Showing posts with label Canning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canning. Show all posts

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Apple Picking and Backyard Gardening

Today Zac, Londyn and I went out to a BEAUTIFUL acreage to pick a whack of different apples :)
We went with Operation Fruit Rescue Edmonton, a wonderful non-profit organization that goes out and collects all the over following fruits from around Edmonton (with the owners permission of course) and then the bounty is shared among the owners, pickers, food bank and the organization. OFRE then makes goods to sell at the Alberta Ave Farmers Market to raise funds to pay for equipment and kitchen rentals (among other things).
Tomorrow, with the apples picked today and throughout the wk, cider will be made! :D

I took home some little red crab apples (i forget the name....) that apparently make THEE BEST! crabapple jelly. So, i will clean and cut and freeze until the weather cools off enough to can.
And I have a collection of larger apples (some from Vala and some from today that need cleaning still) and other fruits in the freezer waiting to be made into an assortment of delicious apple sauces for my little Londyn to enjoy.
She is an Applesauce Monster! :)

This afternoon I finally gave up on my little backyard garden. I picked my green tomatoes, dug up my dz tiny little potatoes (mostly purple), and fluffed up the dirt and DUMPED my entire compost bin on it! and then layered in the now done potato tops and tomato plants.
There was actually quite a good layer of wonderful black humus at the bottom that I'm sure will add lots of good stuff to my soil for next spring :)

The leaves of the trees in our yard will eventually end up on the plot as well, and then i'll cover it all with a tarp while there's still some sunshine to help cook it.

OH! but the most excited thing about my compost (besides all the slugs on the underside of the bin :P) is there was some avocado seeds that had split open and sprouted!
I saved one. I want to see how big I can get it :)

I did take a pic, but it hasn't even made it off the camera yet.

Until next time!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Day at the Acreage

Today, being the day after Londyn's FIRST BIRTHDAY!, we went out to Grannie and Papa's at the last minute to do some gardening and food-stuffs.

We picked blueberries at Kathy's farm (my mom's friend. my mom being Grannie :) ). My sister Kristy and her son and our Aunt and Baba and Gido (Grandma and Grandpa for non-ukrainian types) came too for the last haul of the season.
Kristy brought up a couple BIG bags of corn from her trip to southern alberta earlier this wknd and Grannie and I made MY FAVORITE! corn relish and then frozen the rest of the blanched kernals.
From the apples Zac's grandma gave us and the sweet yellow plums from our friend Vala we made apple-plum sauce. Canned that for my little Londyn. She LOVES! applesauce :D

Now we're going through the process of doing a pig order for the fall through Country Quality Meats (Bon Accord). My good friend Nelson of Rose Ridge Land and Cattle gets his beef done there as well as all the smokies and jerky and sausages (and now weiners too! very good on the bbq :) ). He gave them a glowing revue and the pork that goes into his mixed meat sausages comes from the farmer's they deal with. All his products are BEYOND! excellent, so there's no reason to doubt the quality of the meats :)

I'm taking him a jar of my FAVORITE! corn relish for his sound advice :)