Today I Froze Cowpeas

For some reason, I keep wanting to call these peas "cowslip" when they are actually "cowpeas," Some folks call them "purple peas" and that's what I first learned to call them.

Cowslip? I bet you're thinking I'm going weird and freezing bovine lingerie! Nope. these peas are in the black eye pea family. Looks almost the same but the coloring is more pastel with a hint of purple. I haven't eaten any of these in 33 years so growing and preserving has been a trip down memory lane for me. The 1st time I saw these was when I was pregnant with my #1 son back in 1978. I was staying with my former in-laws and my father-in-law restricted my activities because I was in the "family way." However, I was allowed to shell these and shell them I did, bushel after bushel! Anyway, here's a look at how they grow:

The finished product (picture looks kind of green but they're more cream color):

Hope everyone is staying cool. It's time for me to get started on tomato sauce again. I hope to squeeze in some crochet time as the sauce cooks down.  Hugs...

#1 Son's Visiting and More...

Matthew is visiting today. He comes over to use my washing machine once a week and we get a chance to visit too; I miss having my "kids" around. Anyway, I decided to take some of my green beans from the garden and freeze individual packs for him. I don't think he eats many vegetables and I thought I'd hook him up do the "mommy thing" and send him home with some green beans.

Matt and Nellie Belle goofing off

Here's the product:

I made 7 of these packs with sandwich bags--about 1 cup each bag

Then I put them all in a larger, freezer bag

Hope y'all are having a great week.

A Productive Suzie-Homemaker Day

Today I processed and froze 10 packages of corn. I took it off the cob because I'm not too fond of frozen corn on the cob. To can the beans I used the instructions on this page. My pressure canner isn't big enough to do all the jars at once--I can fit 6 jars in at a time. The green beans were all from the first picking out of our garden. I could hardly believe that last weekend I found a few wannabe green beans and yesterday, I found a bunch of 'em ready to pick! We had some with our supper last night and they were delicious with a bit of butter melted on top of them. I did give some to my mil and still had a bunch left for canning. Here's a few pictures:

This is about 2/3 of what I got.

Ended up with 11 pints after giving some to MIL and having for supper last night

I started out with 20 ears

Ended up with 10 bags

I got the 1st cucumber yesterday too. Seeing it makes me realize that I forgot to cut it up and put it on our chef salads tonight. Drat!!! I planted a smaller size one because it looks like it might make better pickles.

This is some salad greens I'm growing in a pot. Mine doesn't look pretty like some I've seen pictures of.

The lilies in our pond. Several years ago we had purchased a different lily for the pond. It disappeared! We have no idea what happened to it. Our son Justin tore a chunk off his and gave it to us and it is taking over the pond and has gorgeous flowers. It's been probably 6 years or so that we put fish in here. We just got the "feeder fish" that were 8 for a dollar. They are HUGE now and often we are asked "when's the fish fry?" This year we've noticed babies for the first time.

Now, here's a picture and I'd like to see how many of you can guess what type of flower is in it:

On Saturday I'll let you know what it is.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you're having a great week.  Hugs...

It's that Time of the Year Again....

I found corn on sale for only 20 cents an ear so I bought some and I'm going to freeze it. Last year we figured out that if we could find corn for under 25 cents an ear it was cheaper than what we paid for a bushel. Anyway, corn is shucked and waiting on water to boil so I can blanch it. This year I'm going to freeze the corn instead of canning because I'll need my jars for pickles and I'm thinking of making spaghetti sauce too. We'll see how it goes. Last years tomato crop really sucked because of the drought we had so I didn't get much tomato sauce made and no spaghetti sauce. I have 14 tomato plants in the garden. I still have a few more things to plant. My fingers are crossed for this year!

08-17-2008 This Day in 1790 U.S. Capital Moved & I Have Peaches!

On 17 August 1790:
The capital city of the U.S. moves to Philadelphia from New York City. So you always thought the capital of the United States has always been Washington, D.C.--nope, that's not true. Congress had met in numerous cities including New York, Philadelphia, Princeton, Baltimore, Annapolis, Trenton and York before settling in the newly formed Washington, D.C. You can read more about this at http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/washington-dc/history.php . The picture is of the President's house in Philadelphia where George Washington lived.

Here's an update for you on my food preservation. For the first time, I was able to harvest peaches from our dwarf peach tree! I raced the squirrels for the fruit and I mostly won! I used splenda instead of sugar in the syrup for them. The "syrup" is rather thin and watery though. I was able to bag 4 quarts. I should be able to use the peaches and make a delicious peach cobbler. Warm peach cobbler with sugar-free ice cream on top--YUMMY!

08-07-2008 Update on My Food Preserving

Corn is done! About 1 dozen ears of corn I processed and froze on the cob. The rest, I cut from the cob and froze in packets of about 1 3/4 - 2 cups sizes. What a lot of work! I asked my son to come over and help me. He shucked the corn for me and I cut it from the cob, cooked and bagged it! I'm glad that's over with. I never realized before that corn had a smell. When my husband got home from work, he thought I was eating raw corn because it was stuck to my face and in my hair! What a vision of domestic loveliness to come home too!

My ds sliced the cucumbers for pickles. I must have selected the most detail orientated recipe to make. I soaked the cucumbers in a lime solution overnight. In the morning I had to rinse them 3 times. Then I had to soak them in ice water for 3 1/2 hours. The next step was to make the pickling solution. That's done and the part I'm at now is to let the pickles soak in this solution overnight. In the morning I have to boil them and then do the actual canning thingie. I may get them done yet! Stay tuned...

08-03-2008--Preserving Vegetables from Garden

Hi, I thought that I would share with you today one of the things I'm doing to conserve on my food bill for this winter. We grew our first garden this year! It's pretty small because we didn't know if we had what it takes to maintain one. Next year it will be bigger! Anyway, we are up to our ears in cucumbers and I've been giving many of them away. My best crop is the green beans. Every Saturday for the past few weeks I go and harvest my little crop then I bring the beans in and process them for freezing. I was able to get one of those whatchacallit machines at Big Lots that vacuum packs food items. So, for the past several weekends I've been able to put 2-7 packs of beans in the freezer. It's just dh and me so that will go a long way. Anyway, I've been scouring the Internet looking for a basic tomato sauce recipe and I found on at a New Mexico State University web page http://cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_e/. I only have a few tomato plants because I don't care for tomatos but I do enjoy dishes that have tomato sauce in them. The recipe sounds like a lot of work but it's worth it when you look at how high food prices are now and financial experts predict even higher prices this winter. Here's a few more places to visit for tips on freezing and canning food

• http://cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_e/


• http://www.canning-food-recipes.com/canning.htm


• http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/TOPIC_Canning_Food


• http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/


• http://www.pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm

I have some onions coming in and I want to chop them up and dehydrate them to use in cooking. I would like to buy a couple bushels of corn to process and freeze but the going price at farmers' markets is $40 a bushel! Between the summer storms, higher transportation costs and the increased use of corn to make ethanol corn prices have soared! Anyway, if anyone has some more hints, recipes or comments please write me.

For more information, go to your favorite search engine and type in "preserving foods," "canning foods" or "freezing foods." Good luck and have fun!

Take care...Sharon