Fall Harvest

We had some rain this past weekend. It was a nice break for the guys who had been working late every day, drilling wheat, cutting beans and picking some corn. It was a nice break for me and the kids too; we were missing Joe. We also needed the rain very badly.

We had header troubles on both of our combines. The exact same breakdown on both of them, which is rare. Fortunately, it happened Friday evening, just before it started raining.

A week later, the guys are back in the field, cutting soybeans. We had a total of 1650 acres of soybeans. We have 600 to go. They picked some corn while our beans ripened another hot and windy day, then went back to beans again. They picked 100 acres of corn. We have 400 left to go. We also have 550 acres of milo to cut, and have hired someone to cut our silage. We just have to pack it in the silo as they bring it in. (The silage is for our cow herd. We’ll start feeding them in February.)

Andy, our hired man, has been drilling (planting) wheat. Joe is planning on having a total of 1800 acres of wheat. Andy has 250 acres left to drill.

We raise non-hormone treated cattle (NHTC). We do not raise hormone-free beef. There is no such thing. We are fine with implanting cattle. However, we found a niche market and are taking advantage of it. The European Union prefers to purchase non-hormone treated beef. We get a premium for our calves when we sell them. We’ve spent a lot of time selecting bulls with good growth traits and have been replacing cattle we initially purchased years ago with cows we have raised ourselves. We’re finding that paying closer attention to sire genetics and cow production is paying off. We’re raising bigger calves. We also raise angus cattle. (The best, in our opinion.)

Sometime in the next few weeks, we’ll be making time for our annual NHTC audit, then will be weaning calves from our 300 cows. At that time, we’ll deliver them to a feedlot where they’ll be fed to harvest weight.

As I said in a previous post, this is the craziest time of year for us, but we enjoy it. Beautiful weather and lots of productivity. I’ll have Ag in the Classroom next week. The coodinator of a local ag organization and I go into 4th grade classes and teach kids about agriculture once a month.

I also have a niece and new nephew to go visit and our whole family will be going to a wedding at the end of the month! Hopefully we get a lot of work done so Joe will feel better about leaving!

Hope this finds you all doing well. Enjoy the beautiful weather!

 

The Can Can Girl

I decided to conquer one of my greatest fears this September: Canning.

I didn’t do it alone. I had wonderful friends who, via facebook and email, talked me through it.

The first “friend” who helped me was Paula Deen. No, I don’t know her. Not personally, anyway. However, I am a facebook and Food Network follower. She posted a recipe for “Sweet Georgia Peach Honey” with easy instructions. I decided it was time to give it a try.

I bought a lug of peaches and went to work. Not only did I actually survive it, but I also enjoyed it. And it tastes good! FYI, there is no honey in it, and it does not taste like honey. It does look like honey and is sweet and thick and kind of citrusy. It’s yummy!

Another friend of mine posted that she was making peach butter. I asked her to “recipe me,” and went to work again. Score! It was even better than the peach honey! If you’ve ever had apple butter, it’s like that, but made with peaches.

From that point on, I was addicted.

I canned sliced peaches and pears. Hot pack. According to my friend Lynette, it’s the process that’s most recommended. I trust her. Whole-heartedly. I believe she read it in a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I would imagine any basic cookbook (i.e., Betty Crocker) would also have great instructions. My husband’s grandmother also uses the hot pack method, so that is forever what I will do.

I highly recommend you find the instructions from someone more knowledgeable than me! However, just so you get an idea of how easy it is, I will say it’s simply a matter of finding a “recipe,” sterilizing jars & lids (and keeping them hot), peeling/coring fruit, slicing, placing into the hot syrup, bringing to a boil (peaches only come to a boil; pears have to boil a few minutes), ladling into the jars, wiping the rims, placing the lids on, putting them into a hot water bath for a length of time determined by jar size, and letting them cool, making sure they seal. (Lids pop and once pressed in the middle cannot jiggle up and down — and it may take a while, so don’t get too impatient!)

I think I was mostly scared of canning because of “The Pressure Cooker.” Come on… a pot with a huge gauge on it? That’s intimidating! To do acidic fruits and/or jellies, you don’t even need one. You can process them more quickly in a pressure cooker if you like. I believe you WILL need a pressure cooker if you decide to can meat or some other food that is less acidic. PLEASE look it up before diving into canning a food. I just used a large stockpot to “process” the jars. (Meaning I simmered them in boiling water to help seal and further sterilize the jars.)

I did several quarts of pears and peaches, then began asking what else I could make on facebook. A couple of other friends of mine highly recommended pear honey. I highly recommend it now, too! It’s amazing.

Here’s my friend Shelia’s recipe for pear honey:

Servings: 12 to 16 half-pint jars
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Ingredients:
20-ounce can crushed pineapple with syrup
16 cups (about 6 pounds) peeled, cored, and chopped pears
10 cups sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice or 4 pieces ginger

Directions: Mix all ingredients and cook until pears are tender and mixture thickens, approximately 30 minutes.  Pour into hot jars and hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Pears and apples make great dishes together. Pear apple crisp is pure heaven.

I knew I had to make pear apple butter. And pear applesauce.

I ran my pears and apples through a food processor until they were a very chunky applesauce texture for both the butter and applesauce. I cooked the butter down until it was a fine chunky texture. I added lots of cinnamon and sugar to the fruit to make the butter. I even added a little pumpkin pie spice to give it added depth of flavor. It was amazing. Earthy, rustic… and the texture made it all the better.

For the pear applesauce, I didn’t add as much sugar. Good sweet apples won’t need much sugar. In fact, you should be able to make applesauce without sugar. However, I added some, along with a good amount of cinnamon. Even though things need to be sterile so your family can eat safely, you can still taste your food to make sure it’s just how you like it! I did! Just get a clean spoon each time you dip…

My family LOVES my pear applesauce. I do, too.

See the yummy chunks? It doesn’t get anymore homestyle than this!

Finally, I made plain old apple butter. In a crockpot. I’d heard of crockpot apple butter before, so I googled some recipes and picked the one that most suited my taste (and pantry). However, I tweaked it some. Once again, I ran the apples through the food processor before putting them into the crockpot. At the end of the day, they were cooked down very nicely, but I decided I wanted it to be smooth like the kind you can buy at the store. I have an immersion blender. I heart my immersion blender. It’s so fun. And it made my apple butter smooth as… well, butter. Here’s a pic of it in the pot.

My father-in-law thanked me for the “sample” I shared with him and my mother-in-law. It was gone in just a few days, from what I understand. I guess I’d better send over another sample for him.

My pantry is full of wonderful goodies for fall and winter. And I learned that I am capable of canning. It was work, but it was fun work. Way better than cleaning or folding laundry! If you have something you’ve always wanted to do but have feared, just try it!