Wednesday, September 26, 2012

We spent the morning today digging potatoes.  They are purple potatoes and have a wonderful sweet taste.   Those in the know say not to wash them prior to storing as it 'wakes the potato up' and it will spoil faster.  We'll see.  We used some in our dinner tonight that were delicious.  We ended up with a little over 20 pounds. 

I made a bean type soup from some mayocoba dried beans I had soaked overnight.  Today I cooked them in organic chicken stock and added our own fresh vegetables of globe zucchini squash, both yellow and green, some baby crookneck squash and our hot chili peppers as well as our potatoes.  Then added an onion (we hadn't grown it ourselves).  I almost felt as if I were cheating with that!

It tasted as good as it looks in this picture.   Nice, we still have some left over for lunch tomorrow. 

Fall is certainly coming upon us.  Our temps are still nice and warm in the daytime but getting much cooler at night.  Loving our new heater.  Its so cozy when I get up in the morning instead of having to head downstairs to light the wood stove.

Our animals feel the fall too.  The kitties are all coming in at night earlier and earlier.  If we can get them in between 3 and 5pm they are good for the night.  If they stay out until dark it is a lot harder.  Since we have so many coyotes, fox, owls and bobcats around the only one that gets to stay outside all night is our Great Pyrenees, Bella.  She has a hard job to do barking all night long.    :-\    But it does keep the critters away from the house.

The rest of the morning we were pulling the old vegie plants and weeds from the garden and putting it all on our burn pile.  When it cools off in Oct or Nov, and we get a little rain we can start burning all the yard refuse accumulated over the summer.  We have some maple trees that have a bazillion leaves ready to fall.  Always in the past we'd give the leaves to the goats and alpacas to eat, as they love them.  This year I guess we'll just have to turn them over in the garden for next spring.  Considering the late start we got planting this year I think our little garden did pretty well.  Can't wait for next year!



Monday, September 24, 2012



Still drying produce for winter.  Didn't realize how obsessive compulsive I was until I took this picture of onion slices on the drying rack.  I think its pretty.  Our garden is pretty much gone since the two nights of frost we got so these large onions are from Costco.  We bought a 10# bag and I've just about got all of them processed.

The other dryer (we have two) is full of our jalapeno peppers.  There's still the big bowl of them in the outside fridge I haven't figured out what to do with.  Because the peppers are so fat it takes too long and ties up my dryer from doing other foods.  Maybe next time I can slice them up.

A good friend sent me a couple of good recipes I just might have to try with some of those peppers.  I'd love to make some jalapeno or serano jelly.

I've had a young man over who is splitting our firewood for this coming winter.  Its amazing what a young and strong guy can accomplish.  I wouldn't even attempt any more.  But we can stack it if need be in the sheltered car port next to the house.  It will remain dry and close to the back door even when the snow falls and the wind blows.  Me too, I don't have to go out in the elements to retrieve it.  But hopefully, with out new forced-air furnace we will only have to use our wood stove a couple of times rather than every day, all day long like we usually do.

Lovin' that!

Thursday, September 13, 2012


The fall frost has hit us once again.  We waited just a little too long to cover what's left of our garden a couple nights ago.  TV weather girl suggested our area might be below freezing but of course, I forgot until it was already dark.  Considering how warm the days have been we just blew it off.  Darn!  Check out the two pictures only a few days apart.  :-(

In the midst of trying to dry and store the rest of our produce - pears, apples, plums, the rest of the globe zucchini (yummy!), and the tomatoes that are big and green we decided to clean out our pantry.  It is rather large and a great place to put stuff when you don't know where else to put it.  That's always a big mistake.

We bought a 50# bag of dry anasazi beans as well as another 20# bag of brown rice so needed to find a place where it wouldn't get dusty or bugs in it ... so pantry, here it comes.  Oops, running out of room.  And we still need to find places for other long term items.  We haven't cleaned or cleared out the pantry since I moved here in 2006 so I guess its time.  (Yes, I do sweep the floor.)  So far it has taken us three days and we are still pulling stuff out.

Lots of old containers and dishes are headed for the Goodwill, moving our canned veggies etc to the side where the bowls and other containers are located, and what's left of them is going where the food was.  We don't have upper kitchen cabinets (don't ask) so most of the things normally in those cabinets are in the pantry.  Makes the kitchen look nice but sure hard to find places out of sight.

Hope to finish up this job today.