Retirement, 2 Month Anniversary

It has been 2 months since I retired and in some ways it seems longer.  I look back at all I have accomplished in 2 short months and I am amazed.  My biggest accomplishment has been being able to can again.  I enjoy canning things and being able to control what goes in my food.  Next years garden is already in the planning stage and it will be much larger.  This year I planted potatoes, garlic, onions, several kinds of lettuce, 4 kinds of peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, acorn squash and eggplant. I will plant all of these next year along with some peas, more tomatoes, some green beans and maybe some lima beans.
I also started a large raised bed of herbs this year.  The raised bed has all perennials and all but a couple will be used for herbal tea.  The tube garden has my cooking herbs and they have done very good this year despite the heat.  Next year I will be able to harvest the rhubarb I planted this year.  At first I wasn't sure it was going to make it but it looks really good. Our apple trees are surviving but a couple of the pine trees that we planted this year might not make it.  :(
Take care and thanks to everyone who reads this and sometime gets a laugh to brighten their day or maybe you've learned something new.

Peaches are Finished

I finished canning the peaches this morning; I got 6 qts of yellow and 2 qts of white.  I saved out 8 peaches to eat in the next couple of days and when we travel.  I had about 2 qts of the light syrup left after hot packing the peaches and decided to boil it down and save it for pancakes; I ended up with about 3/4 of a qt.  Started cleaning the stove top and just need to wait until the huge water bath caner cools down to empty it and clean that half.  I though after 5 days of canning it would be horrible but it has not been bad at all.  I cleaned it everyday but it still needed some deep cleaning.
My daughter sent me a bakers dozen of pint jars and I was out of pints so they are much appreciated.  I am down to 4 1/2 dozen of qt jars and will need to keep my eyes open for some more.  I will need some for tomatoes, apple pie filling, applesauce and this fall I want to can some chili, stew, split pea soup and some bean soup.  I can see now where I for sure will need more jars. 
The weather has been really nice the last couple of days with a nice breeze that makes the laundry that I hang out dry really fast.  I did sheets this morning and they look so nice blowing in the breeze.  I need to go out and add some straw to the chicken coop, pick the tomatoes and peppers.  When I was out earlier I took a close at my eggplant and found 5 small eggplants.  I have 5 nice zucchini that will be ready when I'm gone but the eggplants take longer and maybe they will be ready at the end of the month.  I told my daughter Gina to make sure she harvests the garden when she come over everyday to take care of the chickens.  I don't want anything going to waste.  She will have free eggs and veggies for taking care of the chickens.  I know it is worth more than that but she is kind enough to do it for us.  She took care of them last fall when we were gone for 2 weeks.  I warned her about the rooster who has gotten really bad at attacking everyone.  I guess it is time to send him to someones cooking pot.  Ron said last night he found someone to take him but I didn't get any details and will have to ask tonight.  When I go in the coop to get the eggs I take the hay fork in with me in case he comes in.  Last week one day I didn't take it in and he came in and I kept telling him to stay back and was trying to use the egg basket to protect myself but he pecked me on the hand and left a big bruise.  If someone would have been within hearing range they would have wondered what the heck was going on.  I kept yelling "Ralph get back, stay back Ralph, don't come near me"; of course it didn't work.  NO MORE ROOSTERS, this is our second one we've had to get rid of.

Peach syrup, white peaches and yellow peaches.

Canning Day and My 100th Post

This is my 100th post and it seems like I've been doing this longer than I have.
Today I canned 11 qts of yellow peaches, 2 qts and 5 pts of peach salsa.  I used the white peaches to make the salsa because they are a little sweeter.  I used some Ball Salsa Mix and substituted peaches for the tomatoes.  I tasted it and it is very good and a little hot.  It is not real pretty but it is good so that is all that matters.   I have about 50 yellow and 30 white peaches left to do and they should be ready by tomorrow.  I will have Thursday to deep clean the kitchen, do any wash and pack for Texas.  We will leave Friday morning about 4 and drive straight through; it is about a 16 hr drive.
I am getting another truck load of chipped up trees to add to my new garden bed today.  So far it is looking pretty good; newspaper, shredded trees, straw from the chicken coop and now more shredded trees.  I will need a lot more but this is a good start.  If it ever rains and I need to cut the lawn again I will add grass clippings to it and then this fall I will add shredded leaves.

Peach Salsa and yellow peaches.

Later, take care.

Onion and Potato Harvest

I harvest all my yellow onions and some of the red ones yesterday; I still have a lot of red onions that the tops have not died back yet so I left them in the ground.  Usually I just plant red onions but also put in yellow this year.  The onions did real good and I will plant yellow and red again.  I planted Yukon Gold potatoes this year; I planted about 1 1/2 pounds and harvested about 10 lbs.  I also harvested a few potatoes twice to have with peas so for the amount I planted the harvest was pretty good.  This is the first time I've planted potatoes and I will probably plant them again.

I tie the onions in bunches and hang under the umbrella on the patio table to dry.

This is the bed of red onions that are still growing.

My Yukon Gold potatoes, the bag in for storage and the little ones I will cook with some peas tomorrow.

Blackberry Pie Filling and Peaches

I took the blackberries that I picked out of the freezer and canned blackberry pie filling.  I got 4 qts and it looks and tastes wonderful.  Not a whole lot of peaches ripe today so I moved them back out to the garage to ripen.  I put them in the laundry room after I sorted them yesterday morning.  I cold packed them but the rest I will hot pack them.  Hot packing make for a nicer looking final product.  I canned 1 qt and 1 pt of yellow peaches and 2 qts and 1 pt of white peaches.  I made about 2 gallons of a very light syrup and have the rest of the syrup in the fridge ready for the next time. 
I washed up enough jars this morning to last me a couple of days.  I figured since I didn't have a huge amount to can I would do the prep work for the next few days.  Tomorrow I plan on canning more peaches and going to make about 6 pints of peach salsa (that will be all my pints jars).
I need to go out to the garage and put some more qt jars within easier reach in case I don't have enough washed and should get a count of how many I have.  Don't want to have to dig through stuff if I'm in a time crunch.  We leave for Texas early this Friday morning so the peaches better hurry up and get ripe.  

Blackberry Pie Filling

L-R, blackberry pie filling, yellow peaches, white peaches.

Amish Produce Auction and Shopping Trip

We arrived at the auction only a couple of minutes before it started so we didn't get to look around a whole lot before it started.  Almost everything is sold in large lots and it went real fast.  It was very hot and the Amish gentleman said it would move fast and it did.  They had corn, cantaloupe, peaches, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cauliflower, beets and cucumbers.  I wanted some corn but with the other things I got I knew I wouldn't have time to do it.  The auction only lasted 1 hour and while we were waiting to pay Ron was talking to a Amish young gentleman who was selling drinks and snacks.  He asked where we were from and asked about a couple of businesses and their owners and he knew some of the people Ron knew.  We were telling him that we shopped at the Amish settlement by Cuba and his cousin is the lady who runs the bulk food store we shop at.
After the auction we went to Beachy's which is the Amish bulk food store in that area.  They have expanded since we were last there and I didn't have time to look around like I wanted.  We had all the produce in the vehicle and it was 100 degrees out.  We picked up some things for Gina and a few things for us.  I picked up a 10lb box of bacon slices for $16.95; $1.70 a lb is really cheap.  I packaged it in 1 lb packages and we had some for supper on Sunday night with some eggs and used a jar of the potatoes that did not seal and fried them.  The bacon was hickory flavor, thick slices and more meat that fat on the pieces.  Very good and when we go down again we will pick up a couple of boxes of it.  Next time I also want to have more time to look at everything in the store.  Amish bulk food stores carry a lot of seasoning, spices and staple items.  The area we were in has over 1000 Amish families and a very large population of Mennonites who do most of their cooking from scratch so they carry a lot of things you can't always find in local stores.  Very nice day and want to go back to the auction again sometime in September before it closes for the season.  

Peach Sunday

Slept in today until 7 today and before we started the peaches I had to remove the rings and wash the jars from yesterday's canning.  Then I washed jars for today's stuff and got everything out and ready.
Ron and I started the peaches about 8:30; we started out with peach pie filling and we made 16 qts and then is was on to peach jam.  We used the rest of the peaches that were ripe and got 18 pints of jam.  The peach pie filling is so bright and orange and I used the yellow peaches for it.  I used yellow and white peaches for the jam, needed to use what was ripe and ready.  I tasted both things and both are superb.  For 2 old people we really did a lot of canning the last 2 days.
There should be some yellow peaches ready for tomorrow and hopefully the rest of the yellow will be ready on Tuesday.  The white peaches won't be ready tomorrow but I should be able to start on them by Tuesday.  The rest of the peaches I will can in quarts and will do them in halves and slices in a light syrup.
Tomorrow I will be doing the canning by myself and that is why I saved the easiest for the rest of the week.

Peach pie filling made with yellow peaches.

My husband, he blanched the peaches and I cut them up.

16 qts of peach pie filling and 18 pints of peach jam.