Autumnal Equinox, 2013

 Equinox: When the night and day are of the same length.  The turning point of the seasons, and from now on, the days will get shorter as we move towards winter.  I think it officially falls tomorrow, but there have been some celebrations today as well.  The autumnal equinox is marked by the harvest moon this year...when a full moon falls closest  to or on the date of the equinox.  It has surely been magnificent.

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  We have been working our way slowly through the harvest.  Spent Friday night shelling edamame that we are saving for seed, and then some.  Filled the jars for seed, and then filled another quart+  of dried beans, thinking maybe I can rehydrate them and see what happens, or just grind them and use for flour.  Not going to waste, at any rate.  I wonder if I could sprout them? Hmmmm...  

  We also got the green bean seeds all shelled and are now laying out to dry.  Those plants all got pulled up and relegated to the compost bin.  The new beans are looking pretty good, but it's getting cool fast, so nothing may come of them. We shall see...

  Still harvesting the errant tomato and okra pods...drying them as we go...in fact, there's a dehydrator full waiting to be put away now.  Still harvesting and freezing bell peppers. Saving seed from those too. 


  Started checking and digging some sweet potatoes...one end of the bed, the plants he dug the taters were small, but healthy looking. The other end were OMG! huge and healthy looking.  I think we're going to have a good crop this year. In fact, we sliced up several of them and feasted on sweet potato fries with burgers for supper last night.  Gorgeous bright orange flesh, thin skinned. Hope they store well.

  I have sage drying, anise hyssop drying, chives drying, parsley drying, lemon balm drying, basil drying ...you can imagine what my kitchen looks like. lol   Himself finished harvesting the fingerling potatoes and we have 2 big trays full of those hardening off a little here in the office. 2 butternut squash as well were brought in after the fact. lol


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 Once we recover from the hit of paying the property taxes, it will be time to see about restocking my pantry with some things like canned tuna and maybe salmon (if I can find Atlantic salmon--not going to risk eating the Pacific stuff--too much radiation danger from Fukashima) . Other odds and ends that I like to keep on hand, or extras of too.  I may still can some chicken breast this year as I am almost out of the stuff I canned before. That was my first time to can any kind of meat, and it worked out very well. It was really handy to have those jars of chicken on the shelf.  Same with the turkey and turkey broth that I canned last year. But I still have lots of that.  I recently found a recipe for home canning baked beans that I am dying to try.  I thought about canning some chili, but I don't know--it's easy enough to make.  Still...it would be convenient. I actually could can about any kind of fish too, local stuff, and forego buying any potentially contaminated fish.  hmmm..that's a thought.  Oh well--all this talk is the rambling of a dangerously tired mind. LOL  Lately I have been thinking I am so done with canning ANYTHING!   Until I see a neat recipe.  lol  

  I'm going to make some hot cocoa mix and not have to buy that anymore. I can sweeten it with xylitol and use my fair trade cocoa...and the recipe I found (thanks! Alton Brown!!)  makes about a half gallon of mix for about 3 bucks.  AND YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT'S IN IT !   So, there you go.  We don't drink a lot of hot cocoa, but it's nice to have in winter.  The Irishman really likes it, since he doesn't drink coffee...

  I got all the laundry stuff to make soap again, it was a buy 2 get one free deal on all 3 main ingredients, so I did.  It's still sitting on my kitchen table while I ponder the mystery of where the heck I'm going to store it. lol


. Tomorrow morning I'm going to bake some pumpkin muffins, for breakfast.  Phase 3 on the weekends gives me more latitude on what I can eat. And I am dying for something healthy/sweet.  That's not fruit.  :)

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   Okay...I'm starting to yawn--must be nearing bedtime. Sat with my neighbor today for about 9 hours. Made for a very long day, lol.  The temps here are in the low 70's during the day, and the 50's at night.   I meant to open up my house this morning before I left, but forgot. It'll happen first thing in the morning, believe me.   All I can smell is dog and I need to air it out.  The AC has been back on for several days because it got so hot again. Sheesh.

  Happy Saturday to you all...wishes for peace in your lives...be happy !!


Namaste.