The Great Pumpkin!!

Go ahead a nd laugh if you will but I swear to you that I saw him last year! We had 3 pumpkin plants in our garden. Altogether there were 9 pumpkins. I dressed up in orange and green camoflage and laid down in the middle of the patch. I looked at my watch at 11:15 PM and no great pumpkin had appeared. I was just getting ready to leave the patch and go to bed when I heard a rustling in the plant next to me. I slowly turned my head and there he was! He was huge! He looked like a giant walking pumpkin plant! His arms looked like long vines and his head resembled a pumpkin! He didn't see me. I was trying not to breathe hard but it wasn't easy. I'm telling you that I have never been so excited! I couldn't hold on anymore and I wet myself! The great pumpkin had a chart in his hand and I know that he was rating my pumpkin patch. He saw me move and was gone in a flash! I didn't even see which way that he went! I BLEW IT! I BLEW IT! I will never know if my patch was the most sincere!

ahhh pea soup! My favorite!

I made a pot of the worst split pea soup that the world has ever tasted! Bleahhh! During the process Pat said to me, "Here honey. Use this chicken stock that I have in the freezer here." So being a responsible pleasing husband I said, "Okey dokey there little woman who controls the amount of sex in this household. Anything to please you!" So I mixed up all the ingredients and cooked it for an hour and a half. I then went to a meeting and couldn't wait to get home to eat a big bowl of pea soup with some nice chewy bread, "Yum Yum! says I!"My mouth was watering all the way home. I fixed a big bowl as soon as I walked in the house and took a big spoonful. "Bleahhhh!!! and Pffffttt!" says I. "Honey this tastes like apple jelly. Maybe some Tabasco and a little salt will help." So I added a liberal amount of salt and Tabasco. "Double bleaahhh!" says I. "You know what?" says she who must be obeyed. I think one of those jars wasn't chicken stock! I think I remember freezing a jar of apple juice!" Now the question is how do you dispose of 1 1/2 gallons of apple flavored pea soup!

Hanging a new storm door

I have been struggling with hanging a storm door all afternoon. I finally quit. It got to dark to see. I have hung several storm doors in the past but this one is different. The frame had to be built out about 3 inches. The hardest part of hanging a door is visualizing the installation of the Z channel. It always takes me a while to figure that out. Anyway, I have the frame hung and tomorrow I will finish the installation. I am a little concerned with the possibility of interference with the main door and storm door handles hitting each other. That will present a problem that will require building the door out even more. My fingers are crossed!!

The front of our house faces directly south. The living areas are on the north side of the house. The bedrooms which are on the front of the house get all of the winter sunshine while the back is dark. This storm door is a full glass door and will allow us to open the inner door which will allow more light into the main part of the house.

yes to yogurt

My wife sampled the homemade yogurt this morning and pronounced it good! I asked her if she thought that it was as good as the greek yogurt which is very rich and she said that it was pretty close. It certainly was easy and cheap enough to make as well as a fun project!

Next week I will tackle making saurkraut

I made yogurt today

The yogurt project went well! There were some minor malfunctions but everything worked out. I used a candy thermometer and this worked okay. I did see the advantage of using a thermometer with a dial on the top. It would be much easier to read. The last step in the process called for the milk and yogurt starter to be blended very well and then the mixture was to be placed on a heating pad which was sent on medium heat. The pan was to be covered with the lid and a towel to hold in the heat. I did all of this and then had to leave the mixture alone for seven hours. This was the hard part! I wanted to peek but didn’t. I was watching the clock though during the last hour and telling myself not to touch it.

I took the towel and lid off five minutes early. I just couldn’t wait any longer. The mixture had congealed! Hooooray! I stirred it briskly to stop the fermentation and then poured it into containers and placed it in the frig for over night. It should be thicker in the morning.

I figure that I have about twenty seven cents into each six ounce jar. This is a significant savings over the store bought stuff. We will just have to taste it to see if it was worth the effort.

The recipe that I used said that store bought yogurt is thicker because they use thickeners one of which is pectin. They also use sugar and sometimes other additives. My yogurt is simply milk and yogurt starter. Nothing else. I used three tablespoons of commercial yogurt as the starter. I won’t have to use commercial stuff anymore. I will simply save three tablespoons from the last cup of this batch.

I got the yogurt instructions by typing Making yogurt in Google and got wonderful step by step instructions.

Ahhh! The do it yourself lifestyle

I have been fantasizing lately about the rural life style. I have a friend who started raising a few free range chickens about a year ago. They are getting eggs now and I have been one of her best customers. The eggs are a lot better tasting than store bought eggs. They even look different with orange colored yolks. They are antibiotic and steroid free. My friend told me that store bought eggs are on average two weeks old before they ever hit the stores. She talked about how much fun it is to watch the chickens run around the yard chasing bugs and just doing what chickens do. I live in a fairly nice subdivision so chickens are out of the question for me. I can just hear a neighbor bitching about chickens pecking her squash and tomatoes.

My friend told me recently that she and her husband had just purchased two piglets. (Oh boy! Bacon and eggs!) They will raise them for several months and then have them turned into bacon, ham, etc. Again no steroids! No antibiotics!

All of this plus reading the book, Made By Hand, by Mark Frauenfelder have encouraged me to try some things myself. Mark talks about making yogurt. I went on line and found a wealth of information re: making yogurt so I am going to try it this week. I personally don’t care for yogurt but my wife eats it every day. I think that it tastes like spoiled ice cream mixed with a little chicken shit for flavor but everyone to their own tastes I guess. I have never tasted chicken shit by the way but my imagination sometimes gets the best of me.

There is also an article about making sauerkraut in Mark’s book. My German grandmother used to make sauerkraut. Again, I went on line and read about how to make it. There were numerous articles about it. Requirements are a stone crock, cabbage, a rock, salt, and a round board to fit over the top of the crock. Ma Nature supplies the rest of the ingredients. It sounded simple enough to me and we do have a stone crock big enough to make five Lbs. so I am going to give that a try also.

I will keep everyone posted about my adventures in wild fermentation as these projects are attempted.