Happy Thanksgiving!

Can Until You Can't

I guess I still can, but I'm getting a little tired of it going solo.


The latest additions: another four quarts of applesauce and six half-pints of apple preserves. I'll use the apple preserves to make mini-apple tarts for Xmas parties. It's a little too sweet in large quantities. (Note to self: drastically reduce the amount of sugar when using home-grown apples!)

I just made another apple cake today. In my haste to lick the batter from the bowl put the cake in the oven, I forgot to put on the topping before I baked the cake. I took one look at it when the timer went off and thought "what the heck happened to the cake?" Duh, strusel topping! I quickly whipped it up and put it on the cake, turning on the broiler to brown it up. Cake saved.

I figure that since the boys are sick of apples fruit is fairly cheap right now, and since it usually goes up late spring, I'll buy fresh fruit for eating now and save the applesauce for later.

Yes, I still have copious amounts of apples in the fridge and garage, although I'm down to about 10 pounds in the garage and five in the fridge. Unfortunately, few are good for baking. I really need to borrow a dehydrator, or get racks for my oven. Apparently the manufacturer makes special racks (my oven has a special dehydrator setting), but they're not telling where you can get them. Typical.

October Harvest Totals

Wow! I guess it's been awhile! Life has a funny way of getting in the way of blogging....

So, last month I brought in another 60 lbs of food from the garden bringing the total for the year to 253.4 lbs. Last year, I brought in only 34 lbs during October, and that included all of the carrots and a lot of acorn squash, which didn't grow at all this year. Total for last year, 180 lbs. I was finished harvesting by the end of October, so I'm up over 73 lbs over last year, and there's still food to be tallied.

I have left the carrots in the ground this year, because it seems like the best way to store them for me. All the carrots I pulled last year dessicated in the garage, and the ones I left in the ground, although hairy, were still edible through April. I pulled three for stew the other day, and they were gorgeous, bright orange, without a trace of bitterness.

In fact, there's still quite a bit of food out in the garden. There's a little spinach, some parsnips and turnips, cabbages and the aforementioned carrots. The turnips didn't get thinned, unfortunately, so I'm looking at a lot of greens, without too much root.

We've had a rather warm and wet fall this year. Normally we have a low 20s night or two before Halloween, but not this year. I think we've only made it to 28 degrees. It doesn't really feel like November to me; it's just not cold enough, although it's definitely dark and wet enough.