They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
Well, folks. It came, it went. It was a whirlwind of pressing, canning, laughing, talking, joking, eating, drinking, and all the other things that go along with CiderFest. We outdid last year's count, with a grand total of 129 gallons (6 fermenting for hard cider, the rest canned) divvied out between almost 20 households. Started… Continue reading CiderFest 2026
First and second major canning of tomatoes, Kathleen has been canning diced and whole tomatoes, as well as tomato juice. Daddy and Seppi have been drying tomatoes. Seppi likes to add leaves from his pet basil plant to the tray when we start it. (His pet basil plant's name is "Basil.") It's amazing how five… Continue reading Tomatoes, Pears and Wine
Monday the 31st was our first big tomato harvest, and our last big bean harvest. Winnie helps pick beans, and conversates the whole time. "Daddy, why are you so tall?" "Because I started growing before you." "Daddy, what number are you old?" "I am 41." "Daddy, you are going to die." Pauses thoughtfully. "You are… Continue reading First Big Tomato Harvest
We ordinarily try to avoid making Sunday a canning day, but when you have 65 Lbs of peaches sitting in boxes in the garage, you can't let them sit too long. They don't keep, especially when they are picked by over-zealous kids who have a tendency to drop them into the box, rather than gently… Continue reading Canning Peaches, on a Sunday
Monday, August 17th. Dear Diary... The day after fair is hard. Breakfast was leftovers. Leftover blackberry/rhubarb crumble. Leftover vanilla pudding. You know. Leftovers. After breakfast, Dad took us all to the farm and we had to pick beans and elderberries. (we've already written about the elderberries). This is a picture of me picking beans. Seppi… Continue reading Back to School, sort of.
Once again we have been several days without a blog. I have a stack of pictures and will try to get caught up. This was on Monday, August 10th. Mommy was at the fair, getting the nutrition and food preservation building decorated, and taking in all the entries that people brought in to drop off.… Continue reading Elderberry syrup… Again.
After the superb elderberry harvest and juicing last Tuesday... No, not that last Tuesday. The last Tuesday before that last Tuesday... We had a whole bunch of elderberry juice, and nowhere to put it. But first, dark and early Wednesday morning (Aug 12) planted out another tray of cabbages. They each have their own cozy… Continue reading Elderberry… Syrup?, Crabapple-Rhubarb.
Well, Fair Week is over for the year. Mommy was exhausted. She is superintendent for Food Preservation and Nutrition, and so she has been doing prep work regularly for months. Then she was busy the whole week leading up to it decorating and accepting entry turn-in. Then she was busy the whole week managing the… Continue reading Pierce Co Fair, 2026
Tuesday: the last full day before Pierce Co Fair starts. It was also a Monday, because on Monday we were too busy to Monday, due to baking for fair, and taking stuff to fair grounds for turn in, and decorating at the fair grounds. But Monday is the sort of thing that cannot be indefinitely… Continue reading Elderberries, beans, crabapples
Last week was the first elderberry picking of the year. I did a second picking Monday morning, early. The dried elderberries from last weekend are done, so we transfer them into a bowl and put the next batch in. The previous batch yielded almost a quart after drying. We found that if the clusters are… Continue reading Elderberries, Basil, Baking and Brewing.
