Fall is Here!!

Turnip and mustard greens are cooking on the stove top, compliments of my farmer lady as they came in my basket. The chili pot has been recovered from its summertime storage bin and there is some whole wheat bread with pecans churning away in the bread machine!

My oh my are the leaves ever changing fast this year!I posted some pictures and I even put a few on Pinterest. Some people I don't even know have already clicked that they liked the pictures of the leaves changing colors.

I have lots to plant while the time is right and everything so far seems to have instructions for planting between now and November. So far, 58 bulbs have gone into the ground and I have another 40 that I bought just yesterday! At the store they had 10 tulip bulbs for $3.00 and the same price on daffodils so what the heck? I'm planning to start lining the driveway as soon as it's warm enough for me to get out there...today, not so much. The high is supposed to be 64 and I just looked at the thermometer and that's exactly what it is! Maybe tomorrow will be better for planting LOL

My chickens are up on the hitching post, the dogs are tied on either porch to keep them off there and Wally's out grading the driveway after last night's storm. I figured I might as well do some cooking and then try to get a post up on the blog.

It's quiet right now and all I can hear is the bread machine. The roosters will probably start their cock-a-doodle-dooing any minute now, they usually do when they get up on the hitching post. They look pretty up there against the gold and orange leaves in the background. A few minutes ago they were on the swing just a swingin... remember the old John Anderson song? hahahahahaha

I don't know if you've heard of it before but I bought a couple of those "Scentsy" things from a friend of mine. I bought a bunch of different melts to go in it but so far I've found I like the one called "Duke" the best. Man that thing smells good!!! If you have the opportunity to buy one of these things, remember to smell that one...the whole house gets permeated with it! Of course the one I picked has a rooster on it! lol but I'm not into collecting things with roosters. Please I have enough of them in the yard...this one just looked like it would match the cabin best. It's tan and brown with a little red and white to make it stand out (and of course a rooster on it). I'll try to remember to get a picture but I'm not Ernie so don't get your hopes up that it'll be very soon LOL!

I was given a gallon size freezer bag packed full of cayenne peppers. I'm planning to make lots of pepper vinegar with them... just when I thought no one would be giving me anymore food, here comes another batch! LOL I love it! I stay pretty busy with all of this stuff, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I will definitely bring him a bottle of the vinegar since he was so generous with the peppers...hope he likes it. Do you?

Meanwhile, I can't remember if I posted this recipe coming up so if it's a duplicate, oh well. It's a good one so it bears repeating... lol! If you're tired of the same old cole slaw then give this cranberry slaw a try. I think you'll find it a refreshing and somewhat addictive change...maybe even a bit healthy!

Here goes:
Cranberry Slaw
1 pkg shredded cabbage (or if you prefer to shred your own, as I do, it'll take a small head or half a medium head)
1 cup dried cranberries (I use the ones called craisins)
1 cup chopped nuts (any kind you like or you can leave them out but I used pecans)
1/2 cup chopped red onion (you can use whatever kind of onion but red is best)

Put all of that into a good size bowl and make the dressing.
Dressing:
1/3 cup sugar (or sugar substitute - it works just as well)
1/3 cup oil (vegetable)
1/2 tsp celery seeds
1/3 cup vinegar (regular)

Stir the dressing and pour over the slaw. Mix it all together! It's best if you let it sit for a while but I can never resist taking a few bites. It's that good!

Let me know if you like it. I made some this morning because there was a huge head of napa cabbage in my CSA basket and I find this cabbage takes well to that dressing. Regular cabbage works well too but why not use what you have, right?

Tonight is chili night...it's cold outside, the chili pot is clean and just begging to be filled with meat, sauce, beans (yes, I like beans in my chili!) and tomatoes. mmmmmm I'll make some jalapeno/cheese cornbread to go with it and dinner will be served. We'll need some warming up after a cold, rainy day like today!

The winter clothes will all be dug out soon but for today, I'm in a thermal shirt, jeans and warm shoes. We taken to wearing sweat pants at night when the temperatures drop into the 30's and 40's. Yes, we've already seen 38 degrees last night and it'll be in the 40's tonight. Next week they say it will stay in the 50's or above so a slight reprieve is all we're going to get.

I like this weather. It's the kind that makes you want to snuggle up in a warm blanket with some hot chocolate or cup a soup. A fire in the fireplace would be nice but the wood is too wet from the rain. We'll get it dried out and covered up before more rains come so we'll have the option should we choose to haul wood from the wood pile to the house. That's when my little red wagon comes in handy!

Turns out I'm a pretty good wood toter LOL Wally can stack it up pretty high before it gets too heavy for me. Most the time he won't let me tote it and he carries it himself but I like to help and don't want to seem like I'm a weeny butt. Besides, toting wood is really good exercise for your arms when you can't be digging in the dirt or hanging clothes on the line. My two favorite past times... :) Hey, I've always said, it may be the life for me but that doesn't mean it's the life for everyone!

I miss my clothesline already! The dryer has been in service now for a week or so because it's been too cold for the clothes to dry out there. My jeans seem so much tighter when they come from the dryer...I know I didn't gain any weight! As a matter of fact, I lost some. I bought some size 14 jeans a few weeks ago and now they are too big. I don't think I've lost a whole bunch but if it's one size, I'm happy with that! Of course Wally has lost about 25 pounds - whatever!!!

So Sydna hooked me up with Pinterest and I've been creating some boards. I've tried to invite people but since I'm not on Facebook, it can't find any of my friends. Feel free to invite me to yours if you have it - then maybe you can see mine too??? I'm clueless but alas that's no surprise!

Fairs, festivals, yard sales and the like are everywhere this time of year and I find myself hard pressed not to attend them all. While Wally was in FL, I went to the banana pudding festival in Centerville. I think this is the third annual  (you can google it, it's on the list of the top 20 things to do in the USA) and it's pretty cool. They have a quilt show, a car show and, of course, the banana pudding festival. They have arts and crafts, food vendors and different live bands throughout the day. They will even shuttle you from one event to the other.

The town is too small to have all the stuff in one place so the shuttle is nice if you don't want to drive around town. It's not that big of a town and Steve knows all the short cuts so we drove ourselves. We opted out of standing in line for banana pudding - the line was too long for me (no patience) and when we saw how much pudding they were getting for the $3.00 it cost to get it, we were glad we opted out. The little cups weren't even as big as the cups used for jello shots! They give you seven cups of different recipes but still...

We ended up getting a ribeye sandwich from the Lion's Club booth and some curly potatoes from another booth. YUMMY! Steve and Sherry went with me since Wally was gone and a really good time was had by all.

Before he left for FL, Wally took me to the Fried Food Festival. I may have written about this already? In any event, it's in Columbia and they have everything fried; twinkies, snickers bars, pickles, even kool-aid. Not sure how they do that and I couldn't see into the booth where they did it. We walked around the square and checked out all the arts and craft vendors. I had some fried pickles that were awesome - salty but oh so good!

We bought a couple things - like the cedar pumpkin you can see in my flickr photos, some strawberry jam (no sugar added), some pickled asparagus and some sweet/hot jalapeno relish. It's hot and sweet and you don't want to stop eating it. I haven't figured out what to put it on but I'm thinking I might try it on my chili tonight! mmm mmm good :)

This weekend there's an arts & crafts festival in Hohenwald that includes a 7 mile long yard sale route. We're going to give it a shot, what the heck, we don't either one need a thing but yard sales always have something you can't live without! You can probably google Hohenwald too...?

I went to a yard sale last weekend and bought a doily for fifty cents. It's one that someone made by hand, I can tell because it's slightly flawed. If I didn't point it out, you might not notice it but the doily is very pretty and has a vase of flowers as the design. Can't go wrong there and for just fifty cents, well, I couldn't resist. I love doilies and I have quite a few of them that were my great grandma's, my grandma's and even a couple that were my mom's. I love that someone knew how to make them and that they have held up so well for all these years.

I don't see me learning how to make them but the potential exists...are doilies embroidery, crewel or what? I have been considering learning how to quilt though. There's a place in Dickson where they teach it. I'll be a challenge for them seeing as how I haven't a clue how to sew. But I have the quilt rack (thank you Ernie!) and I'm ready to learn. Maybe that'll be a good thing to do during the winter when I can't dig in the dirt...I'm gonna miss digging in the dirt.

I've been saving my magazines so I'll have reading material when I can't dig. Okay, I confess, I peaked at the recipes...had to do that for the holidays. I'm also deciding what seed catalogs to order. I buy my seeds at the co-op but it doesn't hurt to know what you want in advance. I may find something the co-op doesn't carry...Burpee was a disappointment. The seeds I ordered from them didn't produce. I planted about 50 beets and got one. I planted about the same number of carrots and got exactly none...they sprouted and that was it. No carrots. Oh well.

I bought some cheap seeds at the Dollar Store that did better than the Burpee seeds. Too bad the chickens liked them as much as I did. LOL!

Well, it's time for me to stop typing for the day. Hope you enjoy the post and the flickr pictures. Let me know if you try to find me on Pinterest...

Plant something would ya?????

A Time To Write...

While words have failed me these past couple months, I find that they keep building up in my head and my head can handle only so much within it. It seems I must write in order to make room for more thoughts...crazy? Well, you're still reading aren't you? hahahaha

I spent my summer canning, pickling and preserving the harvest as best I could. Who would have thought there would be so much food to care for? Some I grew myself, some was given to me by friends who grew more than they could preserve themselves, some I purchased from the local farmer's market and, of course, some came in my CSA basket.

I have (5) quart baggies of purple hull peas. They came in a huge mesh bag and took at least two hours for Ernie and I to shell. Shelling peas is a great way to pass the time with a wonderful friend. All you have to do is sit at the table, shell peas and talk the hours away. Which is exactly what we did. Now, if you ask Ernie, she will also include that this pea shelling past-time was where she began her boo-boo getting escapades. She even has pictures to prove it! Imagine that - Ernie with pictures! hahahahaha

You can see how things have piled up in my head when I can write an entire paragraph about shelling purple hull peas. Hey, it was fun!

We spent some time stringing green beans too but I don't think Ernie got any boo-boo's doing that. Although she didn't stick with it as long as she did the peas so that could be the reason why. I had so many green beans to string that I needed Ernie, Sherry and Traci to help get them done. A couple of those volunteers came and went as we were having a party the same day after all...

In all I have quarts and pints of tomatoes, quarts and pints of green beans, quarts of summer squash, quarts and pints of chow chow, quarts and pints of pickled sweet bell peppers, pickled hot banana peppers and pickled sweet banana peppers. I have pints of pickled yellow squash, pickled cauliflower and good old regular dill pickles. I have pepper vinegar, fermented jalapeno peppers, home-made sauerkraut, pickled eggs and I would have had pickled shrimp but we ate it as soon as it was ready!

I made pear preserves with pears that Jay brought me. I made plum and blackberry wine, taco sauce and two different kinds of salsa - regular tomato salsa and some tomatillo salsa. I highly recommend the tomatillo salsa, it came out awesome! Together Ernie and I made two big bags of spaghetti sauce.

I have pickled okra, smothered okra and then there was the okra that I fried. It was quickly devoured to say the least.

So you see, it's been a busy, busy season for me. I thought I had posted all the pictures on the flickr site but when I checked it the other day, it appeared to be missing the pictures of my shelves of jars. They certainly are a sight to behold if I do say so myself. I'll have to find them in my picture albums (thank you Ernie) and get them posted. For now, it's enough to get a post up and worry with pictures later... (oops did I say that Ernie?? LOL)

And so went the summer... I planted, watered, staked, grew, harvested, chopped, fermented, soaked, cooked brine after brine, packed jars, filled the canners too many times to count and anxiously awaited the popping sound of the jars sealing in the food, preserving it for when fresh vegetables are no longer readily available. Indeed this was time consuming, it was being on my feet for hours at a time, it was watching the pressure gauge and the stove top timer, it was cleaning up my messes - which were huge to say the least. It was above all else, simply wonderful.

I can't tell you how it feels when the jars have sealed, they've been washed down and the lids have been labeled. There's just something about it that, unless you're into it, you may not understand. I enjoyed it thoroughly and now that the season has wound down, I miss it terribly.

Since I feel the need to still be growing something, I've bought a few fall flowering plants and grasses that will keep us in color for months yet to come. I bought a yellow mum, though I have plenty of mums at the house, this one was planted in the bed at the flagpole. I bought pansies and planted them in pots then set them out around the big, yellow mum.

I bought a blanket flower plant that looks red in the pictures but is actually orange. It attracts butterflies, which was a surprise to me. I bought a purple balloon flower plant. It bloomed twice already but currently has no blooms. It may be time for it to stop blooming for the year since the weather has turned. These flowering plants will both come back next year and will spread a little each year after.

I bought two fall grasses, miscanthas, I believe? I'll have to check the tag, but anyway, they're about 4 feet tall and they're green on the stems with purplish, feathery leaves on top. The lady at the nursery said they'll stay green for a long time and even when they turn brown in winter, they'll still maintain their shape and come back bright green in the springtime.

Behind the grasses I have plans for two hydrangeas and two shrubs called "Burning Bush." The Burning Bush blooms bright red in early spring and stays that way for a month or so. It gets about 5 feet tall and wide so I'll need a pretty good size area for those two. With the hydrangeas we won't know the flower color until they bloom although they are named "Nikko Blue." We'll see :)

I planted lots and lots of 4 o'clocks but every time they got real leafy and ready to bloom, the chickens ate them. Every single one of them. Every time they came back, they got eaten again. I've given up on 4 o'clocks in that particular bed. Perhaps I'll try them further down the road when the chickens don't roam...darn chickens!

Last weekend there was a festival in Columbia called the "Southern Fried Festival." They had all kinds of fried foods, twinkies, kool-aid, pickles, oreos, etc. There were the usual chicken strips, french fries, chili fries, chili cheese fries, and the list goes on. Well, we road over there in the Subaru with a cooler full of beer in the back and it was a beautiful, sunny fall day with the colors just starting to change.

We walked the streets of the festival and checked out all the vendors, art, and crafts. We listened to a few bands and made a couple trips to the car for a beer. We took some back roads to a piece of property owned by Wally's uncle and we found a place to eat some fried chicken that didn't cost and arm and a leg like the festival did. We parked on the side of the road with two working farms bordering us on either side. We opened the doors, opened a beer and ate hot fried chicken for lunch.

When we went back to the festival I just had to have some fried pickle chips... mmm mmm good! We found a guy who did chainsaw carving and Wally bought me a cedar pumpkin that the guy had carved with a chainsaw. I'll put a picture up on flickr for you.

We also found a booth selling "no sugar added" apple butter, strawberry and pear preserves. We got some of the strawberry for Wally, some Cajun Candy for me and some pickled asparagus for both of us. The Cajun candy is jalapenos and some other stuff that makes it sweet and hot at the same time. You don't want to keep eating it because it's hot but you can't stop because it's so good. The pickled asparagus is almost gone...it's awesome!

When we had seen all there was to see at the festival, we headed for home. I was watching the scenery and day-dreaming all along the way when Wally stopped and turned into a driveway. The sign said memory lane and up a ways was a big wagon overflowing with pumpkins and gourds.

On the wagon was a sign that said "$3.00 each." Inside the wagon, on top of all those pumpkins was a little jar labeled "please put money in here." I couldn't resist! I bought a big orange pumpkin and a HUGE green and white striped gourd with the neck curving over. I was so excited!

Wally took us by Pee Wee's for an hour or so and then we took Totty's Bend for a slow, winding, hilly ride home. The cows were eating grass, the babies were laying in the sun in their grass beds and chickens roamed the farm house yards much like mine do. How do those ladies keep them from their flowers???

It was a day for the record books for me. I went to a fall festival, heard some great music, picked up some homemade goodies and road some back roads I'd never been on. Just being outside all day in the fall, mountain air made us kind of sleepy and it wasn't long before we hit the hay. It may have been daylight still... lol!

The Hickman County Fair was a couple weeks ago so we went to see what was going on there. I love checking out the canning competition. I didn't get my jars into the competition on time but I definitely will next year. They have a whole page of categories and I would have had something for all of them. They even have a kids group of entries that were very impressive.

We watched the cattle judging and the tractor pulls and then went on home. Before the fair though we drove out to the Cane Creek Market where the Mennonite people live and work their farms. I bought some steel cut oats, some cream of tartar, some marjoram (for my soups) and some dried okra and beets. The dried okra is crunchy and a little bit salty, like a chip but it's okra. It's pretty cool. The beets are sweet and crunchy and if I had access to lots of beets, I'd make these on my own.

I have dehydrator now so anything and everything is being tried and tested in that thing. I have summer squash slices in it right now. I read that they can be lightly salted when they are done and will be like squash chips. They stay good for months once dehydrated so we'll have summer squash chips when it's cold and no squash is available. Pretty cool, huh?

Oh and don't think I won't be making some venison jerky!! I've been keeping an eye out for the deer and I'm determined to get one this year. I can't wait to have venison jerky, venison cubed steaks, venison spaghetti and especially venison chili! Yum, Yum, Yum!!

It's time for me to go dig in the dirt so I'll try to get another post in soon...it's sunny, 75 degrees and the leaves are changing, it was hard enough to sit here this long... lol!!