Can...ning,

Canning of the tomatoes continued into Monday, we canned 6 jars of salsa, with peppers and tomatoes from   our Winter Friend. It was supposed to be spicy but it did not turn out like that, I am fairly intolerant to spicy, I sweat go red and cry. I love it but, it does not like me. 

We used this recipe Spicy Tomato Salsa, maybe all the peppers weren't spicy, but the piece of pepper that I tried that seemed to be the same as the others felt like burning. It ended up a bit sweet, possibly from the red wine vinegar but its better than last years batch. Found a trick, after you dice up your toms put them in a colander and let them drain into a bowl, for about an hour or till you clean up everything, that way you won't have as much water to combat with when you boil down your salsa. re-measure your tomatoes and add more to bring up to the recipes amount. That trick gave us a slightly thicker salsa this year than last. We may just have to add some Sriracha sauce when we eat some salsa.

We also tried out canning Pickled Beans, pickling is a lot faster than anything to do with tomatoes so that was more fun, less clean up.

Peace,
Have a good night.

You say tomato I say .....tomato

Well got to texting our Winter Friend, she was our neighbour 2 years ago, and a wicked neighbour she was and still is. We or I coined that term last night "Winter Friend" because in the summer we typicly don't see her, because both parties get pretty busy.

So to get back to the story. She got to texting both of us on Friday, and we found out she can't keep up with harvesting her toms and beans and everything, so we went over on Sunday, filled half a wheel barrow with tomatoes, that is like her 4th wheel barrow of tomatoes. When we got home I instantly got to peeling coring and canning the toms into Canned Crushed Tomatoes. We still have a grocery bag full, and probably do some more, and we also got 2 or 3 grocery bags of green and wax beans so I was going to take a stab at pickled beans.

There they are in all their glory

Peeled, 4 cups of just tomato skin.

6Qt pot filled right to the brim, boiled for 5 minutes.

doled out.

10 500ml Jars.

Earth?

What is Earth? Is it a planet in this huge vast area, and no one really knows how big it really is?  They can lie and tell you they do know, but, its all guess work.
We call lots of things Earth, Black Earth, Diatomaceous Earth, Soil is sometimes referred to as Earth, Earthworms, Earth Shelter, Earth Quake.

What is Earth? Dirt? Yes, at least to me it is. I like it and all the things it can do. Support life, Micro organisms, It supports me and my feet, my home, my plants, the animals in which walk on it, the farmers market I go to down the road, my bicycle and car tires, the grass in which my dogs pee and poop on, where my cats can chase mice and bugs and think they are hiding in, The enormous and beautiful trees, the water that sits on it, or goes through it and gets filtered. We can all thank dirt but most of us don't. This is my thanks.

We dig into it, we plant our veggies and flowers into it, sow seeds into it, walk, run, trot on it. Sleep and sit on it, put different types of dirt into our bars of soap, press it into pottery, make buildings out of it. Get it in our hair up our cracks, under our nails, stuck to our feet, packed into our boots and shoe treads, tread it into our houses, sweep it up throw it back outside.

How many times have you looked up at a tree? To see its Large trunks, colour and shape of its leaves, its twists in its branches, texture of its bark.

Now?

How many times have you looked down at the Earth? And seen its jewels and gems, colours and textures.  Whether its arid or saturated, if its hiding treasures just underneath its surface, whether its been compacted to support buildings and roads. Has it been disturbed?  Is some creature running through it like a miniature subway system, or did another creature bury its meal for safe keeping? How many different layers of different types of dirt are beneath you?

Peace, I'm out.

What the Pud!?

Well its getting cooler up here now. Maybe it will warm up again in the next few weeks. We sowed a few spinach, kale, and chard seeds. The chard we sowed a few weeks ago have grown very well and ready to be eaten, the spinach I believe got eaten by squirls. The second bunch of seeds we put into the ground, just to see how long we can keep them going under our mini green houses, or just over winter under some mulch, since that was successful the past winter.
Well to get to the point of this, my Little lady friend went out to help with a fundraiser for the Healing Horse Center at Boston Pizza, for their vet and hay bills. I went and got some groceries and made a mess in the kitchen. What mess did I make?
I made Chocolate Pudding mess, but not just any chocolate pudding, since the two Humans in the house are lactose intolerant.

3 Avacados - scooped out and pited
1/4 cup almond milk
1/2 cup of Honey (or to taste)
2tbsp of Peanut Butter (optional)
1/4 tsp of Salt
2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 cup of cocoa powder

put it all in the food processor mix until smooth, scraping the sides back into the mixture. Refrigerate and bam pudding.

Now this tastes good but don't be fooled its not going to taste like "regular" pudding, but if you have good ingredients it will taste good. But, thats just my opinion

Most of the ingredients.

All of the ingredients.

Rainy Day Farmers Market

Woke up today, rain, rain, but we have got things to do today, taking a trip to the Big Smoke to visit some family. I was riding solo today @ the farmers market. K was sleeping in, she didn't get home till 6am. She has been taking the night shift @ The Healing-Horse-Centre, taking watch over a sick pony named Ziggy Stardust, Poor little bugger has had a rough go over the last week, but things are looking brighter. You can check out his progress and story @ that link, they are also looking for donations, to help pay for the vet bills and new hay.

The Lindsay Farmers Market was pretty slow not to many people wanting to step out in the rain today, that was fine it was quick and easy not having to dodge people and I was able to get home quick to eat my treats. I picked up some treats from The Sweet Kitchen, and Cabbage rolls and Perogies for breakfast from Taste of Russia. If you live in the area I recommend heading out to the farmers market, show support for local foods, and good treats. If you are not in the area I'm sure there is a farmers market in your area, which has probably got their own delicious treats. List of Ontario Farmers Markets.

My Perogies, and cabbage roll from Taste of Russia

starting top left Blueberry raspberry? crumble, Salted Caramel Brownies, S'More bar

My photos don't do the food justice, but they were yummy.

First try, Pesto!

Got bored on Monday (Labour day). So I tried my hand at making Pesto for the first time. After reading about how to store it, I found that most sites say to just put it in sterilized jars and freeze it. As "canning" water bath or pressure cooker, ruins the fresh taste of it.

After you put the pesto in the sterilized jars put a layer of olive oil on the top to cover pesto completely, make sure its nice and flat before hand makes it a lot easier, and less oil having to be used. Then just put a lid on it and freeze it for up to 6 months. So, I thought I should try it out. We don't eat a whole lot of it, but we had enough basil to make it, so I figured what the hey, I like it. I chose to use almonds instead of pine nuts, and it tastes like pesto still so not that big of a problem.

Loaded everything up in the processor 

just thought I would show you another.

Finished only made two small jars, looks like I will be making more in a months time I guess.

 Peace!
Have a good night

Cleaning the Cupboards

So, have you ever had a problem with crowded cupboards because of pots and their lids all over the place, and just didn't know what to do about it. Instead of making a huge racket every time you go to make supper for you and your family, And after a long day of work you just can't even bother dealing with the clutter. You reach in the freezer for you organic, low fat, low sodium, burritos and throw those in the nuker for your family. But stop no don't do that, I have got a solution for you. 

I too suffered from these nuisances and was sick and tired of dealing with this none sense, I did what any handy crafty lunatic would do....IT's TIME TO RISE ABOVE...... I went to the Dollar Store, now now now I know that sounds insane but come on they have almost everything. Went to Isle #9 and found these towel bars that hang over your cupboard doors..... no no no that doesn't work, but I could drill holes in the hangy deals to allow for myself to put screws through. so I did just that. with some #10 1/2" robby screws. I hung those suckers up on .... wait for it... on the inside of the cupboard doors, You picking up what I'm putting down?

Messy cupboard pots and lids every where

Handy, over the door towel racks, bad idea turned better.

put some holes in there to secure to door.

NICE! easy peasy, it helps.

Oh yeah, Thats nice

Peace WE out!

Diggin the Dirt

So yesterday, the little lady and I spent sometime digging in the dirt. Sifting through the compost, after about 4 years of dumping kitchen scraps in there. It was surprisingly really good, fluffy, dark, earthy smells, lots of critters, sow bugs, tons and tons of worms, and other little guys. We pulled out 4 wheel barrow loads spread the first three around our raised garden, tomato pots and flower gardens.

We also dug out one of our potato baskets all the plants have died so we decided it was time. The other basket is still alive but probably ready to be dug out shortly. We use the potato basket method of piling the dirt around the plants in a type of container so we can grow more plants in a smaller area and contain all the bedding (straw, dirt). The potatoes only develop in the first 6 to 12 inches of material same as last year so our baskets don't need to be as tall next year maybe that just means more baskets next year.

our last load being saved to mix into our dirt from the containers on our deck

what was left after our hard work of sifting, This thing was completely full.

our first basket harvest, three large pots are missing due to
baked potatoes last night 

First time for everything!

So this is my attempt to blogging I'm going to try this out see how it goes, hopefully all goes well. I will blog about things I do, things I see and maybe just somethings, for every one to parouse about if the mood  strikes you.
I will try and be more entertaining in my future posts, I'm new and I'm fragile and scared alright!

Peace
Have a good night.