Friday, September 12, 2008

Independence Days #16

Independence Days - the overwhelmed edition.

1. Plant - no

2. Harvest: Corn, Green beans, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, basil, Tomatoes, Chilies.

3. Preserved: I dried however many dozen ears of cut sweet corn to fill a 1/2 gal jar. This was after the canned corn experiment. Froze. 8 quart baggies of fresh blanched corr.
Froze 5 packages of 5 cups each of sliced peaches for pies or other winter treats.
Canned a couple more Qts. of slowly ripening pears.
Froze 3 Qt. baggies with mixed peppers roasted on the grill
Canned 5 Quts. of Tomato sauce
Canned 2 Qts of "Adobe Souse" (grilled tomatoes, grilled peppers, grilled onions with fresh tomatoes, a few apricots) It is muddy colored and made with what seemed right at the time - and boy is it good!

4. Prepped - I don't this so the week is a blur.
5. Managed Reserves - Mr. Greenjeans took apart our industrial and computerized water heater at the parish house only to find some joker had turned off the gas at the main. Grrr.

We're having the year's big fundraising event at the church - the annual Oktoberfest with beer, brats, sauerkraut, life music, and raffles. There is a real nip in the air.

The good news is NEE IS HOME. The bad news: Nee is home by way of the ER (3 in 3 months). She was stung by a very aggressive bee at school, had an allergic reaction (we didn't know she was allergic to bees but this may have been a different kind). I ran into the city - a 3 1/2 hour drive each way - gathered her, filled her RX for prednasone, and drove home in the dark encountering a spot of 4" of snow on the road and cars off the road in the canyons.

This week I've fallnd down on management because we aren't getting these given away, managed quite fast enough and the chickens are eating things people should eat.

6. Cook something new - the dehydrating was new to me. I also combined the left overs of the green beans and ham, with the corn that didn't all fit into a package with the left over tomato sauce, cooked some rice and put it together and it was like magic! Ummmm good.

7. I haven't really worked on local food systems - just the Oktoberfest for tomorrow. And helped with community by being there for the neighbor to watch the toddler in the night as they went to the hospital.

5 comments:

Matriarchy said...

I'm glad to hear she is doing OK. I read your post on the food storage list, and I was worried. Stressful week. Maybe you could try to find a little downtime for yourself? We have a saying in PA Dutch country: 'The faster you go, the behinder you get.'

Connie said...

Sweet. Yes, it was a stressful week but as long as I'm posting I've got time to sit down and reach out.

Mrs. Neighbor came over as I was making potato salad for the festival. She brought tomatoes for canning.

The thing is that I'm never so comfortable as canning. Thanks for the reply and I will get down time...soon.

Robj98168 said...

Poor Nee. That sucks. But I bet she is glad to be home! You will love the dehydrator, Especially if you try making jerky with it! Beer in the Church? You trying to get converts???

Tara said...

"the chickens are eating things people should eat." They're certainly good at that!

My husband's cajun grandmother, when she was still living, used to make something quite similar to your green bean/ham concoction - it was called "green bean stew" and was apparently a regular on the dinner table.

No more ER trips out there, okay? ;-)

Connie said...

Tara - - you're ok after the storm? Yea I'm telling DD that 3 time's the charm - geez.

Rob - I guess that's our version of the tent revival.