I don't watch the news, but I do realize the middle of the country is probably far hotter than us right now. However, it got up to 80 today, very hot for the rainy PNW coast. And the extended forecast shows more of the same for the next ten days. We are definitely going swimming tomorrow.

I decided not to make jam today after all and threw the raspberries in the freezer to wait for a cooler day. I really don't need to be heating the house up during the hottest part of the day. So hopefully I can make them in the cooler part of the morning tomorrow or the next day. This will be my cheapest batch of jam yet, with me only having to pay for sugar and pectin. Any further raspberries I pick will just be frozen for future use in smoothies or whatever. It will be nice to have free fruit in the freezer.

I noticed when I was out putting away the chickens and ducks tonight that there are a few ripe blueberries on the bushes. We rarely get ripe blueberries before August, but this heat wave is pushing everything forward, I guess. So where I thought I'd have almost a month before worrying about harvesting those, I think it's going to be closer to a week. I'll have to take a look at the blackberries, too. They may have moved up their production date as well.

Also while herding the ducks I saw that two of the younger apple trees that have never had fruit on them before are loaded down with apples. I usually don't have to go back that far, but they were in the furthest corner of the property. I knew the old one was full up, but these ones are Golden Delicious and Macintosh and we've been looking forward to those since they were planted as little more than sticks with a couple of buds on them five or six years ago.

I really wish I liked apple sauce or apple pie. I've never been one for cooked apples, though. I do like raw apple pie filling (just apples, cinnamon, and sugar) or apples with peanut butter, but mostly I like eating apples out of hand. I don't know if either of those are good keeping apples, but I should get a few weeks out of them at the very least. I will can sauce in pint jars and a couple of pies for DH though. The big jars at the store are too much for just him to finish and the little plastic cups of sauce taste nasty, plus they're plastic and we're trying to get away from that. And he and my mom both love apple pies so the least I can do this season is make one or two. Me, I'll take chocolate pie or key lime pie or even lemon meringue, but chocolate, lemons and limes don't grow free on trees here. Such a shame.

It's been so hot these last few days that my tomato plants have really shot up. Well, four of them have. What I'm really excited about though is that the second plant has fruit on it now, little ones about the size of nickel. And the other two big ones are really blossoming like crazy. The two little tomato plants are just not seeming to do well. They are getting just as much sun as they other four. The only difference is that those two are determinate and the other four are indeterminate.

I am thinking about digging up the two small ones and planting them in some large buckets with half compost/ half potting soil and putting them where they will get even more sun and seeing if that doesn't make any difference. You would think ten hours of sun would be enough for those two, but it doesn't appear to be.

The cauliflower is making little heads. I was surprised because the leaves are not as big as I expected them to be when they started making heads. Not seeing that yet on the broccoli, but they are younger than the cauliflower. The kohlrabi are just starting to swell. The green beans are working their way up their poles. The pickling cucumbers are doing good, the English ones are starting to recover from the slug attacks when the weather was bad.

I picked another quart of raspberries today so this afternoon I am making a batch of raspberry jam up.

My nephew and his wife stopped by with the new baby and the toddler. Both are extremely adorable children, but the toddler is super high energy. The baby isn't quite 5 weeks yet. There is nothing like baby snuggles, but I tell you, I am so glad those years are well behind me and I can give the youngsters back when I'm done! Not that having teens is easy, either, but they are preferrable at my stage of life.

I am very pleased with how the mustard turned out. I ended up combining a few different recipes to make one that I thought would appeal to me best. I don't know why so many recipes call for cayenne in ordinary yellow mustard. I didn't use it and mine has enough kick without it. It's probably around the range of French's yellow mustard, not super spicy, but definitely a bit of heat. I love French's mustard for flavor, but the yellow # 5 I can do without.

I have always been a pretty loyal French's mustard girl, but I think this actually tastes just as good, maybe even a little better. It seems mild at first, but then it gives a little kick.



Here's the recipe I ended up concocting:

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup of mustard powder (I used yellow, but brown is fine if you want brown mustard, I wanted yellow)
2 tsp kosher sea salt (ordinary salt is fine)
1 tsp flour (I just used white all purpose)
1 tsp turmeric (makes it more yellow and gives a little kick)
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp onion powder

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup water
3/4 cup white vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice

Mix together all of the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Add to sauce pan. Mix water and vinegar. Add to sauce pan. Stir until combined and you can see no lumps. If there are any lumps squash them against the side of the pan until the powder comes free and mix it in.

Turn on heat and bring it to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes while stirring. I stirred it pretty constantly because otherwise it would try to splatter out of the pan. I kept it on a low boil because a high boil was too messy.

Now most of the recipes I saw said to put it in a blender at this point to make it smoother, but it looked plenty smooth to me and I didn't want to cool the mustard down since I was going to be canning it and I didn't want to lose part of it to the sides of the blender container either. If I had a handheld blender I might have done it right there on the stove, but like I said, it didn't seem grainy at all so I skipped that step.

At this point I turned off the heat and I stirred in the lemon juice until it was absorbed. I then poured it into my hot, sterilized half-pint jars, leaving one inch of head space, that is one inch from the top of the jar. The mustard will expand during processing so don't overfill. I then thumped the mustard down into the jars to get rid of any air pockets. I put on my lids and rings and put the jars into my boiling water bath, then I processed for 15 minutes.

I actually had enough for 2 half-pint jars with a little less than a quarter cup left over so I put the extra into a clean jar and put it into the fridge. The jars sealed up just fine, pinging within minutes of taking them out.

I bought the organic mustard powder in bulk from the food co-op. Everything else I had on hand (and was also organic, except the vinegar). A cup of mustard powder cost me $2.00. I can estimate that the rest of the ingredients might have been .50 worth, so about 20 ounces of mustard with no additives for $2.50. About what I'd pay for regular storebought mustard, and less than I'd pay for organic storebought mustard. I'm considering this organic because for it to qualify as an organic processed food in the industry, 80% of it must come from organic sources and this does.

I'll make this again later this summer, but right now I've got some raspberry canes calling my name. I think jam is in my near future.

So tomorrow guess what I am going to make and can? Nothing to do with fruit, so if you guessed jam or jelly, nope. Instead I am going to make something relatively quick, fast and easy, but something I have never even thought about making before. My one big problem with buying this storebought is that it uses yellow number five. And also, I don't ever go through it fast enough. And it doesn't come in small enough containers and is really hard to find in a glass jar, without it costing an arm and a leg. It's something that only I eat in my household, although DS says he might try it since it will be homemade.

Have you given up? It's ordinary yellow mustard. I found a recipe online that I liked the look of that will be very easy to make. It will make two cups worth and I want to can it in half pints. I will only end up processing one jar and using the other one straight away, but if it turns out tasting good, I will make a bunch more and probably branch out into deli-style mustard, Dijon, Chinese hot mustard, and honey mustard. Shelf stable homemade mustard with no gunge in it will make me very happy.

I like all of the ingredients in the recipe, but I will leave out the optional 1 tsp of cayenne. I don't want my mustard to be as hot as cayenne makes things. Even when I just use 1/8 tsp of cayenne in my sausage recipe, my eyes still water a bit and my kids prefer it when I just use 1/16th tsp. The paprika and turmeric will be enough spice for me. I will post the recipe if I like how it turns out.

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I have to take the van back on Tuesday. There is a small leak in the oil pan. A valve needs to be replaced. It will take them 3 hours, but it is covered by warranty. I will go without the kids. 4 hours (including the travel time) without them will be nice after two weeks with no school. I love them to death, but they are driving me a little crazy.

I have the car scheduled for an oil change this afternoon. I'm not sure how much it runs anymore, but it's under $40. They will also wash the car, which could use it, though by the time I drive it back home again it probably won't be clean anymore. There's a lot of dust on the freeway right now for some reason.

The last few days in the 70's have been very nice. This house doesn't have AC, but we can still keep it pretty cool. We keep the windows closed and blinds on the sunny side of the house drawn in the morning and then as soon as it passes over the house around eleven we open all of those windows on the now shaded side and close the ones on the other side of the house. Once the sun goes behind the trees around 8 p.m. then everything is flung open. It keeps things comfortable.

My garden is starting to take off with the heat and I can see the tomato plants visibly jumping in size from day to day. So are the brassicas. I have moved my lettuce more into the shade to try to prevent bolting. They have more than paid for themselves, but I'd like to keep them going as long as possible.

The corn Mom planted is halfway up my thigh. The yarn in our part of the country is that corn has to be "knee high by the 4th of July" if it is going to make it before the cold sets in, so I think we're set on that. She planted it in the middle of her flower garden. It looks very pretty there and not at all out of place. Hopefully there won't be any neighbors in a tizzy over vegetables growing in the flower beds. Our near neighbors don't give a hoot, but it seems there is always someone. Fortunately there is no HOA here and Mom has never been one to care what other people think anyway.

The kids and I are going swimming this evening. I am really looking forward to it. My body is really stiff after picking up all the fireworks debris off the ground (there was a lot that came in from other people's stuff landing in our yard and driveway) and swimming always helps with that.

Speaking of fireworks, or firework debris, I'm just leaving a note here to remind me that War Chest was the best firework we purchased and not to buy the Corruptor again because it was disappointing. Also, no more Mad Dog fountains and only one Purple Rain from now on and to get the big one. Flak Fire and Blue Craze were fun. Old Glory is a nice, low key fountain with lots of color that I liked, but the kids weren't very impressed. No more strobes, too many in a box and no one cares much after the first one. No more turtles. Ground flower types are still a hit after all these years. And no matter how old they get the kids will still want to do pop-its.

I added .92 to the coin jar. And I think that is about it.

My Mom's handyman is interested in our old car. The other people who had expressed an interest in it have been trying to "come up with" the money for months. The handyman, who is a painter by trade, but far more than that by knowledge and experience (knows construction and electrician stuff), is ammenable to painting the entire inside of our old house in exchange for the car. I don't know if anything will actually come of this or not, but I definitely think it is a fair trade and certainly better than waiting on someone to have money they might never have to buy it. There was never any deal made that we would wait on selling the car for the other people, just the interest was expressed and price given.

You hear about good barter situations like this, but I never expected one to fall in my lap. He still wants to check out a couple of things about the car first before committing, but I feel he is far more likely to carry through than these other people.

You know how I said I thought I'd have a week before having to make jam again? Umm... Today I picked these and there's a lot more ripening:



That's about 3.5 pints and that's after just 2 full days of sun. And the next 9 days are supposed to be just as sunny and in the 70's. Which will be great for my tomatoes, but the raspberries will explode. I think by Friday I'll have to pick again and will have enough to make jam by then. We have about 30 feet of raspberry canes so you can imagine how many berries that is going to be.

I froze 1 quart of what I picked since they will go bad fast just in the fridge, gave 1 pint to Mom for fresh eating, and DS is eating the rest. When I have 4 quarts I will make jam and then anything left after that I will just freeze for smoothies. When I make raspberry jam I will make it in half-pints as it doesn't get eaten as fast as the other jams. Plus they are a better size for giving away at Christmas time.

After picking I sat on the old swing for a while. The view over my head:



Those Italian prunes were just on one teeny tiny section of one branch (I zoomed in). That whole big branch easily held about 50 fruits.

And the view before me, Patricia, out for a stroll:



The chickens and ducks are not liking the firecrackers. They will be in the chicken coop and the duck den tonight before it gets really bad. We will be letting some off ourselves, as far from them as we can get on the property, but not until they are safely in for the night.

I hoed the weeds up in the garden and got rid of some of the straw mulch. I will water tonight from the rain barrels when it's a bit cooler and the water won't evaporate so fast. Most of the broccoli has survived. I lost two plants, one just didn't have enough roots, and the other I accidentally hacked through with the hoe when I was uprooting some tansy. The cauliflower the slugs were eating on is coming back. I found a very natural remedy for the slugs...feeding them to the ducks.

After that I harvested some lettuce. I picked about $6 worth of organic lettuce (enough for the week) so that brings my costs down to $37.06 left to break even on what I've spent on gardening this year. I suppose I could add in the cost of the berries which sell for around $5 for a half pint for the organic ones, which would put me on a $0 footing. But since I didn't pay for those plants (they originally came free from my Mom's sister who had too many about twenty years ago) and I wouldn't actually ever buy raspberries from the store except once in a while in the dead of winter if my kids begged hard enough, I don't think that counts.

Still, at the rate I am going I think I will have met my costs by mid-August. Maybe sooner. The green beans are starting to climb the poles now. We might have some actual green beans before then, especially if this weather keeps up all month.

Wednesday--
Ribeye steaks
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Corn on the Cob
Nectarines

Thursday--
Toasted Ham and Cheese Sandwiches
Chili or Soup
Cole slaw
French Fries (Homemade)
Pineapple

Friday--
Homemade pizza
Cole slaw
Salad
Cherries

Saturday--
Chicken
Baked potatoes
Broccoli/Cauliflower

Sunday--
Beef Chuck Pot Roast
Drop biscuits with jam of choice
Green beans
Mashed potatoes and gravy

I think I have jam coming out of my ears, but I'm done. I processed 4 more pints and 1 more 12 ounce jar of strawberry jam today and I am finally out of berries. It is interesting how the same amount of ingredients do not always produce the same amount of jam. I've been at it for four days now, but it is totally worth it and my half a pantry shelf of gorgeous jam and jelly is beautifully jewel-toned, but did I mention that canning is hot, sweaty work? Because if I didn't it is hot. And sweaty. And work. But I should not have to make jam again for a week.

One batch of raspberries will be enough (most will be Christmas gifts) and if the chickens eat the rest, well, I won't tell anyone. And then after that no more jam until mid-August when the blackberries and blueberries are ripe. And then that shelf will be completely full of jam, jelly, and home-canned fruit. And maybe the next one, too.

I will love this in the late fall and winter when local, organic fruit isn't readily available. I am really trying to reduce most of our food needs to the 100 mile food-shed (well 50 miles for most of it). Except citrus and seafood. I will allow California for oranges and anything West coast for wild fish. And Hawaii for pineapples and sugar, because I mean come on.

I have been reading a farm blog that has a climate very similar to ours and she has a big garden and overwinters cabbage and kale. Some of the outer leaves get damaged but the inside ball of cabbage makes it just fine year after year. We have kale growing but I wasn't going to plant cabbage being as it is so inexpensive (even organically), but the idea of fresh as opposed to stored cabbage in the winter really appeals. The types she uses are Melissa and January King so I am going to see if I can't get ahold of some seeds from one or the other. It's a late start but they are late season crops so I might be able to pull it off and if not, well a couple seed packets are not that much. If I can't find them now I'll just wait and try to pull it off next year.

I am also reading Joel Salatin's book Folks, This Ain't Normal. He has a lot of interesting things to say about commercial farming and what it is doing to the planet and the nutrition of the food and the animals. I don't agree with all of his ideas, a few are just highly impractical or would violate health codes, but the vast majority of what he says and does is good, common sense logic in regards to farming, gardening, and growing animals. The one I like the best though is simply not allowing any biological matter into landfills. If it can rot and break down it should be allowed to do that not in a landfill. Anyway, it's interesting and informative reading.

Yesterday I canned 5 more pints of organic strawberry jam. We got an even better deal on the strawberries this time because we bought day old berries for jam making instead of fresh. So I spent $10 for all of the ingredients in 5 pints. Not bad.

Then I canned 9 12 ounce jars of organic grape jelly. Since it is nigh on impossible to find organic grape jelly anywhere, and it is completely impossible to find grape jelly without corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup in it, I am very pleased with myself. I won't make any more grape jelly this year, I don't think. I am the only one who eats it, so those 9 jars should last me about 2 years, since I eat other kinds like strawberry, blackberry, brambleberry, apricot, blueberry, and huckleberry, too. Grape is just my favorite.

In doing the math I figured that I paid $19.90 for the grape jelly ingredients, and since I can't compare it to what isn't actually made, I compared it to the average price of a half pint of organic jelly of any flavor which would be $6. So the same amount would be $84, so a savings of $64.10 over purchasing something similar.

I probably won't make too much raspberry jam. Maybe one batch. I don't like raspberries. I mean, I will eat them if they are mixed in with other berries, but I won't seek them out. Shame, too, since we have so many growing in the back yard. DH likes raspberries, but not raspberry jam, so a few jars for the kids and maybe a couple to give away at Christmas should suffice. I will save some though in the freezer though to make brambleberry jam, as the blackberries override the flavor of the raspberries, and that everyone likes.

So plans for future canning, one batch of raspberry jam, one batch of brambleberry jam, 3 batches of blackberry jam, 5 batches of blueberry jam (and lots and lots of frozen blueberries) and if the grape vines produce this year, I might actually make more grape jelly after all. They have blossoms on them so it is possible they might make enough for jam, but I have a feeling it will be just enough for table grapes. I also plan to make Italian prune jelly as well as canning and possibly drying Italian prunes. Nothing tastes like them and the tree is loaded for bear.

Somewhere during blueberry and prune season I should have a boatload of tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, and green beans to can. I want to put up enough green beans for the year since my favorite brand has started using BPA in their can liners. Plus they have just gotten really expensive. $1 a jar, sometimes .75 on sale. If I grow enough to can what I want, it would be 104 quarts or 208 pints, since we eat them at least twice a week. I also am hoping that my tomato plants will produce enough to make sauce for the entire year. There I will need about 75 quarts of sauce or 150 pints and then also about 30 pints of diced tomatoes. I don't know if the weather is going to be good enough for me to grow that much this year. In the past Mom has grown tomatoes like that, but it was a hot sunny summer and that is not what we have been getting this year. I may have to purchase some from one of the sustainable, organic farms in our county that grows them, but it would still be worth it to do.

Then there will be a batch or two of applesauce in half-pint jars for DH who is the only one who eats it. DD and I don't like the texture and DS is allergic to apples. The apple tree at the old house is loaded. I haven't been into the back yard at the old house to check, but if we have pears I will put up pears as well and maybe some pear sauce, DS likes that, and definitely a couple of pear pies. And I'd like to can some nectarines, but only if I can find a not too expensive organic source. They spray stone fruit like crazy, so organic is a must. I need about 20 pounds to make it worth my effort.

I am really, really glad my mother has a ton of empty jars in her basement. I've already cleaned out Goodwill of canning jars and a couple of garage sales. There are three more thrift shops I want to check, too. Otherwise it's $10 for a set of 12 jars with lids and rings. I don't need anymore rings and lids you can easily buy on their own, so if I can find quality jars for .20 each, that's what I'm going to do. Canning shouldn't be expensive (except the lids, and even those are fairly reasonable). I need to keep an eye out for estate sales, too. You can often get boxes of jars there. I'm not picky, Ball, Kerr, Mason, I'll take them all.

Looking Forward--Since posting URLs is what apparently is making my blogs and comments not post, there is a website called Simply Canning that is really helpful for learning how to can. She gives a lot of good information and makes it less intimidating.

Jeffrey, I don't know if my PM's made it through to you or not (I sent one 36 hours ago and one about 12 hours ago) and I don't even know if this is going to post, but my blog is not letting me post 9 times out of 10 and if I try to edit something that does post, it erases the whole post. It is also telling me I am not allowed to make comments either on my own blog or other people's blogs. Hopefully this one will manage to get through.

I tried to post last night but it wouldn't let me. It also wouldn't allow me to comment on my own blog or anyone else's despite being logged in. I even tried logging out and logging back in. So this is just a test post to see if the problem is over.

I can. Or rather I can can. My first jam experience since I was a kid went great. I canned 5 pints. Usually I buy organic strawberry jelly or jam in the 1/2 pint jars for $6 each. 10 jars worth would be $60. I used $14 worth of organic strawberries and about $2 worth of sugar to make a comparable amount. $16 bucks vs $60? Even taking out 1.5 hours for my time, that is well worth it. And I was also reading for part of the time while I stirred or talking to DH and my daughter and I were chatting while we hulled and cleaned the berries so it wasn't like it wasn't multi-tasking.

Here is the result of my work, some gorgeous, dark red jam:



I have enough strawberries to make another 5 pints of jam and I also want to get to making the grape jelly I've been planning on making for a while. I am hoping to do it today, but it might not get done until tomorrow for the strawberries and Tuesday for the grape jelly. It depends on what the handyman is doing in the kitchen today. If he gets done quickly enough I can do it. If not, it waits.

DS finally got a hold of Silver, the most elusive, but prettiest feathered chicken and made her pose for a photo.



DS is doing much better, by the way. His concussion continues to improve.