Wordless Wednesday

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canning Season Begins! My first batch of strawberries

It's that time of year again...

Strawberries.

We do grow strawberries. We don't have a lot of plants, and what we don't "share" with the birds are normally picked and eaten before they even make it inside, so I don't ever have enough to can.
We are blessed to have a great berry farm close enough to us though, and this morning I bought three flats of delicious strawberries. I think I forget how wonderful local, fresh strawberries are. So stinkin' good.

 So here is the "before" picture. I used one flat to make jam, one flat to freeze and then one flat we'll eat fresh over the next day or so. That's right, it will just take us a day or so to devour them.

 

 

The frozen ones we use for homemade popsicles this summer, as well as smoothies. I'll also use them to make a strawberry cake that we like to eat as well as share at potlucks and family events throughout this year.

The little containers I got at Walmart several years ago and they work very well for freezing items. Some of the best ones I've found and they are cheap!So totals this year for my canning:
5 pints frozen strawberries
3 quarts frozen strawberries
8 pints of strawberry jam
2 half pints of strawberry jam

Here's to a good season for us all!

Happy Homesteading Ya'll!

 

Visit to Mansfield, MO- Where the Little House Books were Written

You all may recall that I'm quite fascinated with Laura Ingalls Wilder. Please refer to my other posts regarding Laura and her life:

 Part 1: Introduction to the Series, information about Laura
Part 2: The books!
Part 3: Dress like Laura
Part 4: Places to visit to have that "Laura Experience"
Part 5: Cook like Laura
Part 6: Other books you might enjoy

Over Spring Break though I took it a step further and visited Mansfield, MO which was the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo once they got married and was where the Little House Books were actually written. There is a home tour a museum that had Pa's FIDDLE!!! I know right, the ACTUAL fiddle that Laura referred to so lovingly in her books. You could take pictures inside the museum but I did get a few pictures of her house.

You can see the three littles playing here around her home. This is the home in Mansfield, MO that started out as just the small piece on the very left and the built onto through the years. You can take a tour of the home that still has many pieces from her. I was like a kid in a candy store. It was so neat getting to feel so close to your favorite author.

Just another view of the home. I liked the stone fireplace.

The back of the house. It looks out into the woods.

Not a good picture at all, but a pic of me and my Dad enjoying the tour. It was worth the drive, and worth the very nominal fee that they charged. I would highly recommend to any Laura fan to put this on their to do list!

 

They have a gift shop/bookstore on site and I purchased several items, a tshirt, some other books ( there was a subsequent series written about Laura and Almanzo's daughter Rose, that takes place while she was growing up in Mansfield, that I purchased and read and enjoyed for that matter.

You can shop online as well as the following link. Shop from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Bookstore 

There isn't a ton to eat around, so bring a picnic or eat before you go. The little town of Mansfield has a very small statue/bust of Laura in the city park which we went to and let the kids stretch their legs.

They also have the cemetery where she and Almanzo are buried if you are so inclined.

 

Until next time,

Happy Homesteading Ya'll

 

A Hiking we will go ( with a few Elk sightings)

We are yearning for Spring Ya'll. Like BAD. Really wanting to get out and about and go hiking and camping more. We took a trip, and even though a wee bit cold, we had a great time. We had great views of the Elk. They were grazing in the pasture then retreated into the woodline.



 The hike was nice, about 3 miles total, with some great views. Man if it wasn't freezing here we could take a quick dip. But, it. was. cold.

 The hubs and the two older girls exploring.

See what I mean when I said it was cold? They made some beautiful ice formations though...

Get outside ya'll. Please. It'll do you and your family good. Yes, it's cold. Yes you may want to hunker down and watch Netflix, but I promise you, it's good for the soul. Making memories with the kiddos.

 

Happy Homesteading Ya'll!!!

Eco Tourism Vacation- Let's go to the Swamp

That's right- vacation to the swamp.

I have to say I've always been a bit intrigued by the swamp. I've always wanted to go on a swamp tour. So we loaded up the kids and went down to Cajun Country for a few days. The first thing that I want to mention is that this was really and Eco Tour. The guides were really focused on preserving the swamp. The birds. The plants. The alligators. They didn't "bait" the alligators so they would get closer to us. They didn't feed them marshmallows so they would come around the boat. That would create nuisance gators that are a danger to themselves and to people.

 We saw so many wonderful birds. Breathtaking really.

 All of the moss hanging down from the big trees, was almost romantic. I said almost.

  There were lilies and flowers.

 And again, remarkable birds.

 

 

 

 

 

A great time was had by all :). We also tried out local cuisine while we were there. Po'boys of all kinds. Roadside stands selling crawdads and spicy sausage. You know, all the good stuff.  It was a lovely trip, full of culture, nature and hopefully instilling a love of all things outdoors into the kiddos.

 

Happy Homesteading Ya'll!

 

Frugal Zucchini Sausage Soup

I'm trying to clean out the freezer and pantry a bit, keep my food budget low , and prepare some yummy stick to your ribs type meals during this ice storm. So what do you do?

Zucchini Sausage Soup. I kind of just made it up. I'm sure there are actual recipes for something similar, but here is what I used.

1 lb wild boar chorizo sausage

1 lb wild boar Andouille sausage

1/2 an onion

2 cloves garlic

3 zucchini

leftover brown rice ( about 1.5 cups)

2 pints of canned stewed tomatoes

1 pint tomato juice ( not pictured)

My husband and brother in law go boar hunting and you can make some great sausage out of it.

 So I browned up the sausage, then sliced the Andouille into bite sized chunks.

 I then added my 2 pints of canned stewed tomato sauce from last summer. Tomatoes are so versatile and easy to use in many recipes. I never can enough.

I ended up only slicing up 3 of the zucchini, I found that 4 would have been too many. I also ended up adding a pint of home canned tomato juice, as I needed more juice.

Throw all the goodies in the soup pot...

 Add a loaf of homemade bread from my trusty breadmaker....

 And we've got supper. I sprinkled a tiny bit of parmesan cheese I grated on top. The recipe made enough for plenty of leftovers as well.

Although there was initial cost in the jars, the hunting equipment to go boar hunting etc. Really this was a super frugal meal. The 4 zucchini were $2 total, so it would be about $1.50 for the zucchini, maybe .30 cents for the onion and garlic...The rice was left over from another meal, but even then I used about .20 cents worth. The bread is about .90 cents per loaf. So the ENTIRE meal including leftovers for tomorrow's lunch and maybe dinner would come to less that $3.00

Until next time..... Happy Homesteading

Back to why I started this blog...

A sort of a "back to the basics" type post.

 I think this header kind of tells it all... I started this blog to kind of chronicle my quest towards a life of homesteading... Canning, cooking, gardening, being frugal, learning to live on less.... It's all here folks. I've outlined a few popular posts below...

Teaching my kids about the life as we go ( my father and my eldest daughter)

Some recipes for some great local entrees :)

 Gardening posts are always popular here on the blog

And one of my most popular posts was about my canning party, I had with a friend that produced tons of delicious food ( not to mention fellowship)

 

I also have a few posts on just one small thing you can do to get you going in the direction you are wanting to end up, assuming you are wanting to homestead yourself. Please view those here:

Ditching the Disposables ( I'm not talking diapers either)

Soup Bucket ( No waste here)

Smoothies

Crockpots

Leftovers

Honey 

 

Hopefully, these few posts will give you a few things to browse on this cold, wintry day ( at least it is here).

 

Until next time, Happy Homesteading