Pickles, Pasta Sauce and Rio 2016

What does Pickles, Pasta Sauce and Rio 2016 have in common?  It is called a Saturday to us.  We started our day down in the orchard harvesting another and the surprise crop of the day was eggplant.  We thought we had two maybe three growing but when I checked the eggplant plants I ended up picking six eggplants.  George has always  liked eggplant but for Lisa and I it is a new thing and we like it as eggplant parmesan but am not sure what other ways we may like and we are too chicken to try so what happens with all the eggplants picked?  Make eggplant parmesan and freeze it!  I did pick more pickling cucumbers that I thought I would so after the harvest and getting cleaned up we made another 7 quarts of bread and butter pickles and then made 5 quarts of pasta sauce.  During all of this canning we did have the Olympics on and even though I was not impressed with the opening ceremonies the games have been great.  Watching the USA first gold medal being won while watching shooting is not something I would ordinarily watch but because it is the Olympics I loved it.  Same with the cycling road race; that was one tough course and the finish was totally unexpected. Even better the USA teams are getting off with a good start winning their games in Beach Volleyball, Volleyball, Soccer, Field Hockey and Basketball.  All in all the first day of the Olympics were fun to watch and we even accomplished some farm stuff too!

The Rio Olympics Begin!

I am an Olympic Nut!  I am one of the those people that will try and watch every minute of coverage.  I even watch the sports I really don't care about because I just love the Olympics.  I have always been crazy over them since I was a little girl.  So last night was the opening ceremonies to the 2016 Rio Olympics and I was ready.  We watched it with George and Lisa and after all the waiting for it to begin I have to admit I was a little disappointed in the number of commercials in the first half hour.  I think there was more commercial time then Olympic coverage.  It did seem to get a little better but not much.  Over all, the opening ceremonies were okay and with Rio's money issues it was better then I thought it would be.  Now let the games begin! WooHoo!

The Harvests Are Getting Smaller

As the summertime enters into August we have noticed that our harvests are not as big as they were through out the month of July.  This post will be a little update on what is going on in the Orchard.  We have been so fortunate so far with most of the crops that were planted.  This is the second year of having a  garden and we are still in learning process.  This year we have seen the effort that George put in at the garden during the winter treating the beds with horse manure.  Fertilizing the beds all winter was huge and one of the reasons the crops did well.  We did have some failures and we had some battles to fight, still at war with the raccoons, but all in all the orchard has produced for us.  Our successes are definitely cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, green beans, peas, okra, cantaloupe, watermelon, eggplant and grapes.  We did have some success with zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, leaf lettuce, beets, blueberries and corn.  We are still waiting for results on the sweet potatoes, red potatoes and Yukon potatoes as we have not dug them up yet.  Unfortunately we did have some plants that just never either grew or were attacked by bugs.  We just lost our pumpkins.  We had some great looking ones but a grub got into the vine and started eating it's way out.  This also happened to all of our acorn, butternut and buttercrisp squash and is the thing that killed off our zucchini and yellow squash.  The onions, head lettuce and a few other items never even grew.  We are still learning as we go and we have to learn and we are.  I know next year's orchard will be toned down and we will cut back or even give up on growing some veggies but that is part of the process.  Even though it is work we have enjoyed it and it is good for us to get dirty and sweaty sometimes.  To quote a line from the movie "God's Not Dead" and " God's Not Dead 2", " all the time God is good and God is good all the time".  So true!

The Animals Are Everywhere!

We have had a few visitors to the farm lately.  Of course the war is still going on with the raccoons and if you have been following the Raccoon count on the blog then you know that George has trapped 19 raccoons through yesterday.  He has even trapped two at a time in one cage twice.  Yesterday he got two babies that would not stop cuddling to each other, even when released.  Since George has begun setting the traps he has caught something everyday but not always raccoons.  He has now caught to Opossums too.  We do not mean any harm to these animals even though they have destroyed almost three fourths of the corn.  So, it is a war over corn and so far the raccoons are winning but we have not given up the fight and have new plans made to get them where they are coming from.  Let's hope it works!
We have also been visited by some deer lately.  Now we have deer on the farm we know this because of the Game cameras that Lisa and George have placed on the property.  On occasion we will see deer in orchard but a couple of days ago we had a deer right behind the RV and then it walked along our driveway.  This is the first time we have had a deer so close to where we live.  Shadow was so good with the deer.  He did not bark or try to scare it off.  Instead he just stood on the deck watching the deer walk along the driveway.  So now you know why there are animals everywhere!

Tomatoes, Pickles And A Surprise

The harvest yesterday was just a tad smaller than what we got use to.  The cucumbers, both slicing and pickling are starting to slow down now and so are the green beans.  We did have quite a few cantaloupes and tomatoes.  The watermelons are looking good and we are about to have a few here and not sure how fast we are going to be able to eat them but will give it a valiant try.  After looking at what we picked Lisa decided we would work on tomatoes and then pickles.  She had a new recipe for just making tomato sauce, not pasta sauce.  It seemed pretty easy, all we had to do it wash, de stem and quarter the tomatoes. Cook them for a few minutes, put them through a processor and cook and reduce them.  Sounds like a piece of cake!  It was except we did not realize that reducing the tomatoes would take so long.  During the reduction process we cleaned up, had lunch, I worked in the Crafty Cottage and about two plus hours later we were ready to ladle the sauce into jars and process them.  We thought it would only take about 8 pint jars but we were wrong.  The sauce made 14 pint jars.  After the sauce was jarred and waiting for processing we started working on making some more bread & butter pickles.  We have the pickling process down so well that Lisa and I don't even have to think; we just do it.  After the pickles were done we were still processing the tomato sauce so we took care of the green beans and processed them for freezing.  It was a busy day. 
When we were done I went to check the mail after dinner and got a wonderful surprise from my daughter Jenny.  She gave me a Fitbit last year and I have been using it faithfully but it acted up last week and I could not get it to sync.  Well I had mentioned it to her but then I got it working again.  Yesterday Jenny sent me a new Fitbit Charge.  This is a major upgrade for me.  The charge does so many more functions then my Fitbit did.  It tracks steps, distance, calories burned and active minutes like my fitbit does now but the Charge also measures floors climbed, tracks your sleep, has an alarm and tells time; it is a watch too!  Thank you Jenny, I love it!!!  Now it is time to get it charged and synced so I can start wearing and using it!  WooHoo!

A Fun Day In Abingdon, Virginia

We celebrated George and Lisa's Anniversary by having a fun day away from the farm.  We headed to Abingdon, VA about 90 miles northeast of Parrottsville.  I have been wanting to go to Abingdon for quite awhile and I am glad we took the drive.  It is a historic city and county seat in Washington County, Virginia that was founded in 1778.  The downtown area of the city has several historic buildings including the Barter Theater, Martha Washington College now the Martha Inn & Spa, the Hardware and Sinking Springs Cemetery.  The Virginia Highlands Festival is going on in Abingdon.  This is one of Abingdon's biggest festivals that was started in 1948 by Robert Porterfield, founder of the Barter Theater, to showcase Appalachian arts and crafts.  What was once a week long festival has now grown into a 16 day event offering various venues, food and entertainment.  After walking through the festival and downtown area, visiting lots of Antique stores, we decided to have lunch at the BoneFire Smokehouse restaurant.  This restaurant is located in a historic building that was once a Hardware store.  The food and atmosphere was great but the service a bit slow but that was okay because we had plenty of time to sit, relax and enjoy our meal.  After lunch we took a stroll through the Sinking Springs Cemetery where several of the founders of Abingdon have been laid to rest.  It is an interesting cemetery to visit and walk around.  The oldest grave is from 1776 before the town was even founded.  We then headed over to the Barter Theater that was founded in 1933 by Robert Porterfield.  He started the theater because during the depression it was tough to see show and there were also a lot of out of work actors who just wanted to perform.  Patrons who could not afford the 40 cent ticket could barter for it with food, livestock or other goods.  The actors were also paid sometimes with food and livestock.  One of the most famed actors that got his start at the Barter Theater was Gregory Peck.  We had a great day in Abingdon and I would highly recommend a visit to this historic city if you are in the western Virginia, eastern Tennessee or western North Carolina areas.  There is a lot to see and do and I will be returning for more fun soon.  On our way home we did take a side trip to Bristol, VA/TN to have a treat from the Blackbird Bakery, they are famous for their donuts, but their desserts are good too.  It was a great way to spend a day with good friends and celebrate an Anniversary.

Peach Jam and Pickles Too

We tried something new yesterday, making Peach jam using the crock pot.  Linda and Larry were kind enough to give us over 10 lbs of peaches before they left for Florida.  They have a peach tree in their yard and it obviously is doing well.  Lisa and I started early yesterday peeling and slicing the fresh peaches for jam.  Lisa found a recipe for it so we gave it a try.  We decided to use stevia instead of sugar and a no sugar needed pectin.  It was a very easy recipe to follow and total, including washing and peeling the peaches, was about 30 minutes plus 8 hours.  When the slow cooker was done Lisa mashed the peaches and we pour the jam into the prepared canning jars.  While the peach jam was cooking the Pickle Queens decided to make another 9 quarts of bread and butter pickles.  I know it seems like we are making a lot of pickles but this year they are really good and they will make great gifts. 
Today is George and Lisa's Anniversary so I would like to take this opportunity to wish them a very Happy Anniversary!  29 years and counting!  WooHoo!