Sweet Smells of Fall

The last two weekends Flower Girl has made applesauce. It was another one of those firsts for me. I had never made homemade applesauce. Isn't that sad? Especially when your 6 year old tells you how to make it then proceeds to make it herself and the only assistance you provide is coring the apples. When she first mentioned that she wanted to do this and she "knows how" because she did it is school I was hesitant for a moment. Then I thought what the heck! Worse case scenario, pig food. It took her about 2 hours peeling, cutting, and then adding it all to a crock. Flower Girl's recipe as follows: "about 17 apples cut up small, 1 cup of honey, and a cup of cinnamon." We decided to do a half a batch and I convinced her to use 1 T. of cinnamon i/o a cup...she agreed and it was the BEST APPLESAUCE we've ever eaten! She cooked it on low over night in a crock and we ate it up in no time. She was some proud and so were we!


With the change of seasons you think of all the chores you won't have to do and then before you know it there is a whole other list of chores and need to do's before the next season.
Winterizing the house, setting up house for the critters in the barn, planting garlic, and back to hauling wood...yes our wood stove has been running for nearly a week. No complaints I feel fortunate that we have the wood to burn and do not have to depend on oil. My Maine Man worked hard all summer and put up about 9 cord. I am so thankful that we have him. Without John, we could not function! There is not a thing he does not do (except toilets and he would if he had to) We love him so and appreciate all he does!
It has been brisk here in Maine and some folks even had a bit of the white stuff today...soon we will be shoveling.

We have also been trying to get caught up on some inside tasks that have been patiently waiting through the gardening season. I've painted both the kids floors, (they have the old wood floors) painted the mud room "barn red" (love the color), and we soon will be putting up trim work in the kitchen....yeah ha, it has been 2 years coming.

I took the turkeys to the butchers last week. That was an experience! They were so big I did not have a cage to hold them so their last hours were on sheets in the back of the heated suburban jamming to "I've got friends in low places" by Garth Brooks. What a way to go.
I had one moment of feeling bad but it quickly passed. They had a good life!
I did not watch them get processed but I watched the ones after except for the initial kill, it was not that bad.

We ate our first "farm fresh turkey" last weekend and it was wicked yummy! (yes I'm a Mainer)
With the left overs I made turkey pie, turkey barley soup, turkey salad, froze a bag for stew and I made stock. We have 3 more in the freezer, the biggest weighed 30lbs.

The Cornish rocks are ready to go to freezer camp too. I am afraid we are going to have to process them ourselves because we cannot get them into the butcher for 3 more weeks and that means lots more grain, these guys are little piggies. More grain= $. I think we(John) will skin some instead of plucking and we will make ground chicken. I like it for meat loaf, spaghetti, and I bet it would make great meatballs.

Have you ever bragged before and it come back and bit you in the a@!? Like, "we haven't been sick all winter" and then you are all nearly hospitalized. For whatever reason this ALWAYS happens to me. I was bragging it up the other day that we had yet to have any predator problems and boom...Bam Bam our white duck gets taken out. Country Boy's duck of course, poor kid, he is starting to think he has a curse...his goat, his cat, now his duck. We discovered this the day after I was reading Hobby Farm Magazine and noticed that a picture I had submitted months before of the two ducks was published. I was so excited I got the kids out of bed to show them.
Funny how that all happened. Now the question is what to do with Pebbles? I say find her a partner and John says "find her a home"...we will see but it needs to be soon because I feel sad for her. I thought about mixing her in with the chickens over the winter because John wants to get ducks in the spring, not sure how she will do.
Next day I find a beheaded partridge....what next?
On a lighter note we got 2 little kitties named Gretta and Cookie...their sweet but mischievous!

Lastly, check out a post that Duane wrote over at the Funny Farm about mushrooms. Thanks Duane for your informative post and for answering my question!

Here is the recipe for TURKEY BARLEY SOUP

Ingredients:

• 6 cups chicken broth or turkey broth
• 1 to 2 cups diced cooked turkey
• 1/2 cup pearl barley
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 celery, stalks, chopped
• 3 carrots, sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon dried leaf thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (about 2 teaspoons dried)

Preparation:

Combine broth, turkey, barley, onion, celery, carrots, bay leaf, thyme, marjoram, black pepper and parsley in slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours, or simmer over low heat on the stovetop for 1 hour, or until the carrots are tender and the barley is soft.
Serves 4 to 6

here is the site the recipe comes from