Around The Homestead

We had a gully washer Saturday and Sunday, the first good rain we've had all summer. Unfortunately my seedling tray was on the deck. I think I lost my trays of brussels sprouts and red cabbage.

I moved them as soon as I could traverse safely through the storm, but damage done.

On the positive side, my existing plants in the garden and pots LOVED the rain. You simply can't water enough in the summer here, plus, I've always felt that plants thrive on non chlorinated water. That's why I always hope for rain.

Egg production is starting to dwindle, which is fine by me. I have plenty in reserve. Thanks to my nephew in law, he demonstrated how good freeze dried eggs reconstitute. I brought them a package of freeze dried eggs when last we visited. 

He let it reconstitute for 20 minutes then cooked them. They were beautiful. Even if you can't afford a freeze dryer, I recommend you buy some freeze dried eggs for your pantry. 

The only thing you have to be careful of is making sure whatever is left in the package is dry and as oxygen free as possible. I use oxygen absorbers and food grade silica gel to keep my freeze dried foods in check. I also vacuum seal them if they're in jars.  

In a future post I'll go into detail on my successes and failures in freeze drying. 

Greg has interrupted my deck in order to complete an even older project that he's finally decided to finish. He is running electricity to his shop. Not a big deal perhaps, but since his solar array is there (which is how the shop is run now), once the electrical is finished, he should be able to back feed his solar power to the house the next time we have a major power failure. 

While Greg is working on the electrical, it's time for me to start trimming trees and hauling brush to be burned.

I also have two persimmon trees to plant. I have never tasted a persimmon, but other people have told me it's a nice tasting fruit. The trees were cheap and I'm still on a mission to make our place an edible paradise for man and beast. 

Even if I don't like persimmons, the birds will. They taught me that if I want to keep any fruit, I need to net it.

I netted my blackberries and blueberries this year and had a great crop. I made blackberry confiture from my produce to Greg's delight. I love blackberry jam, and it was great to be able to adjust the sugar so it wasn't overly sweet like the store brands.

This is the first time I've ever made jam. A year ago I bought an old fashioned chinois set (a steel strainer on a stand with pestles). I spent a whole dollar on it, but I was too afraid I'd waste food if I did it wrong. I finally bit the bullet and discovered nothing could be easier.

With any luck, my niece will send me some hardneck garlic. She attended an Amish produce auction. The prices were astonishingly low. Entire cases of produce were going for a few dollars a box. I had no idea such places existed. Leave it to that girl to find them.

If you like to can or freeze dry and don't have a garden, that's the way to go. 

The garden is just about spent. I've made some seedling trays up for some fall veggies, but it'll be a small garden compared to the summer one. 

I've trimmed my tomato plants but I think it's time to pull them. What few fruits there are, are small. I did prune some eggplants because some insect kept eating the leaves. After a couple of weeks of cooler weather, two of the plants sprouted flowers. 

This year I tried Casper eggplant. The fruit was quite small and it kept getting attacked by insects. Maybe next year I'll try both and see how they compare.

I still miss my goats. I would've thought by now the feeling would fade. I enjoyed milking them and making cheese.

We decided though that we'd like to travel more once Nana passes. Likely we'll travel the US so we can take Odin with us if his "Aunt Mel" is unavailable.

Ironically, it is hard to travel when you live in Texas. It is such a big state, if you're headed west, you can drive all day and still be in Texas. There's a lot to see in Texas though. San Antonio is fun, Austin is on the wild side if you like music and drinking, and there's always Houston if you want to visit NASA.

I think the first place I'd like to visit is Arkansas. We hadn't been there in years. It's a beautiful state and it even has mountains. 

Nana, the Wonder Dog: She continues to have good days and bad days. The Librela helps, but I think we're going to have to start giving it to her 27 days apart instead of 30. She starts to show pain on Day 28.

She is loving all the attention though, so it's worth it for us to see her so happy. 

Amazon came at me with a stick last week. Apparently, I'm not putting out the correct disclosure statement. So I updated my posts with a new one. Hopefully, that will appease them.

I don't know why they bother. It's not like I make a lot of sales from this blog. I'm not out to bug anyone to buy from my links. I'm just grateful when they do. It keeps the dogs in liver treats.  🐶🐶🐶

Back to you. Have you ever made jam? Ever tasted a persimmon? Did you like it? 

 

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