Strawberry Fruit Roll-Ups

 

I came across the how-to on Pinterest.  I’m not sure about you, but I love that site!  One word to describe how that site makes me feel…..INSPIRED!

K, here goes…takes just a few minutes to mix it up.

Cut up 2 cups of strawberries & add 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon.  I used my immersion blender to puree the mixture but a food processor would work.

Have I told you lately my immersion blender is one of my favorite kitchen tools?  That is besides my kitchen aid mixer & my waffle maker.

I have mixed up this creation not once, but twice.  Second time around I put it in a canning jar for Maine Man and the kids to cook up the following day.

I spread it out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and baked it @ 170 degrees for approximately 3-4 hours.  You can use a dehydrator but I’m in need of a new one so I cooked it the stove instead.

Viola!

Healthy, tasty, snack.  I figured I’d share before Maine strawberries are in blossom!

ENJOY!

Spring Babies

Country Boy has been hatching out chicks & these Khaki Campbell ducklings in his incubator.  He is interested in hatching quail eggs, guineas, or some other fowl if anyone local has anything available.  His sister is now in competition with him as she just received an incubator as an early  birthday gift. We have some Rhode Island Red chicks if your interested in bartering!

It’s a miracle!

It’s hard to believe but my bees survived their first winter here!  A few weeks back I made “bee candy” to hold them over until there is a plentiful supply of pollen & nectar.  I’m guessing their food stores are running low even though I did not take any honey from them last year.  The bee candy I made up consisted of a cooked mixture of corn syrup, sugar, water, and vanilla.  Apparently it was so tasty Flower Girl was seen sneaking off with chunks of it.  I have found the longer I have the bees the more stupid brave I get around them.  Like messing with the hive without my gear on and without my smoker.  I got away with it a couple times but this last time I went out to feed them let’s just say I ran faster then I had in quite some time.  I also utilized the outhouse as a hideout.  Lesson learned!  Next visit with my bees I will be appropriately protected.  More pictures to come!

First Greens of the Season!

 

The first greens of the season were devoured by Maine Man this past Friday the 13th. If I remember correctly, last year we ate our first greenhouse greens on April 12th. Tomorrow night I plan to make up a tasty salad with with some homemade dressing after being inspired by this post. I will make it with “Artison” extra virgin olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar I recently purchased from a local market. Maybe I’ll post a recipe if I come up with a good one.

I’ll end this post with a few things I am thankful for this weekend…

• warm weather
• long hikes
• neighbors that are like family
• my bee suit
• spring peepers
• kids that care
• my hard working man
• chores that provide me with time to reflect on all I should be grateful for

Confessions of a Bad Blogger

My two worst critics, Maine Man & my brother have both mentioned I’ve been slacking on my blog as of lately. My response….PRIORITIES! All though I love sharing our mad life with others when things get crazy some things must give. I make every effort to post here at least once a week give or take except for my most recent break. We are still farming as usual with many changes on the horizon. I will share some day, just not today. The kids our working on finishing up our first successful year of homeschooling. The goal is to complete as much book work as possible. Then we have some field trips planned. The kids still have no desire to ever return to public school. We are pleased with the results we are seeing so if all works out we will continue. At this point Country Boy is considering becoming a game warden or a biologist and Flower Girl would like to go to school to become a nurse. It will be interesting to see what becomes of their dreams.

Moving on…..a few weeks back it went from Winter to Spring in a weeks time. A couple days it reached temps in the 80′s. In the same day I had packed away the kids cross- country skis, skates, hats & mittens I pulled out their summer clothes. CRAZY weather but it didn’t last for long. It is back to cool, windy, over cast days. SO Looking forward to some much needed sunshine!

It was not the best of years for harvesting maple syrup. We were able to obtain a few gallons which will get us through until next season, so I am thankful for that. We had been boiling it down on the wood cook stove with the outside door open during the day. As the temperatures warmed up MM took our old wood stove we had in the barn and converted it into an outdoor cooker. It ran nicely converting the sap to syrup at a much faster rate then cooking it on the wood cook stove.

MM & CB have the greenhouse mostly planted, it won’t be long before we will me eating fresh greens!

I will end this post with a link back in my archives to a recipe I recently retrieved and made a few times, crustless Quiche. How I have been making lately for a quick fix is mixing it all together the night before in a 1/2 gallon canning jar. Come morning I give it a few shakes, pour it into a greased casserole dish cook at 350 degrees for approx. 30 minutes. Quick & Easy! Hoping you all had a blessed Easter!