Winter Canning

Oops, I guess this post should have gone before yesterday's post, but that's what happens when your'e as behind as I am in sharing what's been going on around this little ol' homestead. We're just going to roll with it, and hopefully I'll get caught up sooner than later.

Since we've decided to go full on mega gardening season this year, we knew we had to free up some space in our deep freezers. We currently have two fridge/freezer combos and two upright deep freezers. We try to reserve freezer space for venison and produce that doesn't can very well. But, come August when we are all run ragged we often freeze the field peas and tomatoes instead of canning them. So, we often have a freezer full of those two items this time of year.

Now that we're hoping for a bountiful harvest this year, we are acutely aware that our freezer space is critical; so we commenced to have a couple winter canning days. First with our frozen tomatoes and second with our frozen field peas (Mississippi Pink Eye Purple Hull, to be exact). 

We don't do anything special to freeze our tomatoes or peas. Simply shell the peas and put them into freezer baggies, and then freeze. For the tomatoes: we quarter them, making sure all the bad spots are cut off and discarded, and then put them into freezer bags and into the freezer. If it's a cherry or grape tomato we put the entire tomatoes into the bag without cutting. 

To can the tomatoes and peas from frozen, we set them into large bowls to unthaw over night before we plan to can them. I especially like to use my frozen tomatoes to make rich, thick tomato sauce. The frozen tomatoes make a perfect sauce consistency for making pizza sauce, which is why I put these pureed tomatoes into pints. Typically, when I'm making pizza sauce a pint jar of tomato sauce is sufficient.

We had quite an abundance of peas stored in our freezers. I must admit I rarely pull peas from the freezer when I'm wanting to use them in a meal. It's just so much easier to use already canned peas when preparing a meal, because they're pretty much already cooked.

We ended up with 18 pints of tomato sauce and 29 quarts of field peas (one jar of peas is not pictured because we used it for dinner). Not bad for a winter canning session. We've been hugely intentional trying to eat what we have preserved, especially in regards to eating what is in our freezers. After all, we worked really hard to grow the food and to preserve it. Even with life being so uncertain these days, it's such a blessing that another season of gardening to grow our own food is upon is. Normalcy is definitely a positive ray of hope and for that I thank The Good Lord above. 

With Love &Hope,

Jennifer

Spring Around the Homestead

Sorry Y'all I know it has been awhile, but life ebbs and flows for sure, and life has just been extremely busy. I've actually had 14 posts ready to go for a couple weeks now but getting everything set up and published has proven to be a little more challenging than I'd prefer.

We have been super busy around the homestead lately, gearing up for what we hope and pray is a bountiful harvest year. We've had so many projects going on from sewing, soap making, starting seeds, sewing seeds & planting plants in our big gardens, making new flower beds, and of course continuing with our homeschooling efforts.

 We had weeks of rain which made it difficult to plant our early spring crops. But we did manage to get in the ground some white and red potatoes as well as some onions. We planted double the onions than what we did last year. Lord willing we will get a decent harvest.

I'd really like to experiment with some different varieties of onions in the future. But, I am grateful we were able to find these onions still available; since finding garden plants and seeds isn't as easy as it has been in years past.

I know I've said it many times before, but I'll say it again; I truly love that my children have the opportunity to learn how to grow their own food.

Everyone gets their hands in the dirt around here. 

We added a new fruit arbor to our homestead. This one holds ten muscadine plants, which is like a grape. Grapes don't grow very well down here, but muscadines are a great alternative.

We started many plants this year including this entire flat filled with tomatoes. 

We also planted an assortment of herbs which were given to us by some dear friends. 

We did purchase a good bit of plants this year: tomatoes, several pepper varieties, sweet potatoes, and eggplants. We are hoping to preserve more seeds this year for next years garden, reducing our need to buy plants.

Unfortunately, due to a very late cold snap, we lost most of our sweet potatoes. We are planning to replant them this week.

Our fruit bearing bushes and trees are looking very good this year. We currently have blueberries, pears, apples, peaches, plums, blackberries, and figs. 

Even though we purchased 'late blooming' fruit trees and bushes they often get a little excited over early warm weather and bloom a little too soon causing us to lose our harvest.

We are fervently praying that this will not be the case this year. We are all super excited and hopeful for a bumper crop of fruit this year! 

Currently in the ground we have tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, pumpkins, onions, white & red potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, field peas, green beans, and corn. We have a good bit of seed starts growing to help stagger our garden harvest. 

I've been collecting canning and preserving items over the weeks such as vinegar, sugar, and canning lids. We have been diligently working to wrap up household projects and finish our academic year before the harvest begins. It won't be long before we're knee deep in produce! Fun times ahead for sure!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Family Fun at Old Baker Farm

 About 14 years ago I was sitting in a doctor's office at Children's Hospital waiting on our second sons pulmonary specialist appointment when I came across a magazine with 'things to do in the Birmingham area'. In that magazine was an advertisement for a fall family fun event at a farm. They had all kinds of fun things for the children to do, including picking pumpkins. And so began our family tradition of visiting Old Baker Farm every October.

The farm has grown over the years to include so many fun activities for the children. We always try to attend on their 'cowboy weekend'. On the farm's cowboy weekend they have men and women dressed up in old fashion costumes reenacting cowboy shootouts with real guns, shooting blanks!! It's spectacular to watch and experience!

We've talked about visiting other farms to go pick pumpkins, but we always come back to Old Baker Farm. Not that they ever remember us, but we usually have the privilege of talking with the Bakers, it's like visiting with family ~ they're a family of down-home country folks. Plus the cost of admission includes all the activities. We only have to pay extra for concessions, horse back riding, and  if we purchase something from any of the craft-fair type vendors set up on the farm. 

One of my favorite things about coming to Old Baker Farm is that it's a real working farm. The pumpkins aren't trucked in, you actually pick them off the vine. Although there have been years when the harvest was limited and the Bakers did bring in pumpkins from another farm. 

The farm is set up so that visitors ride on a hay-ride to go pick their pumpkins. They have several tractors and trailers running and ONE trailer hooked up to a pair of mules. This year we were blessed to get to ride on the mule-pulled trailer ~ which is our favorite!!

Lydia loved every part of being on the Farm ~ walked around like she owned the place, lol.

Some of the many activities for the children to do includes giants slides, hay bail climbing, a cotton jump, kiddie train rides, horse swings, petting zoo, corn maze, and hay bail maze. Trust me there is no shortage of things to do on this farm!! We spent over four hours playing this year!

This was the first year our oldest was unable to attend due to work obligations. I must admit this new season of life has not been easy for this sentimental mama. But, I'm proud of him and know our job is to simply raise them, and one day they do set out to live their own lives (and that's a good thing).  No matter how much we want to slow time, it just keeps billowing forward, all we can do is hold on for the ride. Of course there's nothing wrong with savoring every special moment we're gifted with until they do 'fly the coop'.

The Baker's really go all out decorating the farm, especially the few old farm houses on the property. (Which are actually lived in by the family.)

Even though big brother couldn't come enjoy the family fun, he did send money to buy the littles ones a treat. They ended up getting the biggest snow cones I've ever seen!

The last picture of the day. 

Daddy loves carnival/fair food and as y'all can see he's passed that love onto our children as well. Fresh squeezed lemonade and kettle corn for everyone to share concluded our family fun day at Old Baker Farm.

I must admit at 31 weeks pregnant, it took a lot of psyching myself up to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I love our tradition of visiting Old Baker Farm and I wouldn't have missed it for anything. We did all 'the things' and my family was super sweet to take 'all the pictures'. (I'm not even sharing half of them, lol.) Another year of visiting Old Baker Farm and another precious memory stored away. It is kind of crazy prepping and getting our family to functions like this, but watching my children having fun and enjoying the season makes it all worth the effort. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

July Pickings

I can't believe we're already into July! As usual the older I get the faster the years go by. And here we are in the hight of another summer gardening season. We have been mightily blessed this year, especially through our summer garden. The harvest has been a good one and we have much to show for our efforts. We have even been able to bless others with our bounty. We probably have another month of hardcore picking and preserving, but I do see a small glimmer of light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

It's funny how I rationalize the summer garden ~ I keep telling myself: I just have to get to the next crop harvested. So, looking ahead we've got more tomatoes for tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, and salsa, more bell peppers, eggplants, and field peas; the okra is just now starting to come in and then we'll have apples in August. The cucumbers, zucchini, and yellow squash are getting wormy so we've slacked in picking them (plus we've picked our fill of cucumbers, lol).

Yes, it's a heavy load, but our family is pulling together to get it all done. One day at a time, one picking at a time, and one preserving method at a time. It won't be long and it will all be finished; another year of harvesting and preserving the main summer garden will be under our belts. Soon the garden will be tilled and prepped for our fall gardens, and we will be able to slow down just a tad. Our fall gardens are much smaller, less work, and more for simply eating fresh home grown produce.

Growing your own food is a never ending cycle of planning, prepping, and toiling but when you see all your hard work before you it makes the whole process so worth while! Here's a few pictures to show y'all what we've been up to these days.

This is what my laundry room/storage room looks like. We are over-flowing with winter squash. Yes, it is early in the year for winter squash, but it just works better for us to plant them earlier in the year. We eat the butternut and spaghetti squash fresh, but I will be canning all the pumpkin soon. 

My husband planted six eggplant plants and all of them have thrived, producing tons of eggplants. I breaded and froze 20 one gallon bags of sliced eggplant to fry up later in the year for them to get ruined when one of my kiddos left the freezer door open {{sigh}}. We also had to cook up a bunch of meat that also thawed ~ it was not a fun situation, but we survived and have started over freezing the sliced and battered eggplant, thankfully we are having a bumper crop this year and have the extra eggplant. Trying to stay positive, lol.

The fig trees have just started producing right as we are wrapping up our blueberry picking. We were blessed to go straight from the blackberry harvest to the blueberries and on to the figs. We'll wrap up with the muscadines in August ~ fruit bearing bushes and trees are the best!

Our cherry tomato plants are currently at peak production. I think this has been our best year ever for cherry tomatoes and my kiddos love to pick them.

We're picking 5-10 gallons worth of field peas a couple of times a week. 

We're shelling the peas and freezing them until we get some free time to can. Leaving them in freezer bags in the freezer is okay, but we have limited freezer space and I'd rather can the peas to give us more room for freezing other produce that doesn't can well.

We've picked about 20 watermelons so far this year. Including one that was 41 pounds!!!

When you live on a bustling homestead, all available space is put to use ~ outside AND inside your home. We put in these mini window shelves in our master bath to hold tomatoes to ripen as well as a place for garden plant starts. It may not be the most attractive space, but it is a most practical space!

And that's a quick look of what we've got producing around our little homestead. I'd show y'all some pictures of our gardens, but they're a mess since right now our focus is harvesting and preserving not weeding. We only have so much time and energy; my husband works a minimum of 60 hours a week and we still have nine children we have to take care of. Keeping your head above water during the peak summer garden season is all about balance, prioritizing and recognizing you can't do it all. And even though we can't do it all, we try our best to be good stewards with all the Lord blesses us with including our garden harvests. 😊

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Back to Basics

Sometimes life appears to be moving backwards. Not on purpose, but simply as a result of the reality life, which doesn't always turn out the we had planned. As Christians life can turn into a delicate dance of trying to discern God's will, giant leaps of faith, and praying with all your might that you've made the right decision. Sometimes we know without a shadow of a doubt that our choices are directly inline with God's will and other times not so much.

For most of my adult life (I am about to turn 39) I have longed to own a house and land. A house that wasn't prefabricated; a house that when in need of regular maintenance we could go to the local hardware store and repair it; a house where I didn't have to flee for my life and my babies live's in the pitch black Alabama night for fear of an impending tornado, and on and on and on the list could go as to why I deeply desire a 'site-built' house. The reasons for wanting land is just as long. We've been maxed out with our homesteading capabilities for many years now. Our space is limited. Furthering our animal husbandry isn't even an option. We do the best we can with what we've got AND we're grateful. But I know we could do so much more if given the opportunity.

Well, sometimes when you beg and plead with God unrelentingly for years, He gives you the desires of your heart despite it NOT being His will. The week of Thanksgiving 2017 we put in an offer on a massive 5,000 square foot 'fixer-upper' with 5 acres. We thought our dreams were finally coming true. Our patience and persistence had paid off, this was it, our homestead and final earthly resting place was finally ours! No more praying for land and a 'site-built' house. No more living in fear of tornadoes ~ this house was made of rock, brick, AND had a basement! The 5 acres was perfect for small animal husbandry and any large gardening we wanted to do. It was perfect, or so we thought.

Ecstatic, thrilled, over-the moon, elated, happy; those words don't even begin to describe the joy of finally finding our dream home and moving in. Sadly those emotions were short lived. All that could go wrong, went wrong. Within a few short months we wiped out our life savings and were in financial dire straights. What we thought was God's perfect will and design for our family was quickly replaced with the acute knowledge that we had made a HUGE mistake. The house which we thought was only in need of simple cosmetic fixes ultimately needed to be completely redone from electrical to plumbing and everything in between.

As first-time 'site-built' buyers we received a crude education on the harsh reality of buying a house in the American real estate industry. It's cruel people. It's hardly ethically and realtors will do anything to sell a piece of property. We were lied to and conned in the worst way. We learned valuable lessons on buying and selling houses that most people learn at a much younger age. We thought we had done everything right. We were God-fearing, honest christian folks simply trying to better ourselves and the future of our family. Well, apparently that agenda isn't the norm in this particular industry and any form of accountability is non existent.

Thankfully the Lord delivered us from our horrific house-buying nightmare within one year.
Since we were unable to sell our payed-for mobile home when we bought the big house, we were able to moved back into it after the sell of our house. (Thank God for unanswered prayers!) I won't lie; I was crushed and heartbroken beyond words. Why did this happen to us? Why? Sometimes there are no answers, it's just life. And life often includes set-backs and re-starts. Thankfully God promises he will never leave us or forsake us. Yes the journey can be painful and riddled with hurts that only God can heal, but God's mercies are ever real and present we just have to keep our eyes on the Cross, trusting that even when we make those 'wrong turns' He will always gently guide us back into His loving arms and perfect will.

 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10 (KJV)

If there's one thing I have learned through this whole house-buying experience; it's when you don't know what to do or where to go; go back to what you DO know, what's familiar and the last place you knew you were exactly where God wanted you to be. It's been four months since we moved back into our mobile home and I'm finally finding myself at peace with where God has us. I'm not convinced this is our final earthly resting place and I'm still hopeful one day we will have our 'site-built' house on some land. Will it ever really happen ~ only the Lord knows, but I won't give up praying for it, planning for it, believing one day the desires of my heart will be God's will too. But until that day arrives here we are back where we started 20 years ago ~ happily homesteading our little one acre.

With Love & Hope,
Jennifer