Green Tomatoes

We had our first hard freeze last week. I considered myself blessed that it happened so late in the season. Most of the valley we live in is a zone 4 growing season. Our particular part of the valley is zone 3. So, when other parts of the valley frosted weeks before us this fall, I was pleasantly surprised. But, since all good things must come to an end, we knew it was only a matter of time before the hoop house froze, too. So, The Wood Artist picked all remaining tomatoes - ripe and green. The green ones, I put on shelves in the cool garage and covered them with newspaper. With a little luck, we should have tomatoes until Christmas. Does anyone know if you can store tomatillos this way, also?

Fruit Leather

I haven't posted much lately because we've been flat out racing to keep up with the harvest! I have a thing for dehydrating food. Maybe it is because my Dad is the local dehydrating guru and teaches classes on it. I've heard him lecture on the increased nutrition of food preserved this way and the benefits of storing larger quantities of food in smaller areas. (A big plus for my small abode.)
Anyway, I decided that this was the year to stock up a bit. I went to a local fresh fruit market and asked if they had any overripe fruit. They did and for a great price, too. So I put the fruit into my blender and pureed it and spread it on my dehydrator sheets that are made especially for leather. My kids love the fruit leather/treats from the store, but I don't like them to eat a lot of it because it usually has food dyes and sugar (not that we eat a totally sugar-free diet, mind you). Or, if you can get a wholesome kind, it is expensive.
So after drying it, I roll it up in plastic wrap and cut it into 1 1/2" or so strips. I store it in buckets with screw-top lids so the kids can easily access it for snacks/hiking food. I experimented with yummy combinations. Lastnight I tried a batch of pear/banana/peanut butter. It really was not as good as I expected. And, with the p.b., it will need to be used quickly so it doesn't go rancid from the oils. In the end, I discovered that Mr. Blueberry Eyes does NOT like pear leather. Fortunately, most of what I made was peach, nectarine, or those mixed with plums.
Several of you have conatacted me saying that it is difficult to leave a comment. I changed my settings a bit, so I hope that makes it easier. I really like the comments! Keep them coming!

Salsa!

Sunday night we were visiting friends, working on a business project when supper time rolled around. I had made a soup out of our potatoes, leeks, and chard that was yummy, but I had also brought a number of garden vegies along. Since my friend was on the phone and the guys were busy on the computer, I just started making myself at home in the kitchen. (Gotta love friends like that!) I've never played around much with salsa, so I decided to give it a try. I got out their food processor and tossed in tomatillos, red onion, red pepper, small green pepper. After processing that I added the juice of a lemon, some salt and cayenne pepper. We sat around eating and talking about how much this stuff could sell for! Hmmm! One really could make a business out of something that fresh and good. At any rate, it was just fun to eat a whole meal out of the garden.
Speaking of which. I've not been posting much because we have been racing the cold to bring in the harvest. Will share more on that in the near future!

Singin' In the Shower

This morning brought an interesting event. We heard a crash at the window and peeped out to see a nuthatch not feeling well at all. It seems my last week's window washing had lured him to fly straight into the window. This has happened many times before, so we did what we always do and placed him on a clean rag and put him in the infirmery (our bathroom) with the lights off and the doors shut.
We left to go to our outside office/classroom and after some time, Mr. Blueberry Eyes asked if he could check on the bird. He came racing back to say that Mr. Nuthatch was gone! I knew he couldn't have gone far, since the doors were shut, so we raced back to check on him.
Sure enough! There he was, perched in the shower. I clicked some pictures and then proceeded to attempt to catch him so I could release him. That was not as easy as it had been when he was dazed and confused! But in the end I cornered him and was able to let him fly free. - Nanette

The Forest Has Eyes

This weekend was a wonderful one. I've been craving raw nature and we chose to spend our Saturday in God's great cathedral instead of going to church. We loaded our canoe which we've named "Buddy" (after the dear, old canoe in Sam Campbell's books) and headed for the lazy river South of us. The river meanders here and there and has made so many cuts that there are scores of sloughs and fabulous places to view birds. We put in at a slough and paddled to the river and shortly saw a bald eagle fishing. Along the way we saw a Kingfisher and Great Blue Heron. The autumn leaves were lovely - and comforting. Just when we thought it couldn't get better, I was scanning the woods with my eyes and suddenly caught sight of a tiny, masked, round face watching me from about 50 feet up in a snag. It was a raccoon. I stammered out my surprise and just as my family caught sight of it, two tiny faces popped up beside Mama. We stopped the canoe and sat there "visiting" with them. They curiously watched us until they grew bored and settle back into their cozy nest. What fun! -Nanette

Vigilantes and Black Angus Bulls

After a truly lovely weekend at Yellowstone, we made our way home, slowly. Very slowly. It happened on this wise. The Wood Artist handed me the map and said, "You are the navigator. Just make sure we go through this Small Town!" No problem. I like maps. So I studied the map and determined the best way possible. As we went merrily on our way, however, The Wood Artist took the map, and declared, "No! I want to go this way." Hmmmm. Those road lines looked significantly smaller than the ones I had chosen, but, o.k. So we sailed along until there was a bump and a rattle and we hit gravel road. I raised an eyebrow. Not that I mind gravel roads, mind you, but we really needed to get home in a reasonable amount of time. The bumps got bumpier and gravel got narrower...and narrower. Presently we were creeping along this trail surrounded by sage brush. Suddenly, (I'm not exaggerating!)there was a huge ditch dug right across this road and a make-shift sign pointing the way into a rancher's yard. Now, mind you, we had just passed through a former vigilante area and I'm certain they were laying a trap for us. (O.k., so maybe a little exaggeration now.) They just saw the peeling paint on our mini-van and decided we must not have anything to rob! :) After detouring through the rancher's yard, we proceeded into canyons and gullies and I began to get nervous. You see, our car had just turned over 290,000 miles and I wondered what would happen if we broke down. It was still 6 weeks until hunting season and we may not be found in time. Suddenly, we rounded a corner and there, was a huge Black Angus bull. At least we wouldn't starve. But how would we (four vegetarians) harvest him when the only thing we had in the picnic basket was a bread knife. I shuddered, just hoping that we DIDN'T break down. Somewhere in one of the gullies, The Wood Artist mumbled something about getting the feeling he was becoming the butt of a blog. 37 miles and 90 minutes later, we emerged in the Small Town we were headed for. At the beginning of the day, I had had thoughts of stopping at a town on the way home and trying out a Buddhist restaurant I'd heard of. Not anymore. We were hungry NOW and settled for Taco Johns - and a layer of dust on EVERYTHING! Nanette

Geyser Geezers and Coyotes

One thing I learned about Yellowstone is that they have some very friendly coyotes! I'm used to hearing them at my house, but in Yellowstone, they walk right by your tent or come up to your car in a parking lot! At first I was scared that they were rabid. Then I found out that they were all like that and began to enjoy them.

We saw Old Faithful 4 times. We especially enjoyed the bubbling mud pot at the Artist's Paint Pots. Mr. Blueberry Eyes thought the "Hook and Cook" pots at West Thumb were way cool! He had a great time imagining hooking the fish and cooking it in the boiling water right beside the lake. In the course of our time spent at Yellowstone, we learned to expect two questions at nearly every pool: #1 "Is it over my head? #2 Can I jump in? Which would inevitably be followed by a discussion of just how deadly that would be.
We were joined by our good friend, The Wanderer, on the second night. We camped near him for two nights and had fun learning camp-cookery from him and asking him all manner of questions about nature, since he is a ranger.

Our last day we spent geyser gazing. We got to see Castle Geyser, a fabulous geyser that goes for 15-20 minutes and has formed a castle-looking mini-mountain around it.

We even got to see Grand Geyser. Since it has a four hour window of when it can erupt, we armed ourselves with stuff to entertain the children and just camped out on the boardwalk. There was an old geyser geezer, grisled with character who would stand up and expostulate at each cycle about the potential of this being "IT". He was so funny to watch. He had to have been a retired professor of anthropologicalgeothermodynamicesospherology! -Nanette