Garden Life

Nothing witty or epic to talk about today... working on a project before I start on another project... so I'll show you my garden. Bet Miss Mary Contrary didn't have this kinda good stuff.

How to Make and Can Vanilla Pears

(Sorry... this isn't a post about Milo, Newby or Dixie... and they are mad...)


We have a HUGE pear tree which is producing more fruit than I nor the birds can consume.  So I looked around and found a delicious recipe.  I wanted to share with you.

This is my first canning of fruits so I was a bit nervous.  But I have to admit, right about now I'm thanking my great-grandmother, who raised me from an infant, for letting me watch her can stuff from the garden!



Vanilla Pears  (makes 7 pints and a little left over to enjoy right now with ice cream)
12 cups of pears, peeled, quartered and deseeded
9 cups of water
5 Tbsp of Vanilla extract
2 cups of sugar

Combine all the ingredients in a large pan and bring to a boil for 5 minutes.  If your pears are a bit under-ripe you can boil a couple extra minutes until al dente.

Then you water can these bad boys.

1. Sanitize your jars. My dishwasher has a sanitize setting so I simply run them through the dishwasher while I'm preparing the stuff to can.
2. Fill a small pan with water and put in your jar rings and jar seals. They do not need to boil, but you need to let sit in hot, non-boiling water, until ready to process your filled jars.
3. Fill your canning pot full of water, at least enough to have 1-2" of water over your jars, and bring to a vigorous boil.  Remember to put the lid on your canner as it makes your water boil faster and more vigorously.
4. Fill your jars with fruit -- use a jar funnel, its less messy -- packing the fruit down in and adding syrup until you have 1/2" of head space at the top of each jar.  Clean any spills off with a clean cloth.
5. Place a jar seal on top of each jar and turn the jar ring around until just finger tight. Don't over tighten, you can do that after they have canned.
6. After you have filled your jars, place them one by one in the boiling canning water.  Return to a hard boil and process in the canning water for 25 minutes.
7. After 25 minutes carefully remove each jar, allow them a few minutes to cool down, then tighten the ring around the jar.
8. A correctly processed jar will have no 'give' on the top.  You can press down and it doesn't pop back.  If any did not process correctly, place in the fridge and use within the week.

:) Great-Grandmom would be proud, eh?

Scenes from the Farm...

Things are really starting to produce in our little garden, but it's also a very pretty place to just enjoy. We have lots of flowers planted around as well as vegetables.

Shady Bench

Pretty Flowers (in the garden so the bugs will like them instead of my crops)

Patio tomatoes - perfect for sun-drying!

Corn!

Tomatoes. Best served? Fried and green!!

Ignore the hand look at the sunflower! :)

Zinnia - one of my favorite flowers.

Looking from the barn toward the house.

Enjoy our little slice of heaven with us today.

Weekend in Review

Boy, was this a wild weekend.  I don't mean wild like Puddles would have, filled with cheetos and beer, but wild in that we worked our butts off.  I'm actually very happy to be returning back to work so that I don't have to do 'home' work anymore!

Lets see...
We had a HUGE storm Friday night which caused lots of power outages and me a frightful drive home from watching 5 episodes of Game of Thrones with friends and a bit of the Olympic Opening Ceremony.

I don't like driving in the rain.  I especially don't like driving in the rain surrounded by idiots.  And alas, I was the only sane person driving Friday night.... or perhaps, now that I come to think of it, maybe I was not sane after all.

We took a crap load of peppers we had growing in the garden.....















And we made lots of jars of goodies.  From Harry and David 'like' Sweet Onion Pepper Relish to Hot Pepper Jelly to Vietnamese Garlic Pepper Sauce and even some Sun-Dried Tomatoes.






Now my poor house smelled like I was trying to make enough pepper spray to contain a herd of bath salt junkies, but at the end of the day (and enough windows being opened) we were quite proud of ourselves!!

 This is next on my list of to do's... Pear Preserves, Canned Pears and some Chutney for Smoked Salmon (drool).

I have picked 20 pounds of pears and they are ripening on my porch. (Did you know that the pear is one of the few things that do not have to ripen on a tree? Yup, I'm here to educate, people.)








Sunday morning apparently I regenerated. I was channeling my inner Doctor Who!!  Cool, eh?  I think it was because it was Wil Wheaton's birthday...  And everyone knows I have the most amazing crush on Wil Wheaton.  -sigh-

 While getting gas for the mowers and weed eaters we saw a line of Shelby Cobras (and 1 out of place Ferrari Daytona) pulling out from the hotel... I hope it was the hotel cause right up the road is the Hustler Store and if they were there then the drivers are totally BUSTED.

It was like thunder driving by... If someone was dying of a heart attack the rumbling of these cars would work as a stand in defibrillator, just sayin'....

Gorgeous, eh? This was a Sunday evening meeting of the minds with friends... lamb on naan... grilled chicken... yummy pasta salad and some OMG mouthgasmly wonderful Bourbon Marshmallow Bacon Smores.

Yeah... it was a busy weekend... but who cares when it ends with a lot of stuff accomplished, a lamb filled tummy, and the taste of chocolately, bourbony, bacony goodness in your mouth.

Up to Our Ears in...(wait for it).... Ears!!

This is  a post for Frankie and Ernie.  I just wanted to show them what has been keeping our mom on her toes... corn!! Lovely, sweet, wonderful C O R N!!!  Mom has been shucking like no body has ever shucked before.

We've been eating a lot, but mom has started freezing some now that all of the stalks are really starting to produce. 

Also on tap for this weekend:

• Freezing Fresh Herbs (our  garden is offering us lots of basil, rosemary and thyme) in olive oil
• Canning some Onion and Pepper Relish (if you have ever had Harry and David's, this is just like it...)
• Make and Can some Vietnamese Chili Garlic Sauce 
• Make some Olive Oil Canned Sun-dried Tomatoes with Basil using this Sun-drying in the Oven method
• Make and can some Hot Pepper Jelly (the best stuff on cream cheese... it's so good it melts the worries of the heart!
• Make Pepper Vinegar. If you live in the south this is a staple on your table.

So Saturday when you don't have a post from me, know that is my plan... along with mowing, weed-eating and drinking lots of fluids!! Have a great weekend, y'all!!!  :)

Weekend In Review

Best thing about the weekend: Found a Pig Castrator at the local Peddler's Mall. :D It's on my "need to have" list now!

New Drink Station on the screened deck. And yes it has been used a lot already. (World Market Potting bench modified.)

My favorite necklace: Broken :( 

My favorite car: Broken :((

My favorite Starbucks NOT in a funeral home like Puddles: Broken :(((

High Maintenance Red unavailable had to go with An Affair in Red Square: Broken :(((

Boneapolooza

Not me this weekend.. this was me this morning when the dogs refused to stay behind the house and everyone on Winchester Road could see me sporting my pink sleep boxers \o/!!

Weekend in Review

Our mom made it sound like all we did was work over the weekend.. Ok, there was a whole lot of farm dog stuff to do... like watering, hoeing, harvesting, replanting, cutting grass (rolling in the grass... now that should be the next Adele song... We could have had it alllllllllll..... Rollin' in the grassssssssss.... You took my chewy bone and my heart... and you played it you played it you played it you played it with a leash....).

I digress.  We had some fun, too.  After all that watering, God decided to help us out with some rain! (Go God!!)  So while we watched it rain we had some snackies and played Uno.  :D

We also watched some TV... Or we watched the back of Newby's head while trying to watch TV.

Cracker Barrel Saturday morning... If you've never been to one, you need to come to my house, spend the night and go to Cracker Barrel with us... OMD... Seriously the best stuff ever.  If you put those pancakes on top your head, your tongue would beat you senseless trying to get to them... just sayin'.

And we might have relaxed a little and read a book... :D  So when mom complains about being busy... this is what she is meaning! :D

Week(end) in Review

Well, we rescued a new puppy, Newby... went to Cincinnati for the Red Hot Chili Pepper's Concert (fantastic!)... ate at one of our new favorite places, Izzy's (gastric orgasm)... harvested some veggies from the garden... worked very little and slept a whole lot!

Whew!  It was a FANTASTIC week.  Looking forward to seeing what is gonna happen this week!!!

Shelle

Psssstttt, Frankie!!

Looky what we got out of the garden last night.

(and tomatoes should be ripe enough to eat next week!!!)  Bet you are green with jelly-ness, now, eh??

Our Weekend...

A little late, but it was also a little boring. :)  It was uncharacteristically cold so we didn't plan a lot.  So we saw Men in Black 3 Friday evening, went on the great "Shelle Wants a Potting Bench But Refuses to Pay More than $70" hunt (which ended as expected... Shelle coming home with nothing), did a little work at my paying job, gave the birds a 5 pound bird food buffet by dropping the feeder, made a pot soup which my human puppy, Reed, consumed pretty much by himself.... as I said it was boring.

So here are a few pictures of our weekend past. I do love the photogrid app for Android.  :)  Makes a relatively boring weekend look pretty cool!!

~We might have some exciting new this afternoon.  Cross a paw and say a little prayer... and we will let you know!!~

How Does My Garden Grow?

Pretty daggum well.

Weekend in Review

A little view into our world this past weekend...

New Hammock... We had to try it out.

Oh, yeah... The hammock works PERFECTLY!

Milo going ALL IN!

Food hangover

Pretty-ful blooming life on the farm.

Watched Men in Black in the backyard! (we projected on to the side of our barn)

Snoring Dixie

Bonfire!

Composting

Farm Life