Apple Pie Contest

I am now an AWARD Winning Baker!

 

 

 

 

Yes! I placed 3rd in the pie contest! My ribbon is hanging in the cabinet next to my soup trophy! Oh there really is no living with me now. If I can figure out how to download pictures from the cell phone onto the laptop and then over to the blog...that would be a good thing...Look! The Martha Stewart is coming out of me again!

 

Charlie Brown is currently working on his biography about Mary Pope Osborn...I learned quite a bit too. I think she was a hippy for a bit after college, traveling Europe, camping in a cave in Crete...Ahhh the things I am learning.  When he finishes his sentence writing we are doing a science experiment to show how rocks are formed and reformed. Good thing I am a crafty person who throws nothing out...aka, hoarder of all things crafty. We will shave crayons onto foil...representing weathering and erosion, then heat the crayons to melt them together...molten rock, then add pressure, then reheat, then pour over ice...oh the fun we will have....hmmm...I better go change my shirt and dig out an old apron!

 

 

I also have two Angel Food Cakes in the ovens. I have over 40 doz eggs at the moment...need to hard boil a few dozen as well. I would like to try canning pickled eggs...I'm just a little lazy about it...so I think about doing it and then say I WANT to do it. Intentions with out actions mean very little.

 

Perhaps we will have an egg casserole for dinner tonight. I could make some cream puffs too for dessert...I can feel the arteries clogging now.

 

 



Facebooked out...

Where have I been....FACEBOOK! I just deactivated my account because I found myself spending more and more time sitting in front of the computer. I wasn't just looking up recipes and learning new homesteading skills. Instead I was playing games and reading everyone's status updates and then reading all the comments or commenting myself. Information passed that I really didn't want to know. Also, I discovered that people can be really MEAN when they are commenting. You know they certainly wouldn't behave that way in person. I found myself involved in someone else's drama...thinking about it when I had other, better, things to think about. I had had enough and without some eloquent speech about how I was leaving, I just made a clean break and deactivated my account.
Now I am focusing on home again. It's amazing what you can get done in a few hours when you are not repeatedly looking at the computer or the smartphone.
I am homeschooling my 8yr old. WOW. It is a challenge but I think we are going to make it. Third grade is tough. We are using PACyber... not traditional homeschool but I am right there reading lessons, doing science experiments, going over spelling, maps, recipes, music and art projects...whew and this is the first month...well six weeks.
We still homestead. Currently raising meat chickens, layers, turkeys, pigs, goats and a steer. I am constantly either spraying essential oils all over the house, diffusing them in the air conditioning or wearing them so I don't have to smell the pigs. Really...I enjoy farm smells...I dislike strongly, the pigs.
I'm trying to get my husband to butcher my older laying hens. I want to use them for stock. I need to build up my supply for the soup cook off in January. I won last year! There were 11 soups entered. This year there will be more. I need to be prepared. Having that plastic gold trophy really made me feel good. In fact I tell my kiddos they can't complain...I'm an award winning chef now. Tomorrow I am entering the apple pie contest at the Heritage Days festival. Not sure how I will do, but I won't know unless I try!
Still canning and freezing whatever I get from the produce stand. My garden was a bust this year...too much rain then too much sun...the weeds did really well.
But I am working in the sewing room during the times I would normally be on the computer. I am well on my way to finishing some Christmas presents.

Maybe now I will have time to post and read my other favorite blogs that I have not visited in a long time.

Oven canning dry goods

A few months ago I read an article in the Countryside magazine about oven canning dry goods. When properly sealed these canned items are good for decades. I thought it was a great idea and tried it. I canned flour and rolled oats...but you can do any DRY good...beans, rice, cereal.
I bought a 50lb. bag of rolled oats for $25. I filled 12 half gallon jars(twice, plus some on the counter), packing them tight by "stomping" the jar on a folded towel. Didn't want to break the jar. The next step is to place the open jars in a preheated oven(200degrees F)for one hour. When the time is up, open the oven and start placing the lids and rings on the jars. It's hot so be sure to wear an oven glove or use hot pads. The OV glove works best because I had my fingers free. Once the lids are snug, take the jars out of the oven and place on a towel lined counter to cool. As the jars cool, the lids seal. This process kills any larva or critter that may have been in the oats or flour. Ever open a bag of flour in the back cupboard only to find tiny black bugs? ick. I usually store my flours and oats in the freezer...but that takes up space I need for meat.
I have been using the oats and flour... they are great. The only thing I have found is that I need to sift my flour before using it. since it is packed down in the jars it seems clumpy and I like it nice and fluffy.
I save money buying in bulk, it is sealed and I don't have to worry about bugs or rancid flour. Plus, with the shaky economy, I have a stock pile to help get through the winter.
Now, I have friends who oven can food, but I don't trust that method. I either water can or pressure can my foods. Since I didn't grow up learning how to can, I stick to the proven safe methods. I would hate to go through all the prep work and expense of buying the products only to have it spoil due to poor storage methods.
But the dry goods seems pretty safe and as I said I have been using them without any issues.
I hope this inspires someone else to try it. It took about 2 and a half hours total time investment filling the jars and heating for an hour and cooling .

Planning and Dreaming

This is the time of the year when I sit back with a good seed catalog and plan my spring garden and dream of all the harvesting and canning I will be doing. I generally leave out all the work, digging, weeding and planting. For some reason that always comes as a shock come spring and I end up not planting everything I dreamed about in the winter months. Anyone else do that?
Hubby and I were sitting with our evening coffee discussing what and where we were going to plant. He wants to make the garden area we already have established, a potato garden and establish a new garden area in the side yard outside my kitchen door. While I see it in my head...skipping out to the garden in my apron to select fresh veggies for that nights delectable dinner...I'm leaving out the hours of breaking new ground and all the hard labor that goes into composting and weeding the area. I focus on the end result and not the journey to get there.
You learn so much about life when you think about gardening. I know I do anyway. I see in my mind the future I want, the garden, the herbal business, the booming contracting company...but I have to keep in mind all the work involved and am I willing to do it to get the end results. Or do I need to rethink my goals and make them into something I can manage and am willing to devote my time.
My imagination tends to run from reality.
BUT we will try it. Maybe work it in small sections so that by the end of the summer we will be ready for more next year.
We also discussed what is the most efficient veggies to plant. An example Hubby brought up was to plant cherry tomatoes but purchase canning tomatoes(Amish farms near by sell them fairly cheap by the bushel), plant beans, buy carrots, grow broccoli buy cabbage...
He has a dream of growing a strawberry patch...we tried it before, but all our plants died. We had bought bare roots (200)that is a lot of planting and a very frustrating failure. Maybe if we plant in a different area it will work...more digging.
I suggested horseradish and he asked me why I would plant that, I don't even use it...I think it was just the seed catalog high talking...

Goals for the New Year

I think just about everyone makes up some sort of resolution or goals even if it's to say I'm not making a resolution...see still resolving not to make a resolution.
I've decided that I'm going to list my goals to help me move forward to my dream of being closer to the Proverbs 31 woman.

Goal number one is to rely on GOD for everything. To trust in Him and to LISTEN for what He needs me to do. Because seriously, I fail on my own all the time.

Goal number two is to stop being so negative about myself. I need to stop doubting myself, I need to stop being so critical of myself. I am worthy of success and need to stop fearing it. I'm actually a pretty cool chick if I would stop comparing myself to others or trying to be something I am not. I'm chatty and easy to talk to, creative, resourceful, honest and open, passionate in my interests, loyal to my family and friends and I am able to adapt to life's ups and downs without too much mental trauma.

Goal number three is to focus my main energy into raising my family. Whatever my dreams are for the future, I cannot allow them to interfere with my job as wife and mother today. My children will grow up too fast for me to have regrets later that I focused on my soaps and salves instead of my children. If I can find a way to have it all work together that would be great. But if it came to a choice, family first.

Goal number four is to research the herbal world. I want to take a few classes on herbs and their uses and to be able to identify them in the wild. I can always keep learning and growing.

Goal number five is to learn to finish what I start. If you have read my blog before...you know what I mean. Intentions are nothing without actions.


So those are my goals for 2013

I'm excited for this new year

Slowly....

I am slowly getting busy making and selling my soap, salves and lip balm. I really have to get over this fear of rejection. The ladies were over on Tuesday and I was talking about how I felt. I would rather not try, than try and be rejected. My Hubby gets soooo irritated with me. My one girlfriend told me the number one rule is to not take the NO personally. She says they are saying NO to the product not me. My issue is the product IS me. It's made by my hands. So much love and passion goes into each product. I have a hard time even pricing the stuff! I sit and think...what if someone buys it then doesn't like it? What if I priced it too high, they will think I'm a rip off? What if... Sounds pretty pathetic doesn't it? I'm even frustrated with myself. I don't know how I even became so full of self doubt.
But I am biting the bullet. I sold several jars of salve and lip balm just from people asking for it. So today and tomorrow I am making a few more jars of salve and lip balm, digging out some aprons I have made and I'm going to set out Saturday. I am surrounded by prim shops and they are all having sales Saturday. I am right in between two of them so I thought what better way to get started. People will pass my house to get to the prim shop. I also have soap at another prim shop...but so far, no sales. I'm ok with that because I'm not there to be rejected...lol.
So I am making the healing salve and a breath ease salve(eucalyptus, rosemary, lemon)and a tea tree lip balm and maybe a cocoa mint lip balm. I finally figured out how to make my labels so I will even have our Up The Creek Homestead name on the products.
I have bottles coming from Mountain Rose Herbs for my homemade vanilla. I also ordered some herbs to make more infused oils and tubes for the lip balm. I'm hoping I can sell more so I can make more.
I really have to lock up the lip balm because my daughter keeps taking it! I told her she was going to have to work it off...the tubes cost about .50each!

I also tried a new to me idea of whipping coconut oil. I can't remember if it was a blog, pinterest, or facebook. But you whip coconut oil and it gets white and creamy. It's used as a moisturizer. I made some up and added a few drops of peppermint oil. It smells nice...I may add more more, just testing it out now. The coconut oil firms up a bit after whipping but not as hard as it is otherwise. It also melts into your skin as applying it. I think I like to use it more at night as it is pretty greasy feeling at first.
Well, I'm going to get busy.

I'm still breathing...sometimes deeply...

The homestead has been busy. Butchered more chickens, the two pigs(714 lbs), 11 turkeys, and two deer. I think we are done unless they get another deer. I had vacuum sealed meat until my freezers were protesting. Then I switched to canning jar after jar of turkey and venison and stock. Can I just say I LOVE canned chicken stock or rather MY canned chicken stock. YUM.
I am cyber schooling my 17yr old...not an easy task as it seems I am stupid and unable to understand the world today(that's what she says) Well, from what I see of the world today...it sucks. I would rather live in my old fashioned values of working for what we have, giving what we can, taking responsibility for our actions...Even if I home schooled all my kids, unless I sheltered them in a bubble, I couldn't keep them from the worlds influence. *sigh* but I TRY!

I thought i would post some pics as they are worth a thousand words...

My brother and I cutting down chicken

the makings of chicken stock

Applesauce making

green beans galore!

Sold all but one of my goats. I kept my Saanan for milk. That's an interesting story because I sold the goats because the cost of feed and I figured I would have a little extra cash for Christmas...then I ended up in the dentist office and there went the extra cash...I'm trying hard to be thankful I had the extra cash to pay for the dentist.

Made my own soft soap...peppermint scented. I was given a 5gallon bucket of grated lye soap from someone's grandparents house...how cool is that? Anyway, I took some fresh peppermint and steeped it in 6C. of water for about 30 min. then I strained it and added a few cups of the lye soap and stirred it on low heat until it melted. then i let it cool and added a couple teaspoons of peppermint essential oil and incorporated it into the soap. It was a bit thick, so i put some in the blender with a bit of water and thinned it down. Poured it into a bottle with a pump and kept the rest in a canning jar until i needed to refill the bottle. FUN!

most of our fall was spent at the football field. i find homesteading and sports are not very compatible...that was very time consuming and fast paced days.

This is the pork from our pig raising experience...5 boxes...plus two buckets of lard! That was a family project getting it all sealed and packed in the freezer. Hubby and i sat and made 216 sausage patties. we portioned someone bagged and two others sealed.

And this is why we live the way we do...for our kids. Charlie wrote us this note in church. I keep it in my purse so I can look at it when I would rather run away from home!
Hope you all are having a great fall and a wonderful holiday season!