Man's making soap!

In preparation for the upcoming Farm Market, I asked my wonderful Man to research what I needed to do to make homemade soap.  (It is a 101 goal, and also something I thought would be really fun to do, plus, if we do it now and it actually turns out it's something else to offer from off the farm!)

After a few weeks of reading and watching youTubes, shopping on Amazon and at local stores, we (ok, actually HE) has all the ingredients assembled and ready to go.  Now for a day when no one is home to distract him....

Guest Post from the Man: Dehydrating Grapes & Bananas

The drier is fired up this morning with sliced grapes (in halves) for making farm raisins and 4 bananas. One tray for 4 bananas means I could make 36 of them into slices and FILL the 9 tray dehydrator. WOW.

I'm really beginning to like dried fruits. No refrigeration, rotting, or waste of money. I don't know about you but grapes are the one thing that seems to get lost in the fridge and will go bad more often than not. Not anymore!
Bananas, grapes, and apples... oh yeah!...

 I just filled the rest of the drier with apples. They were plenty ripe and looks like I still have a couple more trays to do this afternoon. Apparently Gala apples don't last long after picking so dehydrating them is the way to go.

I use an el-cheapo slicer from Harbor Fright (intentionally misspelled) ;-). Beware!

They get a few minutes to soak in Ball Fruit Fresh to help prevent browning...

You'd think 5 bananas would make a lot of chips. Well, you decide. This is a quart jar with all 5 of them sliced and dried. Worth the effort in taste and snacking convenience!

Cowboy Candy...and what's in the dehydrator today?!

What is that in the sink?!? Why that would be an entire peck of Jalapeno peppers.

And what am I doing with them?

Making COWBOY CANDY!

Cowboy  Candy is candied (jellied) jalapenos that my cyber-bff is always raving about.  I had to make them myself because her family eats them so fast that she can't get a jar away from them to send it.  

Yes, it's that good!!*

*if you can handle HOT!

I haven't canned as much this summer as I would have liked (although Man did a good job preserving food for the winter for us with the dehydrator) but I had a goal to get some stuff in jars, and in less than a month we will be having our very first, on-farm, local farm market and craft fair.  I still have tons of jars of jelly from the last canning challenge, but wanted to add some new flavors....so Cowboy Candy!

The smell was very spicy and the house smelled like Mexican Restaurant! YUM!

Almost 18 jars later....

It has to "mellow" for a few weeks before we try them. 

 (Although we did sneak a few, and then I had to ask my friend, does "mellow" mean it will get hotter or milder...because OH MY!  HOT!!)

Meanwhile in the dehydrator we have some apple chips (Honey Crisp-YUMMY!) and homemade raisins

Guest post from the Man coming up!

Our new kittens!

In the early spring, a friend of the family had two kittens that needed a home.  At the time, Yellow Cat had disappeared and had been missing for quite a few weeks and we were sure that a coyote had gotten him. (and the day I agreed to take the kittens, Yellow Cat showed back up--fixed and his ear docked)

Then Man got sick....so the kittens got put on hold...fast forward a few months.  Our friend asked again if we would be willing to take the kittens in.  I had already said yes, and just the week before there were more mice causing chaos in the pantry so I said sure.

We we went to homeschool gym, knowing we were getting cats.  Knowing and thinking are two totally different things with me.  Did we know we were bringing home cats? Yes.  Did I think to put a carrier, box, SOMETHING into the car to put them in? Um...what do you think?

Did I have other errands I had in mind to do after gym?  Well, yes.  Is our son highly allergic to cats?  Again, Um, yes.  And Man, too?  ?  Then yes, lets just let the cats roam the car as we drive the 20+ miles home...and while I'm in the grocery store.  Sounds like an excellent idea!!

So without further ado....This one is named Molly...but is called Boots (Bootsie)

These cats could not look more different.  The one I'm holding looks like a Siamese.

Her name is Asia.

Yellow Cat (Timmy) is not so sure about these new residents...

And the kittens aren't so sure about Danny...

Super Moon

Wheat in the morning, and a Super Moon the next night!

Our family is really into reading "spaceweather.com" to keep track of solar flares, and  "space.com" for other cool stuff going on out there!

Not a great picture,....

...but what an AWESOME GOD!!

Here is some information from Space.com

"The full Harvest Moon will light up the night sky on Monday (Sept. 8), and this year it comes with an extra bounty. September's full moon will cap a trio of back-to-back "supermoons" for the Northern Hemisphere summer, according to NASA. 

The moon will reach its full phase when it reaches the spot in the sky opposite from the sun. That moment will occur Monday at 9:38 p.m. EDT (0138 GMT). Monday's full moon is the one nearest to the September equinox this year, giving it the moniker of Harvest Moon by the usual definition.

This full moon also marks the third in a trilogy of "supermoons" this summer. July and August's full moons both fell during the moon's perigee — when it was at the closest point in its orbit to Earth. While the August supermoon was the closest, this month's full moon also falls during perigee."

Wheat Sky

What do I need to say??

This morning's sunrise was gorgeous!  With a "wheat sky".

Freezing Corn

It's been over 3 years since I put up corn.

It was the year my Grandma "went home".  I remember that I thought (in my addled state) that we'd need to do about 3 bushels.  

Man, that was A LOT of corn!!! 

 This spring I used my last package of frozen corn.  (I still have some in jars, but don't like how it tastes as well --better for soup) So corn was not optional.  I found a local farmer and bought 80 ears of corn to supplement what was coming out of the garden (which was not much and most went to the CSA).

We ended up with about 10 packages of corn...that's a bit more reasonable.

And, Maybe...if the garden does better next year, I can again put up a "bushel and a peck"

Boy trying his hand at making Jerky!

"Dad got this great jerky cannon!  I must try it too!!"

Look at that mustache!

Where'd my little boy go?!

Trying both the strips and the Sticks. The sticks are easier. 

Both the extrude...and to eat! (especially since jerky is a distinct No-No with braces.)

Making fruit leathers...

Man is enjoying the dehydrator and drying everything we can think of!

This is the first attempt of "Fruit Leathers"

Peaches, Strawberries, Raspberries and Yogurt.

I know it was a pretty good smoothie before it went in....

I think we are going to have to get the special leather sheets.  The plastic wrap is just a pain!

Excalibur!

Excalibur is the Cadillac of dehydrators.  

The Ronco...more like...well, a Yugo, a Pacer, or maybe Granny Clampett's truck

It gets the job done, but not easily or without a lot of "tweaking".

So Man used his "birthday money" from his Mama to get himself the Cadillac!

Can't wait to see how the jerky comes out now with a dehydrator that you can actually set the temperature and the time, and everything...

Imagine!

Making Mozzarella

We've been milking for over a year now (I say "we" isn't that funny!?!) and the only cheese I've made so far is 'farm cheese' because it is so fast and easy.  I have read the recipe for Mozzarella about a zillion times, and each time decided that it sounded too hard...

Well, the time has finally come!  I am going to do it! 

Homemade Mozzarella

Gather your ingredients and supplies:

Gallon on milk (ours is raw whole milk, but you could use store milk too)

Measuring spoons.

1/4 Teaspoon of Citric Acid dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water

10 drops of liquid rennet in 1/4 cup warm water

Salt

Thermometer

Wooden Spoon, Slotted spoon

Gloves

Warm the milk up to about 88*-94*

Then add the citric acid, keep stirring.

It will start to separate.

Now add the rennet.

I keep stirring until the curds start to come together.

Then using a slotted spoon pull the curds out of the whey into another bowl.  

You could drain it through cheese cloth if you want.

I like to add a bit of salt to the curds.

Then you put the curds into the microwave for 30-60 seconds.  

This is the part I have always balked at, my grandma didn't have a microwave, but then I got over myself...

It'll look a bit like this.  

Then you have to knead it to get the whey out of the cheese.

At this point the smart thing to do is have gloves as the middle of the cheese is about 140*.  (And HOT!) and you need to knead it like bread. 

Knead and stretch.  If you can get it to stretch to about 12 inches you are done, but if not, put it in the microwave for another 30-60 seconds and do it again.  Keep draining off the water (milk).

Once it stretches, knead it into a ball and put it into icy cold salted water

Change the water once, then put it in the fridge to finish chilling.

Ta-Da!  See it's not as hard as I thought...

...and now getting brave enough to do Cheddar. (Now that will be a challenge!)

Oh, and then do all the dishes.  

A BIG thank you to my new resident photographer, Man, for helping me out!  It is so much easier to do tutorials when you have a "staff photographer!"

The bean that didn't know how to bean....

I pick a lot of beans...I mean A LOT of beans.  There are quite a few that are a bit...um...unusual.

Tonight I found one that apparently forgot how to be a bean...it was going for a rotilli noodle....

First Batch of Weldon Jerky

The guys have been wanting to make "bunny jerky" with our rabbit meat, and decided to do a test run with some Weldon ground beef.  

Scott has been stuck in the house, resting a lot, so he has plenty of time to research and figure out what needs to be done.  He found a great jerky cannon on Cabela's website, and after my CSA dropoff yesterday I picked it up for him.

The first recipe that he found had the jerky started in the oven and then moved to the dehydrator.

My trusty 15 year old, Ronco dehydrator that we bought from an infomercial at 2 am one Thanksgiving night. 

Can't wait to try it!