Victorio Encore

There's been some inquiry and feedback on the previous post. Yes, the Victorio lives up to its advertising - and although I haven't used it for applesauce yet, my friend who has used it for years swears it's the greatest for doing applesauce.
I managed to hire a couple of little Italian guys to help with the next batch of tomatoes. Victorio - Italian - get it? Anyway, I really struck gold with these two employees. Hard working...

good quality control....
and great team players. They did about 20 pounds for me, and really took some pressure off my feet and my still-healing incision. What a crew!
The Victorio is so nice to use - even a child (or short Italian) can run it. It's about $60, in case you were wondering. And worth every penny - a great investment if you enjoy putting up your own juices and sauces and using every last late ripener from the garden.

Oh, the wages. Would you believe they only wanted their own individual boxes of apple juice -with straw, of course. They are at the top of my "call for help" list!

Garden Nectar

As September winds down, so does the garden. Except the tomatoes. They have hit their stride, with several weeks of warm days and moderate nights, and a couple weeks to go. I helped a friend make V-8 juice this afternoon - what a delight! This nectar is unlike the popular "store-bought" variety - it's so fresh, with sparkling flavor and jeweled color. I snatched up (borrowed) her Victorio Food Strainer and Sauce Maker and burned rubber for home.
Our ambitious tomato plants are determined to make up for a late start and flood our pantry with all forms of tomato preserves. Two more sacks of tomatoes had appeared on the counter while I was gone. These Midwest tomatoes are scary, I'm tellin' ya.
We planted a number of varieties, to make the most of our options for processing. Paste types included Roma, Olpaka, and Amish Paste. Slicers for hamburgers were covered by Big Girl. Midsize for everything else included Jet Star, Wisconsin 51, and a couple more I don't at the moment recall. A large yellow appeared, it was mislabeled or I forgot I bought it. We made sure we had one of our favorites from last season, Garden Peach - a sweet, slightly fuzzy midsize tomato. Of course there were all the volunteers from last year, and we let several of them take off on their own. One turned out to be Sun Spot, a sweet orange cherry type, which we love for snacks and salads. Than and I love to graze through the tomatoes, eating all the sunwarmed varieties like apples, juice dripping off our chin and fingers - what a life!
The Victorio makes processing tomatoes a breeze. Wash, cut out the stem end, halve or quarter if needed, and feed through the processor.


Skin and seeds exit through one chute (I tied a bag on it rather than take up room with a bowl - it all goes to the chickens - I'm VERY popular with that gang right now...) and puree slides down the other side into a waiting pan.
See? Another bowl of fresh tomatoes just appeared like magic. ( Thanks, Brent, for carrying it in.) I wish you could see these glorious tomatoes in person, they are just perfect.

V-8 stands for a mix of vegetables - I didn't actually count, let's see how my numbers turned out. Celery, green peppers, Spanish Spice peppers, onion, ONE jalapeno pepper...
carrots, parsley, garlic, cilantro. OK, so I have V-9. It's all good stuff, right?! I steamed the veggies just enough to soften them so they would go through the auger on the Victorio easily. Some of the steaming water was used to thin the puree after it was all mixed together.
All the puree was combined in a large stock pot, and simmered with several stems of basil. Um...that makes V-10. I wonder, do I count the fresh juice squeezed from half a lemon? That's not a vegetable. Hmm. Technically, tomatoes aren't vegetables, either. The math is getting too complicated...

Seasoned with sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste, simmered for about 20 minutes to meld the flavors. Here's the finished juice. You are just going to have to come for a visit to sample this nectar from the garden!
To preserve it, I did a simple hot pack. This isn't in your canning book. I'm not telling you this is what you should do. This is a disclaimer for any canning purists out there. But it works, and we do grape and apple juice the same way. We're all still alive.

I heated the jars in boiling water, also the lids. The V-10 is at a simmering boil. I poured juice to within 1/8 inch of the rim of a hot jar, slapped on a hot lid and tightened the ring.

Set aside to cool and seal. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to the best sound in the whole world (of canning, at least), the POP of lids sealing.
I ended up with 11 pints to put in the pantry, and a quart for the frig. I just finished my third glass - it's so refreshing. And satisfying, because I made it!
Care to join me for dinner? Nest fresh eggs over easy, whole wheat toast, and ta-da!: V-10 juice(approximately). There's a box and large bowl left on the counter with twice as many tomatoes waiting their turn to become famous. That's not even counting the ones still on the vines...
Any suggestions? Or requests?

Demolition day

One of the important tenets we practice here on the farm is re-purposing and recycling. From the first days of getting acquainted with the farm, which had been abandoned for 30 years, we were amazed and very appreciative of all the materials we had to work with.
Old straw, hay, and sawdust left in a barn have been a rich resource for our beautiful, productive garden. The old post and beam section of barn had to come down for safety, and the resulting piles of timbers and boards have become our "loaves and fishes" where we can always find something useful for any project on hand.

As we planned the backporch building project, we took a look, as usual, at what we had on hand. We need some very specific lumber, and we found our wish list drawing us to the old house and garage. The newer addition and garage section was built in the 1950s so we evaluated that material carefully. It would take work, but with careful demolition we should be able to recycle the building material for our porch project.
Weather cooperated for a sunny day. The crew showed up at about 10:00 a.m., grabbed hammers and pry bars, set ladders, plugged in the radio and pitched in to a day of demolition.

With only a short break for lunch, Brent and the three older kids kept a steady pace throughout the day. A cupcake break hit around 3 p.m. Here's the relay to the Boss. Amanda handed off to Collin on the ladder...
and Collin went up the ladder to hand off the goody to Brent.
They were lemon, with lemon frosting - which just hit the spot.

The punks kept on going....

and going...
and going.
About 8 hours from the first pulled nail, they finally quit for the day. I had gone out at 5:30 to let them know dinner was about ready, and I was told they were NOT leaving until they had that end wall whipped! Kudos for tenacity - this crew of former city kids laugh at themselves sometimes when they talk about what they did for "work" while living in town a few short years ago. Now they know the true meaning of the word, and take pride in knowing how to do a good job of work.
Of course, the word "demolition" played a big part in the success of the day. Have you ever met a kid who didn't like to take something apart??

Peach Cobbler

I ran into major sticker shock a few days ago. A roadside vendor had a few boxes of Michigan peaches which I had been seeking - it just doesn't feel like I've finished canning for the season if I don't get some peaches done. I guess I'm going to have to feel "unfulfilled" this year. The 25lb. boxes were $30. I'm used to going out and picking my own peaches, for considerable less expense - eastern Washington and Oregon's Willamette valley have long supplied our family with winter gold in the form of ripe juicy peaches. I'm going to have to come to grips with this situation, but now it's going to wait until next season, I'm afraid.
So I only bought 7 nice peaches, figuring the memory of a fresh peach pie or cobbler would have to carry me through the snowy months. With such a weight on the forthcoming goody, I felt it deserved my best shot. I have some favorite ways of throwing together cobblers and crisps, quick and easy and always yummy. So what did I do? I grabbed a trusty cookbook and found a recipe I'd never used before. How could I go wrong with something called "Granny's Peaches and Cream Cobbler"? I felt especially vindicated because the cookbook is Land 'O Lakes Treasury of Country Recipes, and we're living in the middle of Land 'O Lakes dairy country.
It smelled wonderful as it came out of the oven. The taste test involved the whole family, who came to the cabin for lasagne dinner after a long day working on winterizing projects.

The cobbler filling was juicy but not runny...
the cobbles were tender inside with a nice bit of crunch on the top...
and just to guild the lily, we had New York vanilla icecream on hand.
The sparkle of sugar on the crust, the just-right sweetness of the peaches, and the creamy coldness of the icecream with the slightly warm cobbler was about as good as it gets in the land of Peach Cobblers.
If you have a few peaches left from canning, try this - it's a keeper.

Granny's Peaches and Cream Cobbler

Heat oven to 400degrees.

In large bowl, stir together:

1 c. sugar

2 eggs, slightly beaten

2 T. flour

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Stir in: 4 c. peeled, sliced fresh peaches(or 2 16-oz. pkgs sliced frozen peaches)

Pour filling into a 9 x 13 baking pan.

In med. bowl, combine:

1 1/2 c. flour

2 T. sugar

1 tsp.baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt.

Cut in: 1/3 c. butter until crumbley

Stir in just until moistened: 1 egg mixed with 3 T. milk

Crumble mixture over peaches. Sprinkle with 3 T sugar.

Bake 40-45 min. or until golden brown and bubbly around edges.

Several people in the family aren't fond of cooked fruit. They only had icecream. Their vote was obviously ignored. The rest of the taste testers gave the cobbler a positive 4-star rating.

Recycle...

There are so many things I enjoy about gardening. From winter browsing seed catalogs, tucking in the first radish seeds as soon as the ground thaws, cutting baby lettuces, eating that perfect tomatoe fresh off the vine with juice running down my chin, picking strawberries at peak ripeness, to digging the fat brown spuds and baking the first acorn squash, there just anything that a garden presents to me that doesn't ring my joy bell - well, maybe not the bugs.
Harvesting is just part of that flow of happiness that comes from Mother Earth. Canning, freezing and drying takes care of a good amount of produce storage. But one of the more uncommon methods just tickles me everytime I do it. I save pantyhose all year just to get my onion kick each fall! It's one of the best ways I know to recycle those nylons with "runners".

Max and Jayden's onions did very well. Max planted the "pink" ones, of course. He watched me slice one for sandwiches a few days ago, and was tickled pink (ha!) to see that the onion was pink inside, too! Then he carefully laid paper thin slices on his daddy's sandwich. He likes to share. He informed me,that is what God wants us to do. Share, that is. He licked his fingers several times, testing the taste. You have to sneak up on these things, you know. It's not normal for little boys to eat vegetables that aren't mashed potatoes...
I can always count on a sidekick to help with any jobs I have on hand. I rarely have to ask, they just appear and take up a part of the task. Collin trimmed the tops, while I stuffed onions. Jayden and Lee had loaded the wagon with onions from the drying shed and hauled them to the back porch for me. It's so fun, to have many hands and legs to do my jobs!
Here's the finished storage system. The onions will hang in a cool place on the porch until the weather hits freezing, then I'll move them inside to a cool corner.


When I need an onion, I just take the scissors and snip below the lowest knot. Each onion is in it's own little net bag, preventing any that happen to start to spoil from affecting the others. The nylons allow good air circulation, flexible storage, and are a great conversation starter when people spot them hanging in the kitchen!

Winterizing

If you want a history lesson that packs a punch, spend a winter in a partially-chinked log cabin. We freqently marvel how on earth the first homesteaders on this farm, living in a small 10x14 log cabin with an unknown heat source, managed to survive their first winters. The two small original cabins are dwarfed by the massive logs in the barn we have remodeled into the cabin I now live in.
The original chinking shows use of horsehair and white sand from here on the property. The other binder was likely lime, which is also plentiful in the area. When we started the re-chinking that first fall, we used a modern formula of sand (still from the property), Portland cement, and lime. It works great. The color is different, but that's pretty small on the grand scale.
Another thing we have come to appreciate is the TIME it takes to get ready for winter. And that's with all our modern doo-dads to work with.
Brent took on the final push to get the east side of the cabin completely chinked. The starlings and peewees were appreciative that we didn't get it all done last year. The log gaps housed more than one avian family this summer.
I thought this was an interesting view of the cabin, it looks really small. It's actually about 32 feet by 27 feet. Make that two stories, and you have almost 1700 sq. feet of living space. A far cry from the 140 sq. feet of the old original cabin that is in the brush just off the north side of this building.

This is a little more accurate perspective. And if you had a really good magnifier, you could see the two hornet nests just under the eves. Brent was not impressed.

Another view of the east side, where we plan to have an 8x12 back porch built by the middle of October.
Brent mixed gallons of chinking in the little mortar trough that was rescued from another old farm. I'm sure that was it's orginal use - preparing chinking for making those old log buildings winter proof.

Without scaffolding, you use what's handy - including the boxelders that grow like weeds.
Most of the lighter grey chinking was done last year. The darker is still damp, and shows the final touches of getting the logs sealed more tightly.
Of course, while Dad was working the punks were busy doing other things. Lee says, he and

...Jayden, were "just hanging around."
We really appreciate the history of this farm and it's buildings. Living in an original log structure, especially with winter wind whistling through cracks during a snow storm, puts a whole new spin on "homesteading".

This winter I'll be tucked in real cozy. Thank you, Brent.

Bonus from the Tooth Fairy

Jayden has the most infectious laugh - his eyes crinkle up, his freckles pop out, and he usually has a great story that you just can't help chuckle over.

Today's story was a corker. Loose teeth are rampant in a family of five youngin's. You never know when a gleaming treasure is going to be thrust under your gaze to admire, along with all the details of how it happened.
First he showed me the two quarters - a slightly larger than normal bounty. When he explained that he lost the tooth when he bit into a frozen pancake, I understood. Bribery. Plain and simple.
It sounds worse than the reality. The kid LIKES frozen pancakes. Honest.

Wright Family Album II

By the time a family portrait gets chosen, it's often time for the next one. While we're waiting for the official version, I thought you might enjoy browsing some of the choices. You could even vote for your favorite!
Remember, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, then use the back button to return to the post.
We liked the 4th of July theme shirts that Carrie chose this year. When we started composing shots, I thought this one of Brent and the old combine could be titled "American Pie". Except Brent doesn't care for pie.

You can count on Max to add a little "spice" to any picture - he's pure hambone.
This one could be a contender. We were working with late evening light, which made for shadows that were a little stronger than we wanted.
Setting up for each shot was half the fun of the evening, we had a lot of laughs.
Vintage photo - "Farm family". Sober, hardworking - and everyone is chewing a stalk of grass.
Classic Max.
We include the whole family in our adventures - this is one of our frequent visitors, Aussie. The Black-eyed Susan flower worked better with his coloring than the daisy Max choose. We all had flowers behind our ears for a couple of shots. Keepin' it fun!
The quilt is antique - the punks are more contemporary.

Sticking with the Farm Family theme...

Brent and Max wear their flowers with pride!
Hey, this is a unique shot - we're all smiling and looking the same direction - and Max looks "normal" (I was holding on to him for dear life)!
The corn field felt like a good "Farm Family" backdrop...

A few different angles with the woodpile...

This shot seems to be top of the favorites list; the lighting is more even and the pose is typical family fun-style -
But this. THIS is keepin' it real.
I'm not sure which wall I'd hang this one on.