Cider anyone?
I spotted this guy on the trail to Porcupine creek this afternoon.
It's evening... my favorite time of day. It's cooled off outside, the animals are all tucked away in the barn for the night with lots of hay, and the house smells of apple cider. And chowder. What more could anyone ask for?
I've got a big pot of vegetable chowder that has been simmering away.... lots of thyme, asparagus, sweet potatoes, zucchini, onions, carrot, peas, corn... it smells heavenly. But not as heavenly as the apples, cinnamon, and cloves. I've been making homemade apple cider this afternoon/evening. We picked some apples this afternoon and they have been cooking away on the stove with the spices and sugar for hours.... 3 to be exact. It's a lenghtly process, but oh so worth it. I want to smell this aroma in the house every night... the smell of what will be cider cooking along with the smell of the woodstove - I can hardly wait. We had a fire two nights ago, but it's not been cool enough again for one... yet. The cider is actually not hard to make and so worth the effort. I picked about 15 apples and lost about two to worms. You quarter them and put them all in a big (BIG) pot and put enough water to cover and no more. Add about 1 cup sugar and then put your whole cloves (4-5 tablespoons) and cinnamon sticks (about 6) in some cheesecloth (double it up) and tie it up, then pop it in the pot. Then you boil it for an hour uncovered. Then let it simmer covered for at least 2 more hours. Then cool - then strain and you have cider! I add a little more sugar to taste and only strain it once. You could strain it twice to get a clearer liquid but I like it this way. Also no need to peel the apples or take the seeds out since you'll be straining it in the end.
I'm looking forward to this on a cold winters night! I'll be making more to save. You can store it in the fridge for up to a week, but you can freeze it too. I got five quarts.
Today is an important day on the farm. It is Norman, our Chihuahua's third Birthday! Hard to believe, I know. But he's an entire three years old now. And he's doing awesome, he's gained weight, he's very active, and the medication for his heart seems to be keeping that in check along with his diet. He'll get a little nibble of chowder tonight, at least a bite of sweet potato. The Prairie dogs love chowder time, sweet potatoes are their all time favorite food.
I love these cooler evenings and sitting out in the barnyard with my big wool sweaters on and reading my half chewed up books. I can hardly wait to start getting pumpkins. My two volunteer pumpkins in the barnyard got eaten... by Chance. I expected as much. I'm going to fence a little area up there to plant pumpkins in the spring though - since they seem to like growing up there. We had great pumpkins two years ago. I can't wait until spring to plant a good garden since this year with our trip, we didn't. I hope we have a long wonderful fall like we did last year - as many of these cool, colorful days I get, I'll take.
As you can see Max & Flav are getting along very well - they love playing together. From Max's first reaction I never would have expected this soon but everyone is quite happy. Except for Hilda the Pygmy who still wants to kill Flavious. But she wants to kill pretty much everyone. Except me - she's over that now but it's taken about three years.
It's evening... my favorite time of day. It's cooled off outside, the animals are all tucked away in the barn for the night with lots of hay, and the house smells of apple cider. And chowder. What more could anyone ask for?
I've got a big pot of vegetable chowder that has been simmering away.... lots of thyme, asparagus, sweet potatoes, zucchini, onions, carrot, peas, corn... it smells heavenly. But not as heavenly as the apples, cinnamon, and cloves. I've been making homemade apple cider this afternoon/evening. We picked some apples this afternoon and they have been cooking away on the stove with the spices and sugar for hours.... 3 to be exact. It's a lenghtly process, but oh so worth it. I want to smell this aroma in the house every night... the smell of what will be cider cooking along with the smell of the woodstove - I can hardly wait. We had a fire two nights ago, but it's not been cool enough again for one... yet. The cider is actually not hard to make and so worth the effort. I picked about 15 apples and lost about two to worms. You quarter them and put them all in a big (BIG) pot and put enough water to cover and no more. Add about 1 cup sugar and then put your whole cloves (4-5 tablespoons) and cinnamon sticks (about 6) in some cheesecloth (double it up) and tie it up, then pop it in the pot. Then you boil it for an hour uncovered. Then let it simmer covered for at least 2 more hours. Then cool - then strain and you have cider! I add a little more sugar to taste and only strain it once. You could strain it twice to get a clearer liquid but I like it this way. Also no need to peel the apples or take the seeds out since you'll be straining it in the end.
I'm looking forward to this on a cold winters night! I'll be making more to save. You can store it in the fridge for up to a week, but you can freeze it too. I got five quarts.
Today is an important day on the farm. It is Norman, our Chihuahua's third Birthday! Hard to believe, I know. But he's an entire three years old now. And he's doing awesome, he's gained weight, he's very active, and the medication for his heart seems to be keeping that in check along with his diet. He'll get a little nibble of chowder tonight, at least a bite of sweet potato. The Prairie dogs love chowder time, sweet potatoes are their all time favorite food.
I love these cooler evenings and sitting out in the barnyard with my big wool sweaters on and reading my half chewed up books. I can hardly wait to start getting pumpkins. My two volunteer pumpkins in the barnyard got eaten... by Chance. I expected as much. I'm going to fence a little area up there to plant pumpkins in the spring though - since they seem to like growing up there. We had great pumpkins two years ago. I can't wait until spring to plant a good garden since this year with our trip, we didn't. I hope we have a long wonderful fall like we did last year - as many of these cool, colorful days I get, I'll take.
As you can see Max & Flav are getting along very well - they love playing together. From Max's first reaction I never would have expected this soon but everyone is quite happy. Except for Hilda the Pygmy who still wants to kill Flavious. But she wants to kill pretty much everyone. Except me - she's over that now but it's taken about three years.
It's a well known fact that Max is a thief. He steals everything and anything he can get his paws on, and if he doesn't shred it, he buries it in the manure pile for later. He can do this in seconds and right in front of your eyes without you noticing. He's that good. Thus why the book I am reading, looks like this:
I have big news folks.... Maggie is sitting on some eggs! Maggie is our 3 + year old turkey (she was an adult when we got her and we've had her 3 years) and she has never, ever sat on an egg. Until now. I don't know if anything will hatch, but who knows. Gobbles is on guard duty, but then again, he's always on guard duty. I love sitting in the pasture and very quietly hearing feathers brushing the ground as he stalks you... he's bumped into me more than once. He is completely harmless, not mean at all, but it's hilarious how he follows everyone around, all puffed out, ready to take anyone on if he needs to. Max loves turkey eggs, but he hasn't been in the turkey shed to steal any, so they must be keeping him out.
