra berries and this got me 28 muffins.
Mum froze hers too so we both added to our supplies.
So I put up Lemons, Capsicum, Celery and Muffins. Only 4 out of 7 this week. I did fill the dehydrator twice with Lemons though. I also converted someone over to dehydrating. I met someone who I took an immediate like to! Her husband grows a lot of citrus fruit and veggies and I was just doing the lemons when she was here. Well, she was just so excited! We made an instant friendship!
I have been watching Becky at Acre Homestead and she has convinced me to get a food processor. I have never had one. I watch her nearly every day and she is smashing out things from the garden that go into cooking, the dehydrator and the freeze drier and the food processor is such a handmaiden for her. It has educated me how helpful this could be and so that is a goal now, to get myself a food processor. She shreds mountains of zucchini and freezes or freeze dries it for baking later. Now I am hoping my zucchinis are a big success this year!
Did you manage to build up your pantry this week and add to your shelves? Every bit counts! xxx
I have tried to process, at least, three items per day. Our herbs are so bountiful this year, which is a blessing.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, I gathered some elderberries from our trees that surround our deck. I froze three gallon bags of elder berries. I don't wash them until I take them out to use them. Washing them before freezing causes them to frost over too badly.
I, also, crumbled the lemon balm and lovage that I had dried on Friday. Today, I will use one dehydrator for cherry tomatoes and the other dehydrator for herbs. I have to hang some of the herbs as they do much better hanging than dehydrating.
Yesterday, in addition, I vacuum sealed powdered cheddar cheese, Basmati Brown Rice, mustard seed, whole allspice, dried cranberries and some cherry tomatoes I dehydrated last week.
I canned eight pints of cucumber relish last Thursday. Today, is another busy day of processing garden herbs and produce.
Your lemons look lovely, Annabel. The muffins are mouthwatering. You always present food so beautifully.
With much love,
Glenda
Dear Glenda, That is a fantastic effort. It is fantastic you have the Elderberries frozen and that is a very good point and tip about not washing them first. I will remember this! Your garden has been just amazing. To bring so much in everyday is incredible. What a blessing. I know a lot of hard work went into this.
DeleteI love relish and that is another addition to your shelves. Many thanks Glenda. I dealt with all the lemons last week and now have been given some more, a different variety and HUGE. I am thinking what I will do with these ones! With much love Annabel.xxx
We will have a frost here this week so I am putting up all the last of the garden, freezing and dehydrating bell peppers, kale, and the rest of the tomatoes. Nice feeling to have everything harvested and preserved. It has been a good garden year. The only thing left is our honey crisp apples. We like to have a couple of frosts before we pick to add to the sweetness. These apples are good storers so we will be keeping them in the refrigerator crispers. I did get the freezers organized and inventoried so we know what we have and where it is. I love fall, seeing full freezers and all the jars filled and lined up. We will eat well this fall and winter.
ReplyDeleteDear Julie, It is fantastic you had such a good harvest and you got it all in and preserved! You sounds really organised and your work has really paid off. I hope you get a great apple harvest next. I love to see the jars lined up too! It is a beautiful sight! With love Annabel.xxx
DeleteI didn't do much except buy canned green beans half price on sale. I use them for vegetable soup. However, I have had an extra case of half gallon Ball jars unopened for a long time. Since 2020, you have to buy them when you don't need them to make certain they are on hand when you do. They sell out quickly.. Last week I opened the case and washed all of them and then put the screw top lids I had already on them. Two of the six were used immediately for quick oats. I have old fashioned oats put back but I needed quick oats for baking recipes. Four jars are now sitting on the shelves in the garage, waiting for when they are needed for dry storage. If I have everything I need prepared ahead of time, I am more likely to get something accomplished.
ReplyDeleteDear Brenda, There have been canning jar shortages here also especially Ball. They are really hard to get. good job on the Quick Oats. I like jars best of all for dry goods storage. This means I need a lot of jars! Getting beans on half price sale was very good too! With love Annabel.xxx
DeleteDear Annabel,
ReplyDeleteFall has arrived here which means it's football season so I began by stocking the pantry for this past weeks games with homemade kettle corn. I had some cranberries in the freezer which got made into cranberry sauce and then portioned out for meals. Instead of making banana chocolate chip muffins I used my muffin top pans and made the batter into 14 muffin top. I made eggroll soup which after having large bowls for dinner one night yield three more quarts to put in the freezer for 3 more meals. We went to the orchard and got a half bushel of second apples. Over the weekend
9 pints of applesauce got made and frozen, as well as 4 apple pecan pie that were also frozen for later use.There are still more apples , some of which we'll eat fresh and some that will be dried. Blessings, Cookie
Dear Cookie, I am intrigued about muffin top pans because as we all know the muffin top is the best bit! Fantastic to go to the orchard and get beautiful apples! You made good use of those right away! I love apples for how versatile they are! A very good week! With love Annabel.xxx
DeleteBeautiful lemons! Love your jars, Annabel.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this challenge. As of now, I am canning a little bit each day. Tomatoes or apples. But your challenge shows me what I could be doing in the winter months.
I plan to make pesto this week with some more basil that has come on. The last bit of basil I just dried as I didn't have any nuts to use for the pesto.
What a blessing I received! My husband found a like-new food mill at the thrift store for only $7. I had many small apples that I gleaned and the food mill really sped up the applesauce making process.God is good!
Like Julie, I have a honeycrisp apple tree. We purchased it 2 years ago. It bears a little more each year. Such a great investment. But for now, I rely on apples I gleaned. Yes, even in the city, you can find trees on public land. My daughter's cross country coach saw us picking at the school and sent us to his church to pick. We will be picking apples again and crabapples for jelly (at the city park).
Blessings, Leslie
Dear Leslie,
DeleteYou are doing so well canning every day! I really love Pesto for its goodness and usefulness in many recipes. Chloe cannot eat nuts... I still make her Pesto with all the other ingredients and leave out the nuts. It still tastes very good.
Your husband did very well finding the food mill for that price! How good for your work in the kitchen!
I am so glad you have found apple trees to pick! Most of the apples I get are from farm and roadside trees. I am always spotting trees! In the city I knew of many trees in public spaces, lane ways... I hope you get loads of beautiful apples! And you will remember these trees then for next year as well! I have a circuit I do checking on how they are going leading up to actual apple season. I love it! You had a great week! With love Annabel.xxx
Dear Annabelle... Could Chloe have sunflower seeds in her pesto instead of nuts? I would also suggest pepitas but they all come from China except one Australian company that is extremely expensive!(please someone correct me if you know of any brands that don't!) X x Kim from Perth
DeleteThis past week has been about pulling out the veggie garden, as the season here in the tropics is over. Everything is swarming with green vegetable bugs, so I picked every green tomato (the rest were spoiled by the bugs) and gave a few away, but have the rest on the bench, some will ripen, some will become fried green tomatoes, and the rest will become green tomato pickle.
ReplyDeleteI still have some snow peas growing, though almost at their end, and plenty of spring onions and rocket.
With a brand new puppy (indoor) my attention is on him right now as he adjusts...then back to dehydrating. :-)
Dear Jenny, A new puppy, I will come to your blog looking for photos!
DeleteGreat you could save the rest of the tomatoes and have uses for the green ones. Our seasons are so different, our growing season is just firing up. We have to work with the season we have of course. It is good to have Spring onions and rocket as they add a burst of freshness to a lot of things. With much love Annabel.xxx
Hello, Annabel. We are in week 4 of our 5 week trip across the US and back but I was able to add to my pantry. We went into an unfamiliar grocery store out west and found some dehydrated potato shreds at a great price so I bought a large can. Of course, I drove 3000 miles to get it, but it was fun to see what is out there. Once I get home I will dehydrate apples and see what is left in the garden. I live in the mountains of Virginia so our first freeze is usually in early October. I am hoping the spinach and kale winter over as in the past. I read every entry you put out, but rarely comment, but I want you to know how much I enjoy and learn from your blogs. Blessings.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! What a wonderful trip you are having! When away from home my "souvenirs" are food and things for my pantry to take home! xxxx
DeleteDid I miss the post with the quilt you were gifted? The quilter in me would love to see it.
ReplyDeleteDear Ruth, I will be working the beautiful quilt into some photos coming up.xxx
DeleteI concentrated on my linens this week and bought no food...Still it's good to know I have a goodly supply of linens on hand once more.
ReplyDelete