If things aren't crazy enough....

But my gazillions of tomatoes are still not turning red, so I'm not canning those.  I am canning green beans, and carrots and chicken.  Because if things aren't crazy enough in your kitchen, you should find MORE things to do, right ??  So...I bought a 25 # bag of organic carrots  ( for 21 dollars!!!). Yesterday I canned 15 quarts of carrots and still have about a third of the bag left. I'm going to keep some for the veggie drawer and dehydrate the rest.

  This morning I had enough beans ready for 7 quarts. We trimmed and snapped them on the couch last night  watching a movie. Done.

The local market had 10 pound bags of chicken leg and thigh quarters on sale for 49 cents a pound. SO I popped on up there and bought 40 pounds. I froze 4 meals worth of chicken,  but most of it is in my 2 big stock pots cooking away. I'll pull the meat off the bone, divvy it up between jars and can chicken and broth. Boom !  (Best 20 dollars I've ever spent. )  lol

  There were peaches sitting on the cabinet getting soft, so I whipped up a peach pie using store bought crust, because there is absolutely NO room in my kitchen to roll out a pie crust.   Sigh...the trees are not doing so well this year.  We're getting some to eat, but I don't think there will be any for canning.  Do we buy some, or chalk it up ??  haven't decided yet. I still have a little peach and a LOT of pears in the cupboard. So, we're not without fruit of any kind in there. I think there's a couple of bags in the freezer too.  We took some branches to our local Ag Extension office to see what was up with out apple and pear trees.  Bad news.  It's fire blight.  Not good.   http://www.nysipm.cornell.edu/factsheets/treefruit/diseases/fb/fb.asp  They told us it's epidemic this year.  Great.  Looks like we'll be taking down both those trees.  It can be treated, but the treatment is pretty involved and expensive and I don't see us doing that.   Thank GOD it only affects, apples, pears and rosebushes. Not my peach and cherry trees.


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  It's now after midnight. I have been canning and cooking all day, and my back hurts and my legs hurt and I'm cranky. The batch of stuff in the canner right now doesn't come out for another hour.  I'm debating putting one more batch in, but that would mean being awake until about 5 AM and I don't see that happening.  lol   It's just such an ordeal to put all that chicken and broth somewhere cool enough and safe, lol. The crockpot is still bubbling away with chicken broth. I have at least 10 more quarts of chicken and stock to do. And then the jars of chicken broth by itself. It'll be another full day tomorrow. Not complaining.  I am very grateful to have the ability and opportunity to do this stuff, to provide food for us. Healthy safe food. There's been another round of e. coli going around here...people sick with stomach bugs from eating contaminated food.  Makes me feel a little better about never getting to go out to eat. lol  Seriously...my pantry saved us this year.  If I ever wondered about the viability or purpose of putting food by for the "just in cases"...I never will again.  


  I am so grateful for so much...the Irishman gets to go back to work on Monday. The injury has healed and all is well.  The accident we had could have been so much worse...and I see little silver linings everywhere.  And it really has been good for us as a couple to have all this time together.  We are starting to slip back into the old ways, because he doesn't need me to drive him anymore and I don't have to take care of him like I did.  And while those things are good, it's a little sad. I guess I just feel like it won't be long before we are going our own way again. But who knows...I think this whole thing has been a real wake up call for us on so many levels.  Our garden is thriving, in spite of getting it in so late and the weather being so crazy.  (Although--I have to find some okra from somewhere.  Mine didn't come up at all, and when it would have been early enough to re-plant it, we were busted up. I have to dehydrate some okra for my pantry, I have used all of it over the winter.  I don't need to pickle any--I still have some of that.)  We won't have much of a fruit harvest this year unless I manage to buy some peaches and apples from one of the local orchards. I do that sometimes...but I'm trying not to spend any more money than I have to. But I still have little bits of this and that, so it isn't dire straits. In my big freezer, I have blackberries, peaches, pumpkin, persimmons, strawberries, pineapples and mangoes. In my pantry, I have applesauce, pears, a jar or two of peaches, apple butter and several jams. Oh, and some pineapple I canned too.  So,  we won't die of scurvy.  lol


  I need to inventory my pantry. I need to get my house cleaned up. I need to organize my office.

  I need to shampoo my carpets.  I need to clean out all my kitchen cupboards.  I need to go to sleep.  lol



  Hope everyone is having a good summer. 






Namaste.