Update

Sorry for the long delay in posting.  It has been a busy month of preserving and taking a short trip to TN.  Ds passed the coin!  It was a nickel though.

So far this season we have canned or frozen:

Strawberry Jam/syrup (didn’t set up as well as I would have liked):  18 pints

Blueberry Jam: 6 pints

Blueberries:  4 gallon bags full (I flash froze those so I can easily get a cup when needed.  plans are to make more jam when it isn’t so busy)

Green Beans: 48 quarts and more planned

Corn: 40 quarts and more planned

We had a wonderful trip to TN and a great visit with the Schiffmans.  While there we met the West Girls (Green Beans in the Garden…check it out on you tube), the Lingo’s, the Bradshaw’s, the Stoufers, the Lovett’s and many more.  You’ll find links to their wonderful blogs to the right.  I took pictures and want to share but today is not the day for that.  I have 14 quarts of green beans going in the canner right now and as soon as they are done I’ll be out picking again.  Our tomatoes should start ripening soon.  The plants are loaded.  I have lots of plans for tomato sauce this year.  I need to pick blackberries and peaches tomorrow.  So we will have another full week of canning.  It is a satisfying feeling to see the bounty the Lord has blessed us with packaged up in jars or freezer containers. 

God is good!

Tracy

So Let Me Tell You About My Afternoon

So at around 2:40 this afternoon I hear 5 yr. old son coming down the stairs crying.  

 

“Mommy, I have to tell you something.”

 

Mommy starts getting a sinking feeling. “What?”

 

“I swallowed a quarter”

 

Mommy stares in disbelief. “You what?”

 

“I swallowed a quarter”

 

Mommy is silently thinking….maybe he’s mistaken…..”How did you swallow a quarter?”

 

“I was playing with the quarter and pretending my puppy was eating it.  I was laying on the bed and dropping the quarter from up above and the quarter fell in my mouth.”

 

“And you didn’t spit it out?” asks Mommy

 

“I tried but I swallowed it”

 

“You are absolutely sure that you swallowed a quarter?”

 

“Yes, Mommy, I really did”…crying

 

I call the dr. and am advised to go to the emergency room as the quarter could be lodged in his esophagus.  (Great, I was enjoying having no medical debt….that lasted about 30 days.)  So I call dh at work and tell him to go ahead and come home and tell him what happened.  DH is in the power plant which is very noisy. …He says” He fell and you are taking him to the emergency room.” with a tone of panic.  (At this point I felt like Lassie…you know Timmy is in a well and can’t get out…..because I’m having to yell and speak slowly so he can understand what I am saying.)  So dh comes home and we head to the ER.  They take an x-ray.  And the quarter is in his stomach the better location….I say better as the ideal location would be his piggy bank.  So now guess what I get to do???  Yes, you guessed it!  I get to go through my son’s bowel movements until I find a quarter…ding, ding, ding,ding…what a prize I get!  Otherwise if the quarter isn’t found then it is back to the doctor and to get another x-ray to make sure it isn’t lodged in his stomach or intestines. 

 

All humor aside now.  Please pray that 5 yr. old son passes the quarter safely and quickly.  Also pray for all mommies everywhere with 5 year old boys.

 

The Past Week

We have been busy around the Evans Patch with various things.  Earlier in the month we had lots of rain which then produced lots of weeds in the garden.  We still have another corn patch to get weeded.  We had a little bit of rain tonight and as I looked out at the garden this morning, I see new weeds popping up.  We have squash and zucchini starting to come on now and our green beans have some blooms on them.  We are still eating lettuce from the garden.  It hasn’t been bitter yet or bolted. 

Due to all the outside activities this spring the inside of the house has suffered.  So I set my mind on fixing that this week.  Floors were cleaned thoroughly, shower curtain washed and hung out, ceiling fans cleaned, light fixtures cleaned, part of the closets organized, laundry area organized, etc.  It has been a full week and there has been no problem falling asleep at night. :)  Now I will work to maintain all the hard work put in this week.  I have had many failed attempts in putting together a household notebook with cleaning routines and various other things in it.  Hopefully the next attempt will be successful. 

We have been planting various types of flowering bushes, grape vines and raspberry and blackberry bushes.  A local store has had them for 50 to 75% off and we couldn’t resist that.  We purchased an old fashioned lilac bush the other night for $1.25.  Last Sunday evening on our way home from church, we spotted a pot of some type of flower that we already have in our landscaping with a nice big FREE sign on it.  Of course, we backed up and got it.  It was planted the next day and actually helped even out the look in our landscaping by the mudroom door which serves as the main entrance to our home.  The mudroom is also known as the laundry room, side porch, etc.

We have had lots on our minds thinking about living multi generationally, covenant communities, etc.  Much too much to get down into words at this time.  Nothing negative about any of this at all….we truly believe it is a vision God has set out for us.  Hopefully we can set into words our thoughts in the upcoming week.  We are excited that our friends, the Schiffmans, are coming to visit us overnight.  And we will go visit them in TN in 3 weeks.  So time to get off here and finish last minute preparations for the day.

 

Lunch Ideas

We need lunch ideas here at the Evans Patch.  We have pb&j, pb& banana, grilled cheese, mac & cheese, all served with fruit, yogurt, etc.  Any other ideas?  I would like to come up with some things that could even be made ahead of time.  We continue with school during the summer and also are gardening, canning, etc.  I would like to not heat up the kitchen too much either.  I am just drawing a blank though when I try to come up with ideas.  It is only June and I already feel like we are in the “dog days” of summer as nothing sounds good and it is just hot and humid outside. 

 

Menu Planning, Pantry Building

I am continuing to work on menu planning and pantry building.  As the cost of gas, groceries and just about everything else continues to climb, I’m looking at any possible way to cut costs.  Pantry building also requires me to get better at menu planning.  One struggle at this point is fruit and vegetables.  I didn’t preserve near what we needed last year and now it is a wait and pray mode over our current garden.  Gardening has got a late start here due to our very wet spring.  While many just 2 states south of us are getting a few fresh vegetables we are far from it here.  Also because we have worked on increasing the size of our garden and were building raised beds, it has been slow getting ready.  We still have 3 raised beds to get filled very soon.  I have plants ready to go in them. 

I spoke of breakfast ideas the other day.  I made homemade granola.  It is delicous and the children love it with milk and sliced bananas.  So there is a another simple idea for breakfast.  Breakfast menu planning seems to be covered at this point.  So it is time to get dinner menu planning under control. :)  Lunch isn’t that hard around here as we either do leftovers, grilled cheese or pb&j. 

I drive 1 and a half hours one way for milk.  With gas continuing to rise, that may have to come to an end.  We are hoping to get some goats purchased soon.  But, we don’t know that much about them and we haven’t found any locally for sale. 

 

Future Orchard

We are turning our front yard into a little orchard.  Four apple trees, 2 pear trees and 2 peach trees.  My dh is busy at work today.

BTW, adding pictures into my posts is something new.  So bear with me.

 

 

 

 

Bulk Cooking/Breakfast

I have slowly been trying to get the hang of bulk cooking.  I know, I know it is fairly easy.  I guess I am just not doing the planning on my part that it takes.  But I did make some headway this week.  I baked 8 1/2 dozen of muffins.  Seven dozen went in the freezer.  I packaged those a dozen to a bag and used my vacuum sealer.  Last Friday I made 38 pancakes for the freezer.  Those were packed up 6 to a package (except for the spare 2, which went into a package by themself).  My next goal is to make a bulk amount of buttermilk biscuits and freeze those individually on a baking sheet before baking.  That way we can pull out whatever amount we need.  Once I get the biscuits done then we will have a great start for breakfasts.  Here are my menus for breakfasts:

muffins and scrambled  or boiled eggs

muffins, fruit, yogurt

pancakes and fruit

bacon, egg and cheese biscuits

sausage, egg and cheese biscuits

biscuits and gravy

biscuits with jelly, scrambled eggs

scrambled or fried eggs, bacon or sausage, biscuits or toast

oatmeal, baked or regular

I still hope to also get some granola made.  I have never made granola but found a yummy looking recipe in an old issue of Homeschooling Today. 

Do you have any breakfast ideas to share?

 

 

Small Family Not By Our Choice

We only have 2 children.  We are a family of four.  We believe that God controls how many children you have.  He controls the womb, He controls adoptions, He is sovereign over all.  We have experienced 2 miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy.  I also had a cyst on my right ovary that caused damage to that ovary.  After losing my left fallopian tube to the ectopic pregnancy and the damage to my right ovary, we were told our chances were slim to conceive again.  Seven years later God opened our hearts to adoption.  We have adopted two from Guatemala.  We would love to adopt more if God so chooses to open those doors again.  If God chooses to open my womb, we would love that too.  All this to say….we are like minded with those that are quiverful.  We just don’t have the number of children they do, but we believe we have as many children as God has chosen so far.  We know there are others out there in our same position.  

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.   Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Phillippians 4:11-13

 

Tracy

 

Long Time Without Blogging

Wow!  I can’t believe I haven’t blogged since January!  We finally got rid of the dial-up this week.  So I should finally be able to manage blogging again.  Of course, I have probably lost what readers I had. 

I looked at my January post and thought how that post on a well stocked pantry still applies today.  With the ever rising food costs and gas prices, one needs to limit their trips to the market.  While we live out in the country, town is just 15 minutes away.  That makes it very convenient for those, “oh, I forget to get an ingredient at the store” trips.  But gas being almost 3.70 a gallon, one had better rethink that mentality.  We need to make a good menu plan, a thorough shopping list and mark those things off the list as we get them….therefore not leaving one thing overlooked.  Also learn to look around for substitutes in a recipe.  I have done that so many times.  A recipe calls for sour cream…..use yogurt.  Cream soups….who needs them!  Make your own with a white sauce.  Plant a garden and can your harvest.  Our garden is at least 3 times the size as last years.  We are in the process of building raised beds.  And will go into full force planting within the next two weeks.  With the rain we have had over the last month, everyone is behind in our area.

I hope to figure out how to hook the camera up to my laptop soon.  I would love to post more pictures since we have better internet service now. 

 

The Well Stocked Pantry & A Recipe

I find that one of my hardest jobs as a homemaker is menu planning. After we moved out to the country, I decided that I had to get on task with this. One of the keys to being able to better menu plan is a well stocked pantry. Having basic ingredients readily available makes such a daunting task much simpler. We found salad bar beef for 1.85 a lb. if we purchased a half, pastured pork for 1.10 a lb. again by purchasing half, raised our own chickens for meat, and my dad gave us 2 deer. This makes for a great supply of meat in the freezer!

Fruits and vegetables are so much better if we can preserve our own. We have figured out rather quickly that our garden needs to be tripled if we want to have a great supply. This year we managed to get corn in the freezer, shredded zucchini, pumpkin puree, tomatoes, peach freezer jam, and blackberry freezer jam. We canned apple pie filling, apple sauce, apple butter, tomato juice, and peaches. While canning your own would be my first choice, even if you can’t you can still be sure to have on hand a basic supply of vegetables and fruits. I have had to purchase green beans and did manage to get some organic canned ones from our co-op at a good price. Keep those basics ready. Some things like onions and green bell peppers can be washed, chopped, frozen and ready to use for a recipe.

Homemade bread is a mainstay around here. Now I’m not going to say that we haven’t had to buy bread from time to time like when illness has wiped mom out. So we have wheat berries, kamut berries, spelt berries in ready supply. I also keep any extra fresh ground flour in a canister in the fridge. Also we always have on hand unbleached flour. It is readily available to use in a pinch and there are actually some recipes like buttermilk biscuits that we prefer the unbleached flour.

I’d like to talk about other things this week that we should have on hand too. For now I want to share a recipe that I’m making for supper.

Old-Fashioned Chicken Pot Pie

Sour Cream Pastry:

1/2 cup cold butter in pieces, 2 1/2 cups unbleached flour or soft whole wheat pastry flour, 8 to 9 T. sour cream

Blend butter and flour until smooth. Add sour cream. Chill 30 minutes. Divide and roll out for pie or casserole dish.

Filling:

1 lb. potatoes cubed and cooked, 8 cooked carrots, 1/2 lb. cooked green beans, 1/2 cup celery, 1 cup chopped onion. Saute this in 3 T. butter. Add 4 to 6 cups cooked chicken. Remove from pan and melt 1/2 cup butter. Stir in 1 cup unbleached or whole wheat pastry flour. Slowly add 6 cups homemade chicken stock and stir until thick. Add vegetable mix back in and season with salt, pepper and paprika. Pour into pie/casserole and top with rolled crust. Brush with beaten egg and 1 T. milk that has been mixed. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake 375degrees fro 40 minutes.

In an effort to do some things ahead, I have all the vegetable mix cooking in the crockpot. I don’t want it to get mushy so I will stop the cooking in plenty of time. This will save me from pealing, chopping, and boiling right close to supper.

Enjoy!

Tracy