When The House Becomes A Grocery Warehouse!

 We are in for 3 days of a hard freeze.  Today and tomorrow and the next day temps in the 20's are predicted.  This is damaging to any crops left out in the gardens.  We had no choice today but to pick as much as we could salvage.   Some things can tolerate the temperatures.  The first night the pumpkin and winter squash vines will die, but the fruits will be OK.  However, the following two nights we will have to cover the squash and pumpkins with tarps because the greenery cover protecting them will have died.   This is very early for killing frosts for us!  Usually we have our first killing freeze towards the end of September.  We also picked many tubs and buckets of apples from a friend's tree this morning because the apples were starting to fall off the tree. 

     This will be a very busy week for us, not only because we will be working with honey, but I will also have to sort, wash and price all this produce for market on Thursday.  Harold will be out in the fields helping with the sugar beet harvest on Tuesday and Wednesday.   We picked a LOT of veggies today!  Just take a look:

We picked these onions a few days ago.  They need to dry in boxes.  There are sweet onions, red onions, white onions and yellow onions ready for market.  Thirteen boxes full!

 

Lots of green peppers and hot peppers and snacking style sweet peppers.  Also one of the tubs of apples we picked this morning.

We managed to find two more tubs of nice looking tomatoes for market.

Lots of apples!   The bucket of smaller apples are very sweet and will go into applesauce to can up.  Some of the larger apples will also become applesauce, and the rest will be for eating and for pies!

Here are several bunches of statice flowers that I dried.  They make wonderful winter bouquets and last for years, even retaining their color!  I have a little bit more statice out in the greenhouse that I need to collect and dry.  Soon I will be re-arranging the porch for fall and will decorate with pumpkins and statice bouquets and bittersweet wreaths.

I certainly will not lack for work this week!  Between honey bottling, market day, and canning applesauce that's enough!

Pulling The Honey Supers

 Yesterday we pulled off the honey supers from our hives.  This was not a good honey year, unfortunately.  We only have 10 supers of honey instead of the usual 15.  And some of these supers are not really full.  This was a very windy summer with high winds for days in a row, week after week.  It was difficult for the bees to get out and work the flowers.  And then we also got lots of rain which washed away nectar and pollen from the flowers.   One day we got 6 inches of rain in one storm!  It was also a poor year for the basswood blossoms, which is one of the main flowers that goes into our honey.  But - we will take what the Lord has given to us and be happy about it, and hope for a better year next year.   (Beekeepers are always hoping for a better year!)

We will begin extracting the honey today and all week long. 

Harold poses by one of the hives. 

Harold is spraying BeeQuick on a felt lined hive cover.  This is a strong almond smelling spray that drives the bees down into the bottom of the hive so that we can lift off the top honey supers without having to fight a lot of bees.  He will place the cover over the hive and wait about 5 minutes and most of the bees will have left the super, just a few stragglers.

We stack the supers on the back of our pickup and drive it back to the house.

The supers are stacked on the kitchen table ready to be extracted.

Kraut Making Day

 Yesterday morning Harold and I shredded up 25 lbs of cabbage for sauerkraut.   I usually make a little more than that, but this year's cabbages didn't do well in the garden and I had some kraut left from last year so I made a smaller batch this year.  

We use this antique kraut cutter that I bought at an antique store many years ago to shred up the cabbage.  The cabbage is put into the box, and the box slides back and forth over a container. 

The cabbage shredder can be adjusted to provide whatever size shreds you want.

The blades don't look sharp, but believe me they are! One year I accidentally got my thumb too close to the bottom of the box and the blades and sliced my thumb greatly.   There was a lot of screaming and crying that year! 

Here are a few of the cabbages I used.   The larger cabbages were about 10 or 11 lbs each.  I like to use a variety called Danish Ballhead cabbage for kraut making because it holds up well to fermentation and makes a crisp kraut.

Years ago I bought this great Red Wing pottery crock with handles.  I've used it for kraut ever since.   It is in perfect condition with no cracks.

For every 5 lbs of shredded cabbage I add 3 T of pickling salt.   The salt is mixed well with the cabbage and I let it sit until it gets juicy.

The salt is mixed into the cabbage by hand until well distributed throughout.

I then pack the salted cabbage into the crock, packing down well.

Then a large thick cheesecloth towel is put over the cabbage.

I put a large plate over the cheesecloth. The cabbage needs to be under brine throughout the fermentation process.

Finally a double thickness of kitchen bag filled with water is set over the whole thing.   This weighs down the cabbage to keep it in the brine.  I put the whole crock on a large tray in the basement for about 4 weeks.  After that, fermentation is usually complete, the kraut is done and tasty and I can up the kraut into pint jars.  

 

This year, canning lids are quite precious!  It seems that so many people had gardens this year and decided to try their hand at canning.  The Ball Corp. which makes most of the jars and lids couldn't keep up with the demand.  Fortunately I had "just enough" lids left that I bought earlier in the year to finish all my canning this year.   I have already canned peaches, pears, pickles, potatoes, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, salsa, jellies and green beans.  Next will be applesauce and this kraut.  My pantry is getting well stocked for winter!