We only raised a few cauliflower plants this year.  But we got some big cauliflowers just the same.  Today I have set out to preserve them.

Before I process the cauliflower, I soak them in salt water for 30 minutes.  I use a tablespoon  of salt per gallon of water.   Any worms hiding in the cauliflower will become very ill.  If they are there, the salt water will finds them and so will I.

I cut the cauliflower up into small  pieces.  The goal is to cut the cauliflower into flowerettes that do not exceed 1-inch across.  This size is  best for the blanching and freezing process.

I plunge the cut veggies into a pot of boiling water.  They cook for four minutes.  I drain the cooked cauliflower and dunk it into cold water.  Once cooled, it is ready for the freezer bags.  From today’s 2 cauliflowers, I packaged  9 pints of cauliflower.

I especially enjoy cauliflower with cheese sauce or butter and spices.
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The frost burned the cannas.  So they are ready to dig up.

Canna lilies are tall flowering plants.  Ours happen to be red.  I got them from my mother-in-law.  Some of them grow taller than I am.  They can be quite a showy plant.

The bulbs must be brought inside each fall.  There are some that survive the winter, but It is most reliable for their well-being to bring the roots indoors for the winter.  I dig them out, chop off the stem of the plant and discard it.  The roots get carried to the south side of the house.  If the weather permits they will lie out there in the sun for a few days to dry.  If  not dried, they can mold and that will harm the roots.

I keep the roots stored all winter.  Some bulbs will shrivel up in the safety of the cellar.  In the spring, I toss out the ones that have shriveled up or look unhealthy.  I plant the best of the rest.  If I am particularly lucky, I will have enough bulbs to give to a friend.

Yes, the Cannas are in.  That is one more job finished as we look forward to the coming of winter.

Sunshine is great.  The sun dries my laundry on the clothesline.  It nourishes the garden and crops.  It dries our hay so that we can preserve it for the winter months.  Today I used the sun again.

I dug up the beets and carrots in my garden.

I topped the carrots.  I slice off about 1/4 inch of the top end of the carrot with the leaves.  If I don’t do that, during the storage season in the cellar, the carrots tend to sprout new leaves even though they are not in the soil.

The beets are cared for differently.  When I cut off the leaves I leave 1-inch of stem on them.   Without that inch of stem left on the root, the rich, redness of the beet will bleed out color as I cook them.  They are to be cooked with that bit of stem, the root, and with their skins still on them.

All of the greens went to feed the chickens.  Lucky ducks!

With the beet and carrot preparation finished, I washed them all off in a pail of water.  I put them on the grass in my lawn and let them bask in the sun to dry.  Hurray for the sun’s rays and the wind!

When the carrots and beets are thoroughly dry, I put the beets in a crock in the cellar until I have the time to cook and freeze them.  Carrots, on the other hand, will be packaged in plastic storage bags.  I poke holes in the plastic bags to let air get into the bag.  That seems to help the carrots keep longer for me.

I am glad the sun was out to help me finish that little job today.

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A long time ago, my husband and his dad found an apple tree in the ditch by the farm.  When they were transplanting some large trees at my father-in-law’s home, they decided to uproot and transplant this tree, which had probably grown from an apple core that some passenger threw out of the car window.  They planted it on the farm.

That tree produces fruit in August.  We have 2 other trees of different varieties which ripen in September and October.

When the trees bear, we pick and use the fruit.  Much of it is thrown to the chickens or the heifers.  We cannot consume all of the apples.

I have canned apple sauce and apple pie-filling.  I have frozen many packages of apple slices.

Fortunately, we found an antique apple cider press at our neighbor’s.  He was interested in selling and we decided to buy it.  It has made many quarts of delicious apple juice for us.  I can the juice and we use it for cooking and for drinking.

With the many ways the Lord provides for us,  I don’t want the food to go to waste.  So I work to preserve it for my family.  Thank You, Lord, for the apples!

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The sun is shining brightly in the blue, autumn sky.  Our Ash tree, the bold yellow centerpiece on the farm, vibrates its beauty over  the crisp, autumn landscape.

Fall projects press on.

The road crew, just beyond the driveway outside, rumbles as it works to pave our road.  We are nearly land-locked until the cement hardens.

The garden is nearly clean.  Just this afternoon, I picked the last tomatoes off the plants.  Some went to the chickens, but most went into the cellar for ripening.

Predictions say that we will have a cold weekend.  The typical season changes are underway.  Soon the leaves will rest on the forest floor and the cold of winter will overtake the farm again.

Yet, in spite of the oncoming harsh weather, I found one last summer treat waiting for me and my husband to share.  The young, yellow raspberry plants we planted this spring are bearing fruit!  They are golden and melt in our mouths with the sweetness of honey.  Wow!  What a treat.
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We bought a straight run of 100 chicks in May.  A straight run is the “luck of the draw”, so to speak.  When the chicks hatch in the incubator, we get whatever hatches.  We can choose the breed, but the ratio of rooster to poulet will not be our choice.   A rooster is a male; a poulet is a female.  Generally speaking, though, in all the time we have ordered chicks we have gotten nearly a 50:50 assortment.

We keep the chicks in a brooder house all summer.  We fence them in so that they don’t mix with the laying hens and the “head” rooster in their roaming or in the coop.

At this time of year, our roosters and poulets are mature.  The roosters dominate the poulets somewhat.  To allow the poulets to begin their egg-laying duties they must have more space.

When we butcher the roosters, that gives the poulets the environment they need.  They begin to enhance our egg supply.  The brown eggs are very small at the start.  But the size grows as time goes by.

We keep the poulets and sometimes sell the old hens so that we don’t have to keep so many in the coop over the winter.  Since the fox has cheated us out of a lot of old hens this summer, we have considered keeping the old ones as well as the young ones.  We like to have a generous supply of eggs on hand to share with our family and friends.

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Just one week after our fire,  we set aside a Fire Clean-up Day. 

The night before the event, our daughter and son-in-law helped us clear our garden.  Some of the wood had to be transported to the basement woodroom on the tractor loader which meant that the tractor had to cross over the garden.  Some beets, carrots and potatoes had to be dug.  Other crops and flowers had to be pulled, as well.  They handily cleared the way for the morrow’s activity.

That next day, friends came over to help move the pile of old charred wood to a new woodpile closer to the house.  One  brought his skid loader over to help move wood and ashes and to level out the soil where the fire had been.  Another brought his trailer over so we could place trash items in it. A total of eight men labored together day.  They worked joyfully from 10:30 AM till about 2:PM.  They accomplished much.

Ladies supplied us with a nice variety of foods to feed the workers a filling and refreshing lunch on our picnic tables.   They served beverages, sandwiches, weiners, fried chicken, melon, cabbage salad, cupcakes, soup, cookies, brownies, cupcakes, and chocolate cake and many other yummies.

Several generous individuals have donated wood to replace the firewood we lost.

We are grateful that folks such as these had it in their hearts to be generous to us with their time and possessions.

II Corinthians 9:7 (NIV) says, “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

Thank you, dear friends.

Question:  If it pleases God for people to give with cheer in their hearts, then do you suppose that God gives to us with a cheerful heart, too?

I think so.  Thank you, Lord.

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Photo credit: Crystal Burmeister
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What an afternoon.  The sun shone in the clear blue sky.  Gentle winds reminded us that fall has arrived.  It was corny! 

You may think that means that I did something worthless, but not so.

Field Corn Ready to be Picked

We had the pleasure of receiving three visitors as guests on our farm.  They expressed interest in corn husking.  You see, the Minnesota State Hand Corn Husking Contest is just a week away.  They came to learn how to do it so as to prepare themselves for the competition.

My husband hitched up the corn wagon to the tractor and took all of us to the corn field.  There he explained the technique of cornhusking by hand.  He also related the rules of the contest to these future competitors.

I got to drive tractor, the John Deere B, that pulled the corn wagon while the huskers tossed the yellow ears of corn into the wagon.

As time went on the young huskers got used to the technique and got to work on increasing their speed.  I expect we will see them next week at the contest.

Yes, the afternoon was corny in that we were busy in the corn field.  And it did have value.  We made some new friends!

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I raise cucumbers in my garden some years.  When I do, I make dill pickles.

Generally, I raise the dill, too.  My favorite way to use dill is in my pickle recipe.  I use the flower and leaves in the pickling.

Sadly, I had no dill this year, except for a couple of volunteers that showed up late in the summer.   However, I had frozen dill from prior years tucked away in my freezer and I put them to use in this year’s batches of pickles.   To freeze the dill I pick the leaves, flowers and seed heads and put them into a freezer bag and freeze them with no other preparation.  They can last several years.  They come in handy for years like this one, when dill is not handy at pickling time.

Dill is a refreshing scent and flavor in foods.

Another favorite way to use dill is with freshly-cooked, red potatoes from my garden.  I cook the potatoes till tender and drain them.  I add butter and snipped dill leaves into the dish and stir.  It is a treat when the first potatoes are dug.

I do not harvest all of the dill.  I like to let some seed heads mature.  Some will survive the winter and volunteer in the garden next year.

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