Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

Autumn has officially arrived!
The days of soup with garlic bread and warm oatmeal apple crisp.

The days when trips to the farms brighten the days of we city dwellers who dream of the farm.

On a breathtaking day when you can pick your own raspberries and pumpkins and watch the silly goats walk the planks above the barn.

When you can see the most majestic blue sky behind a windmill, walk the corn maze, see the leaves turning and enjoy the bright colors of nature.

But best of all getting to try and purchase new kinds of apples (sweetangos) and produce which is the reason we visit the farms and support local farmers. 

I love the squash this time of year. I start thinking of all the things I can make. I purchased two butternut squash at the farm. It's still early here so I know there will be plenty more. From these two I got seven servings. As you can see I prepared some for oven baked squash fries and some for future cooking and baking. I see a squash pie coming.

Harvesting at the townhouse itself this week included the sweet potatoes. I was hoping for better, but I tried and there's the results. Once they've cured a while longer I'll peel them up and enjoy the fruit of my labor. There's a good amount for a side dish of mashed with the sage butter I froze earlier this season.

I was gifted a bag of green tomatoes this week. I am blessed  to have had two ripen to red, one going on the top of a white garlic pizza and the other still waiting for me. We enjoyed for the first time ever fried green tomatoes and I managed to put the remaining tomatoes up. I have four pints of garlic dill pickled green tomatoes, two pints of sliced tomatoes for future frying and three pints of pickled green tomatoes with jalapeno peppers and onions. Thank you Nannette for your gift.

To add to my freebies this week, although not as exciting as the tomatoes, I got a corn bread mix, Milano raspberry chocolate cookies, and coupons for free organic mac and cheese, yoplait yogurt with Hershey's toppings and from my super market a free can of tuna.

I have to admit that I don't have gardening fever any more. I have barnheart which is just the desire to have a barn. I would settle for a large garage that looks like a barn right now. This has been a wonderful learning and doing summer for this townhouse farm girl. I still have peppermint to harvest along with rosemary and sage so that I am sure that I have plenty for winter. From here on it will be what I can get from the farmers markets, but I have gained so much respect for where my food comes from. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week everyone. 

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

This little townhouse of ours has been a very busy place this summer. We have learned new things, tried new foods, and although we have one of the smallest kitchens going we have canned and preserved and made the most of what we've grown ourselves, purchased at the farmer's markets and received as gifts.

Ready for this past weekends celebrations were home made Kosher dill pickle spears. These were a gift from some one who doesn't even know me, but got word that I would use them. Three quarts of heaven, well two because we ate into one, are in the pantry for the upcoming year.

The second gift of cucumbers were made into Bread and Butter pickles. I received this fine slicing machine complete with a protective glove for Christmas last year and finally used it. There are now four pints of these yummy goodies in the pantry. The most exciting thing to me about receiving these gifts was the fact that the person who gave them to me became inspired to make her own and discovered that she could do it. 

While I was searching for new recipes I discovered some that required espresso powder. I thought that most recipes just called for ground coffee. Not true. I searched for information on where to buy it, but the price was so high and I began to search for how to make it. Lo and behold it was easier than ever. Just make a pot of espresso in your regular coffee pot, dry the used grounds, a spin through the spice mill and there you have it. Espresso powder. I didn't need it right away so I put it on the list of future investments and went about other homestead activities. Not a week later while on an expedition through Targets, out of curiosity, I started pricing espresso coffee. A little high, but from a 10 oz bag I could make as much espresso powder as I "wanted" not what I "needed". The universe saw my want and there it was...espresso coffee marked clearance. $1.83 for a 10 oz vacuum sealed bag. We took all three that still had their seal and now have it in our pantry. I made two pots of espresso and dried the grounds and put them through the spice mill and I now have a nice bottle of powder to cook with. I also came across a bottle of Red Wine Vinegar marked down on the clearance shelf to $.98. This has been added to the cooking pantry also. 

At the farmer's markets we acquired blueberries, cherries and black berries. I put up a batch of blueberry jam, blueberry syrup for pancakes and cherry jam. I made black berry butter and froze the remainder for the next project which will be triple berry syrup. A favorite around here.

While I was out watering my "covert" container garden I spotted what may be a sweet potato. I felt the soil and it didn't quite feel like there were any in there, but there is still growing time for them and I will be patient until I get the sign that it's time to harvest. I am getting excited and hopeful that there will be some there. So all in all it's been busy and I know a lot of you are also. I keep going and working and it does pay off. I like to add what I get free to my posts when there are some so here they are.

A case of 24 bottles of water, a bag of TGI Fridays snacks and two boxes of Domino brown sugar. One was a gift from that cookie monster friend who doesn't want me to stop baking. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope everyone has a wonderful week and is grateful for their blessings. 

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

I just came in from watering my (BIG!) garden. It's looking good and is growing so well. It's all herbs and sweet potatoes, but it's mine. This past week just flew by for me. Probably because I have too much to do and never enough time. We all know how that goes. I had some catching up to do also because my daughter and I took off for a four day weekend in Vermont over the holiday. The day after we got back my herbs went in and that was two weeks ago today. 

This is what went down this week.

This is a batch of Jalapeno pepper jelly. I have been buying it at quite a price and decided that I would make it this year. I've already given the grounds keeper a jar because he came and started helping me clean the front garden by cutting back a bush. Some time this summer I will be making roasted pineapple and habenero pepper jelly/relish. 

For those who know me I love my goodies. I will not deny that I have a sweet tooth, but I do realize that I don't need to eat it all at once. I baked carrot cake in jars to put on the shelf for those hot summer days when baking is not likely to happen. My recipe makes so much so I put up ten jars and still had a good size cake for the week. 

I harvested a good bunch of flat leaf parsley. It's on it's way to drying and over the weekend I found a new coffee grinder at a thrift store, that I now have to grind my herbs after they've dried. 

I am so happy with the success of my basil. I harvested a large bunch and it is also on it's way to drying. These are just a couple of the herbs I use in my soup mixes. My kitchen is smelling so wonderful this week.

Last but not least I started a pint of chive vinegar. I cut the flowers before I moved my chive plant from the front garden to the back garden. It was so large I divided it into three and if I like this chive vinegar I will hopefully have more flowers through the summer. If not I will have my chive butter for those baked potatoes through the winter. 

That's what went down this week at the Townhouse Homestead and I am having so much fun doing what I can in a small space. Anything can be done and I am so grateful to farmers for providing the fruits and vegetable I can't grow at this time. Thank you for stopping by. Have a great week everyone.

Slow and steady.

I can hardly believe that it's been almost two weeks since I've updated my blog. I have every good reason to have been away so long. First there's the dealings of selling a house, working for some one else, building my on line reselling business, which by the way is picking up again, and harvesting and putting up this years bounty. I wonder when I found time to sleep. This is the latest canning project. I put up 16 pints of salsa for those vegetarian days. My favorite quickie dinner for when I'm alone is a good sized baked potato with sour cream and covered in salsa. I still have more to do, but it's Sunday and I must turn in early for that 3:15 am wake up call for my early morning shift. Slowly and steadily I will get it done and keep up. After all I wouldn't be the first person to be tired trying to build a business and survive what life throws at you.
Hopefully I'll be back mid week to update the blog, so when you stop by to check make sure you stop by my Etsy store (butterflyplace.etsy.com) to see what's new and how things are going. I hope everyone has a wonderful, but not as busy as my, week.

Canning season is well underway.

In the beginning there were two large bowls of chopped vegetables soaking in salt brine. Then...

The chopped vegetables were well rinsed and drained then put in a large pot with spices, cider vinegar and sugar and brought to a boil. While that was coming to a boil the jars were sterilized and  prepared for filling.

The relish begins to boil and the jars are ready to fill.

In the end I have 44 jars of sweet relish to trade with others for their home made products and it's a win win situation for all. The kitchen may be small but it works and the foot steps were kept at a minimum. Mmmmm...smells good in here. Hot dogs any one?

Next is home made salsa, chili relish and roasted red peppers. This winter when it's so cold I can enjoy my vegetables and forget about all the hard work with every bite.

The Green mountains of Vermont

There are miles and miles of green mountains. The rich farmlands and everyone just making use of the land and their hands and minds to be self sustaining in such a beautiful part of this country. It was hard to leave, but it's only five hours away and I know I'll be returning. While I was there I felt so at home and got that farm girl itch that's been supressed for years. The pictures posted are from the Bennington VT area. Just a small sampling. More to come. Stay tuned.