Thankful for Friday!

Wow, it's Friday again already? This week has gone by super fast, though in the midst of it, it didn't feel that way. Funny how some weeks are just like that. So, what am I thankful for this week? So much...but here are a few:

*My hard working husband. His commute to his current job is a long one in the afternoons. He comes home completely exhausted every day from work. We get about an hour with him to eat dinner and relax a bit, then he is off to bed. Today, however, is his day off. He's been working 4 ten hour days, trying to save himself a day of commuting, gas and wear and tear on his truck.

*My garden...I was able to harvest enough beets yesterday to can 11 pints of pickled beets and the tops and stalks all went into the freezer. Nothing went to waste! All from our garden. YAY!

*My blueberry picking kids...picking 25+ pounds this week.

*Our heavily producing raspberries. We've picked two huge bowls of berries this week.

*My kids and all that they help with around here. We may have attitudes to deal with from time to time, but that is something we are seeing progress in. :)

So much that I could add to that list! What are you thankful for this week? Even if you don't share it, at least recognize it within yourself. We are all so blessed, even in the hardest times. God is good..ALL the time and He loves to shower His children with blessings! How amazing is that?

Fall like morning...raspberry jam...and sauerkraut!

This is the scene I woke up to this AM...is it fall and I really missed summer? Our weather has been more fall like this summer than summer like. My garden has suffered because of it. So frustrating, but I can't change it so I will choose to be thankful for what our garden does provide this year. Potatoes, onions, beets and carrots are doing well in my garden. Tomatoes are going to be scarce, as are green beans I'm afraid. Not one of my cucumber, zucchini or squash came up from the seeds I planted, most of my pepper plants have totally stalled or died since going in the ground and my lettuce is looking more like micro greens than lettuce. The fog is beautiful though...I just wish it were settling over a well producing fall garden, rather than a poorly producing summer garden. :) Oh well...can't have everything.
My raspberries, on the other hand are doing quite well this year! They don't seem to care that the weather has been rather cold and fall like. Sure, we could get more juicy berries if the sun would come out and shine, but we are still getting a good harvesting of berries anyway. Yesterday I spent a bit of time washing berries and making jam. I had a big bowl of berries that the kids had picked on Sunday just right for a batch of jam. Aren't the jars pretty?
When I was in town on Monday, I picked up about 6 heads of cabbage at a local produce stand. I love this place, a 5th or 6th generation, family owned, working farm. Most of the produce that I preserve that I can't grow myself, comes from Bi-Zi Farms. It just feels good to support a local family run farm, plus they are such a neat family to boot! :) Anyway, back to my cabbage....I have been wanting to try my hand at making Sauerkraut and found a wonderful recipe in a cookbook put out by a local lady named Fran Gillette. The kraut ferments in the quart jars that you end up canning it into. What could be easier!! We'll see how it works. I didn't buy the 40 pounds of cabbage the recipe called for, so I tried to salt it accordingly. Hopefully I didn't over do the salt. :) Either way, it will be a fun experiment. If it looks like it's working the way it should, I'll go buy 40 pounds of cabbage and make the whole recipe later. I can't wait to try the kraut....but it will be another month before I'll know how good it is.

First of the Season!

Raspberries, so sweet and juicy! I do believe they are one of my favorite berries. Our raspberry canes are doing so amazingly well. Every year I am blessed with an abundance of wonderful berries. This past weekend, I picked the bowl of ripe berries. There have been a few ripe, here and there for the past week or so but this was the first "real" picking of the year. In another day or two, there will be more ready. Most of these berries will end up in the freezer for future smoothies and berry syrup to be used in fresh yogurt and on pancakes and waffles. There never seems to be an end to the ideas for these tasty berries. There also never seems to be enough berries for all of the ideas. :)