Homestead mailing list

[tonitime AT juno.com]

Hiya Bev!
    I remember the Plum Sauce froze just fine - and only needed stirring
to mix in a little separation.  Vunderbar :)
    I have been putting food by in earnest this past two
weeks..........and oh, what a bounteous year it is looking to be from the
land :)
I dug my Multiplying 'Tater' Onions last week........maybe 25 lbs. of
them.  They taste very much like shallots to  us, and make awesome Onion
powder (with the taste of Frenches fried onions, w/o any fat!) I dug up 5
varieties of garlic, cleaned, hung to cure.......smaller this year, but
not tooo small. There are still 4 beds of them growing to dig in the next
few weeks.  The Elephant Garlic/Leeks are huge this year, after being a
bit smaller the last couple seasons around.
 Today, i made Blueberry-Sour Cherry Jam, Apricot Jam, and Peach Jam. 
Last week it was Sour Cherry syrup and it's by-product of sweetened
dehydrated cherries, Cherry Preserves, Cherry Pie filling, and Cherries
in syrup........50 newly canned jars of sweets on the shelves!  I use a
cherry pitter that i have had for 25 years,,,,,and it is made of awful
plastic, and still has held up.  It is better for the large Bing and
Raniers we had in California, and one must watch for pits getting thru
with these smaller Montmorency sour cherries.
    I grew out heirloom tomato plants, peppers, and various other locally
unavailable goodies for sale and trade this season - some 300, all potted
up to larger sizes.  The tomatoes were largely Kentucky heirloom types,
with some of the standard favorites from both US and Russia.  Now, i am
receiving fresh milk, butter, and eggs ........blueberries, strawberries,
blackberries, and herbs as they come in from people who loved getting my
big, healthy plants!  this is THE best.
   Another good buddy - a guy from my rural entrepreneurship fellowship
brought me over 6 tons of 20 year old manure, too!  Wonderful black dirt
it is, tho it contained weeds from hell that our remote farm never saw
the likes of before.  Horrible spiny, deep-rooted things, sighhhhh.  It
cannot be all good in the world, aye?

Well, time to go make some ratatouille for the freezer and for our
dinner, errrrr...supper - they call it 'roun heah.
Bounty to you all, too...........may your trips to town for groceries
become half as frequent, and your neighbors happy to make those runs
together, as we do out here!
Toni
KY Appalachia, and still trying to speak like a Californian, heehee
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