Canning
Posted: September 11, 2012 Filed under: 365 Yoga Challenge, Air, canning & freezing, Critters, Digital Art, Earth, Fire, food, garden, gardening, Harvest, home, nature, Photography, pond, Quotes, Spirit, Summer, Walking, water, weather | Tags: birds, food, garden, Henry David Thoreau, MaidinSun Photography, nature, Outdoors, Photography, pond, reflections, Summer, tea, water, weather 17 Comments
Iced tea on the deck
It’s that time of year again. The tomatoes need to be canned. The peppers need to be frozen. Apples need to be turned into applesauce.
Slowly evolving autumn
Posted: September 30, 2011 Filed under: 365 Yoga Challenge, Adventures in Life, Air, Autumn, beginnings, canning & freezing, Domesticity, Earth, fall, goals, home, nature, Photography, pond, Spirit, Walking, water, weather, yoga | Tags: autumn leaves, fall foliage, fungi, mushrooms, nature, Photography, pond, postaday2011 40 Comments
Reflections and leaves on the pond
This is such a beautiful time of year by the pond here at Breezy Acres. Even dark, chilly, gray days like today can’t dampen the colors of autumn.
342: How now brown cow
Posted: August 31, 2011 Filed under: 365 Life in the Bogs Challenge, Adventures in Life, canning & freezing, Critters, Earth, family, food, garden, goals, Harvest, home, nature, Photography, Summer, Walking, weather | Tags: Canning and Freezing, Cows, Fair, garden, Harvest, nature, peppers, Photography, Portage County Randolph Fair, postaday2011, preserving 20 Comments
As promised, I’ve brought you a few photos from the Portage County Randolph Fair. Next year I might go on my own during the week so I can spend more time looking at and photographing the animals. I’m not sure which are my favorites. It’s a toss up between the cows and the goats.
298: Let’s lay this one to rest
Posted: July 18, 2011 Filed under: 365 Life in the Bogs Challenge, Adventures in Life, canning & freezing, Earth, food, home, nature, Photography, pond, Quotes, Spirit, Summer, Walking, water, weather | Tags: blanching, broccoli, Canning and Freezing, freezing broccoli, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Ballantine Gough, John Updike, Karel Capek, Mother Nature, Photography, postaday2011, quotes 35 Comments
Queen Anne’s Lace getting ready to bloom
Lately I’ve been getting a lot of hits on my blog as a result of this search: Freezing broccoli without blanching. I have become the expert (heh) on this subject ever since I posted Freezing broccoli back in 2008. Every year around this time, people who want to freeze broccoli without going to the trouble of blanching it start searching around for someone to tell them it’s okay to do that.
Well.
295: In a pickle
Posted: July 15, 2011 Filed under: 365 Life in the Bogs Challenge, Adventures in art, Adventures in Life, canning & freezing, Domesticity, Earth, Fire, food, friends, goals, Healthful Living Plan, home, hot air balloons, nature, Photography, Spirit, Summer, Walking, water, weather | Tags: Canning and Freezing, cooking, Cucumber, food, Home, Lemony Snicket, Photography, Pickling, postaday2011 38 Comments
A barrel of cucumbers on ice
Yesterday’s pickling adventures went well. It was fun having someone with whom I could share the work, and I got to see how the Pickle Lady makes her fabulous (Best Pickles on the Planet) pickles.
294: Pickled
Posted: July 14, 2011 Filed under: 365 Life in the Bogs Challenge, Adventures in Life, canning & freezing, Domesticity, Earth, Fire, friends, goals, Harvest, Healthful Living Plan, home, nature, Photography, pond, Spirit, Summer, Walking, water, weather | Tags: fog, food, Photography, pickles, Pickling, pond, postaday2011, sunrise 39 Comments
It’s been a while since I was up to see the sunrise. I’d forgotten how beautiful the early morning light can be. I really should start making a habit of waking up just before the sun. The fog lit up by the warm, golden light of the sun was enchanting.
Seredipity Saturday
Posted: September 4, 2010 Filed under: Adventures in Cooking, Adventures in Life, canning & freezing, Domesticity, Earth, food, garden, Harvest, Healthful Living Plan, home, nature, Photography, pond, Summer, Walking | Tags: bees, flowers, peppers, rain, salsa, tomatoes, wildflowers 8 Comments
(This afternoon’s view of the pond from above the wildflower meadow.)
In between making salsa and chopping up sweet peppers for freezing, I took a short stroll out by the pond to see what’s happening out there lately. We had a cold front move through last night, bringing a little of the rain we so badly need. A couple of days of gentle showers would be nice but we’ll take what we can get.
The temperature has cooled down considerably. We had to break out the blankets last night. It’s not yet cold enough to turn the heat on, thank goodness. But too cold to sleep with the windows open.
It has been breezy and downright blustery at times. The wind did its usual howling, moaning, groaning song throughout the night.
Some of the leaves on the trees have turned yellow and red. Some of the leaves have been falling. I think that is due, in part, to the lack of rain. Driving around the area earlier today, we noticed that the corn and soybean fields are looking pretty dry and brown.
Some of the flowers are going or have gone to seed. Others — the goldenrod and asters, for instance — are just starting to bloom.
And the bees are still out and about, doing their dance around and on the flowers. No sign of any butterflies today, and I still have not seen so much as one monarch this year. That puzzles me greatly.
I’d better get back upstairs and continue my work on the salsa. It’s looking and tasting pretty good so far. Although I am grateful for the abundant harvest this year, I will be happy to be finished with all the prepping, canning, and freezing.
Which reminds me…
Joanne asked me why we call it “canning” here in the U.S. I found a discussion of the subject here. Since there were a couple of different explanations (meaning no one really knows?), I decided it was best just to give you the link so you can read all about it. One of these days — perhaps when the weather is cold and gray and there are no more vegetables to preserve — I am going to see what I can find about the history of preserving food. I think it would be a fascinating subject to study for a little while.
Life in the Bogs 