Muscadine Jelly

So I tarried through the heat and we picked about 3-4 gallons of muscadines. It was hot, but it was late in the evening so we at least didn't have the direct sunlight. The girls helped me make some jelly ( well they ate muscadines and watched) and at the end of the evening we had 6 pints of muscadine jelly. I had a little left over so I made biscuits and we ate it right then. Here are pictures of 5 of them. Such a pretty color I think.

So......... For my August Quest my goal was to make 20 pints of goodies for the winter. My tally is:

Blackberry jam: 3.5 pints
Muscadine jelly: 6 pints
so I still need to preserve more 1o.5 pints before months end..... wish me luck!

HOT!

I've lived in Arkansas all my life, and I'm sure it's been this hot before, but I honestly do not remember it ever being so hot!

I haven't done too much cooking the last few days simply because it is so unbearably hot. I have been making cold sandwiches, salads and things like that.

Unfortunately I haven't fulfiilled anymore towards my goal for August but I am still optimistic. I would like to make some jalepeno bread and freeze that, it will be great this winter with soups and stews.

We are just getting muscadines that are ready to come off also, and a big portion of my August quest may very well be muscadine jelly. It's delicious.

One of our hens just hatched out 5 new baby chicks. The girls are thrilled and they are so cute. Right now there are 3 black ones, a bright yellow one and a very pretty red colored one.
I'll keep you updated, and one day I will learn how to easily add pictures.....

Update on my August Quest

Well I have been busy and have even been out of town for a few days this month, but today when I got home from work the girls and I started on my August Quest.

A few months back we picked some blackberries but I got busy and just froze them instead. So today, we got out the blackberries and made 3 and a half pints of blackberry jam. It's actually pretty delicious. So...... I have 3 and half pints canned for my August Quest. I'm not sure what I'll do next. I do have pictures of my blackberry jam, I'll have to post it later as it is getting late, and I need to get the kiddos to bed.

August Quest!

Well , it is the first day of August and it's time for a new Homesteading Quest. This month is going to be relatively easy and generic ( it's my first one!).

For August my goal is to preserve 20+ pints of " stuff".
An obvious choice is jelly and jam as we have grapes and muscadines coming off right now and we don't know what to do with them all. I would also like to do another batch of jalepeno jelly, maybe some pepper relish, and perhaps some more tomato based stuff like pasta sauce, stewed tomatoes or salsa.

Preserving food is such a great way to be come more self suffecient. It's wonderful to look into your pantry mid January and see a wonderful array of items that you preserved at it's peak back in the summer.

So , I'll keep you updated and we'll see what happens!

Busy Day

Whew! today has been a busy day. We started the day early by going to the local Peach Orchard. We were there by 7 am and the girls had such fun looking for the best peaches. We ended up with 15 pounds of a variety of different kinds of peaches. I know that won't be enough to put any up , but we will have some great snacks and desserts next week with our peaches!

Then it was off to the local Farmer's Market. It's still pretty small where we are, but it is growing considerably. Mostly everything that they were selling were things that we already have in our garden like okra, peppers, squash, tomatoes, etc. but we did by 2 pounds of raw milk cheese, one was jalepeno (YUM) and the other is a white cheddar.

Next was to our local bakery for a snack. I've been going to this little bakery since I was a child and it's so fun. The girls picked out a cupcake and I bought some rolls to eat with our new cheese:). It is so hot here that just thinking about turning on anything to cook makes me sweat. It will be sandwiches and cold salads for a few more days until things can cool off a bit, then maybe some cooking and baking will resume.

I still haven't decided on my August Quest yet. I guess we will all find out tomorrow.

This and That

So, since I'm fairly certain no one reads my blog yet anyways, I doubt anyone has missed me, but I just returned home late last night from a 7 day trip to California. It was work related but thankfully my work is crazy awesome and I got to travel with some great people. We got to see some wonderful sites. We flew into San Francisco then drove down the coast into Los Angeles. We had stops in Big Sur, Sunnydale, Santa Cruz and more fantastic stops. I'll try to post pictures soon.

I got to read some great Homesteading-type magazines on the plan though and that was inspiring for me.

My all time favorite magazine is Hobby Home Farm, followed closely by Mother Earth News, Organic Gardening and Natural Home.

Chickens!

Our family loves our chickens. With 3 year old and 4 year old daughters, our chickens get plenty of love and attention. A few weeks back, the girls got to experience the magical experience of chickens hatching. We had 2 of our 5 hens setting at the same time, and within just a few days of each other, they hatched leaving our family proud owners of 16 new chicks! Here is a picture of "Henny" and a few of her chicks.