Good morning! The pressure cooker has re-emerged! After disappearing some months back, Deb and I heard a knock on the door this morning, opened it up, and there it stood…our pressure cooker!
The timing was amazing as we had squash, and string beans ready to can, and the tomatoes are going to be right behind!
After much hugging, and high fiving all around, we welcomed it back into our home, and I gotta tell ya’…the little feller hit the ground working.
All jokes aside, which Deb puts me up to by the way, we’re canning as I’m writing this. Actually, we have just taken the first 7 quarts of squash off the burner, and the pressure cooker is cooling down now. As soon as those come out we’ll put on our first 7 quarts of string beans.
Tomorrow we should have enough squash to add with what little we had left today, to at least put up another 7 quarts. As for the string beans, I’m guessing there are at least 14-21 quarts we’ll get from yesterday afternoon, and this morning’s pick.
Our cucumbers we should start pickling by mid to end of the week. The lima beans are just beginning to put on, and still have a ton of bloom on them. They’re still a little while off, but we have quite a few of those in the ground, and three different varieties.
The corn, though it has not done as well as I’d hoped, (and I’m sure has caused the good Lord to frown down upon me on account of my occasional outbursts in regards to it’s not doing so well), has begun to start producing ears. It will still produce a fairly good crop.
Deb’s peppers have all done extremely well, and I’m looking for her to start showing signs of a slight green tone in her skin in the next week or so. Dad-gum that woman loves a dern pepper! I’m not so sure she doesn’t cut those things up in her Cheerios, but I’m here to tell you, she enjoys them while they’re coming in. We’ll have to set her some more out a little later.
Our poor tomatoes that started off like a house on fire in the raised beds, have now all contracted the Fusarium Wilt. Well, all but about two.
Those things still produced quite a few tomatoes, and even though they seem to go through a slow and agonizing death, they still hang on long enough for the tomatoes to ripen on the vine. I call em my “John Wayne maters,” cause they’ve got True Grit!
I didn’t plant but 9 eggplants, and should be getting a few of those next week. Once again, I’m the only one in our household that eats them, so I figure 9 plants outta’ do me.
The way ole Deb has been juicing everything in sight around here lately, I’ll have to watch her in regards to those things.
Getting off the subject here quickly, we went to the Chemo Doctor today, probably can’t spell his formal title, but he is suggesting the removal of her breast, and then taking a look at the mass to determine his treatment. So we meet with the Surgeon tomorrow at 1:00 and set up the surgery for next week.
You guys have been so wonderful in regards to your prayers and support for us, and it is so greatly appreciated! We love all of you! Please keep those prayers coming for her, and I promise that you all are in ours as well!
Back to Deb and her juicing though. We have a juicer, and honestly, I kid you not, she is juicing us, about 22-24 different types of fruit and vegetable juice daily. I swear she is! We drink two 16 oz. cups apiece each every morning, and we dink one 16 oz. cup every afternoon!
This lady NEVER was a big vegetable eater. She now juices daily, and I’m sure I’ll miss something, but here goes:
Veggies:
Asparagus, Broccolli, string beans, cucumber, garlic, tomato, celery, squash, banana peppers, bell peppers, gypsy peppers, spinach, greens, cabbage, garlic, and ginger.
Fruits:
Blueberries, strawberries, rasberries, blackberries, apples, watermelon, peaches, red grapes and white grapes.
EVERYDAY, three 16 oz. cups for her and I a day. Now she might run out of an item or two, maybe three, but we pick them up again in a day or two. 6 of the veggies we’re getting out of the garden, but this, is why I said earlier, I hope I can keep her out of my eggplant! But, I’ll share with her, IF she wants some.
Anyway, I just got the string beans going in the pressure cooker, and instead of 14-21 quarts, it looks as if it’ll be more like 21-28 quarts. We’ll probably stop at 21 though, and cook us a mess, and give Dale a good mess too.
I told Deb tonight that I think I’ll give them a good shot of fertilizer in the next day or two, and she looked at me like I was crazy.
Changing gears, I saw a comment on Word Press in regards to I’m guessing about my story about the wild man riding the grizzly bear, whipping him with a rattlesnake, or in other words…seeing Boogers!
Well, the comment is from my niece, who is my sister’s daughter Maddie. Maddie shared with us awhile back her smoothie recipe she’d left for my Mom, or her Nanny. She’d written it for Mom when she was 11.
Here’s her recipe:
Going through my Mother, Ruthie’s, cookbook, I came across my sister’s, Sissy, youngest daughter’s, Maddie, Fruit Smoothie recipe she’d left for Mom and Dad.
Maddie according to her recipe was 11 years old and left this dated 3/26/06. Maddie’s now in 11th grade…
Maddie’s Fruit Smoothie:
- 1 cup blueberries
- 1 handful grapes
- ½ cup orange juice
- ½ cup cranberry juice
- ½ an apple
Blend together, then pulse. (Please help Uncle Dub out Maddie…what’s pulse)
“ENJOY, GOOD ENERGY,” Maddie says!
Well, Maddie has struck again. After my Booger story, she decides she’ll share her North Carolina version, which is where Maddie lives. Here’s what she sent to us to share.
You HAVE GOT to watch this, NC’S finest right here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPfEqn8RTys
Sasquatch??? I believe if I was Sasquatch, I’d a run from that feller whether he had a stick in his hands or not! You better quit watching that kind of stuff Maddie, or you might wet the bed or something! LOL!
Thanks for reading Matt-Matt, and commenting too! I’ll send your twenty bucks to you tomorrow, okay? You got to comment twice a week though, but change your name around some, that way everybody doesn’t know it’s you commenting every time!!
Tell your Mama , Daddy, and Jaycee, the child prodigy, that Uncle Dub says hello! Just kidding Jaycee, it’s an inside joke, right Maddie?
Well, we’re going to go for now, and open back up tomorrow. Same time, same place! Thank you all so much for coming!
I’ll throw up a few pictures of what we picked out of the garden last evening and this morning, and some of the canning. The tomatoes all came from the plants with the Fusarium Wilt, or my “John Wayne Maters!” See how small some are.
The recipes today will be how to can string beans and squash for those who don’t already know! Thanks again guys!
God Bless.
Dub and Deb…& Maddie!
Hey guys, the veggies and canned goods look great. I know where I’M going when the going gets rough and groceries can’t be found! (Don’t panic, y’all; just kidding! By then none of us may have access to enough gas to go anywhere, anyway.)
I wanna talk about squash now. Somehow I just never liked the texture of squash that I had canned. What I really like is fresh squash thrown in a hot skillet of bacon grease with an onion cut up in it. Anyway, we all know that can’t last all year. Now, I sort of “prep” them to fry later these days. Of course ours got frozen a few weeks ago and we have now replanted.
I wash them good, slice them, roll them in a half and half mix of fine corn meal and flour. Then I put them on a lightly sprayed baking sheet and plop them in the oven at 375 for 12 to 15 minutes, take ‘em out, let ‘em cool, put them in freezer bags and into the freezer. For use later, I drag out the good old Fry Daddy and just drop them in to fry until tender and brown. We tend to like them better that way. The rest of my canned ones a couple of years ago I used for squash casserole, though, and they were good that way.
Dub, though it pains me to agree with anyone on anything, I do hope your readers are taking note and realizing that hard(er) times are coming our way, and probably sooner than later. Now, we have all the crop loss in LA because of the flooded out farms. More than the loss of produce, I could weep for those who are losing their homes and their possessions. Let us all keep the less fortunate in our hearts and prayers. Anyway, as I have said, emergency preparations are not a new thing to me at all. Though I no longer follow the religion, I grew up in a Mormon home, and what a WONDERFUL home. My parents were totally family oriented and it was great. Mom always thought she should have enough on hand for at least a year, and that meant enough for all of her kids, grandkids, and others. It was unreal!
This week I have added some aluminum foil and a few other things that I thought may come in handy; did so just to increase the amount stored. Also have to swap out the vitamins and refresh those. I sure wish I could locate some baking powder that says, “For long term storage”! Who knows, we may be cooking water bread on a hoe before we leave this old earth and go home! Whatever. Faith will see us through and show us the way.
I am pleased as punch that I now have 3 ramp beds coming along, and my garlic is doing really great. It just pains me that ramps are a May crop, period. We can’t have the big ramp festivals like we used to up here. People got greedy and were depleting the forests of the ramps. That really gets my dander up. There have been times when I could have dug up a whole bed of goodies here and there, but I had sense enough to leave all but a start to continue to grow and prosper for others. When did the human race get so greedy? MY parents would have smacked my butt good for such behavior!
Okay, I’ve vented enough for today. Carry on……………………………….
What a lovely supply for the pantry you’ll have! Lookin’ good.
Love the sasquatch video. That guy was a hoot!
@Bonnie – I had to go look up ramps! Never heard of them before. It’s a shame they’re being depleted. Do people still go hunting for them?
Kunoichi, go to this link and you can see what they look like: I absolutely love them any way you fix them. Many of the festivals now are just to show off the many different ways and recipes for them. I love them any way you fix them! Some folks just use the little bulb, but I use blade and all. I can just wash and clean them, cut up the whole thing, throw them in a hot skillet with butter or bacon grease, add nothing more, and eat the whole thing when they are tender. I was pleased, actually, to see one of the chefs on the food network recently use wild ramps in a recipe for venison. Been there, done that, MANY times. I do suspect, though, that his were not really “wild”, but were commercially grown. I do hope more and more people will try to cultivate them and let the wild supply out in our beautiful woods recover a little!
http://www.flagpond.com/festival/ramp/fest.htm
Wait… your pressure cooker has it’s own adventures and then comes back home just in time to can?!?! Now that’s loyalty!
Ciao,
L