Tornado night

Just when I think I've got a little time for playing in the yard farm, or maybe write a blog post, we get bad storms coming through our area.  I won't write another post about our tornado night because I just wrote one for the other blog.  I thought you might like to see this video that I took around 7:30 last night. 

Ok, how about one more?  This is kind of fun now that blogger made it easier to do videos. 

There isn't a problem with the camera.  It really was that dark outside.

Now if only I could figure out a way to make videos while I'm working on the machine to do quilts. 

Uh DUH!

Sometimes I wonder about myself.  I sure do get a good laugh at myself with the odd things I do.  I got an early start in the backyard in order to beat the heat.  Just look how nice my box garden fence looks.  Nice and fairly even.  This is where I planned my cucumbers to grow and climb.  I was giving myself a pat on the back for finishing before the heat of the day started.  When suddenly, DUH, what in the world was I thinking?    The fence is in the wrong place.  So I took it all apart to move it where it should be.  All that work, looking so nice, and it was all wrong.

Ok, I finally got the fence taken apart and the posts moved.  By then it was starting to get pretty hot outside and we are in an ozone alert.  I really had to just stop.  I have a hard time breathing on days like this.   One post on the end is leaning because the fencing is... DUH... too short for the new placement.  Nothing seems to go exactly as planned for me. Giggle, giggle.  The only thing I can do is laugh; otherwise, I'd be crying all the time.   I'll move the one post tomorrow morning. 

So what difference does it make where the fence is placed?  Well, I can only reach 2 feet so the plant has to be accessible at no more than 2 feet from all sides.  You are not supposed to walk inside a box garden.  What was I thinking when I placed the fence the first time?  The boxes were originally going to be 2' x 8' with a fence on the side.  I changed my mind right before these were built and had them made into 4' x 8' for more growing space.  When I looked at my garden plans it was still drawn for the 2' width.  I didn't think about it, just did it.  I've been laughing at my dumb mistake all day. 

I did pick some cherries before I started on the garden.  I picked 2 quarts and decided to dehydrate them.  I measured out 2 cups for each tray.  This is the amount I would use in a small, one person, pie.  It's easier to do the measuring before dehydrating.  It's hard to judge how many dried cherries make 2 cups because they get so small.  I plan to vacuum pack these in 2 cup portions.  I should get at least 2 quarts a day for about a week. 

What the heck is this?  I don't have a clue.  It's brown black very dark and hairy looking.  Looks as if it's growing from the wood on the front porch.  Hmm... looks kind of like a moldy caterpillar stuck to the house. 

Here's a close up.  Any closer and it gets blurry.  I've never seen anything like it before.  I was going to spray it with bleach but decided to watch it for a few days to see if it changes.  My curiosity about it wants me to let it be for now.  I hope it doesn't turn into some poisonous something ready to bite me.

Despite all the DUH moments with my garden, I'm loving it.  I get pretty sore from using muscles I forgot I had.  I believe it's all good for me.  I get exercise and I'm outdoors instead of spending hours and hours at a quilting machine.  Fresh air.... even early morning ozone filled fresh air... is good for me.  After the initial hard work of creating my box gardens the work won't be so difficult anymore.  I can enjoy just planting and watching it grow.  Then, of course, eating all those fresh foods. 

I know there are readers who come to this blog for quilting tips and I'm sorry I've not posted many of those lately.  I'll be doing more of those later.  For now, I want to see to my health first.  Spring and summer are times for being outdoors.  Quilting is for colder days.  Ok, my internet time is up.  I've set myself a limit of time each day.  Work does not get done if I'm sitting at a computer for hours and hours.

Busy busy

With all the years I've been using computers a person would think I could figure things out.  Well, my problem has always been that just when I had things figured out enough to use it, there would be something totally new come out and I'd have to start learning all over again.  I could never keep up with the faster and faster changes.  Technology left me behind years ago.  I still use technology when I can but if it's too complicated I leave it alone.

I do much better with stuff that requires less mental activity and more of the physical.  Like picking cherries.  My tree is not as loaded as it was last year.  I believe the cold, wet spring caused a lot of the blooms to not fruit.  I also had the tree topped out right about the time it was ready to blossom.  It might have had some shock from that.  Well, I'll pick all it gives me and put them in the freezer for now.  When I've got enough to fill the dehydrator I'll dry them. 

I got a new security light on the back of my house.  This replaces the old light.  I hated the old light because it had no on/off switch.  It came on at dusk and went off at dawn.  That wouldn't have been so bad except the bulb in it was a thousand watt bulb.  It would be using 1000 watts an hour every night and it would be so bright it was like daylight.... especially coming through the bedroom window.  Imagine one of the overhead lights you see on poles around the city shining three feet away from your bedroom window and you couldn't turn it off.  The first electric bill nearly scared me to death.  Imagine getting an electric bill that is normally charging for about 900 watts a month to suddenly charging for 360,000 watts.  It took me over a year to pay off that one month's bill.  I took that big bulb out years ago and haven't used this light since.  I like this new one so much better.  I can turn it on/off when ever I want... from inside the house. 

My garden boxes did look like this.

Now they look like this.  They are still not the way I want them.  I can do a little at a time.  It's gonna take A LOT of dirt to fill those boxes up to the top.

So far, I've gone through 50 bags of dirt.  I'll probably need another 200 or so before these are done.  But.... it doesn't have to all be done at once.  I can add some every now and then until filled.  I don't have to plant anything if I don't want to this year.  I can simply get them ready for next year.  I can start seedlings indoors to have ready to plant when it's time.

Some of the dirt I've gone through was put into the front box.  The only thing to be planted here this year is my morning glory vines.  The vines should be coming up any day now.  I need shade for the porch.  I can't plant shrubs or trees for shade because of the water, gas, and sewer lines located along this side. 

I have one more garden box to be filled along this side of the house too.  I won't be planting anything in it this year either.  It will be enough if I clean up the weeds growing in it and prepare it for next spring.  Nothing has to be done "right now", my new slower paced life says some things can wait till tomorrow or next year.

I've been cleaning out weeds from my fence.  When the house next door was built they put up her privacy fence right next to my chain link one.  No room for me to get between to clean up the weeds.  I cut what I can from my side. 

Those darned ivy vines have taken over my yard.  It was a lot of work cutting them because they spread under ground.  I cut down below the surface trying to get as many roots as I could.  I'll spray with a weed killer as soon as I can buy it.   

What's really weird.... and lazy on the part of the contractor.....  is that they put her privacy fence on the other side of the trees which are actually on her property.  The trees are between her fence and mine.  This left me with the ugly problem of dealing with the trees.   As you can see, the trees are lifting up my fence because of the roots.  There is nothing I can do but deal with the weeds and trees the best I'm able.

My hope is that I can clean up enough of the ugly ivy vines so grass will grow again.  I would like to have a nice area for my furkid and me to sit and enjoy nice weather when we have it. 

Ok, I think this is about three or four days of posts rolled into one.  My fingers are crossed, hoping this post shows up and I don't have to type it again. 

Garden progress

It's not easy trying to create and plant a garden when there are days and days of scenes like this.  This photo was taken during the day but looks like night.

The newest raised beds still look like this although they have been moved closer to the sidewalk.

I did manage to work on the side yard beds.  They looked like this.

But they now look like this.  I didn't finish the third one yet because the rain came back and because I haven't gotten any dirt either.

There is a couple of stray cats that have already discovered the loose dirt.  Those cats must believe I created a big litter box just for them.  Ammonia has been put on my shopping list for this month.  I would use moth balls but those make me sick.  I can't be upchucking every time I get near my garden.  That wouldn't be good at all.

I also managed to put up the strings for my morning glory vines.... providing the boxes get built for them.  I'm still waiting on the guy to bring the boards to make the boxes.  He is waiting on sunny days too.

At the rate of speed I'm getting my gardens made, I'll be lucky to get them finished in time to plant a fall garden.  Nothing ever moves fast for me.  It's always hurry, hurry, hurry to get quilts finished for customers but wait, wait, wait, for anyone to do something for me.  Ok, part of the problem is that I'm slow about getting the dirt for the gardens.  I don't have a car or anyone willing to take me to get the dirt.  Even if I find a place offering free dirt from freecycle.... how would it get here?  I guess the next option will be to plan a trip to the garden center and pay a delivery fee to get it here.  It's an investment. 

There's still more work to be done on the backyard beds before I fill them.  The boxes are not level which will create a problem later.  One end is about 6 inches higher than the other end so rain will wash dirt out of the lower end.  The ground is too wet to dig to level the boxes.  This darned rain just won't stop long enough for the ground to dry out so I can dig.

I still don't have a definite garden plan.  I'll just wing it this year and grow what I believe will work.  I can keep notes of what happens with each thing and make changes for next year.  As it is right now, anything grown in the garden will help cut the grocery budget.  I can fill in other foods with produce from the farmer's market. 

Hmm... I guess my next project to start thinking about is canning jars.  I'm gonna need a bunch of those if I'm going to be storing my foods.  Shelves will be needed too.  I will need a pressure canner if I plan to can veggies.  Gosh, all these things mean I need to earn more money.  The quilts are telling me to get to work or there won't be any money to pay for any of these.  So I am headed to the studio now.

Garden planning

As a child I spent a lot of time with relatives when my mother was too sick to care for us.  My aunts and uncles had gardens and did lots of canning.  I helped with their gardens when I was there.  My grandparents (I called Mama and Papa) had gardens and canned lots of things.  Papa would hitch up the mule each spring to plow up the spot where he planned to plant the garden.  My pet goat and I would follow along and sit nearby to watch Papa.  The goat followed me.  Probably because she knew there would be spring grass to nibble on. 

After a morning of plowing, Papa would let the mule nibble on grass too while he and I would walk down to the bottoms to fish and eat lunch.  Sometimes we caught a fish or two, sometimes not.  A couple of hours later Papa would go back to plowing and I would head for home with our catch if there was any. 

Papa was the one who decided what was planted in the garden and where.  I never really understood how he decided and he never offered to teach me.  Maybe he and Grandma Mama discussed what to plant when I was off doing childhood things.  Grandma Mama taught me how to spot polk or early dandelions.  She taught me how to find elderberries, dewberries, wild strawberries, and blackberries but she never discussed planning a garden with me.  When it was time to plant, Papa simply told me to put the potato cuttings at such and such intervals as he came behind me to cover them.  Potatoes were always planted on Good Friday.  Papa told me to put a corn or bean seed every so often and I did.  It was the same for all the planting.  I was the helper and never gave much thought to why they planted which plants.  I now realize that Papa and Grandma Mama saved seed from year to year.  Only a couple of times do I remember Papa going to the general store to pick up new seeds.  The seeds were stored in drawers of a seed cabinet.  The customers picked up a little scoop and got what they wanted.  The cost was determined by the weight of the seeds.

What's the point of this story?  It's that I know nothing at all about "planning" a garden.  What should I grow?  How many plants?  What types?  How far apart?  Will there be enough for canning or simply enough to eat through the growing season?

Even back when I actually had a tiny backyard garden it was merely a couple of tomato plants, a cucumber plant, some bib lettuce, and every now and then something different if I could find it at the garden center in tiny pots.  Nothing was planned other than stretching my food dollars through the summer.  Even last year my tiny garden boxes had only a few plants with nothing really planned.  Canning or freezing extra was just a bonus.  Now I have these lovely new raised beds that will become my new small but intensive garden.  I also have the raised beds from last year to use too.  I find I'm at a loss about what to plant. 

I have a few plants given to me by the man who built the boxes.  A starter pack he called it.

I know whatever I do plant will have to include one for me, one for the rabbit, and two for the thieves neighborhood foragers.

I know I can't just plant willy nilly again this year.  There must be a plan.   I want to grow plants with the idea of canning some to eat during the cold months.  I also hope to build a tent to cover at least one of the raised beds to grow greens through the winter too.  We've had rain, rain, rain the past couple of days and more rain is expected all week.  There was so much lightening all day yesterday that I couldn't quilt or get onto the computer.  It took me all day to write one email because each time I turned on the computer the lightening started again.  I used the down time to think about garden plants. 

I know there are certain plants I really want and there are some I might try.  Tomatoes, peppers, bib lettuce, radishes, green beans, beets, and collard greens are a must.  Cantaloupe, baby watermelon, flowering cabbage, and carrots are a maybe.  Does anyone have any secrets to share about planning a garden?  Does anyone know about seed saving?  I remember doing it but the details are lost with my memory.  Hmm... has anyone seen my memory?  I'd really like to get it back.

I hear thunder again, time to post and turn off the computer.

Canning butter

Not long ago I had a type-talk conversation with someone about canning butter.  I told that person I used to do this. But, was it really only a childhood memory of what I thought I had done?  I remembered canning butter..... but was I really the one doing it?  Did my Grandma fix my mistakes when I wasn't looking?  I began to think my memory was.... hmm..... sort of like the memories Ladybug will have of doing things with me.  I know I helped my Grandma Mama canning butter but I couldn't remember the steps and I couldn't remember ever doing it all by myself.  This kept nagging at me.  I really wanted to know.... did I ever really can butter all by myself or not? 

I called my aunt to ask how Grandma Mama canned butter.  If anyone would remember how Grandma Mama canned butter, it would be her.  After a few minutes of family catching up conversation, I asked about canning butter and whether or not I had actually canned any all by myself.  What my aunt told me had me busting out loud at my light bulb (DUH!) moment.  My aunt said Grandma Mama made clarified butter and canned it.  Yes, I did help to make clarified butter and canned it but I never made it all by myself.  Grandma Mama would send me to fetch something at just the right moment and when I returned the most critical part of the process was already done.

My aunt explained the steps to me.  Clarified butter is a process of removing the milk solids from butter leaving only the fat.  Grandma Mama called it butter lard.  Lard of any kind will last for months without refrigeration.  If you use clarified butter regularly for cooking it rotates often.  Well, after all that wondering, I just had to do some myself.

I'm showing what I did with my butter but if you do an internet search for clarified butter (or ghee) you will find a ton of places with pictures or videos.  Clarified butter is used for cooking but would not taste very good if spread on toast.  It would be like spreading grease or lard on the toast.

Start by melting the butter in a pan over very low heat.  This is at the lowest setting I can get on my stove.  Whatever you do.... don't leave the stove while making clarified butter.  If you must leave then turn the stove off.

As soon as the butter is all melted it will start to foam.  Start gently stirring the butter to keep it from boiling over.  If the butter boils over and gets to the heat you could have a major fire on your stove.

Boil the butter for about 5 minutes while gently stirring.  It will start to separate as the milk solids start to fall to the bottom of the pot.  Keep cooking at a very gentle boil.  It will boil even on the stove's lowest setting.  I actually moved half the pot off the flame to lower the heat and it still boiled. 

Some people will tell you to skim off the foam on the top but I didn't.  I followed the steps given to me by my aunt.  She told me to let it boil for another 5 minutes after it started to separate.

Pretty soon the butter will look like this.  The milk part of butter has fallen to the bottom of the pot and the fat floats at the top.  It separates even more after the heat is turned off.

Pour this clear fat through some gauze fabric but stop pouring when you see the milk part start to go into the bowl.  If you loose a small part of the fat it's ok. You don't want even a little bit of the milk solids to be in the bowl.  You can throw the milk part away or use it in a recipe calling for lots of butter.  Hmm.... like maybe butter cookies.

Here's what the clarified butter looked like after straining it.

My aunt told me that if I wanted to can the butter for long term storage I should boil the butter fat again to remove the last remaining milk solids from it.  So I did.  Here you can see that it's starting to foam again.  This time I did skim the foam off with a spoon. 

By the time I had boiled it for another 5 minutes, while skimming, it looked very clear.  Strain through more clean gauze.

Pour it into clean canning jars.

Two pounds of butter made 1 1/2 pints of clarified butter.  This can be stored either on the counter for about 6 months or in the refrigerator for a couple of years.  As it cools it will become a soft-solid type of lard. 

If you want to store clarified butter for longer times you can water bath can it for 10 minutes.   The reason Grandma Mama canned her butter was because she had lots and lots of extra butter in the spring and a big family to feed.  We didn't have electricity either so no refrigerator.  It was canned to last until the following spring when milk would be plentiful again.  Grandma Mama canned her butter in half gallon jars.

At this time of year the cost of butter should be going down.  It's getting close to the season for butter.  Eggs too.  However, with the economy being so uncertain, and gas prices going up again, we can't be sure the price of butter will actually go down.  If you use butter for cooking really often, and happen onto a bargain, think about making clarified butter.  I plan to use mine when making biscuits that call for using lard.  Butter lard will give a really nice flavor to the biscuits. 

I'm so glad I cleared up the mystery of whether or not I was the one who made canned butter.  Now I can actually say I've done it all by myself. 

Buying discount foods

I've type-talked quite a bit about how I find lots of discount bin things.  Here is one example from the fabric store.  I bought these cabone rings months before I actually used them.  I knew I was planning to make window quilts for all my windows and would need these.

I also found these in the discount bin at Walmart.  I knew I would need these  for my window quilts.  I bought these a couple of years before I actually got around to using them. 

If I'm very patient I can find almost anything I need in a discount bin eventually.  Most people can understand and appreciate buying at least some discount stuff this way.  What really makes people squeamish about buying from a discount bin is buying food.

Most people believe that if a food has a red discount sticker on it that it's not safe to eat.   Red means danger doesn't it?  So what is the safe eating date?  Packages have several different dating systems.  There's the best by date. 

The sell by date. 

The use or freeze by date on meats.  The use by date on dairy products.  Or simply a date with no words on bakery products.

And several other terms that guide the store in rotating stock.  These dates are given to the store (and us) by food producers. 

So who determines these package dates?  The food producer of course.  What better way to get the consumer to buy more of their products than to give us a shortened date.  If people are convinced a product is not good beyond the date stamped they won't eat it.  The food is tossed out and new bought.  It's very hard for me to come up with the right words to describe this but I'm trying. 

A long time ago, I noticed a "use by" date on a bottle of honey.   The date stamped was about a year from when I purchased it.  I thought it odd, very odd, to have an expiration date on honey.   Honey has a natural preservative and it never, ever goes bad.  You ever heard of a bee hive tossing out it's oldest honey?  Honey will start to get a grainy texture that is easily fixable by warming it..... but honey does not go bad.  

 I started wondering about other dates on packages.  I noticed the wording of a date on a container of sour cream.  It was a "best by" date.  What the heck does a best by date mean anyway?  Best for the store to sell it by that date?  Best eaten by a consumer by that date?  Not as good tasting after that date?  Will I get food poisoning if I eat the sour cream after that best by date? 

I started thinking about my Grandma Mama and how she knew when foods could no longer be eaten.  For example we milked the cows every morning and every evening.  Some milk was sold to neighbors and some we kept.  Grandma Mama knew just how long the milk would last before it was no longer usable.  Even sour milk was used in recipes but at some point she knew not to use it anymore and gave it to the pigs.  Then there were the foods Grandma Mama canned herself.  She dated every jar with the date she canned it.  She did not put a "use by" date on her jars.  It was knowledge that told her how long a canned jar of green beans would last.  Knowledge taught to her by her mother.  Carefully using the oldest canned foods first meant her stock was always rotating.  Grandma Mama had knowledge and experience to know and remember how long foods were safe to eat.

We, as consumers, have lost our ability to know the safe shelf life of foods.  Well no wonder.... we are taught to listen to the producers and follow their confusing date systems.  We've been taught the date means "don't eat it, throw it away".  Knowing the true safe life of foods has not been taught by one generation to the next.  Grandma Mama's foods were preserved in ways that she could look at it and know if it was safe to eat.  Looking inside a glass jar of green beans, without opening, and she knew to either use it or toss it by the color of the food.  Can we do that with green beans bought in the store today?  Green beans are either in metal cans or frozen in plastic bags which we can't look inside to see for ourselves if they look ok or not.  Do we have a choice about the packaging?  No!

Well, what about fresh produce?  Hmm.... Grandma Mama had a garden and fruit trees.  She picked her produce and preserved it.  Food from the garden and orchard had blemishes.  Bugs ate on it or the hoe nicked it.  These days if an apple has a slight blemish people won't buy it.  If a mushroom has a single dark dot on it people won't buy it.  If green beans look slightly wilted people won't buy any.   Lucky for me people feel this way though because I can find lots of food in the discount bin and buy it.

Next time you look at the date on a package of food.... before you toss it out..... think about it first.  Next time you see a red discount sticker.... take a second look before walking right on by.  I'm not telling you to eat rotten produce or freezer burned food.  I'm just saying the date stamped on a package by a food producer may not be it's true expiration date.  Let knowledge and experience (and your nose) be your guide; not just a date stamp given to you by someone who wants to sell you more than you really need.

Bargain whipping cream

I use what bargains I can find, when I can find them.  For example these cartons of whipping cream.  If you enlarge the photo you can see the use by date says 10-19-10.  I bought these on the 15th.  There are a couple of things I could do to extend the life of the cream.   I could freeze it in the carton.  It would last for two months in the freezer if it remains unopened but no longer than that.  Any longer than two months and it separates then goes bad even in the freezer.  It also goes bad if opened and then put into the freezer too.

I could make whipped cream for a bunch of deserts but that's a lot of deserts to be eaten don't you think?  One dollop at a time just won't do for getting all the food value before it goes bad.  I could make ice cream.  I could even make my own sour cream chip dip.  But for these three containers I believe I'll make some homemade butter.  There's just no comparison between the stuff called margarine and real honest to goodness cream butter.

So how do I start?  Well, the cream needs to be left out of the fridge for awhile to let it come up to room temperature.  I know it can be done while the cream is cold but that takes longer.  I pour the cream into the mixer.  

Turn it on "slow" and gradually go to a higher setting.  I'm trying to get whipped cream first. 

Even with slowly going to a higher speed I got a big mess.  I made myself a splash guard for my machine because mine didn't come with one.  I gotta add a splash guard to my wish list.

Here it's gotten almost to the whip cream stage but it needs to go even farther in the mixing.  It will happen very, very quickly so I can't leave the machine for anything.  Not even to answer the phone.

Here the cream has gone from a white color to a slight yellow color and is separating.

I let it whip only a couple seconds more and I see the butter form right before my eyes.

Now I stop the machine.  See, I told you I got messy with this.  The butter looks sort of like watery yellow cottage cheese which is what I want.

Dip the butter out of the bowl into another bowl then pour the remaining milk into a quart jar.  This is homemade buttermilk folks.  It's not the same as the creamy buttermilk you get in the stores.  They add cream back into that buttermilk.  This is pure buttermilk.  I don't throw it away.  I put it into the fridge for drinking or for cooking. 

Now I have to wash the butter to remove all traces of the milk.  If the milk is not removed completely the butter will go bad in a couple of days.  It's the milk that spoils, not the fat.  How do I wash butter? 

By smooshing it with a spatula on the side or bottom of the bowl with a little cold tap water added.  Working the water through the butter as if I'm trying to mix them together.  Of course oil and water don't mix so it runs out taking the extra milk with it.  The first washing produces something very milky color like the buttermilk but it's really just water.  I can throw this away.  I won't be tempted to add it to my buttermilk because then I'll have very watery buttermilk.  It will spoil really quickly too. 

I wash for a few minutes then pour out the water.  I add fresh cold tap water.  This is how the water looks after the second washing.  A little cloudy but better.   I pour this out and add more cold tap water.

I repeat the washing until I get nothing but clean clear water.

Just to be sure I've gotten all the milk out, I wash it one more time.

Now I have butter.  At this point I can leave it unsalted if I want.  I personally believe the salt acts as a preservative so I add it in.  About a teaspoon of salt for each pint is what my Grandmother taught me to add.  I mix the salt in really well. 

If I still had my butter mold that's what I would do with the butter now.  But.... since I don't have the mold I just put it into a bowl and then into the fridge.   Actually the butter can be left out on the counter without any problems.  I remember as a child we didn't have electricity.  We used butter in our cooking and we ate it on our food so it never lasted more than 3 or 4 days anyway.   By the time one batch was gone, we had enough fresh cream from the cows to make another batch.

Umm.... wait just a minute!  What's fresh butter without fresh bread to test it out?  Mmm.... yummy.  Sorry, no picture of the butter spread on the bread.  I was too busy eating.  A little honey and I had a feast.

There are a number of ways to make your own butter.  It can be done with a blender, a hand mixer, a food processor, or as a children's home school experiment using marbles in a jar.  Give it a try, it's lots of fun.  It took me only 5 minutes of watching the mixer and I had butter.  Another 5 minutes of washing it.