Be Ye Separate

Life is a Bowl of Cherries!

Blessings!

   Well, it's that time of year again...time for CANNING!!!

   I didn't take any pictures of our Strawberry and Strawbluey adventure (that was last week) but I DID take pictures of todays Cherry-ganza!:P

   First we have 67.8 lbs of cherries (yep you read that right:P)After washing them they are pitted. Here is Miss Mary-Ann taking care of that sticky chore:PLove my cherry pitter:)Once pitted they are put into a large bowl and sent to the cutting stationI had a little help from Miss Sarah (she did a little cutting but mostly did the cooking part)All cut and measured to send to the cooking stationThen the sugar needs to be measured out.

Miss Sarah mixes in the pectin and sugarThe jars are heated up while the fruit is cooking down

Time to fill the jars (me giving "the look":P)Not sure it will fill the last jarYay! it fits!!So pretty:)

Needless to say we are exhausted! But wow what yummy stuff this will be in the winter months when we begin yearning for spring once again:)

A bounty of provision. A blessing from the Heavenly Father. Thank you Jesus!

God be with thee!

Sister Lori

Putting up another harvest:)

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words:P

Blessings!

   As the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words." In this case, it's worth just 4. This Is Too Funny:P

   As I told you a few days ago, our garden wasn't doing so well. In fact, the only thing that grew in it at all were the tomatoes which we are getting in abundance. With visions of all the sauces we were going to be able to make and preserve, it was quite the disappointment.

   I wanted to share just a couple pictures of our tomato harvest...hold on to your bellies cuz this is a stitch:P Now remember that I told you the tomato plants weren't any bigger than the day we planted them over 5 months ago now. Sadly, I wasn't joking when I said that the fruit was tiny. So here goes:P

   This is a full grown and very ripe Roma...It's just so sad it's funny:P

   And this...

   ...is a full grown and very ripe Beefsteak! (the red one on the left, of course):P

   The girls had such fun taking these pictures and have shared them with all our family now:P

   About the best thing we have managed to do with the garden is...it didn't grow a single weed! Now, if we could get the harvest size and amount up and still maintain weed free we'd be doing terrific!

   Thank you Lord for providing even the smallest of our needs:) I'm still chuckling :D

   Have a very blessed day in the Lord!

God be with thee!

Sister Lori

I love peaches:)

Blessings!

   One of the pleasures I find in our homesteading endeavor is the harvest. What wonderful preserves and jams we are blessed with. It is yet another thing that our family shares in, bringing us closer together.

   These pictures were taken last summer in our outdoor kitchen. It makes it much easier to get the job done without making the house a swealtering oven. Not to mention that it's quite a blessing to put up the harvest while enjoying the songs of the individual animals that call out to us throughout our day:)

   The first thing to do is to prepare your canning space before you even pick your fruit. This makes it more motivating to get the job started as soon as you come in with your fruit. Often, I have picked the fruit and it was such a workout that we "put off" the canning part and lose some of the harvest in the process due to molds.

   For those of you who have done this before know that fruit can and will mold very quickly even in the icebox. Getting it started immediately will usually encourage you to finish the job as best you can before the night is over. This will save on your investment of both time and money.

   Here we don't have peach trees so we visit a local fruit farm to get some of the things that we don't grow ourselves. Not only does that provide us with much desired harvest but it also supports our local growers just as they support us by purchasing such things as eggs or cheeses etc. Keeping a local market in business is a far better thing for community than travelling farther away just to save a few dollars. (Which, by the way, you will spend in fuel costs):)

   Back to the subject:)...

   After making sure your kitchen is ready and you have picked your fruit it's time to get the fires lit and certain things going before you process the fruit itself. I pack my fruits in a very light syrup so the first thing I do is get that pot going as well as the canner. It's important to heat up your jars before you pack them so you'll want to make sure that you also have your jars heating up in the canner at the same time. The jars will be hot so you'll need a lifter for them.

   Also very important is to heat your seals while you are canning. I find that keeping a dozen seals at a time in the sausepan on a constant fire makes it quicker for me to get them sealed without waiting. I use regular metal tongs to get them out of the hot pot:)

   Once things are warming it's time to start getting other things going like preparing the fruit so that when the syrup is ready it's go, go, go:)

   It's not necessary to rinse the peaches because you are going to remove the outer skin. First thing is to blanch the peaches. This requires a very hot pot of water that will accomodate 4-6 peaches at a time. It only takes a quick moment so don't walk away:) Carefully drop the peaches into the hot water keeping track of the order they were put in. (equal opportunity blanching):P Right after you place the last one in the pot immediately take out the first one and so forth until they are all back into your bowl. They are ready to peel.

   The skin, literally, sluffs off with your fingers. The peaches aren't hot so they won't burn anyones hands.

   Once they are peeled it is easy to tell where the blemishes are. Simply cut out the small spots and slice in half to remove the pit. Then slice in smaller slices (usually 1/4s) and place in a holding bowl that is filled with fresh clean water.

   At this time you can add either some lemon juice or fruit fresh. This will keep the peaches from turning dark. IF you don't mind that they turn a rather dark brownish color after they have been canned then that's alright too. The color doesn't make a bit of difference in the firmness or taste. We use fruit fresh because we simply like the bright color. It looks pretty on the shelf and on the table:)

   Things will move rather quickly once you pull those jars from the hot water. I suggest you pull them one at a time to pack and seal them then return them to the hot bath. (This will be the same pot you heated the jars in)

   Pack carefully leaving very little room at the top of the jar making sure the fruit doesn't touch the lid when sealed.

   When your jar is filled, carefully ladel the now very hot syrup over the top taking care not to spill outside the jar. Always make sure you wipe the very edge of your jars with a wet cloth to make sure there isn't any sticky on it so you will get an uninterupted seal.

   Remember the syrup is HOT and STICKY so if it gets on your hands it will BURN so keep a little bowl of cool water nearby to dip your hands in if you have a mishap.

   Notice the little bubbles. Take a chopstick or the handle of a wooden spoon and reach into the jar to displace the peach slices to make sure you have all the air out of the peaches (they tend to get little caves of air in between slices) and gently swipe the bubbles away from the edges. Again...swipe the edge of the opening with a wet cloth to get any sticky off before sealing.

   Gently place in the canner and process for 15 minutes. Again, the jars will be extremely hot when you pull them out so be very careful not to touch the jars. It's awful tempting to reach out and move a jar over with your hands without thinking.

   Make sure you place them on a towel to help absorb the heat from the jars. It also keeps the bottoms of the jars from cooling too fast and causing the jars to crack.

   Once your task is complete, and the jars are cooled to slightly warm you can move them to where you want them to be undisturbed for two weeks. This will help them to finish sealing and it gives them time to show any signs of a bad seal. If there are any signs of bulging in the lids, remove them and empty them immediately. Do not try to reseal them or to eat them. You wouldn't want to take the chance of making anyone sick.

   So...that's it for our peaches:) I pray you enjoyed the walk through our process. Have a very blessed weekend in the Lord. I pray your harvest is a good one:)

God be with thee!

Sister Lori