From year to year we have “volunteer” plants come up. They surprise us both with their locale (maybe an errant seed dropped by a bird) and species that it appears has wintered over.

This year, among the volunteer crop, was this particular Superior potato plant. The potatoes in the basket would be a somewhat “normal” yield for a plant but what makes this extraordinary is the fact that the whopper that Natalie is holding was also produced by the same plant!

Other volunteer seeds have produced sunflowers, tomatoes, various annual flowers, and a variety of squash/pumpkin/gourds. They’re always a treat to find in the garden because they’ll be slightly ahead in growth of what you’ve planted by seed that year.

When we first moved in, I had David rip up a large area at the back of the house for my flower beds. This year will mark the first year we did not have a volunteer tomato crop magically appearing there, in and amongst the flowers. He tended to think it could’ve been the site of an outhouse (sorry for those who can’t “stomach” the thought of  life before plumbing). The more I think about it, he’s probably right.

As far as the gigantic potato-bearing plant goes?  A chunk of potato was, inadvertently, left in the ground from last year and just sprouted. And, boy, did it sprout?!

Our host, Tracy Toth, completes the tour of a wool processing “fiber mill” in Wool Webisode 3.

I find getting a batch of wine started is one of the most difficult things to do each summer. Not because of the “how” but because of the “when.”  You want perfectly ripe fruit with which to begin—yet there are so many other things that require attention because they’re “perfectly ripe” also!

This year, I was able to set aside an afternoon to get a 5-gallon bucket started. We’ve tried many types (apple, grape, meads, peach); the cherry always does well so I was happy this was to be our choice.

I began by inspecting the cherries and measuring 24 pounds. Following a simple fruit wine recipe I found online, I then mashed the cherries by stepping into a garbage bag in the food-grade bucket full of fruit and doing my best Lucille Ball impression! 

Yeast was added the next day and allowed to ferment in this primary stage. After gentle daily stirrings, 5 days later, we carefully siphoned off the liquid from the “must.”

"Must" is juice that contains seeds, skins and stalks.

The liquid will sit in a glass carboy for 30 days before being again “racked” (or siphoned off) in another, clean carboy with a fermentation lock in place. Fermentation locks allow little, if any outside air to penetrate, gas to escape, and keeps unwanted fruit gnats OUT (the bacteria from one gnat can ruin the entire batch).

Notice the bubbles at the top of the glass carboy? That’s the yeast, going to town, converting the sugar into alcohol. After I took the photo of the yeast bubbles, we added handfuls of marbles to bring the liquid up into neck of the carboy (you want as little interaction between liquid and air as possible).

Stay tuned for an update in another three weeks or so….

Our host, Tracy Toth, continues the tour of a wool processing “fiber mill” in Wool Webisode 2.

Slipping Tomato Skins

Many cooked tomato canning recipes call for tomatoes to be “washed, cored, peeled and chopped” (in fact, I can’t think of one right off the bat that doesn’t). The simplest way to peel a tomato is just to “slip the skin.”

Here are the simple steps:

1. Wash, core and inspect your tomatoes (remove any bad spots)
2. Place the tomatoes gently into boiling water for 30-60 seconds.  You’ll notice the skin start to “crack”
3. Immediately transfer tomatoes to cold water (I add a little ice as well—to keep the cold water from warming too quickly)
4. Using your hands, gently peel or “slip” the skin off.

The green tomato in the batch is an heirloom variety and RIPE!  I needed it to fill out the weight of the tomatoes required in my barbeque sauce recipe.  No one will ever know; shhhhh!  Don’t tell…

When you can fruits or veggies, you hope for the best…the best quality, the best “seal,” the best (and prettiest) presentation or “pack.”

Sometimes, everything comes together on the very first go-round – like the Ball recipe for Spirited Cherries I attempted for the first time yesterday.

So very delicious…and simple…and pretty…that I just had to do a second batch immediately! These will be a perfect addition to a main course or dessert, especially in the winter when you seek out those bolder flavors.

Yesterday, I was bemoaning the fact I did not have a cherry pitter. De-stoning 18 cups of cherries “by hand” with my trusty paring knife was tedious, yet it resulted in a much prettier presentation!

The Navajo-Churro wool is beautiful! Just look at the colors of the sheep I was able to photograph before everyone came charging into the barn last week. I’ve been fascinated by their coats since we first purchased Reese and her twins, Lovey and Clara (Clara Barton Angel Of The Battlefield, so named by my history-loving son) years ago.

Attending sheep and wool festivals is always a treat because you get to see how spinners are using the wool and wool blends. I couldn’t wait to visit Loch’s Fiber Mill to “fill in the blanks”—I see the wool when it’s fallen from the sheep after shearing and I’ve seen the finished product in skeins, ready for knitting or weaving, but didn’t know exactly what went in to processing wool.

The morning we spent at the fiber mill was fascinating and informative….so much so that we couldn’t do just one quick segment—we had to break it down into parts! Jamie and Randy were so hospitable they invited us back to their maple syrup festival next year.

For more information, visit www.lochsmaple.com/fibermill/index.html

Our host, Tracy Toth, tours a wool processing “fiber mill” in Wool Webisode 1.

On the last day of school this spring Bob, the bus driver, was 10 minutes late getting to our house. I figured appreciative parents were showering him with praise and presents (Bob’s one-of-a-kind). Instead, when I asked he just pointed in the direction of the feed store and said “traffic jam.”

“Oh…”, I smiled. He was referring to the four-legged variety and not the two-axle kind.

Every morning, a local dairy farmer leads his herd down the road to another pasture and then collects them in the evening to milk. If you time it just right, you get to watch the march—it’s special—only this time, it caught the school bus. I bet if Bob has to call the transportation office to explain the tardiness, not much of an excuse is needed.

School will be back in session in a few weeks and we’ll all be engrossed once again in our hustle and bustle. I can count on that traffic jam catching me at some point…and I can’t wait. It’s just one of the reasons I love this area.

I wander around the yard and barn capturing images I think would make nice accompaniments to blog entries and snapped this one of the chair in my flower bed.

Pausing to look at it in the downloaded images, it occurred to me that I’d never really SAT in the chair?! Not once! I seem to scurry about, in all different directions, here and there, between the barn and the house and the flowers and the compost area and the chicken coop that I just don’t pause for that good old-fashioned breather.

Don’t get me wrong; I’ve long-since admired the little ice-cream parlor chair…heck, I even smile at the chair…I just don’t sit in the chair. Maybe it’s time to re-think that……especially since the lavender’s in bloom!