Lavender Wine Jelly

 

This wonderfully fragrant jelly is a lost treasure and perfect for Springtime. The blend of herbs and lavender compliment each other for a uniquely delicious jelly that is reminiscent of Victorian springtime picnics.

 

2 cups dry white wine

2 combined tbsp. of fresh lavender, sweet basil, lemon thyme, pineapple sage, cinnamon basil, and rosemary. 

2 cups granulated sugar

1 pouch liquid pectin

 

 

In a large sauce pan combine the wine and herbs. Bring to full rolling boil over high heat. Remove from heat, cover, and let steep for 20 minutes.

Transfer to a dampened jelly bag or sieve covered with dampened cheesecloth over glass measure. Let drip undisturbed for 20 minutes or until you have 1 3/4 cups of infused wine.

 

In a large sauce pan over high heat combine infused wine and sugar stirring constantly. Bring to rolling boil that can't be stirred down, add liquid pectin and boil hard stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Quickly skim off foam, and ladle into hot jars.

Process in water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Chocolate Mint Jelly

While I'm relatively new to the whole Jelly making process, I find it fascinating. To read how to make certain jellies, it sounds like a long drawn out process, but in actuality it's as easy as making tea.

One of the herbs I planted on the farm this year was Chocolate Mint. Chocolate Mint is one of my all time favorite herbs to grow for no other reason than it's flavor and fragrance. I read recently that chocolate mint is named more for it's chocolaty purple colored stem more so than it's flavor. I tend to disagree as the author of that article must not have ever tasted chocolate mint fresh off the vine. Chocolate mint has a strong mint flavor with a notably soft chocolate undertone that mellows out the strong mint flavor for a delectably unique taste.

Since Mint will grow like wild fire in any garden, yard, or farm once planted it's always a good idea to make use of the abundance of mint leaves.  Mint has a few good uses for all sorts of things. It's used in marinades, meat rubs, desserts, jelly and most commonly tea. It also has medicinal uses. A great example of this is using mint leaves to settle a nauseous stomach or to settle the nerves.

So here's how you make Mint Jelly:

You will need 1 1/2 cups firmly packed mint leaves

2 1/4 cups of water

2 tbsp. lemon juice

3 1/2 cups of sugar

1 pouch of liquid pectin

damp cheesecloth or jelly bag

food coloring


Wash mint leaves in cool water. Shake off excess water and finely chop the leaves.

In a large stainless steel pot, add water and mint leaves. Bring to boil over medium - high heat. remove from heat, cover and let steep for 10 minutes. Pour liquid into a damp jelly bag or sieve lined with damp cheesecloth set over a large glass measure. Let drip until you have 1 3/4 cups of mint flavored liquid.

In a deep sauce pan add mint flavored liquid,lemon juice, and sugar. Stirring constantly bring to a full rolling boil, that can't be stirred down,over high heat. Add in pectin and food coloring and continue to boil hard for 1 full minute. Remove from heat. Skim off foam and ladle into hot jars. Seal jars and process in water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Putting the Farm to work ?

After giving away a couple of jars of my apple butter, strawberry Jam, Cherry Chutney, and Orange Pineapple Marmalade to a few people to try or as gifts, I've had several requests to start selling them.
I've been contemplating the idea for a little while now and think it's a great idea. It's also an opportunity to put our farm to good use aside from providing for our family and just selling our fruits and vegetables. The hardest part of selling my canned foods is coming up with a logo and labeling the jars. I've found a few good websites for the jar labels and for making a logo, the problem is I can't decide on the logo and need to find someone to make ingredient labels for the back of the jars. The easiest part of this is that we grow most of the fruits and vegetables here on the farm. I'm still contemplating the idea and gathering as much info as I can get my hands on and thinking up a business plan. I do think this would be a great opportunity to make a little extra income for us, but I guess I just need to see how it goes first and not bite off more than I can handle. 

Strawberry Jelly

 

Strawberry Jelly is a tasty treat for the whole family to enjoy!!!

 

 

Directions:

 

3 1/2 cups Fresh Strawberry Juice for Jelly

 

1 Package regular powdered fruit pectin

 

4 1/2 cups granulated sugar

 

 

To make the Strawberry Juice for Jelly :

 

Gently wash and drain  3 1/4 cups of strawberries, handling carefully to avoid juice loss. Remove the stems and caps. In a large sauce pan combine the strawberries and just enough water to prevent scorching, about 1/4 to 1/2 cups of water. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat, cover loosely and boil gently, stirring and crushing berries occasionally, just until the berries are softened, about 5 to 10 minutes.

 

Transfer strawberry mixture to a dampened jelly bag or strainer lined with several layers of damp cheesecloth set over a deep bowl. Let drip, undisturbed, for at least 2 hours or overnight to collect juice.

 

Once you have all of your juice, place the juice in a deep saucepan. Whisk in the Pectin until dissolved. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Add sugar all at once and return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from heat and quickly skim off foam.

 

Quickly pour hot jelly into jars leaving 1/4 head space. Wipe rim and place lid and band. Tighten Band until fingertip tight.

 

Process in water bath canner for 10 minutes 

 

 

 

The Crazy Cat Lady

We've all heard about, or seen first hand, the Crazy Cat lady. She's usually old and unmarried and most often relatively reclusive, but how did she become the Crazy cat lady? I'm sure she started off with one or two cats as pets and couldn't turn away a stray preferring to be in the company of cats rather than the company of man, But is that the whole story or how it even began?

Since we've moved to the farm and inadvertently adopted the neighbors cat Big Ben, we've noticed more and more cats showing up. Tiny was the first to show up after Big Ben. Tiny belongs to the same neighbor as Ben but was the reason Ben preferred to stay at our farm. Tiny had a bad habit of beating Ben up and stealing his food. When tiny shows up we keep her occupied with a very small amount of food so that Ben can eat in peace and don't really give Tiny any kind of attention. We prefer to give Ben all of our affection as he's adopted us as much as we have him. From time to time we've also had a large long haired charcoal tabby with the cutest face a cat has ever possessed. He doesn't ever seem interested in a food hand out and too skittish for any kind of contact. We've also noticed a black and white cat on two occasions in the driveway that never gets closer than 100 feet of the house and seems to only be passing through. There's also the large orange tabby that seems to stay in the back close to the deer trail running at the sight of anyone. As of yesterday, we now have a skittish calico who is small and beautiful. She was looking for the Hand out of food we give Ben. She won't let you get anywhere near her but I did spot her sneaking onto the porch last night looking for anything Ben may have left. Of course if Ben doesn't finish his food we do bring his bowl and food inside, I'm not feeding every cat in the neighborhood after all.

Like I've told Sean, when I'm out in the country I seem to have the ability to attract every animal, domestic or wild, within a 5 mile radius.  I'm not sure why this is but I've been that way my whole life. On the two acre farm I lived on previously we had wild rabbits and raccoons. The wild rabbits would come running toward me from out of the woods as soon as they heard my voice or saw me. they use to stay by feet and eat from my hand whatever grasses I had picked. I really don't mind the cats, but I do miss my rabbits and raccoons.

way too much time on their hands

Recently I was reading a yahoo article about McDonald's new mascot "Happy."  Now I know McDonalds and other large businesses are constantly marketing and promoting their business and products and everyone and their brother will have something to say about it, but is this really news?

It seems to me that people have WAY too much time on their hands and not nearly enough going on in their on little lives when they're all in a frenzy over a cartoon character that is suppose to promote good health and fun, not saying that McDonalds if ever a healthy choice in any situation.

The problem with "Happy" is there is a major debate on, of all things, whether or not he's creepy. The debate has nothing to do with whether the food he's promoting is healthy or not for the kids, or if he's trying to teach children a lesson on healthy eating and good hygiene habits with his white teeth and thin arms and legs. Maybe even trying to send a message with his sneakers that making healthy choices, eating healthy foods, and getting out and being active and getting exercise is enjoyable and fun and can make you "Happy."

Sadly, no, the debate is on whether or not he's creepy looking. The worst thing of all is that all of the major news stations, not just the tabloid and gossip news for idiots, has picked up and reported on this new advertising technique. Apparently this cartoon mascot is more news worthy now a days then what is going on in the world. It's a sad day when you realize that people everywhere are so petty, immature, and uneducated and have nothing better to do with their time, that the most important thing in their lives to talk about is whether or not a cartoon is creepy.

Welcome to "Idiocracy".......... where we all sit around saying real slow "I like money"

Illusions or delusions on the farm

Since being on the farm I've come to realize that things aren't always as they seem. For instance, when the neighbors decide that target practice should last all day on Saturday and Sunday, it's hard to pin point a particular direction from where the gun is being shot and how close the shots are to your proximity. This is a very common occurrence in the country that I've been fully aware of for a very long time and it still sets me on edge, not mention, that if you need your target practice to last two full days from sun up to sun set then you're a crappy shot, your aim obviously won't ever improve, and more importantly you're wasting bullets.

What I didn't realize, simply because it's never happened to me before, is that things such as animals are completely misconstrued visually and it doesn't matter whether it's full daylight or dark out. Let's take Big Ben for example, He's a fairly large house cat. We're use to seeing Ben all the time, but every now and then, even if we were just playing with him and he walks off, he can look like a small to medium sized dog even if he's just a few yards away. More recently there has been a large orange tabby slightly larger than Ben, that I'll spot close to the back tree line where we have a large pile of cut pines and a large section of clay that had been spread out. Upon first spotting this cat, she looked to be the height and size of a cougar. Only After going outside and towards her did I clearly see the huge height comparison, of course looking through the camera lens I could tell by her head that she was a regular house cat, hence the reason I walked outside and toward her.

Last night, while trying to figure out what jack was acting up about, I took the flash light out front and swept the area in front and on the sides of the front porch seeing and hearing nothing. So, I go back in and shine the spotlight out of the back window and see what appears to be a small coyote running through the yard to the tree line. Now there's a couple things that told me mentally coyote. Number one, size, number 2, color, and number 3, his tail was straight out and fluffy as he ran. So I grab Sean and out the backdoor we go with spotlight in hand. I trained the spotlight on the tree in front of me seeing the tell tale glow of eyes in the brush underneath the tree. We got closer and the animal never seemed to move but seemed to be frantically looking at us and watching. I decided to go up front and get in the tuck so I could safely get closer to the animal and to better see what it was. As I pulled up Sean, in redneck backwoods fashion, jumped into the bed of my truck training the spotlight on the animal so I could see better. At this point I got out the truck, walked to the tree line only to realize that it was one of the neighbor's (The same neighbor who owns Big Ben)  larger Chihuahua mix. In thinking this poor dog was a small coyote, we apparently scared this poor dog half to death with the spotlight and the truck. The only thing I could imagine going through this poor dog's mind was that he had just stepped into the movie deliverance and that we were probably nuts.

Solution to high food prices?

Last Thursday while flipping through the guide on direct tv, I stumbled across a program called "Louisiana agriculture." The thirty minute program is basically a news program for farmers about, you guessed it, farming!

 I recorded tonight's show so that I wouldn't miss it. On the show tonight, one of their segments was about the rising cost of food and "food desserts."

While talking about the food desserts in urban metropolitan areas, they made mention of community, school, and small backyard gardens, and how more and more people were planting vegetable gardens. 

The show then turned to focus on the rising costs of food. They interviewed a variety of people at a local produce market in Baton Rouge. I remember one lady saying how just the other day she had purchased a small package of chicken wings for about 12 dollars and thinking to myself that sanderson farms poultry plant, or as sky and I refer to it as the "chicken death farm", is right up the road. 

While I was listening to the interviews and other topics on the program, I couldn't help but think on the topic of high food prices and came up with a solution. 

I understand that gas prices keep rising, which baffles me since Louisiana and Texas are two of the biggest manufacturing ports of oil and gas in this country. I still don't understand, completely, the dependancey on foreign oil. I do understand the greed of the oil companies and our government, but that's a topic for another time. 

So,with the cost of fuel sky rocketing out of control causing the price of food and other essential needs to go up and the "food desserts" in poor neighborhoods and metropolitan areas, the solution seems to be a no brainier.

Aside from buying only locally grown vegetables, fruits, and meat from small local or family farms, which everyone should be doing anyway, we should all be growing,and /or,raising our own food. 

I know not everyone has acrage or even large backyards, but you really don't need them for a simple private vegetable garden or even to raise a couple of hens. 

When you grow your own vegetables, the bennifits really do cancel out any downfalls. Think about it, when you grow your own produce or even raise your own meat, you know exactly what goes into the soil for the plants, where the plants came from, what fertilizers are used 

(Whether chemical or organic), what types of pest control was used, and what, if any, diseases the plants may have had. The same goes for livestock, you know what the animals are eating, if they were vaccinated, sick or healthy, where they came from, how old they were, how well they were cared for and treated, and how and in what manner they died, not to mention the money saved from growing or raising your own food. 

Now granted, you can't live solely on your own vegetables....... At first. You know, there's that whole planting and waiting for the plants to grow stage.Then you have to wait for the vegetables and fruits to start growing and ripening. A person could starve to death while waiting for the garden to grow...lol. 

So this is where buying locally grown food comes into play. While waiting on your garden to grow, only buy from the local farmers market for your produce and if your farmers market has a local farmer selling his/ or her own farm raised meats,eggs,and dairy products you're in luck, if not find a local livestock farm that sells to the public. The reason for this is that, not only are you supporting your local farmers, but the prices are usually better since they don't have high shipping costs tacked on to the price of the food, the food that you are buying is healthier for you, and it's fresher then what is normally found in the grocery stores, God only knows how long those "fresh" meats have been frozen for or if it's been sitting there on the shelf for two weeks because it didn't look bad and the stock crew didn't think it necessary to rotate the stock that morning.its also not usually genetically altered or pumped full of chemicals and steroids. The other best part about buying from local farmers is that 9 times out of 10 you are either buying directly from the farmers themselves or you can sometimes visit the farms where your food came from, which is nearly impossible to do if your produce came from another state or country. 

Basically all of this boils down to knowing where your food comes from, saving money on your food bill while eating healthier, and being (to some degree) self sufficient.

 Remember, you don't need a huge backyard or small farm to grow vegetables or raise a couple chickens. Even if you live in an apartment or condo, You may not be able to grow vegetables outside, but you can grow most vegetables such as tomatoes indoors with the help of grow lights. And unless you have some strange, unrealistic land lord most apartment complexes and condos will allow you to have plants on patios or balconies, although they may not feel the same way about you raising chickens... I'd save that for people who have houses and even a small backyard...lol.

There is NO excuse not to at least grow your own produce. 

Cherry chutney

This is a new recipe I decided to try. Chutneys are actually a member of the pickle family, meaning that they use a combination of fruits, vegetables, and vinegar or citrus juice to elevate the level of acidity of the ingredients allowing them to be safely preserved in a water canner. 

Chutneys go great with grilled meats such as pork,poultry, or fish. They can also be served up as a nice addition to a cheese tray. 

This recipe makes about six 8 ounce jars.

For this recipe you will need:

Cheesecloth ( this can been found at any grocery store in the kitchen utensil aisle)

Water bath canner

Jars with lids

Large, deep stainless steel sauce pot

Jar funnel

4 1/2 tsp Whole all spice

1 cinnamon stick (about 6inches) broken.

10 cups frozen red tart or sweet black cherries, partially thawed, coarsley chopped

2 large apples, peeled, cored, and chopped.

1 1/2 cups finely chopped red or other sweet onions, such as Vidalia.

1 cup white vinegar

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup lightly packed brown sugar

1 1/2 cups rasins

Directions:

Tie the allspice and cinnamon stick in a square of cheese cloth, creating a spice bag.

In a large sauce pot combine cherries, apples, onions, vinegar, garlic, salt, and spice bag. 

Bring to boil over medium- high heat and boil hard, stirring frequently, for 20 minutes. Add brown sugar and stir to dissolve. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until thick enough to mound on spoon, about 20 minutes. 

Add raisins and return to boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Discard spice bag. 

Spoon hot chutney into clean jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Place lids on jars and screw bands on firmly, but do not over tighten. Place jars into water bath canner cover and bring to rolling boil and process for 10 minutes. Remove jars and store in a cool dry place

Easy strawberry jam

This recipe is one of Skylar's favorites, she absolutely loves when I make strawberry jam. The best part about strawberry jam is that not only is it easy to make but it saves you money in the long run especially for those of us with kids. When I make this recipe I usually get a flat or two of fresh strawberries. This seems like a lot since you don't need that many strawberries for the recipe, but I actually use the strawberries in other things not just jam. 

This recipe makes about eight 8 ounce jars of jam. 

Things you'll need:

Canning jars with lids

Funnel

Ladle or large cooking spoon

Water bath canner or a large, deep, stainless steel stock pot.

Jar lifter

7 full cups of granulated sugar

8 cups of whole strawberries (approx.)

4 tbsp lemon juice

1 package ( 1.75 oz) regular powdered

   Fruit pectin

Directions:

Place 8 clean jars in the water bath canner. Fill jars and canner with cool water that reaches the tips of the jars. Cover and bring to summer over medium heat. Do not boil.

Prepare the jar lids. Set the screw bands aside and place the lids in a small saucepan and cover with water. Heat just to a simmer over medium heat. Do not boil. Keep warm until ready to use. Do not heat the screw bands.

Next measure out all of the sugar into a bowl and set aside for later. The sugar is added in all at once, so measuring ahead of time prevents any errors in quantity. 

In a colander placed over the sink wash the berries in cool  running water. Drain thoroughly. At this point you want to hull the strawberries using the round end of a potato peeler or a strawberry huller. 

In a glass pie plate or flat bottomed bowl, place strawberries in a single layer and mash with a potato masher, or with your hands if you're like me and are not skilled with a potato masher, crushing the berries and Transfer to a 1 cup liquid measure. As you accumulate each cup transfer crushed berries to a large deep stainless steel saucepan. Repeat until you have 5 cups of crushed strawberries.

Next add the lemon juice to the crushed berries in the saucepan. Whisk in the package of pectin until the pectin is dissolved. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Add sugar in all at once, stirring constantly, return to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Boil hard stirring constantly for 1 full minute. Remove from heat and,using a slotted spoon, skim off foam. 

Lastly, using a funnel as to not make a huge sticky mess, spoon the hot jam into the clean jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.Wipe rims, place lids on the jars, screw on the bands firmly,but not too tight. Place in water bath canner,cover, and Bring to full rolling boil. Continue to Boil rapidly for 10 minutes, starting timer only when water reaches a full rolling boil. 

Finally, remove jars carefully with the jar lifter and set jars on a towel covered counter. Never set hot jars on a cold or unprotected counter as this could result in the breakage of jars due to the rapid temperature change or in burning or discoloration of the counter top.

 

Full moon delight

Last night the moon was full and bright, the stars were out and the light from the full moon lit up the sky so bright that it was like silvery daylight on the farm. My family and I love full moon nights, there's something magical in them. 

With the full moon and warm damp air last night Sean and I decided to go and lay in the hammocks out back and listen to the nocturnal noises on the farm enjoying each other's company and lite conversation, then inside to tell Skylar goodnight and for a little tv before bed. 

Needless to say I didn't get to bed until about 2 this morning slept for an hour and woke up and wandered out the bedroom to find Sean wide awake on the couch still watching tv. He doesn't go to work until tonight but I needed to go to work this morning and needed my "snuggle bunny." Look he has a stuffed chimp to sleep with when I'm not there, all I have are cold pillows....lol. 

After he came to bed I seemed to just toss and turn trying desperately to goto sleep, but sleep seemed to elude me until about 6 this morning. I made sure Skylar was up and getting ready for school went back to sleep for about 15 minutes only to wake up to tell Skylar the time and that it was raining. Once she was safely on the bus I finally fell back to sleep only to be awake at about 7 to Sean coming back to bed.... Apparently he got up at some point. 

The point to all of this is that apparently the full moon and night air reenergized me some how because without much sleep I actually woke up in a good mood an full of energy this morning. Maybe I didn't need much sleep or I'm just sleep deprived and delerious and can't tell the differance ;) 

A new critter on the farm??

Being in the country you never know what may cross your path. We've heard the coyote pack close to the house, we've spotted the deer that I mistook for a brown floppy dog, and I'm sure we have raccoons around and even foxes and rabbits ( not that I've actually seen them....yet), even thought I heard a bobcat the other afternoon. Now rumor has it, ever since we moved to albany a few years ago and every local will tell you, that on the other side of the tracks where we currently live they have cougars and bear. Well there may be something to those local rumors. 

Yesterday, while I was putting groceries away, sky was out back in the garden  playing with Big Ben. Before long sky came running into the house and the first words out of her mouth were "mom, there's a puma in the woods!"  I couldn't help but laugh "a puma?" I asked and in her excited exasperation she replied " cougar, panther, whatever" again I couldn't help but laugh at my teenage daughter. So thinking she was maybe seeing things incorrectly, because I myself have mistaken Big Ben as a small dog on several occasions,  I asked her if it could have been a bobcat. This is usually where she makes a short answer into a long story.  So she proceeds to tell me that she noticed Big Ben get very still and started looking at something intently. So sky was curious to see what he was looking at and followed his gaze to the back tree line which is approximately 250 feet away from where she was standing. She said she saw a large cat, bigger than our dog jack with jacks tan coloring. So again I asked bobcat or maybe one of the coyotes. Again she replied no, saying that not only was the large cat definatly a cat, because it looked right at her, but that the marking were not right for a bobcat, the tail was way too long and slender, and the head although cat like was bigger than that of a bobcat. 

For the record, Skylar and I have both been very up close and personal with a couple resident bobcats in the area, so I have no doubt that she could distinguish between the two. So, being that I did not see this animal myself, I have to take her word for it. I do know for a fact that we have a large cat of some sort on the farm. I found its tracks all over one of the plant tarps I used during the last freeze we had. Well, to be on the side of caution, I put a call into Jason's ( Sean's nephew) wife Lindsey,not to worry her but to let her know that there is that possibility of a cougar on our place. I also informed her that I would let her know if we spot any black bears or Bigfoot lurking out in woods on our farm. 

Redneck grass cutting

As many of you know we do not have a tractor, riding lawn mower, self propelled mower, or a weed eater on the farm as of yet, so the grass is high. I do however have a rake which I use to take down the dead hay like grass before planting. This weekend I discovered redneck grass cutting. Sean's nephew, Jason and his little boy Preston, came over to help with our grass situation yesterday.

As it turned out,in a funny coincidence, when buying the farm before I met Sean, our farm backs right up to his nephews house the only division between us is what the locals call blood river, which is more like a deep drainage canal. 

So let me explain what redneck grass cutting is all about. I'm assuming Most you have heard about tractor supply. Tractor supply stores across the country sell tractor and grass cutting attachment for 4wheelers. These are wonderful if you have a large 4 wheeler that works. Well, the redneck version of these implements consists of a chain link fence gate with a little bit of square hole fencing (similar to large chicken wire, three large tires stacked on top of the gate ,strapped down with ratchet straps, attached to the 4wheeler. Now according to Sean's nephew Jason, and I'm not doubting it one little bit, this will cut most grass. 

However, all we succeeded to do was flatten the tall grass on our farm. Which was just fine by me. Now we can actually see any large sticks that need to be picked up, we can see what's in the grass, and I don't have to get completely itchy from the grass sticking me as I garden. 

Jason had also informed us that when we get all the large sticks up and into a pile he would be more than happy to come over with the riding lawn mower and cut our grass until we can get a tractor of our own or until we can get Sean's riding mower fixed, which ever comes first. 

I am so thankful for all of the rednecks in our family and glad that at least one lives right behind us. Which also brings up another project we need to get started on. We need to build a bridge across the river in the back to Jason's house and make a "safe" trail through the woods so that little Preston, who is ALL boy and very adventurous and sweet, can come over and visit his Uncle Donkey whenever he likes. It would also be a lot more convienet for me and sky to go visit Lindsey, Jason's wife, that way I can just go walk through the woods instead of driving over ;)