Onion Harvest

This past weekend we pulled up and processed our onions. It was a quick little homestead event, even with us planting more onions than we have in a quite a few years. Thus meaning it was one of our biggest harvests of onions and for that I am super excited! It's always a blessing when your hard work is rewarded by a bountiful harvest. After all the more you grow the less you have to buy from the store ~ which is one of our biggest goals in having this little homestead. 

Harvesting onions is super easy. All you have to do is pull them straight up out of the ground! It's so easy, even our two year old got in on the action.

I'm sure it's just because it's early in the main summer gardening season, but everyone was overly happy to participate in harvesting the onions. Children are fairly similar to adults when it comes to being refreshed and recharged after a long winters rest ~ come August we'll all be struggling to keep the momentum along with the right attitude.

 Everyone got their hands dirty during our onion harvesting, which is probably why it went by so quickly. The saying "many hands make light work", is no truer than when harvesting and preserving the garden. I could barely take a few pictures and a couple videos before all the onions were picked, but, hey, I'm not complaining. The quicker we are able to get it done the quicker we can move on to the next area that needs attention on our homestead. Trust me the work is never done, no matter how hard we try to keep up.

  

Once the onions we were picked we had a crew inside washing and chopping the tops off as well as a crew outside doing the same.

We cut the tops off of the onions and discarded them into our compost pile. There's probably something fabulous you can make with them, but I've honestly never taken the time to research it.

We ended up with two large basins full of onions to process.

Once all the tops were cut off and the onions were washed, we set to processing them in our food processor. If you choose to use a food processor to chop your onions, it is important not to over process them or they will turn into mush. I prefer to just pulse them a few times and at that point they're usually the right consistency. Once they're all chopped we scoop them into freezer bags by the cup full. We place four cups of onions into each freezer bag, for the simple reason that my canning recipes typically measure in four cup increments. This way once canning season is in full swing all I have to do is pull the bags of onions from the freezer and they're already pre-measured to throw into my canning pots as needed.

Involving children in the start to finish process of growing your own food is a wonderful aspect of the homesteading movement. There are so many amazing skills to be learned on a working homestead. Life skills that can truly benefit children for years to come. When someone is taught where something comes from they obtain knowledge, but teach them how to do something and they have a priceless skillset. Knowledge combined with ability is a powerful asset that we all should be pursuing via as many avenues as possible. 

The homesteading life is an amazing platform to obtain an array of knowledge and skills. Which can in turn be passed down from generation to generation. (Sadly, many are on the cusp of extinction due to the progression of technology). There is priceless value in the art of heritage skills, growing your own food, and the family unit. I'm beyond grateful that I have had the opportunity to rekindle the homesteading skills of days gone by with my family. The memories we've made and the lessons we've learned have been more than a blessing; they've been a beacon of hope in this darkened world we find ourselves living in. As I've said time and time again ~ the back-to-basics lifestyle is not an easy life, but it is a good life. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Preparing for Lean Times

There's no denying it, times are strange and uncertain. Life may or may not ever return to the way it once was. It could be understandably easy to sink into a hole of despair. Or you can do like our family is doing and prepare. Who knows what the future holds. I would like to think one day we will wake up and this insanity called COVID-19 will be a faint memory. But, in all likelihood, there's a good chance, this global shutdown is going to last a while longer and have dire consequences for years to come.

Our family has decided to be proactive and focused on creating solutions to our current concerns than wallowing in self-pity. I'm not going to lie, it's hard for me to keep on keepin' on. Some nights I lie awake sick, thinking about how horrible this world has become, and that I have ten children who have to figure out how to survive in it. But, I know that God is going to use all of this for the good of His people. I also know it would be a major disservice to the Lord, my family, and myself if I remained in a depressed state of mind. Instead, I'm hoping to be an example to my children on how to adjust, pivot, and roll with the punches. We don't have to succumb to this craziness, we can rise above it, and become better people as a whole.

Our family is making some consorted efforts to create practical solutions to help us thrive during this time. We want our children to feel safe and know they do not have to worry how their needs will be met. We want to shelter them from the raging storm whirling around outside our four walls. They deserve it, and my husband and I will do whatever it takes to make sure our children are well protected. The following is a more detailed synopsis of exactly what we are implementing within our family dynamics to help us survive the dire circumstances we currently find ourselves in. 

Preparing For Lean Times

1. Reevaluating Needs vs. Wants:
• Now is not the time for frivolously spending. We are praying through each and every purchase whether food, clothing, or any other item to determine if it is a necessity. 
• We are making purchases which help to reduce our over all spending, such as our new clothe line. 
• We are limiting our shopping in person as well as online, making sure every purchase is an essential item that our family truly needs.
2. Intentional Sustainability:
• We have increased the size of our garden with plants and fruit bearing trees/bushes. We are also pursuing meat chickens and other sources for food supply; such as inquiring of neighbors and friends if they know of outlets where we can find fruit trees to pick from. So far we have found a new free source for crab apples and someone who is getting rid of their canning jars.
• As cliche as it may sound, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is at the core of our daily life. We are reusing everything that we possible can ~ just the other day I salvaged a set of stand alone stairs to use as a planter station for my herbs. ALL leftovers are being eaten. Of course cloth for as many things as possible including diapers and napkins. We are trying to become a no waste family. 
• After a month of searching we were able to place our yearly co-op order. While this does not sustain us indefinitely it will meet our dry goods needs for the next year, reducing our need to purchase these items from stores or online. We've also managed to place our yearly order for maple syrup which we cook with and we're working on our yearly order for honey. All of these bulk purchases safe us money in the long run.
3. Immune Health:
• We are focusing on eating clean. Whole foods to promote a healthy immune system which can ward of disease and infection as well as give us the energy to pursue our many avenues of self-sufficiency.
• We are removing as many toxic substances as possible from our home from cleaning products to beauty products. There was a time we had minimal of these items, but I guess you could say I became negligent. I feel now is just as good as any time to get back on that band-wagon, it's really not that hard and it's certainly more affordable.
• We are making sure we have a decent stock of herbs, essential oils and vitamins to help combat ailments. We have always done this, but I guess you could say we are upping our game. We haven't been to the doctor for sickness in so many years I couldn't even tell you exactly the last time. But, the key on this one is to be proactive with necessary supplies so that when there's a need to treat a health situation, you are prepared.

Ultimately, God is in control. But, we can be used by God to fulfill His will. Having a plan and being intentional to work towards those goals is a much more positive way to use our time these days; rather than just hiding inside worrying. It is my deepest desire that throughout these crazy times our family would uphold God's word, look for the Lord's wisdom and knowledge, and not be wasteful with our time here on Earth. We are alive for a reason. None of *this* has caught God off guard. He is still in the business of providing for His people and He will continue to do so until the end of time.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer 

2020 Spring Planting Season

This year's spring planting season has been an eventful one to say the least. For as long as I can remember we have planted the second week of April. This year we went along with those same plans, only this year we've experienced some unusual weather. 

First we had nonstop rain, so much so that we could not plant any of our late winter plants or seeds.  Even though we didn't get the potatoes or onions planted in late winter like they were supposed to be, we decided to go ahead and get them in the ground (late) and pray for the best. 

Then we've had some unusually cold temperatures which have killed many of our plants. We've had to replant quite a bit of our tomatoes and peppers. We thought we'd lost our entire patch of sweet potatoes, but a fellow gardener informed us that they are growing just fine. Apparently the cold kills the leaves above ground, but the vines below are still growing. Lord willing that is the case, because sweet potatoes are one of my most favorite foods to grow.

We start the majority of our plants from seed either in recycled food containers or directly into the soil. We do buy some plants from the store such as tomatoes (not all of them, some tomatoes we start from seed), eggplants, peppers, and sweet potatoes. 

We've found that a lot of seeds that we'd normally plant directly into the soil do better if we plant them into small pots first and then once they get a good start, we transplant them into the soil. Those seeds include: yellow squash, zucchini, pumpkin, butternut squash, cucumber, some watermelon, and cantaloup.

Thankfully, even though we got our red and white potatoes into the ground late, they seem to be growing great. We planted four nice long rows, Lord willing we will have a nice harvest. We also have four great looking rows of green beans coming up. It's been a few years since we've had a decent harvest of green beans, but we're determined and we aren't giving up. We've yet to run out of them throughout the year, but we do have to ration them. It would be so wonderful to get a bumper crop of green beans this year.

We planted about a dozen rows of sweet corn. Our first planting had some skips in the rows so we've already gone back and replanted where some of it did not come up. We're hoping to put up ears of corn in the freezer as well as can corn. It's been a few years since we have had to can corn, but our supply is running low and it's time to restock. It's fairly labor intensive canning corn, but it's worth it once the job is done and we've got it to use whenever we want. 

We try to be as resourceful as possible with what we use in our gardens, with the intentions to keep the cost at a minimum. We stake our tomatoes and bell peppers using cages made with rhubarb fencing, a pole (sometimes we use a good thick stick), and zip strips. It may not be the most esthetically pleasing contraption, but it gets the job done. Our focus is to grow as much food as possible with the least amount of financial impact. 

We still have a good bit of planting left to do. It's still too cold for the plants that prefer hotter temperatures. In a couple of weeks we will be planting the watermelon, cantaloup, and okra. We will also plant another six or so rows of corn, to help stagger the harvest. From now until the end of August we're going to be full on, full-time gardening, picking, and preserving. Busy yet fulfilling days ahead to say the least.

To recap what we currently have planted:

Corn

Field Peas

Tomatoes

Bell Pepper

Hot Pepper

Red/White Potato

Sweet Potato

Pumpkin

Butternut Squash

Eggplant

Zucchini

Yellow Squash

Green Beans

Onions

Cucumbers

I try not to think about everything we have planned ahead of us in regards to the garden, because I would probably panic and have a melt down. In the long run it is a lot of work, but if we just remain focused on one harvest at a time, it doesn't seem like nearly as much work. Plus, when the main gardening season comes to a close and we have freezers and jars full of food to eat, it makes all the long days of hard work worth it.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

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

Winter Around the Homestead

It's winter on the ol' Williams homestead and we're still producing some garden veggies. We've been blessed with quite a bit of pickings from this year's fall/winter garden. It's just like our main summer garden: some years we grow more than we do in others; it all depends on what is going on and what we want to plant. With me having a baby in December, we didn't plant all that much, but it did fill in the gaps of balancing out our food budget.

We planted kale, lettuce, and spinach. Unfortunately, it was ready for picking right about the time of Abby Lou's birth and we were not really able to pick like we wanted. Sadly, we had a warm spell and the bugs came out and had themselves a grand feast. {{sigh}}

We have a few cabbages planted, but none are ready for picking just yet.

We had some nice sized turnips to come up this year. Turnips are my all-time favorite fall/winter produce! I wish we'd planted more.

My favorite way to eat turnips, is to boil them like potatoes until fork tender, drain, and then toss in butter, black pepper, and sea salt ~ yummy!!!

We had several broccoli plants and a few cauliflower plants as well. 

Broccoli and cauliflower are rather peculiar plants that can be quite finicky to grow in the South. They are super easy to attract pests and need just the right temperature.

Our favorite way to cook broccoli and cauliflower is to roast it in the oven with spices and olive oil. In this batch of veggies we added some of our bell pepper that we froze from our summer garden.

 And then we've got our little chickies which have slowed down their laying, we're averaging five eggs a day ~ which is pretty good to me. We try to let them free range a little each day. When we have our gardens in full swing, it's not as easy to let them free-range because they will eat our plants. We are just limited on space, but do the best we can.

The ol' homestead isn't all that quiet this time of year, but it's definitely a time to regroup and plan for the coming 'main' garden season. It won't be long before we're tilling up the soil and planting away. We're currently making our seed & plant wish lists and focusing on eating from the larder so we have plenty of space in the freezers and jars to fill.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Apple Picking

Living in the South can make growing apples quite the ordeal. Apples just don't like the high heat and humidity. Despite this, we do have several apple trees on our property, but they rarely produce enough to do anything other than eat a few. We are blessed with a neighbor who has 'horse apples' that he lets us pick, but they don't produce yearly. And those horse apples are way too tart for applesauce ~ we make diced apples for baking with those apples. 

So, then we have a distant relative who lets us pick her apples, which are suitable for making applesauce. Unfortunately, they don't produce yearly either and you never know until you get there if it's going to be a producing year. Most years my father-in-law takes the children to go pick apples, but since he had his knee replaced recently he wasn't able to take them this year. 

Since my father-in-law couldn't take the children to pick apples, we decided to make it a family event. We all loaded up this past Saturday to go pick apples ~ even our oldest son. Little did we know it was going to be a major adventure with a hilarious story that we will tell for years to come!

My husband and I had never been to this distant relatives house, and all we had to go by was the crazy directions written by my father-in-law. Somehow we didn't even get an address, not that we could have used a GPS phone app since there was zero cellphone service where we were traveling. I wish I had taken a picture of the directions, because y'al,l they were absolutely hilarious! They went a little something like this:

Go past Able gas station 

go thru two 4-ways (there wasn't the first 4-way during our drive!!)

make right at crossroads (what constitutes as a crossroad???)

Look for a large mailbox on right

If you get to the church turn around and look for large mailbox on the left

I'm NOT EVEN KIDDING!!! 

No road names, no mile markers, nothing! The only definitive direction was the Able gas station. We ended up making two major wrong turns which led to a supposedly 20 minute drive turning into over an hour long adventure. But, we did finally get there ~ YEAH!!

Once we finally arrived and unloaded a giant dog was running wild and wanted to 'play' with our younger crew. Much to my littles disappointment they had to hang out in the back of big brothers truck until we could get the dog put into his pen. (which took a good while)

Despite the wild ride to get to our apple picking destination ~ this was not a year for apples in the Deep South. We ended up with barely 10 gallons of applesauce making apples. Regardless, we still had fun, and now we know how to get there, so the next time we go to pick apples we'll know exactly where we're going, lol. I think we'll still try to make a small batch of applesauce because my little people love to make it, and fresh applesauce is so yummy!

There aren't too many apple orchards in Alabama and the few that are located in our grand state do not allow for folks to go pick the apples themselves. Which to me defeats the whole purpose of visiting an apple orchard. So those of y'all that have the luxury of visiting and picking apples at a local apple orchard ~ don't take it for granted; not all of us have that wonderful privilege. {{sigh}}

We have visited the amazing Apple Festival in Ellijay, Georgia which is about three hours away. It was well worth the drive, but it still isn't a place to 'pick apples'.  Even still, it is a fun place to visit and find all sorts of farm fresh apples, baked apple treats, as well as a plethora of other fair goodies! We're hoping to visit the apple festival again this year, Lord willing.

Thankfully our food budget doesn't depend upon us finding free apples to can, but it is so nice the years that we are able to put up fresh apples. My family loves fresh canned applesauce and fresh canned tart apples. Hopefully next year we'll be able to get some apples to can. Until then I will continue to ration the few jars of applesauce that we have leftover from last year. 😊

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Pea Shelling

Mississippi Pink Eye Purple Hull Peas or as I have affectionately coined them "dirt peas" is the topic of the day here at Country Mama to Many. When living in the south you quickly come to recognize that these little delicacies are a prized favorite for most southerners. It took me many years to acquire a palette for them and I still have to 'doctor' them up a good bit before I can eat them. But, I'm assuming the reason folks like them so much, is that they are super easy to grow down here in the high heat, humidity, and dry soil. 

We've tried growing an assortment of other beans and peas, but we always revert back to these. When you're trying to fill your larder it just makes sense to fill it with the produce you can easily grow. The little ones typically like to pick and shell our peas, and hey, if they find it fun, then why not encourage their interests. After all it's back breaking labor to be hunched over picking 'mile-long' rows of field peas ~ the younger children don't have to bend over quite as far as us grown folks, lol.

Typically my kiddos enjoy watching a movie or a television show while shelling peas. While I'm not a huge fan of television, it makes the useless activity a little more appealing when I know they're being constructive with their time instead of just completely vegging out in front of the T.V. Shelling peas is NOT hard, but when you're picking them by the five gallon buckets, any way to get them shelled as quickly as possible works for me. 

It takes quite a bit of peas to fill a quart jar, which is what I use in meals to feed our family. Since peas have to be pressure canned and they take a little while to process, we fill freezer quart bags with peas and place in the freezer until we have enough to make it worth our time to can them. I do not blanche the peas before freezing. And if we happen to run out of our already canned peas, the frozen peas can be thrown into the crockpot in the morning and turn out just as delicious as if we canned them. But, I do prefer the canned peas which can quickly be thrown into a pot, heated, and ready to serve in just a few minutes. 

 Pressure canning isn't really all that hard, but it is a time consuming process. I know many folks are intimidated by using a pressure canner, but we've never had any problems other than a busted jar here or there. I have two pressure canners and have had to replace two throughout my 15 (plus) years of canning. I've never spent a whole lot on canners, just bought the cheapie Presto Pressure Canners (bought my first one at Walmart) and they've worked just fine to meet our needs. Some homesteading purchases are worth investing in the high dollar models while others not so much. Thankfully, we've been able to successfully use our Presto Canners to fill our larder year after year.

I once heard a saying that said "Get what you can and can what you get". Part of homesteading and more importantly growing your own food journey is learning to acquire a taste for the foods that readily grows in your region. It may take some time to get used to them, but trust me you do. Or at least I've made a point to learn to like a plethora of food I never liked before we began this homesteading adventure. I figure if God placed me in this region, gave me a heart for this lifestyle, and the ability to grow/harvest/preserve such food; than I can graciously eat the food He provides. Ultimately, in this life, all things circle back to the Good Lord and trusting Him for our provisions in every aspect of our lives; even in the basic aspect of the food we grow and cannot grow. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer