Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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





18 comments:

Erica said...

My gosh woman, I love you. I can totally relate on the bragging "we haven't been sick all winter". I opened my big trap and said that (only it was all year) and we were all ill for about 2 months off and on. Never again, hopefully, haha!

So sorry on the loss though, I bet it's tough on the kids.

The turkeys sound great too! The soup sounds very similar to a chicken and barley soup I make. Mmmmmm, I love soup.

Erica said...

Oh, darn me, those pics of Leah making applesauce are adorable! What a little homesteader in the making!!

Robbyn said...

You have a lot going on!! So glad the turkeys turned out well (the soup recipe looks scrumptious), and the applesauce sure sounds good! Congrats on the new kitties!

Welcome To Wilmoth Farms said...

Cool on your pics being published! Sorry about the duck, but they do fine in with the chikens! My daughter is named Leah, she is going to be 14 on the 24th of this month! I've always wanted FRESH or wild turkey....so far hasnt happened, hoping my son gets one during hunting season

PIE said...

I have been busy making applesauce and we are eating it as fast as I make it unfortunately! But I still have a ton of apples left from the trees.

As far as your Turkeys...TOO FUNNY... I have this great vision of them doing the chicken dance in the back of your suburban and thinking they were at a Rave or something! You crack me up.

PIE said...

Oh and just think of bad things happening in Threes...so Luke must be done...knock on wood.

Anonymous said...

How fun and yummy and yes home made applesauce is the best, we have gotten apples from a lady that goes to our church and they're the best apples for it too!

Anonymous said...

We just made our first applesauce but we didn't use honey...and I have bees! My next batch will have honey...good recipe!

YD, sometimes with ♥June and ♥Angel Samantha said...

Hey Kim, don't feel that bad about not making applesauce, I have never made applesauce before...there I said it.
Leah is so adorable and that's so wonderful that she likes doing that stuff.
Nothing beats farm fresh turkey!
Sorry about the loss.
You are right, pretty soon we'll be shovelling.

Anonymous said...

I so saw those pics and was like....don't I know those ducks? Don't they belong to Kim?! But I forgot to ask!! So sorry you lost one. Sounds like you have hungry coon, they're infamous for beheading. Good luck there, my friend!

I'm glad you enjoyed the turkey, we haven't tried ours yet. Good luck with processing the meat birds...wishing I could lend you the plucker!!

And yay to Leah on that applesauce! :)

Danni said...

What a great post! Your daughter looks like she's have the best time. The applesauce sounds delicious!
Of course, I had to pull out my Hobby Farm mag right after I read this and, sure enough, there are Pebbles & BamBam right there on page 18! Congrats...and then condolences... I'm so sorry your son lost his duck buddy. Predators suck!

YD, sometimes with ♥June and ♥Angel Samantha said...

Hi Kim, I wanted to let you know that your Callie got a "dog tag" from my girls. Please visit my blog to find out what it's all about.

Paula said...

Mmmm the recipe sounds yummy. And don't feel bad... this year was my first time with applesauce, too!
Sorry about the predator- but yay on getting your picture in Hobby Farms... could be the start of a new freelance career!! LOL

Amy said...

When I read Leah's recipe I though, "Woah! A WHOLE cup of cinnamon?!?" Whew! Thanks for the correction! I'll have to try this with some dropped apples this weekend. It's wonderful that you have your own turkeys to eat now. I think it was nice of you to send them out with some Garth Brooks!

Jodi said...

Home made applesauce is a real treat.

We (and by "we" I mean "T") made a few batches to freeze. SO yummy.

Side note - I think it's a little funny that my word verification is "pommons" because "pomme" is french for apple. How appropriate!

Juri said...

Yummy...homemade applesauce! Next you will have to make some applebutter!! I know what you mean about the bragging, it always seems that the minute you comment on how smooth things are going, havoc follows!

Juri

Country Girl said...

ERICA, THANKS! SEEMS LIKE YOU GET BURNT FROM BRAGGING AND SWEAR TO NEVER DO IT AGAIN AND THEN IT SLIPS OUT OF YOUR MOUTH. THE SOUP WAS GOOD, I HAD NEVER COOKED WITH BARLEY BEFORE.

ROBBYN, THANKS THE KIDS ARE HAVING FUN WITH THE KITTIES!

KYFARMLIFE, YOU HAVE A LEAH TOO, IT IS NOT A REAL COMMON NAME. HAPPY B-DAY TO HER!

PIE, I WISH I HAD PRODUCING APPLE TREES.I HOPE LUKE'S ANIMAL DOOM IS OVER!

PINE POD, YES SO LONG TO STORE BOUGHT APPLESAUCE.

WARREN, I HAD HEARD OF IT MADE WITH SUGAR IN THE PAST SO I WAS A LITTLE SKEPTICAL WHEN SHE MENTIONED HONEY BUT IT WAS DELICIOUS!

YD'S, GLAD I'M NOT ALONE. I WILL PLAY ALONG WITH THE TAG!

FARM MOM, THAT IS FUNNY THAT YOU RECOGNIZED THEM. YES, IT COULD HAVE BEEN A COON OR MAYBE MY CAT??
I THINK WE ARE GONNA GO HALF'S WITH A FRIEND AND BUILD THE PLUCKER BY SPRING.

FARM CHICK, YEAH I WAS PRETTY EXCITED TO SEE THEIR PHOTO IN A MAG......THE POSSIBILITIES!

AMY, I THOUGHT THEY HAD A HAPPY ENDING TO A GOOD LIFE!

JODI, NEVER THOUGHT TO FREEZE IT, GOOD IDEA! THAT IS FUNNY ABOUT THE WORD VERIFICATION.
JURI, APPLE BUTTER IS ANOTHER ONE ON THE LIST OF "NEVER TRIED OR MADE"


FARM GIRL, THANKS! LEAH DID HAVE FUN AND SHE WAS GLOATING WITH PRIDE. MY LITTLE MISS INDEPENDENT!

Country Girl said...

JURI, I HAVE NEVER EVEN TASTED APPLE BUTTER BUT IT DOES SOUND GOOD!