I had to do it - stewed tomatoes

Based on the performance of the tomatoes in my garden over the last several years, I did not expect to have a big harvest this year. And that was fine with me. My late husband was a big fan of seasonal bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches if the tomatoes were fresh from the garden. Enough was produced to keep him happily munching on BLTs and not much beyond that. This year is different.

First off, I only planted five plants. At this point, I'm saying thank God! Those five Roma plants are really outdoing themselves. Based on the last several seasons, I figured I'd get enough for the table but not enough to process. 

Wrong. This morning I processed eight three-quarter-pints of stewed tomatoes, and I expect I'll have enough to do another batch before the season ends. 

I do love those three-quarter-pint jars. I wish they were more readily available. I think each jar will be just enough for me to get two servings. That's perfect. I may even try a few half-pint jars since I have a lot of those empty at the moment. 

I'm wondering if the addition of potash to the raised bed I planted the tomatoes in has made the difference. There has not been even one instance of blossom end rot this year, and that is my tomato nemesis. 

The heat this summer has been brutal, and it has effected the garden. But I will persist and be happy for all that I did get. It's also time to plant for late fall harvest, something I've rarely done. Maybe I'll have success with that in 2025. We plant in hope. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, home food preservation, tomatoes, blossom end rot, rural living, a writer's life, fall planting

Cherokee wax beans and strawberries

This is the first year I've planted Cherokee wax beans. Wax beans are basically a yellow green bean. I always liked to switch it up on my late husband, and he didn't mind at all.  

The seeds have finally sprouted, and just that fast some critter has had a nibble. This will not do. Earlier this morning I put a row cover over the raised bed in the hope it will do the job and discourage whomever visited from a repeat. I won't get enough of a harvest to can beans, but I do want enough for several meals when they're fresh. 

Of course, my Henry 001 is also "discouragement." I just hate to bury the bodies. 

In better news, the strawberries I planted in the Greenstalk are doing fantastic! I hope to get a large enough harvest to enjoy some fresh and to share with my cousins. I also need to look for a muffin recipe that uses almond flour so I can make a batch of strawberry muffins. I think I can modify the recipe I love by simply adding a third egg. It's worth a try.

There's quite a few days to go before I harvest anything but lettuce. I have four plants of a variety that is Butter [something] and it's pretty good. My trip around the garden this morning showed it's time to harvest some, so it looks like a salad will be on the menu today. I've nibbled at the Swiss Chard and it's too bad none of that is ready to add to the salad. 

I'm excited about the strawberries, though. This is as close to actually successfully growing them as I've gotten. My grandfather had a huge patch, but I'll never match him. But I can see myself expanding to the older Greenstalk that is beside the patio, or even purchasing a third one. We'll have to see how it goes. 

That sums gardening up in one sentence: we'll have to see how it goes.

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, KC Kendricks, gardening, strawberries, Greenstalk, animal control, rural living, country lifestyle, home food preservation, Swiss Chard, butter lettuce

i didn't need them, but...

I'm not called The Mad Canner just for fun. I earned the moniker. Earlier today I had to go to town for a few things and made a stop at Walmart. I always check the aisle the canning supplies are in because YNK (you never know). 

Well! Imagine my surprise to find 140th Anniversary limited edition Ball jars! I didn't know they existed. I'm on the mailing list to receive new product notifications from Ball and I didn't get anything about these jars. 

I may be "single" again, but I'll still can. What a blessing it has been to be able to grab a jar of something off the pantry shelf and have an instant dinner. 

What will I put in my fancy jars? I'm not really sure but I think perhaps blueberry pie filling. A pint jar is perfect for a six-inch pie which is perfect for the single person. 

So many different things to consider these days. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, Ball canning jars, country lifestyle, rural living, home food preservation, blueberry pie, living single

Honey Bee jars

I confess. I love the Ball Keepsake jars.  I scored eight of the Honey Bee keepsake jars and now I need a special project to use them. 

Part of my garden plan for 2024 is to grow more herbs and freeze-dry them. That may be the perfect use for these honey bees. We'll have to see as the season develops. 

It's never silly to use and enjoy the things you like. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, Ball jars, Honey Bee, gardening, herbs, home food preservation, collectors

Frosty morning

We've been busy here at the manor. Work in the woodyard is progressing, albeit slowly. I cut and split a lot of the smaller logs on my own, and now the cousin needs to take care of the bigger logs. Usually, we work together, but our schedules haven't meshed the last two weeks.  

We had our first frost back on November 2. It wasn't a hard frost, though. The only plants I lost were the begonias, but they're pretty tender. The herbs in the Greenstalk are still green. 

The garden area is empty. The five-gallon buckets are empty. The grow bags are empty. It would seem a sad end to the season, but it's not. It's a readying for renewal. I've already got some seeds for next year and I'm planning what I want to concentrate on. This year I grew a little of a lot of different veggies. Next year I want to have one large crop with only a few smaller items. 

The mercury has dipped down into the low thirties at night and I've been firing-up the woodstove. Himself is happy because the living room gets toasty in the evening. I close the doors to the back of the house to keep the heat out. I like my bedroom to be cool so I sleep better. Opening the door about half an hour before I turn in warms the room up just enough. 

On the writing front, I finished Sumner's Garden and it's live at the vendors I use. Finishing that story was bittersweet. I've been writing for over twenty years and with the advent of artificial intelligence, I don't know if I want to continue to read, much less write. I was happy to see Amazon asking if the book I was offering for sale used AI in the writing. That's a NO. I don't like the idea of AI at all. I think its hidden dangers will be revealed too late to those who embrace it. 

It's time I got busy with freeze-drying again. I let it go over the summer in favor of canning, but I've laid out a plan to keep that unit working. 

The trees have shed almost all of their leaves so it's time to clean the gutters. Tomorrow looks to be the day with afternoon temps forecasted to be in the low sixties. After that, it'll be time to hop on a mower and chop some leaves. And if there's time, I'll bring over a tractor bucket of firewood and drop it outside the basement door. 

A frost isn't a bad thing. It simply signals it's time for different things to happen. It is a portent of the changes ahead, of the slide into winter sleep. The manor is ready for it. 

The Lady of the Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, country living, rural living, changing seasons, frost, firewood, woodstove, home food preservation, freeze drying, Greenstalk, trees

The days go by fast

I'm happy to have completed a six-week stint filling in for the young woman who took my position when I retired. She's been on maternity leave and I was asked to help keep the office afloat. It was a lot more stressful than I thought it would be, but now it's in the past. I posted a bit about it over on my writing blog, Between the Keys. The bottom line is that I'm delighted I can return to my real life here at Holly Tree Manor. 

Even with spending time back on the job, I managed to get a few things accomplished. The gardening season finished and firewood season began. The firewood for the 2024-25 winter got a big boost when I hired a service to take down the leaning maple. That maple had been leaning since 2003 when Hurricane Isabel hit us. 

The Mad Canner was busy, too. I made and canned apple pie filling and curried apple chutney, plus chicken and beef broth for the pantry. 

Autumn is waning and we're drifting toward winter. The nights have really cooled down and I've had the woodstove burning. We get some rather wide temperature swings this time of year so I need to pay attention to the weather forecast to balance using the woodstove with cycling the heat pump. On sunny afternoons, I don't need either one. 

I don't mind the changing of the seasons. There is beauty in each one, and each brings a set of chores to be done. Yesterday, I worked in the woodyard for about an hour and a half, then hopped on the X370 John Deere mower to chop leaves. This time of year the leaves are a never-ending task, but I can't let them smother my poor grass. I estimate I'll need to mow the leaves two, possibly three, more times, and the leaf blower will get a workout, too. I don't mind that job, either. I love being outside. 

Dawn has passed and there is blue sky overhead. It's time to join the Lord of the Manor for morning coffee and to find out if he's feeling up to helping me any today. I'll get more rounds cut if he's on the tractor using the brush crusher to lift and hold them for me. But I can do it by myself if necessary.

That's one of the things living in the country has taught me. It is up to me. 

The Lady of the Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, firewood, John Deere x370, John Deere 1023, autumn, country lifestyle, rural living, empowered women, home food preservation, apple pie filling, a writer's life

The Mad Canner: Beef broth

A few weeks ago, I canned a big batch of chicken broth for the pantry. Checking the shelves, I knew then that I needed to do beef broth as well, but my local grocery didn't have any marrow bones available. I wasn't in a hurry so I waited until they had what I wanted. 

I don't create beef broth the exact same way as I do chicken and turkey. With poultry, I've roasted the bird before I cook the bones. I don't add a lot of salt or anything else because I don't want whatever recipe I use it in to be over-seasoned. Beef broth is different.

I tossed the rinsed marrow bones in my larger crockpot with two ribs of celery, a chunk of yellow onion, three beef bouillon cubes, about a teaspoon of peppercorns, and a couple of bay leaves. I added as much water as the crockpot would hold, turned it on high for ten hours (overnight), and then cut it back to low until I was ready to strain and process the first batch. If you like your broth to be a darker color, save your onion skins and add that when you're cooking the bones. I don't feel the need for a dark broth. 

Meat broth needs to be pressure-canned to be safe. The guidelines for my elevation (above sea level) call for pints to be processed at pressure for twenty minutes. I did two batches for a total of sixteen pints. 

Beef broth comes in handy for more things than soup, although that's our primary usage. If we have a beef dish for dinner, adding some beef broth to mashed potatoes kicks the flavor up a notch. You can cook rice or pasta in beef broth to rev up the flavor. You can also drink broth as a hot beverage although we really don't. 

But back to soup, I've been hungry for beef barley soup. Having the broth and some stew beef chunks in jars makes soup-making easy. I haven't yet read where barley is safe to home can, most grains are not, so until I read a process has been approved, I'll make it from "scratch" each time. 

It's not difficult to make beef broth. The crockpot does the bulk of the work, and the rest of it is simply having a good book to read while the Presto canner does its thing. I'm calling it a lazy day's work well done.

The Lady of the Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, home food preservation, beef broth, crockpots, home canning food, rural living, country lifestyle, gardening

The Mad Canner: Apple Pie Filling and Curried Apple Chutney

It's apple season! 

Forget those western Red Delicious apples you get at the supermarket. You know the ones - mealy and mushy and no crunch. Give me local apples from a fifth-generation orchard! Fresh, crisp, crunchy and delicious! It's worth the thirty minute drive to get there. 

This was the year I needed to make apple pie filling and curried apple chutney. There is enough applesauce, apple jelly, and apple butter in the pantry to see us through to next season, so I could concentrate on what we were out of. 

One half bushel of Cinnamon Crisp apples produced thirteen quart jars of apple pie filling and twelve half-pint jars of chutney. The peels and cores made the local deer pretty happy, too. 

Working with apples is labor-intensive. Apples need to be peeled and cored, sliced and diced, and blanched and/or cooked before being water-bath canned. I much prefer pressure canning because I believe it produces a more reliable, long-term seal, but it is what it is. I like to hear that instant "pop" of the seal setting when I lift a jar from the Presto canner, and it takes a bit longer when water-bath canning. All of the jars pictured did seal.

To make the job of peeling easier, I have a spiralizer attachment for the KitchenAid mixer. I can't say it does a perfect job, but man does it cut down on the time. A simple manual chopper diced up the peeled apples for the chutney. 

Both recipes are in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, which is pretty much the canning bible. The National Center for Home Food Preservation uses pretty much the same recipes. 

I won't need to make the chutney again for probably three years. Yes, if the seals are intact, the product can last more than the eighteen months Ball states. You need to be more diligent in listening for the seal break when opening,  and remember - when in doubt, throw it out. Never consume anything you're not one hundred percent sure about. Unlike me, Himself isn't a lover of the chutney so it doesn't get served frequently so it's in the pantry for a longer time. Now that I'm retired, the apple pie filling may or may not be enough for an entire year. We'll see. 

I've been reading more apple recipes in the Ball book. Apple season isn't over here, and the Cinnamon Crisp apples have become my new favorite. Yum! Himself has requested apple dumplings (a freezer item) and I think I'd like to make some apple jam for on pancakes. We need to be out and about later this afternoon, so maybe we can take a bit of an extra drive for another peck of apples. Probably for sure. 

Canning may seem like an old-fashioned activity, but it's really food science. And it's time management. An afternoon spent canning apples netted twelve side dishes for twelve dinners, and made baking pies quick and easy. And you know what? When I walk into my pantry, all the pretty jars put a smile on my face. 

The Lady of The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, apples, home food preservation, canning food, pantry preparedness, time management, rural living, country lifestyle orchards, Ball book, Presto canners, pressure canning, water bath canning, chutney, a writer's life

The Mad Canner: broth and beans

A few days ago as I readied ingredients to prepare dinner, I was surprised to find only two pints of chicken broth in the pantry. Yes, it's wonderful that I actually use the foods I've canned, but not keeping a closer eye on a cooking staple like chicken broth is... not a good thing. 

In an attempt to be frugal, I purchased a roasting chicken and we had a proper Sunday dinner for a change. I put the roasted meat in the fridge for another meal, and the carcass in the crock pot to simmer on low overnight. The result was fifteen pints of chicken broth. Winter means soups and now I'm ready.

After setting the pints on the pantry shelf, I took a quick inventory and decided I needed to get busy. The only thing I had on my agenda to can was apple pie filling when the Stayman apples are available, but I also was out of molasses beans. Molasses beans have become a summer staple when we grill burgers. They're sort of a cross between pork 'n beans and baked beans having less sugar than baked and no tomato flavor like pork 'n beans. Eleven pints now reside in the pantry. 

I've been thinking that I need to up my canning game this winter. I have purchased a new-to-me book of recipes and I'm going to try a few. Home canning looks like a lot of work until you open a jar and have dinner ready in five minutes - and you do it repeatedly. 

The Lady of The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, home food preservation, rural living, country lifestyle, canning, cooking, time savings, a writer's life, chicken broth, molasses beans,

It's at the end for 2023

As much as I enjoy having a garden, I'm not sad that the 2023 garden is all but finished. By this time of the season, it's more work than fun, but even then it's not hard work. It's merely persistent work. 

All things considered, such as heat, smoke, and not a lot of rain, the plants produced. I was extremely disappointed in the tomatoes due to a screwing I got from Ferry Morse seeds - read about that here - but even cherry tomatoes can be used for sauce.  Any tomato can be used for sauce. The variant is in how long you need to simmer the fruit to cook the water out. The plan was to make ketchup, but I made pizza sauce instead. I think with this last harvest and what is in the freezer, I can make another batch of pizza sauce and be good on that for a few years. 

The cucumbers produced well. I ran a couple of batches through the Harvest Right freeze dryer to preserve them, and I canned one batch of cucumber-pepper relish. 

Cucumber pepper relish

This year, I planted green beans for the first time ever. My grandfather always planted a type of pole bean, or climbing runner bean, but I chose the Contender bush variety. They did well and we had fresh beans for our table. Next year, I hope to expand a bit.

Sugar snap peas. I love 'em! He hates them. I've used up all the seed so they're off the 2024 garden plan. So are watermelon and cantaloupe. The melons were a bust. The ONE watermelon that formed wasn't edible. 

I am, apparently, a good grower of cabbage. We love fresh coleslaw, so cabbage is on the list for 2024. I'll stagger starting the seeds so I hopefully get a staggered harvest, and I'll go for a smaller number of heads. Coleslaw is great, but not every day for a month. 

The green bell peppers were an afterthought. I found a few seeds and planted them late, but there are pepper strips in the freezer again. I'm not sure the Great Stuff variety is the one for my garden. 

The Brussels sprouts were about 80% bust. Sprouts formed on two out of seven plants. I do have some seeds left so I'll give it one last try in 2024. Brussels, and cauliflower which died at transplant, are likely going to end up being off the plan for good after 2024, but we'll see.

Only one thing remains - butternut squash. This is the first time I tried this one and the results surprised me. There are ten butternuts growing but not yet ready to harvest. I'm watching for the stems to turn brown to pick them. Once they're all in, I'll process them to use for soup and pie filling. Butternut squash makes a sweet "pumpkin" pie. Just puree it and use the same as pumpkin puree. The flavor isn't that different.

Over the course of the next week, all the tomato plants will come out except for an experiment I'm trying that I saw on a Living Traditions video. The basil needs to be harvested and dried, and the calendula seeds will be ready to store. 

The bees are still prolifically working the tall Cracker Jack marigolds which has made me reconsider them for next year. I'm gathering those seeds and will cast them about the property. What grows in 2024 will grow, and I'll harvest those seeds to spread again. Doing this should develop a strain of plant that thrives in my micro-climate to keep the bees happy. The more bees the merrier! I'll plant a much shorter variety of marigolds in the garden. 

The year 2024 will bring its own successes and failures. I can dream, plan, and implement, but in the end, the garden does what the garden does. 

The Lady of the Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, bees, pollinators, vegetables, flowers, herbs, cabbage, butternut squash, saving seeds Great Stuff peppers, Straight Eight cucumbers, rural living, country lifestyle, a writer's life, home food preservation, freeze dryer

Cabbage finished for 2023

The Beefsteak tomatoes weren't actually. They were a mystery variety of cherry tomatoes. 

The Straight Eight cucumbers didn't produce well despite being worked hard by some very dedicated little bumblebees. 

The Great Stuff peppers have been slow to get going, but there are peppers growing. 

Sugar Baby watermelon? There is ONE growing. 

Cantaloupe? Nary a one, again, not the fault of the dedicated bumblebees.

Butternut squash? Growing, baby. Looking good. 

Cabbage? Holy crap! My garden spot can grow some cabbage!!!

It's a good thing we like cabbage. The last batch of cabbage came out of the freeze drier this morning, and I'm glad to be done. The weather tomorrow looks to be cooler, so tomorrow I'll clean out the cabbage patch and turn over the soil.

Another lesson learned this year is to better stagger planting the cabbage. We had too many heads mature at the same time this year. We can only consume so much Cole Slaw before we begin to let it go to waste, which is not why I garden. 

I've learned a lot about cabbage this summer. Now I need to apply that to next year, when the time comes.

The Lady of The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, Harvest Right freeze dryer, home food preservation, rural living, country lifestyle, cabbage, a writer's life, KC Kendricks 

Is there time to catch my breath?

It's been a very busy stretch and I don't know where to start to record all of it. 

I've been busy in the garden although the pantry shelves don't reflect it. I've canned two batches of pizza sauce, four quarts of chili, a batch of cucumber relish, and seven quarts of chicken soup base. I've had cabbage in the freeze dryer and still have two large heads to process. The tomatoes are winding down, and I'm freezing them so I can make a batch of tomato sauce when they finish.

The butternut squash is doing very well. I hope to can at least seven quarts for whatever recipe I choose down the road. 

I've pulled the green beans, one tomato plant, and two cabbages that just didn't form heads. The garden looks nice and tidy again. I wonder if I want to do a fall planting? We shall see.

There's been mowing and weed-whacking to do, plus household chores. The front gutter needed to be cleaned out. A few days ago, the Lord of the Manor and I had a "staff" meeting - we had breakfast out at a restaurant. I won't name it because we don't plan to go back. We agree on what we'd like to accomplish before winter, and we prioritized our list in case we don't get it all done. We actually had a better discussion since we weren't home and distracted by this or that little thing. 

We weathered a severe and massive storm system that blew through here a few days ago. The worst went around us, but this morning, one tree limb came down. Storm damage or just because? It's hard to tell. 

Tomorrow it's back to mowing. Usually, we get to skip mowing at all in August, but the storm brought enough rain that it's needed. The weather really does control a lot of activity when you live in the country. We adjust and keep going. 

The Lady of the Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, rural living, country lifestyle, gardening, weather watching, staff meetings, breakfasts, canning, home food preservation, freeze dryer

Feeling stymied

Stymied: To be an obstacle to; prevent the advancement or success of; thwart or stump: weather that stymied attempts to locate the missing hikers; a math problem that stymied half the class. 

I feel stymied by our wonderful weather. The sky is blue, the sun is bright, the grass is greening-up, the breeze is blowing, and it's a mere 45F outside. It rained yesterday and the ground is damp. 

I can't mow, I can't dig in the too-wet dirt, I can't set the begonias out on the porch for another round of hardening-off. 

But there is hope! Tomorrow, if all goes as predicted, I'll be able to cross off a lot of items on my To Do List. I'll be able to mow (or maybe convince the Lord of the Manor to do it), get the begonias to the greenhouse, plant sugar snap pea seeds outside in a few grow bags, sow a row of spring onions in the raised bed, and plant a few seeds in starter packs once the begonias are out of the way. I may even make a quick trip to the landfill if Himself is willing to do a few things for me this afternoon. 

I'm definitely feeling frustrated this spring. There are so many things to do, that I want to do, and I need to wait out the weather, at least until tomorrow.

Tomorrow's 10-day forecast is a beacon of hope. After tonight, there is only one night that the temperature dips into the thirties (Fahrenheit). Since my little greenhouse isn't heated, I plan to cover the begonias at night with an old sheet for the next little while anyway, so it'll still work for me. 

There are, of course, things I could do today if I had more of a domestic bent. Housekeeping and laundry have never excited me the way being outside does. I'd probably die if forced to live in the "concrete jungle." I do enjoy home food preservation, but I don't have any canning projects lined up. 

I'll figure today out soon. I'm never stymied for very long. 

The Lady of The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, home food preservation, rural living, weather, greenhouse, country lifestyle, a writer's life, Greenstalk, seeds, sugar snap peas, seed trays, 

Canning project: BBQ Pulled Pork

Yesterday I had an appointment for a haircut, and being in town decided to run a few errands. I discovered my local grocery had pork butt on sale along the way and my first thought was to make another batch of pulled pork. 

I think it was around last May when I made the test batch of a recipe I found in one of the canning books. It was really good and we used all six or seven pints. This time, I went for more and ended up with thirteen pints. Thirteen jars and thirteen seals!

I was a bit cautious with this recipe the first time because the sauce has brown sugar, molasses, and honey in it. Sugar doesn't always process well and can taste burnt, but that's not a problem with this recipe. A bit of smokiness is a plus for pulled pork. 

The best part of this is I have thirteen easy suppers for on the patio this year. We do enjoy eating outside when the weather is good. A covered and screened patio with a television makes relaxing after supper quite enjoyable. 

And the haircut? I think I finally convinced my younger cousin that layers are a good thing. I'm retired. The less I have to fuss with my hair on a daily basis, the better. This cut will definitely be a wash and go this summer. I like it. 

The Lady of the Hideaway

home food preservation, Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, pulled pork, haircuts, rural living, country lifestyle, canning, pork butt, a writer's life, grocery shopping, Presto canner, pint jars

January: A difficult month

2023 Begonia cuttings

I've always found January a difficult month to navigate. So much of my time is spent waiting, waiting, waiting on the days to lengthen and the outside temperatures to moderate. As a gardener, I'm eager to get seeds planted. As the caretaker of this particular plot of land, I'm eager to begin the yearly task of picking up sticks. As a canner, I'm eager to get a variety of soups and such into jars. And yet, I struggle with being motivated in January. I'm eager to do something simple such as take my poor bored dog for a walk in the woods, but the forecast is for rain, and that would be cold rain in January. 

No. I'm not going to reach for chemical aids. Being impatient has only one cure and that is to find a better use of my time every day, make a plan, and stick to it. 

If only it were that easy.

There are any number of things that need doing, but I burn to get outside into the fresh air. I know better. Being out in the drizzle won't make me sick with a cold, but it won't help my achy, aging joints at all. It would be even worse for my seven-year-old dog whose bare paws contact the wet ground. 

Whether or not it's too early for it, I did another round of begonia cuttings. I now have eighteen red and eighteen white starts. I want to add color to my vegetable garden this year and the begonias are a good way to do that. I also have a pack of marigold seeds here (somewhere in this house!) and I'm very tempted to start those as well. Marigold seeds can be started in trays six weeks before the last frost. Well, I have a greenhouse now. I think I'll start them inside and transfer them to the greenhouse around April 1. I'll only be out $1 if it doesn't turn out well. I think that's an acceptable risk. 

I recently reorganized the freezer, as much out of boredom than necessity, and I need to make a few breakfast items and tuck them away. I make a French toast casserole that freezes well. A 13x9-inch cake pan yields portions for five breakfasts. It's been a while since I made scones, and one batch provides four breakfasts. We recently purchased an air fryer and we want to try our hand at making donuts. It wouldn't take much to do some baking and get a few breakfasts ahead. All I have to do is to go do it. 

The view out my sunroom office windows is rather drab, but even that opinion needs to change. The earth needs the rain and a break from the sun. I can almost hear the trees slurping up water. They'll need it soon. Loki the Cat took a stroll through the backyard. He didn't stay out long. He found a good spot for his "outside activities" and made a beeline for the door. Now I have a lapful of damp cat. It's of no matter. I'm finished blogging for now.

It's time to go make myself useful to myself. I guess I'll add a bag of flour to my shopping list. In this day and age, it wouldn't do to allow the pantry to get low. 

The Lady of the Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, baking, January, gardening, rural living, country lifestyle, home food preservation, a writer's life, begonias, cuttings, marigold seeds, country cats, black Labrador Retriever

Christmas Eve 2022

Merry Christmas to you and yours from The Hideaway!

Always expect the unexpected they say. This year, I spent Christmas Eve processing vegetable soup. Yep. That's not a typo. I now have fourteen jars of veggie soup in the pantry. 

It's not what I planned to do today, but the mercury struggled to hit 14F today. We've had cold snaps before, but generally not over Christmas. 

With the work done, I think we're going to settle down in our respective chairs and find a movie to watch. Going to Christmas Eve church service is out. No way should the Lord of the Manor be out in this cold. Period.  

It was a good day's work. Fourteen meals in the jar. Can't beat that for an early Christmas present. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, vegetable soup, Christmas Eve, home food preservation, winter weather

Orange Marmalade

Making orange marmalade was more than I bargained for. I'm pretty sure this batch will be a one-off. I scorched the first batch when I stepped away from the stove for mere seconds to open the door for Loki. The second batch turned out great, but it's very labor-intensive.  

To make it, you have to peel the zest layer of the oranges and lemons without getting any of the pith. I then used a food chopper to cut that up instead of cutting it into the traditional thin strips. Then you have to get the fruit removed from the pith and the membranes. Nope. After this is gone, I'll purchase orange marmalade. 

Yeah, I say that now, but by the time I've used twelve little jars of this marmalade, I may feel differently. Himself doesn't touch the stuff. He's a grape jelly kinda guy. So it may be three or four years until this batch is gone. By then I may have (probably will have) forgotten what a pain in the ass this was to make and do it again. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, orange marmalade, home food preservation, rural lifestyle

Whole berry cranberry sauce in little jars

Thanksgiving is next week! Seven days from now! 

Yes, I am a bit excited about roasting a turkey and sitting down to a traditional dinner. The two of us will be on our own again, and you know what? We really rather prefer it that way. We've had the big dinners with the clan gatherings, which are stressful. There is no stress when it's us in our cozy little house in the woods.

We aim to eat close to one o'clock. No one shows up at noon to try to "help." The turkey is done when it gets done. I always liked to make some sort of baked veggie casserole to make my mother happy and forget that. I'll open a can or a jar (or two) of veggies and nuke 'em. The Lord of the Manor makes the candied sweet potatoes the day before - just heat and serve. He'll also make biscuits. He does have a few culinary talents so I make use of them on Thanksgiving. But I digress...

Cranberry sauce is a traditional part of our dinner. While at the grocery, I noticed they had fresh cranberries on sale. There's a recipe for cranberry sauce in the Ball book, so I got a bag and preserved eight half-pint jars of whole-berry cranberry sauce. There's also half a jar in the fridge and it is good! 

There are two upsides to this. This sauce contains cranberries, orange zest, and sugar. That's it. No additives with strange names. Get over the fact it has sugar in it. We believe the chemicals are worse.  The other thing is that these portions work better for two people. We won't be discarding the last third of the can because it sat in the fridge and went to water. 

Maybe the third thing is cost. On the surface, four dollars worth of cranberries made enough for at least eight meals. An industry can cost at least a dollar and a half for one. Even figuring in the cost of the sugar and one orange, it's cheaper to make at home. 

My next trip to the grocery, I'm going to get another bag of cranberries and put them in the freezer. It's not that I don't trust our supply chain...Oh, yes. It's definitely that. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, cranberry sauce, home food preservation, Thanksgiving, rural lifestyle, country living, family stress, simple country pleasures, supply chain

Greenstalk

Sometimes you've got to treat yourself. For example, if you've hoarded your rewards points you should use them for something you really, really, really want but would never pay full price for. Like a Greenstalk. 

No way would I pay just under $160 for one of these planters. I simply would not. But getting it for a mere $55?? Oh, yeah. I clicked on the button to place my order. So what if I burned all my points? I'll accumulate more as I go along. Somehow.

The Greenstalk has thirty planting pockets and an internal watering system. The plan is to use it for herbs with a few red begonias scattered around for a bit of color. I'm not one hundred percent sure where I want to place it, but I'll figure that out this fall and not put soil in it until next spring. 

Planning ahead is one of the fun aspects of gardening. I remember my grandfather anxiously awaiting the arrival of the yearly seed catalogs from Burpees, Gurneys, and a few other companies. I have it easy. I just go to the Internet. I wonder what Pop would make of the Greenstalk? 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, Greenstalk, country living, gardening, herbs, rural lifestyle, a writer's life, homesteading, home food preservation

Finished - clean and tidy, ready for next season

Yesterday was the day I'd been waiting for! I picked the very last three tomatoes and four peppers of the year! Then I set about tidying the garden coral for next year. 

It was a beautiful morning, too, with temps around the 65F mark. I was outside early so I could work in mostly shade. I put the bucket on the John Deere 1023 and moved the remaining five-gallon grow buckets and grow bags to their storage area. Then I scrubbed the little table, swept the tarp, and then dumped a bucket of hot soapy water on it, and swished the broom around before rinsing.  

You may wonder why I'd want to give the area the hot water and soap treatment, but it's important to keep a garden area clean so as to cut down on pests, mold, and mildew. Besides, it looks a lot better if it's clean and tidy. 

Looking forward to the 2023 growing season, the plan is to do a few things differently. I'm not going to transplant every little seed that sprouts. I had too many tomatoes crammed into too small a space. I was able to make sauces, etc., which I wanted to do, but we have a lot of top-notch local growers in my area. It may be more time effective to purchase a bushel of tomatoes from one of them to do the canning next year. A high tunnel would also allow me to use the garden coral area for what it was installed for - a small pool. 

I also want to grow a few different things that I didn't have room for. I have acreage, but I also have a large deer population. The deer would decimate any unprotected area so I'm keeping my garden small. My ultimate goal is to get a high tunnel that should thwart the deer. It's that or obtain a hunting license, sit on the front porch, and wait for them - not my first choice.

Growing in the garden is not quite complete for 2022. I have red beets growing nicely in a raised bed under a screened frame. That's another first. I had one or two beets grow in a bucket last year, but I may actually get enough to freeze-dry a batch this year. 

It's time for me to go through my seeds and see what I have left to use next year and what I want to order. It's never really too early to stay organized. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, seeds, deer, rural lifestyle, country living, organization, a writer's life, simple country pleasures, home food preservation, hunting, tomatoes, peppers