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Saturday, September 27, 2014

Harvest Blessings

There has been a lot going on around here
as there has been for many folks.
I'm not entirely sure just where to begin today.
My last post included a partial to-do list
some of which has occurred.
Today I found my kitchen floor.
You know, I think it was under there all along
and was just playing hide & seek.
At least we can walk across it without
it pulling our socks off now:)
The forests are open so we have brought in,
split, and stacked a couple trailers of wood.
We probably need one more good load or a couple small ones.
That's quite the workout, but is so rewarding.
A few days ago as I was picking 'more' plums, and
this nearly hit me in the head before I noticed it.
This whole limb will be pruned off 
so I am going to rescue it and bring it inside for the mantle.
The river is low but still sounds beautiful as
my head hits the pillow at night.
Tomatoes! Wow!
They leave me speechless.
There were a bunch that came up volunteer (in the potato patch.)
They are a little later than the ones we planted intentionally.  But look what they are doing.  The vast majority of these little ones go on the dehydrator to become 'sun-dried' tomatoes.  The ones in the upper right bowl are all from volunteer plants.
This year in addition to 'real' tomatoes,
we had little purple tomatoes and big orange ones - both good.

If you have never canned pears,
first let me warn you.
And second, 
you don't know what you're missing.
I have canned as much as we will eat,
gave away six big grocery bags full to some friends,
and they are still falling.
My neighbor was over today and asked if I wanted any pears.
I just laughed.
A good year for pears evidently.
Some folks don't realize that they fall from the tree green
then ripen over the course of about a week.
This was fantastic thought on God's part since they
are too tender, would bruise, and directly turn to mush
if they fell when ripe.

They are easy to can (one of the first things I learned to can.)
Just peel, core, slice, and top off with syrup.
Hot water bath for 8-10 minutes and presto.
I prefer a light syrup so use 1 cup sugar to 4 cups water.
Bring it to a simmer so the sugar dissolves before
pouring over the fruit.
And last but not least...
evening before last we fiiiiiinally had a little shower
move through, and as we looked out our back door,
this is what we saw over the mountain.

I hope each of you is finding your own form of blessings
and enjoying the tail end of the harvest season.

Until next time,
Nimble Fingers and Even Stitches




11 comments:

  1. The nest will be wonderful! I often bring in things from nature.

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    1. Me too - usually just twigs and such for in a vase:)

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  2. We had a couple Lincoln pears and a wild one in our back meadow, when I was a kid. The wild one was no good for eating because they were "knotty" (had hard spots), but they cooked up okay for sauce.

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    1. We have another tree that has little hard pears. The whole pear is hard. I don't know what kind it is but have never tried using them - maybe sauce would work. Thanks

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  3. the tomatoes look so tasty and as for the river scene what a delightful place to be living near

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    1. That pix was taken from our pergola. We love the scene too & have a couple chairs out there so we can sit and watch the river flow by.

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  4. The bounty from your garden looks so good. Canned pears are the best. I like to can 'spiced pears', to give as gifts at Christmas.
    Rose

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    1. It's silly, but I think I like them canned even better than fresh.

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  5. That's an extraordinarily good looking bird nest. And yay for a great harvest. Your canned pears look absolutely delicious. We love pears around here, but we made a semi-fatal mistake a few years ago concerning one of our two pear trees. We cut down the one that hardly ever produced any fruit, big mistake. The remaining tree hasn't done well at all since then. I'm planting another asap. Live and learn.

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    1. I have been told that apples in particular (pears are so similar) only produce a bumper crop every other year. Last year we had two pears on the tree & the dog got to one of them before me. This year there were hundreds. Maybe this next year you'll have a ton.

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  6. What a beautiful harvest! And that nest was a wonderful find! I have never canned pears but yours look tasty! Our fruit trees have a year or two more before we can start reaping and I can't wait! I am still in awe every time I see your gorgeous river... to hear that as I sleep would be like a glamorous camping trip for the rest of my life :) Have a wonderful week!

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