weekly round-up & product review

Well, despite my recent posts about cats, turkeys and puffballs, life has been busy here at Keepsake Acres...

More raspberries were picked by Coop this week. Some frozen, some made into cobbler and some into jam. I also made my first trial batch of homemade castile soap and it seems to have come out right. I am letting it cure now. I have city mouse to thank for inspiring me because it was his homemade soap that impressed me. I added oatmeal and patchouli essential oil to it and am definitely anxious to try it.

Some of our Detroit Red beets were ready for pulling and were they ever tasty!

I love beets, no matter how you cook em’! Friday’s lunch was hot buttered beets! We finished them up as a cold side at dinner time. All gone! Did you know you can eat them raw, also? It never occurred to me until our Amish friend Fanny mentioned it. Not quite as tasty in my opinion, but an option.

Friday I ended the week by having canned another 10 half pints of raspberry jam. I now have 19 half pints of black raspberry jam put up. If you’re wondering what the two of us will do with all the jams I’ve made this summer, the plan is to use many of these jars as gifts later in the year at holiday time. Part of being frugal minded requires thinking and planning ahead! Plus, as is typical, more than one person has walked out of my kitchen already with a jar of jam in hand.

This jam and the batch prior were made with Pomona’s Universal Pectin.

I purchased this product at my local bulk/health food store. I will never go back to any other brand of pectin.

What I absolutely love about Pomona’s is that you can cut way back on the amount of sugar in a recipe and make just about any size recipe you like. Other pectin requires that you make jam or jelly in small batches and using a lot of sugar is essential to the pectin working correctly…trust me on that one. With Pomona’s you can adjust ingredients for the amount you want to make and you can adjust the amount of sugar used. Or you can use honey in place of sugar.

This last batch of jam I made yesterday morning has 12 cups of fruit and only 3 ½ cups of sugar. I use raw or organic sugar which a lot more costly than refined sugar so I have a significant savings in cost using Pomona brand. Not to mention that sometimes jam can be just too darn sweet for my taste. With the sweetness of the fruit, who needs so much added sugar? I am in love with this product and will never use Sure Jell or Ball brand again!

Pomona’s Universal Pectin goes further than other pectin, too. With brands like Ball or Sure Jell you use an entire package for one recipe of jam or jelly. With Pomona’s you get 2-4 normal batches. So, despite Pomona brand pectin being a little costlier on the “per box” basis it’s really a lot less costly. When I factor in the decrease in sugar necessary to make jam, the savings is huge! Btw, I am not being compensated for recommending this product (I wish), just telling it like it is.

puffballs & wild turkeys

Here in the country one never knows what they might see walking up the road. Could be a deer, a fox, a pheasant, a coyote or maybe wild turkeys. These two turkey hens had youngsters hiding in the ditch across the road, some of which flew off when they saw me step out to get photos. I tried getting a shot of one or two in flight and didn't realize I had until I uploaded them.




Now, about puffballs. They are very fascinating things. I had never actually see one before, let alone tasted one...well, that is until the other day when Coop came up from the old barn bank with this one.

That baby was freakin' huge!

When I cut into it it was the texture and consistency of angel food cake, but...

...it still tasted like a mushroom.

mewest addition at the homestead

No, the title isn't a typo. Jerry the cat is our newest addition here at the homestead. He just appeared one day scared and starving for both food and attention. He's young, nearly a kitten still. A drop off I'm sure. We get those out here from time to time. Once it was two beagles in the middle of winter. People can be heartless.

Jerry and Molly reluctantly meet

"She is scary so I will stay out of her way for now. This is a good spot where I can observe yet not be observed so well."

"nah nah nah nah nah nah, she can't see me!"
"aw sh@$!"

weekend recap

Friday was like any other day as we had made no plans for the holiday itself, other than to travel to our daughter’s house on Sat. Since the weather was finally cooperative with no rain and little wind, I suggested a camp fire for the evening. Nothing special, just the two of us and maybe a few marshmallows. My twin sis called later and mentioned that she and her husband might be stopping out later in the evening. I mentioned a camp fire. She mentioned leftover potato salad. I mentioned baked beans and the next thing you know the four of us had a somewhat impromptu but very enjoyable evening together around the fire.

Saturday morning found me cleaning about three quarts of raspberries Coop had picked the day before.

These went into the freezer. Saturday afternoon we went to our daughters for a cookout and fireworks. It’s a long drive for us, one we seldom make these days because of the fuel price, but I was anxious to see my children and grandchildren and spend a leisurely day with family and friends. And that is exactly what we did. Coop decided to pick sour cherries while there, which I turned into pies on Sunday morning while Coop was out gathering more raspberries.

These I cleaned and put in the fridge to keep until this morning when I turned them into nine beautiful jars of jam. I believe I’m about jammed out now having made cherry, raspberry, strawberry, banana, and strawberry-banana.

Now that we have gone through strawberry season and most of the cherry season we are now into full blown raspberry season with black berry season soon to follow. After that, elderberries will be ready in August. Another week or two and zucchinis should be coming on strong. We picked our first one today, a nice 8” squash.

The tomato plants appear to be producing a good yield and I can hardly wait for a fully ripe home grown tomato!

All is in perfect order and the summer is already keeping me busy.

cat tale

It began when he was just a wee one.

continued into his 'tweens

and further,

onto bigger and better baskets

I guess he just can't help himself.

p.s. Molly said she was tired of him getting the spotlight.

very cherry week

Monday began with this,
Then Tuesday came this...

After which came this...

then this,

oh yeah, and this.

How Our Garden Grows

Looking down the length of our main garden

Hungarian Hot Pepper

Cherokee Purple Tomato

South end of main garden - Cherokee Purple tomatoes, green beans (minus what the deer ate), peas, acorn squash, spinach, snow peas, Brandywine tomatoes. A little section on the far right of the brandywines is home to green onions, ground cherries and sunflowers. On the north end (sorry no pic) we have zucchini, golden peppers, green peppers, Hungarian hots, jalapeños, hot block peppers and Amish paste tomatoes.

Ground Cherries

Brandywine