Summertime on the Farm.
July 23rd, 2011 § 2 Comments
It’s definitely summertime here! We’re having a heat wave here in the Ohio river valley. We have stuck it out without the air conditioner until now…kiddos were starting to get a heat rash so we gave up. We wanted to see if we could go the whole summer without it but in this old house with little insulation and not a lot of shade it’s just too hot. Even though we finally turned on the cool air we spent the day outside. I had a bushel of green beans to snap which turned out to be 13 nice quarts canned, that puts me up to a grand total of 34 quarts so far for the season! Sure will taste good this fall and winter when the snow is blowing outside.
Beans in the Canner
I spent all morning snapping beans on the porch. I enjoy it, takes me back to helping my mother snap beans, shell peas and clean corn on the porch swing in the yard under our big old oak tree. Last week we hauled hay on a hot afternoon. I love the way dry hay smells, like dusty old barns and hot days in the sun. There’s something about a day of hard outside work that makes me feel so good. All of these things on the farm remind me of mom and dad and even though they’re gone it makes me feel closer to them to work on the same land that they did. I feel like I understand them more now than I ever did when they were alive.
The first harvest of beans.
Mom and Dad
- Dad with our old dog Sam on his Ford
Oh just can it!
August 27th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
That’s right, canning season is upon us! It completely snuck up on me this year, with all the unpacking, getting organized (HA) and chasing kiddos around I kind of forgot the garden was growing! Mother nature doesn’t wait so the tomatoes and corn had to be picked.
I didn’t do bad, had around 14 quarts of tomato juice plus several bags of frozen ones for chili and soups. Corn so far I have 19 pints plus some frozen and there’s still a bit left to harvest. I’ll be thankful for all the hard work when the cold winds of winter are blowing. It will be a little taste of summer on a gloomy day.
I love that many of my jars are the very same jars that my mother once toiled over. I often think of her when I’m standing over the hot stove with food bubbling away ready to “put up”. I know she would be proud of me. I wish I would’ve learned how to do it from her while she was alive. Guess I was just too young to realize that it was important. I remember thinking when I was a kid that I wish we could just have some “ready made” food for a change. Mom always cooked from scratch. Occasionally we would have a frozen pizza or something like that but her meals were always home cooked. I know now that I didn’t know how good I had it. I hope I am half as good of a cook as my mother because even half would be amazing!
Garden time!
August 10th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
