Relish

Oh, how we should relish in the summer days of childhood! Well, it looks as though that's just what the kids did today, as they were helping with the making of pickle relish!

The Fruits of our Labor

Fun on the Jordan

Wednesday we had soo much fun canoeing and then swimming the Jordan River.  We went with the Friske's and Schenke's.  This was the first time canoeing for the Friske's.  We went backwards, sideways, lost a paddle, went over logs and even into trees!

 

It was a great day and perfect weather.

Fun Failure

I had this great idea!  Use an old wood cook stove to do my canning on.  There's always so much to be done on the stove during the summer, and why have all that heat in the house using expensive propane?  Well, it took about 3 hours to get the beets boiling, and I never did get the water bath to a boil, so it was brought inside, and of course only took a few minutes.  Our great attempts were certainly fun, and great for pictures :)

Home Canning

I love preserving the harvest!  All those jars look so pretty.  So far I have only been playing, nothing serious yet.

I have tried several new recipes this summer.

These are two new relishes.  Dixie Relish is made from Cabbage, Onions, Green Peppers and Spices.  Red Root Relish is made from Red Cabbage, Beets, Onions and Horse Radish.

I tried both of these last night, and was quite pleased.  The Red Root has a very strong flavor.

So far, I have 9 quart jars of Dill Pickles.  These have always been a favorite in the family.  Very simply made with a brine solution, head of dill, and minced garlic.

New for me this year are Bread & Butter Pickles.  I have only recently learned to like these, as dill were always my favorite, but I now enjoy these more.

Since I had never made Bread & Butter's before, I decided to try all 3 variations in my preserving book.  British Bread & Butter's are my favorite.

British are made with apple cider vinegar and brown sugar.  Traditional are just that, and Zesty are made with horseradish and grated ginger root.

Cinnamon & Sugar

Introducing Cinnamon & Sugar, our two doe kids that we are hoping to one day be our milking goats! Cinnamon & Sugar were about 4 weeks old when we got them and they are now about 5 months old. They have the same father, but not the same mother. They have become very friendly, especially Cinnamon, and we love to watch them play! We did have to bottle feed them for several weeks, which was so much fun!