Jam-Packed Weekend!

My momma, sister and I went to our local pick your own strawberry-blueberry-raspberry-corn farm on Saturday. Bright and early, 8:30 it was already in the mid-eighties. We parked our vehicle and walked right into the field. They take great care at this field and do not use any pesticides. The ground is also covered in straw, so that you can just sit or crawl on your hands and knees to pick. This also keeps the berries clean, so very little if any, washing is needed. I didn't wash any of them. These were giant, delicious and prolific!

My sister said the weigh/pay booth looked like an international border crossing...

We each picked near 10 lbs. of berries! My mom made a pie and some jam, my sister froze a ton for smoothies and daiquiris, and I used most of mine to make 6 half-pints of no-sugar strawberry jam, 3 half-pints of no-sugar strawberry-peach jam, and then had leftover peaches so I made peach-lemon thyme jam. I think I'll whip up some strawberry quick bread or muffins or some hand pies.

Check out these beauties...

I need to work on my technical canning skills, as I know that my head space could use work.

Can't wait 'til the blueberries and raspberries are ready!!!

Comments

Boozy Beets?

I'm reading up on lacto-fermenting vegetables, in preparation for my abundant harvest I'm hoping for this year. One random article said, "Just be careful not to cut beets too small as they contain a lot of sugar and can produce alcohol." Hmm...beet wine anyone? Does it exist? Further research is needed on this one! *** Oh good Lord...it does exist! http://jinman2871.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/beet-wine/ from randomly searching and found the Prairie Girl blog!

Pelmet Tutorial

Finally here it is! These are super easy, quite quick and don't cost much at all. Things you'll need: Foam board (use your Micheal's coupons!) Cotton batting-I bought the crib-size and still have leftovers Fabric Glue gun and glue sticks-I used 2 long ones Duct tape Picture hangers or small brackets of your choice Step 1: Measure your window width and cut or tape more than one piece of foam board together to fit the space if needed. I made sure it was at least 1" beyond each side of the wood moulding. Remember you'll add thickness and need to attach brackets. Mine were 64" long, 9" tall and the sides were 2" wide, your proportions may be different depending on the window size and style. Duck tape holds it all together nicely. I did add wooden chopsticks to the middle where I taped two long pieces together so it didn't bend. You won't have to do this if your window is smaller....

Summer Project!

Nothing to do with diabetes here, I just wanted to show the awesome cabinet I found on Craig's List and hope to be picking up tonight! It'll be my summer project, and Jeff has already said 'you'll never finish it' oh but I will. We desperately need the storage in our kitchen and there's a big, empty wall that needs something on it too. Here it is, not lookin' too hot. The red paint is actually glass in the cabinets. I'm very excited. It needs a good re-furbishing...not sure what finish I want it in, any ideas?

Katiebird's Garden & Wildcraft

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