Plum Crazy

Erin thought I ought to name this stuff "Plum Crazy," but I decided to go with "Hot Plum Pepper Jam" instead.  That way people know what it is.  Inspired by Under the High Chair's 2009 Jam Swap, I invited 15 of my favorite locals to a jar swap, to be held this Friday.  Rather than do my recent favorite, Peach Habanero, I decided to make up this new little plum ditty just for the ladies at the swap.  Actually, I do like that name:  "Plum Ditty."  Maybe I'll go with that instead.  Who cares if they know what it is.  They'll figure out it's hot when they spread a big spoonful onto their toast some early morning.  Here's the process:

 

 

  

Canning the Harvest 2010

It's been forever since I blogged, but for good reason, I swear!  The girls and I have been picking raspberries, apples, and plums left and right, and I'm processing more jars of jam than I ever imagined I'd be able to sell.  The season has been abundant with fruit and veggies, and I feel lucky to have been able to do something with the harvest.  So, what do we have here?  Let's see... from left to right, top to bottom, what you see is   Rhubarb Ginger Jam, Crabapple Jelly, Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam, Dilly Fiddle-heads, Maine Bog Cranberry Sauce, Peach Jam, Dam Hot Pepper Jam, Italian Plum Jam, Cherry Pie Jam, Red Hot Cranberry Sauce, Apple Sauce, Vegetable Harvest Soup, Apple Pie Jam, Sweet Pickled Fiddleheads, Blackberry Jam, Peach-Blackberry Jam, Pasta Sauce, Pickled Horseradish Hot Peppers, Bread & Butter Pickles, and Strawberry Jam.  Oh, and on the other shelves are Zucchini Relish, Canned Tomatoes, Concord Grape Jelly, Raspberry Jam, Peach-Habanero Jam, and Corn Relish, among other things I can't see from here.  I swear I made all this stuff over the summer.  It was nuts.  Well, it was mostly Jam, and some pickles too.  About 200 jars of pickles actually. 

Ode to Dunkin Donuts

It seems like

Every time that I drive thru
For coffee, latte, donuts too,
I see a plate reminding me
That I like making jam for thee, or in this case, 3.

Sunflowers

Last weekend I left my camera at Abby's birthday bash, so this weekend I made Laurie take pictures of my sunflowers with Shea's camera, just so you could get a look, and for proof that they exist of course.  Yes, the sunflowers really are this beautiful, and next year my plan is to plant an acre of them.  I can't believe I haven't actually counted how many individual flowers I have, but there have to be a couple hundred anyway.  My mother, who regularly lets my girls cut gorgeous flowers from her own beautiful gardens, asked if she could cut a bouquet of these babies, and I firmly said NO.  Just please let me bask in the glory of what is my first real success in growing something from seed to flower!  Besides, I know she'll cut some anyway while I'm not looking.

Keeping up with Putting Up

It seems like forever since I last blogged, but I've been pretty darn busy in the meantime.  Here are a few highlights of our last couple weeks:

When the Easter Bunny brought us 5 Easter-eggers and 1 Hubbard Isa Brown, we knew we'd have some good layers on our hands.  Then we learned a little more about the Isa.  Apparently this is a genetically engineered egg-laying chicken manufactured by the company whose name it bears.  The girl lays AT LEAST one brown egg per day, if not two.  This doesn't seem natural, does it?  She seems happy, but she does eat a lot!  Meanwhile, our Easter-eggers just started laying their cute little blue eggs right up in their cozy boxes.  

Addie asked me if we could go blueberry picking, so we wandered up to Blueberry Hill.  The picking was good, but what was better was running around, playing with the farm dog (an energetic and friendly pit bull), and eating lunch under this apple tree.  Also, after I gave the farmer a jar of blueberry jam, admitting the blueberries I used to make it were from Libby's, he drove the girls and I across the farm to his enormous and beautiful crab-apple tree and told us to have at it.  We picked a five gallon bucket full of the little gems, then ran home and made crab-apple jelly.

Now, I won't be selling any crabapple jelly to the general public, but you can pick up lots of other kinds of good stuff at Anderson Farm's newest farm stand in Waterboro.  They've named the place The Farmer's Daughter, and so far it has been a great success.  The town has received the stand so well, and everyone who stops by is happy to be there.  It is a wonderful place to visit, or to pick up some yummy produce or jam!  And speaking of canning, I've been doing a lot of it, not only to sell at the stands, but for our family.  After making the 150th jar of pickles for the season, I decided to put up some tomato sauce, as well as pickle some hot peppers.  Do you think it will bother anyone that they look like brains inside jars?  Oh, and did I mention that we got another dog?  I didn't feel like we had much going on, so why not add to the family!  Welcome Jackie Jethro Junior.  We call him any of these names individually, but I'm thinking we'll pick just one of them in the next few days and stick with it.  And yes, he looks just like Bubba, but this guy has a tail. 
 

And let's see... how does a mother sum up a day at Story Land?  How's this:

Ok ok, I can't lie.  This photo was actually taken after a terrific morning at Ferry Beach a few days before the Story Land adventure, but you get the idea.  They all loved it, and we were all exhausted at the end of the day.

So there you have it.  A whirlwind tour of life at my place over the last couple of weeks.  I promise next time I'll be less confusing and random.  More details on the farm stand coming up, as well as my obsession with our sunflowers. 

peaches

Mud Pies

While Joe spent the last few minutes of sunlight planting a peach tree out in the field, Charlie and Ruby "helped" him by gathering dirt around the tree and making mud pies.








Meanwhile, Al Cole gave Ed 60 pounds of his least pretty peaches for me to make jam.  WHOA.  This is NOT a box of bananas shoved into my fridge.  I'm working on them as fast as I can get to them.  My fingernails have an orange tinge I can't seem to remove.