Show over, Harvesting, canning, drying herbs, getting caught up

Today we strike the show and then I am back to canning and chickening and..... Oh wait, I never stopped doing that stuff. I just stopped blogging for a while.  Something had to give and it was the writing.  I have tons of stuff to tell you about!  I made my first batch of soap!  I need to hone it, but , its soap.  Nice thing is... between the books I own and the internet, I know what to do to make it better.
Our beloved Hash is all grown up... well almost.  No eggs yet and so far, no more crowing.  She has integrated into the flock .  Hester and Prissy have also integrated well. Its relatively peaceful out there these days.  The older girls are watching the light change and are anxiously awaiting their freedom.
The garden was late getting started this year but once it did, it exploded.  I put up so many pickles this year that I am giving away cucumbers by the bagful.. Jimmy's tomatoes are beautiful.  We have been enjoying a steady diet of steak and tomatoes for two weeks now.
I picked up an old Hershey's recipe book at a garage sale this summer and it had the best cake recipe I have run into so far. Once things get settled I will post  it for you.  And now that the weather has cooled off, we will be moving our cooking indoors and Ida Bailey will get dusted off again. 
HERBS:  Banner year for them. I should get one more good cutting to dry.
I convinced Jimmy to let  a blackberry bush grow in one of the back corners.  In another week I should have enough to make a couple of fine batches of blackberry jam.  I traded  eggs for beets  this year  cuz I just didn't have enough room to grow enough to pickle. I'll be stewing and canning tomatoes next week.
We have about 10 more winter squash that I am leaving on the vines for a few more days to see if I cant get them just a tiny bit bigger.
All in all , not a bad summer.  Spent it with with smart, talented, dynamic artists and enjoyed myself thoroughly. Our artisan lifestyle did not suffer a bit for my absences.  But now that it is over I will be better about this blog. 

Southern chow chow recipe, 100 year old recipes and how to get them, taking hostages, pluot cranberry jam, canning, preserving, modern techniques, hand grinder, grannys process, beignets,

Busy busy week. Yesterday Jimmy, T-bird and I produced 20 pint  jars of southern chow-chow, 24 jars of spiced pluot cranberry jam and 1 big pot of chicken and dumplings, and.......... by the time we crawled into bed the kitchen was clean and ready for this mornings breakfast which will be beignets with the great jam we made and scrambled eggs. Yep!..... altogether  a very productive day.
Southern chow chow is an interesting thing. It is a very  'old'  food item. It tends to vary from state to state and recipes can get very complicated.'   It is also an  'end of the garden' recipe. Meaning the ingredients (as explained to me by my grandmother)  are the things in your garden that have not ripened  ....like green tomatoes and peppers.  For northerners who don't know what chow chow is.... its a green tomato .......well...... relish....  commonly served with beans and cornbread, bar b que, fried chicken, biscuits and gravy.... and just about any other way  southerners can get it into their diet. It took pretty close to 3 hours on the phone with granny  (who is 90 this year) to get it out of her because she says its  NOT a recipe... its a process.  3 hours is not unusual when trying to get  a recipe that is over 100 years old and that morphs slightly with every years harvest.  I also think its Granny's way of keeping me on the phone  long enough to tell me all the family gossip and what her neighbors are doing and which politico is the most evil and various conspiracies she is aware of ( I come by my paranoia honestly). She only gives me 1 useful piece of information about every twenty minutes. So out of respect for her years and everything she has taught me  I will pass on the 'process' but for simplicity will call it a recipe.  And I will give it all to you at once without holding you hostage for the info.


hot southern chow chow


6 pounds or so green tomatoes (remove all seeds and juice)
5 pounds or so green (bell) peppers
two- ish medium heads of cabbage
6 or 8 large onions
a handful of garlic
several hot peppers  to taste (this year we used hot cherry peppers last year jalapenos) 
1/4 or so  cup mccormicks pickling spices (ground.... this is important cuz one year I just threw it in and had crunchy chow chow )
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1 cup sugar to taste
2 or so tbsps salt to taste
1/2 gallon apple cider vinegar ( I finally figured out that you put the veggies in the pot and fill to about 3/4  with vinegar)
 Chop all ingredients finely.  Granny used to do this with a metal hand grinder.  I use my kitchen aid food processor. Granny spent about 4 hours prepping and chopping...... It takes about 45 minutes with the kitchen aid. ( I don't even want to think how long it took great granny to chop it all by hand)
Put all ingredients in pot and let simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes, tasting and adding   peppers,sugar,salt until you get the flavor you are looking for. Put into sterilized jars, put on sterilized lids and water bath for about 20 minutes. Let cure ( put them in a cool dark place) for 6 weeks and enjoy.

Artisan Lifestyle,harvest,canning,teotwawki,sewing, herbs,winter garden,satan spawn, killing chickens, art,video games

12 more jars of spiced pluot jam went on the shelf yesterday. All made with a 1924 recipe by Ida Bailey Allen. Its end of the season so I have found myself prowling around the garden looking for just one more item too can or preserve in some fashion. I have some green tomatoes left out there and two potato plants that are still vining. After all the moaning and groaning about too much work .. now that it is slowing down, I miss it.
Gotta have a chat with Jimmy about this one.... He whacked poor harelip before the 2 new hens started laying and now for the first time in 2 years I dont have enough eggs to do what I need to do. So.. next time... he has to wait until the new girls are trained up and working steady on their own before he can put heads on the chopping block. The two new girls? They are doing better. The satan spawn has calmed down and is actually looking out for the shy one. The oldsters are still cranky but at least they are letting the little one eat now. Satans spawn is showing signs of laying in about two weeks. They should be able to free range in the back yard by the end of next week. We need to get a fence around the winter garden first.
I think we may be ready for winter. We stacked a cord of split wood last week and got it covered. Jimmy bought me a dutch oven for the odd occasion when the electricity goes out. The Good Typist brought me sourdough starter from her trip to San Francisco. We have a winter garden with spinach,collards, red sails lettuce, broccolli and brussels sprouts and carrots. Yep lots o brassicas. Which means we will not be vitamin deficient... but probably pretty gassy .... Oh and the house will smell like ass every time I cook. I'll have to make bread everyday just to cover the stinky cabbage-y smell! I'll miss the aroma of drying herbs in the house and fresh chopped basil and cilantro but hey its winter and we are trying to live pre wwII. We are going to have to buy potatoes this winter cuz we ate 'em as soon as they were big enough to dig out of the ground. Fresh potatoes, for those of you who have never had them are a sweet and creamy delight that need no flavor enhancers. Next year we are planting twice as many. (We had 6 plants this year).
To wrap this up .... Here is the inventory of everything we have produced ourselves so far. Red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, wine and cordials. (Should the end of the world suddenly be upon us....... We have enough booze to have a teotwawki party for all our friends and family and a few strangers. Yes, it IS our intent to meet the 'end' slobbering drunk and singing show tunes.) Next, we have all the herbs we will need for a year. Parsely,sage,rosemary,tyme,oregano,tarragon,majorum,garlic,dill,hot red peppers,basil and coriander.
Home canned foods ... Jams,Jellies, pickles (hot, dill and bread and butter) Chow-chow (southerners will get that one). Pickled beets, spinach, tomatoes, tomatoe sauce, green beens,red cabbage.
Things hanging in the garage to cure or dry, Beans,onions, squash, peppers,garlic,potatoes.
In another month we will have all the eggs we need.
Things we will need to buy in bulk next week:sugar,salt,flour, black pepper, cooking oil.
Things we will need to buy a couple of times a month.. cuz we dont have the means to make it ourselves (yet): Milk,cream,butter, cheese (notice the missing cow theme?) meat products.
Of course there are things we will buy throughout the year that are on the want ..not need... list: Jimmys peanut butter, my chocolate, icecream, bananas and other fruits.
Thats about it on the gardening,harvesting,preserving end.... Next on our list is the indoors for the winter stuff.
This year I am dragging out the sewing machine and I am going to make some simple household items... like pot holders... a very needful item when cooking with cast iron, a couple of aprons cuz all this cooking from scratch really is messy. Jimmy wants me to make him a couple of shirts. So, I'm gonna do it.... But since I'm doing the work I get to do it my way. I'm gonna make him a couple of piratey,romantic, puffy sleeve, lace-up the front shirts just like the guys on the front covers of historical romances have on. He is after all MY romantic hero! And I think he will look much sexier on the couch, playing video games, in a romantic shirt!
I have lots o paintings to work on... Too bad NOBODY is buying art right now. So, I have to do some marketing to do.

SELF SUFFICIENT, butchering hens, great dinner, canning, wine making

Well boys and girls ....a major goal was accomplished this past holiday weekend. Our holiday meal came completely, totally, absolutely from our yard! Jimmy butchered one of our hens and we dug up some yummy potoes from the back garden. We made a cucumber, tomatoe salad with onions and spinach and marinated it with homemade apple cider vinegar. All the herbs used on the chicken also came from our garden. We opened a jar of homegrown and canned pickled beets and for desert we had scones (from scratch) with three different homemade jams. Then relaxed with Jimmys recipe and a little homemade wine. Altogether a MOST gratifying experience!

Brining pickles,mistakes,triffid spinach,molting hens

Learning is important! I just wish I didnt have to lose a half a bucket of homegrown cucumbers to learn that you cant use iodized salt when brining pickles.... blecccch, what a slimey mess! Oh well...onward and forward, The chickens have stopped molting (thankyou heatwave) and have begun laying again. They are still unhappy about being penned up for the summer(cant have 'em trashing the garden) but they understand the new routine... They now head straight for the second pen in the evenings without too much dawdling. We had to figure out a way to let them forage in the grass because the three of them decimated the ground in their 10x14 pen within a few weeks. Destructive little darlings ,they be! I dont care what 'The Chicken Tractor" says, When we let them out, they head straight for the garden and begin ripping it up.. If we had allowed them free reign in the backyard we wouldnt have the abundance of green beans that I now have to preserve for the winter. This is going to be a tough one cuz Jimmy hates frozen and canned green beans. But loves 'em fresh. I havent had to be a sald nazi since early june because part of his daily routine in the summer is foraging in the garden and eating the beans straight off the vines. He's almost as bad as the chickens, but at least he leaves the vines intact! I'll be foraging today for cheap pint canning jars. I'm going to try and pickle some of our beans, maybe he'll eat them that way. Thanks to our recent heatwave, we have red tomatoes in Jimmy's tomatoe forest (I told him he planted them too close together). We practice a combination of traditional and square foot gardening. Sometimes our spring enthusiasm for getting itty bitty plants in the ground comes back to bite us in August when all those itty bitty's turn into giants and the backyard becomes a jungle. My new zealand spinach is turning into a triffid bed and I'm sure one of these nights it will slither through the bedromm window and eat us in our sleep! Once again... onward and forward..... Harvesting,canning,preserving and drying time is here. I want to get aheasd of it this year so I dont get overwhelmed and have to do everything at once like last year.