Fall is just around the corner and the trees on the farm are heavy with apples. A gluten for punishment, I picked 4-5 bushels and got down to canning applesauce. After chopping and slicing and dicing, I filled a 22 quart pot with apples and began my first batch of sauce. Making applesauce is quite…
True craftsmanship has become a thing of the past. The days of horse-drawn logging, hand-hewed beams and even handmade nails are mostly extinct. Fortunately, the legacy of those skilled workers still lives on in many old barns around the country. With nothing more than hammers, saws and measuring tapes made from leather, they constructed grids…
Take the wonderful deliciousness of baked beans and the spicy heartiness of chili, simmer them together and the result is Baked Bean Chili. Enjoy!
I had just walked outside with a basket full of laundry to hang on the clothesline, when the old timer from up the road came roaring up the driveway. He needed baler twine because he was making some sort of trap to catch the “damn varmint” that was getting into his corn. I pointed him…
One of my earliest childhood memories is the kitchen of my paternal grandmother. It was a tiny room with baby blue walls and a hulking white enamel, coal fired stove. A harvest gold refrigerator sat catty-corner across from the stove and was always filled with Hershey’s fudge pops. And next to the fridge, were two…
The autumn olive (or autumnberry) bush is a double-edged sword. In my area, it can be found along just about any country road or fence row. Unfortunately, just like Japanese knotweed and multiflora rose, it’s considered an invasive species. However, recently, it’s been discovered that the autumn olive berry contains high amounts of Lycopene –…
Weekly photo challenge: monochromatic
Most folks I know have never heard of pickled green tomatoes. It’s one of those recipes that was born out of the desire to not waste anything. The old timer up the road gave me the recipe years ago after a strong storm blew over most of my cherry tomato plants before they had a…
We call him “The Jumper.” He’s a gazelle disguised as a bull-calf Hereford. He can leap tall buildings in a single bound. He is the bane of my existence. Throughout the years, there have been many, MANY calves born on this farm. All have been well mannered and easy going… except for “The Jumper.” He…
Confession… I am an over-canner. I love, love, LOVE to can. So when my friend, who owns a farm market, said he had couple of plums for me, I thought, “oh goody, I’ll make some plum jam.” Unbeknownst to me, a couple of plums turned out to be twenty-four quarts of plums. Never one to shy away…
One of my favorite things to do on a summer morning is to photograph the dew on spider webs (minus the spider, of course). I’m always amazed at how such an ugly bug makes such a beautiful masterpiece – each strand of silk delicately connected to the other.
Pigs. They are deceiving. They look like a 1971 Ford Pinto, have the speed of a cheetah and are harder to hang onto than a bull at a rodeo. It was time to muck out the pig stall, which means I have to get the big wheelbarrow in the pen without losing a pig. My…
I’ve shoveled a ton of sh*t in my days – cow, dog, goat, donkey, and even some from a septic tank (I’m referring to the cell phone incident of 2013, but that’s a story for another day). Pig sh*t is hardcore – it’s not for the faint of heart. And since it was my idea to…
The Farmers in the Dell 