Melmer's page!

Drying Onions and Garlic

I love garlic and I grew a great crop this year.  I've decided to put up a lot of it as garlic powder.  This isn't hard to do, but I thought I'd post on it.

First the onions and garlic-

(the out of focus onions and garlic)

Peel skins off of garlic bulbs and then off of cloves.-

I slice the garlic in my ancient food processor.  It goes much faster.-

Then I peel and slice the onions.  I do this by hand as my food processor doesn't like onions.

Next, place onions-

and garlic-

On the drying trays for your dehydrator.  I think you can also dry them on screens or in your oven on low.

I dry them until they are brittle and crisp and then back to the food processor to grind them into powder.-

Yes, I should have washed this off before taking a picture.

And-VOILA! 

Out of focus onion and garlic powder!

I think I just wanted to take pictures today.  I'm making beet pickles now, but I promise, no more tutorials.

Have a blessed night.

Making Sauerkraut

We've been blessed with wonderful, large cabbage.  We grew 40 of them and now I get to make sauerkraut.  I've never made it before and I don't really like it, but I've been told that homemade tastes better than storebought.  So here goes...

Get approximately 20 lbs. of cabbage-

(pay no mind to the date on these pictures)

Next you chop it up five pounds at a time and add three tablespoons of salt to each five.

You could use a kraut cutter-

But as you can see, mine is old and needs sharpening so I just used a knife-

After you have salted five pounds and stirred it, let it set several minutes.  It should get wilty.  While it was setting, I cut another bowl full of cabbage.  After it gets wilty, put into crock-

Pack it down with a wooden spoon or your fist-

Continue to fill the crock with the salt and cabbage mixture until it is about 3-4 inches from the top-

If the liquid isn't at the top and going over the cabbage, make some more.  One quart of water to 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt.  Bring to a boil and then let it cool.  Pour over cabbage so there is brine up to the top of the cabbage.  I ended up making about 2 more quarts of brine.  Next cover the cabbage with cheesecloth.-

Then it will need to be weighted down.  I used a plastic bag filled with water.  This will keep air out and form itself to the top of the cabbage.-

Store in a cool place.  Remove and discard scum from the top every day.  It takes 3-6 weeks for fermentation to be complete.  To can it after it's done-bring it to a simmer-not a boil- and put into hot jars.  Put on lids that have been heated.  Put in hot water bath for 30 minutes.  This is for quarts.

I'll let you know how it turns out.  I've never done this before.

I'm Drowning in Books!

Well school is back and I already feel in over my head. This is my third day and I have a paper to write, a language to learn, a book to review, and math, which by itself can make my brain hurt=] But the truth is, is that I love learning. I have tons of useless fact jut waiting for there time to shine=]

I made a goal this summer to read at least 100 books. Last summer I read 50, no problem. But I guess doubling it was not good because I only  read 87=[ Oh well, I know know at least 87 things I didn't before=] I just finished "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, if you want to read a creepy book thats one of the creepiest. It's the authors vision of the future, which includes cloning, drugs, and the banning of marriage. Nightmare city=]

Well since I have all these useless facts I will start sharing one at the end of each post, if I remember that is=]

 "There are 330,000 species of beetles alone, the largest is named the Goliath Beetle"

              Madge@Home

 

Pressure Canner

My mom went and bought a brand new pressure canner from Lehman's.  I know that she bought it for me, even though she's just borrowing it to me for an indefinite period of time.  What a blessing!  I canned some beans yesterday.  Today I hope to can some pears.  I also want to put up some pear jam and can some carrot juice.  Lord willing, I will also start some sauerkraut and dry some oregano and thyme.  Can you tell it's harvest season.

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Tonight they're predicting frost.  It'll be the second of the season already.  My plants were nipped by it a week ago.  Corn, tomatoes, winter squash, pumpkins, none of these are done yet.  A bit early even for us.

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Best get going.  School time.

From Glory Farm

The Summer Adventures of Madge, Chapter Five, The Lava Beds

 Okay its not tomorrow=]
After we went to Virginia City we stayed two more days at my grandma's before heading home.
 
 On the way back we decided to camp at the Lava Beds National Park and Monument. The campground was nice and it wasn't long before we had dinner going and the tent up (Dad didn't ask me to help this time) =]
That night we all slept great and were all ready to go in the morning.

The main reason we went to this campground was to go spelunking,  if your like me you'll be thinking, does this person go around randomly making up words? The answer is yes, but not in this case. Spelunking is just the scientific word for the exploration of caves.

 So the next morning we set off to go explore some caves. The first cave we went in you have to go down a long flight of stairs, more like a ladder, in to the darkness. My mom and brother don't like dark tight places and it wasn't long before the decided to let us go on with out them.The second one they got a little farther but still stopped about a third of the way through.

 It was so fun, I loved getting down on my hands and knees to crawl down into the darkness. I also liked the cool earthy smell that was down in the caves. They were really amazing and in my opinion one of Gods coolest works of art. I have a few pictures so here they are.
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Here ends my summer adventures, I hope you liked reading about the fun I had this summer and I hope you keep reading about my life when I remember to post it=]
 
   <~}Madge{~>

It's All Your Fault-Thank You!

All of our children are in 4-H.  We've been doing 4-H  4-ever.  This year, our two oldest girls did very well at the county fair and were allowed to go on to the state fair. 

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Dd1 took her dandelion jelly.  She got a grand champion at county and a red at the state fair.  Do you know where we got the recipe?  Homesteadblogger.  I think I have Grandma Rosie to thank for that one.

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Dd2 took her poster on the evils of white bread.  (The whiter the bread, the sooner you're dead.)  And a loaf of homeground, homemade whole wheat bread.  She received honorable mention at county and GRAND! at the state fair.  The recipe-off Homesteadblogger.  It may have been Crystal's fault, but I don't remember for sure.  The delicious whole wheat bread recipe is definitely a winner.  Thank you.

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You guys are great!

Barak Obama

I found this website when I was searching Barak Obama a little while ago http://muslimsforobama08.com/index.html I think he would be a great president, don't you?? NOT!!! Well I G2G!

The Summer Adventures of Madge, Chapter Four, Nevada

A week after VBS we headed to my grandma's house in Silver Springs, Nevada.

On the way down we stopped at Goose Lake to camp for the night. So while mom made dinner it was my job to help dad set up the tent. It was a new one so it took us awhile to figure it out but when we were done it looked great (in my opinion, dad thought it wasn't right) and after dinner we went went to bed. The next morning we woke up, ate, repacked the tent, and were on our way.

The next day around dinner time we got to my grandma's house. The first few days we just relaxed and were lazy, except for a few minor trips to town for food and video games=] Then on Thursday  we went to Virginia City. For those of you who don't know much, or anything, about here's a little about it.

Virginia city was one of the richest mining towns of the 1850's. The first miners were looking for gold, but instead found silver, lots and lots of silver. A little gold was found, but the city flourished mostly on silver exportation. In 1864ish there was a big fire that burned down most of the town, but because of the wealth of the community they were able to completely rebuild it. There are some really neat old churches and buildings, and most of them you can go inside. It's a really neat place and you should try to visit it sometime. Here are some pictures, luckily my dad takes a lot of pictures=]

Here is a beautiful old house with a history. . .

Read this sign that was on the fence of this house.

Here is one of the old churches, this one is "Saint Mary's in the Mountains" cute name I think=] Isn't it pretty?


Here is a retired train.

Well there's my favorite Virginia City pictures I'll have the rest of the trip posted by tomorrow=]

        =]Madge[=

Random Insanity

The Summer Adventures of Madge, Chapter Three, VBS