It was a busy day here. My Monday off, as usual, was packed full. I got up fairly early and spent about 90 minutes out in the garden this morning before breakfast. It got hot fast today but I managed to get my little seedlings planted, mulched and watered before it got too bad. Hopefully they will survive. I also watered the vining plants. Chickens fed and watered, I headed inside to work.
After breakfast, I worked on cleaning and doing a bit of hand washing. After Justine got up we went off on a mother/daughter trip to Kalona to the Stringtown Grocery (the Amish bulk food store) and the cheese factory. There we picked up flour (unbleached and whole wheat), some cornmeal, popcorn, dried fruit and more pectin. A quick stop at the cheese factory for cheese and curds and we were off to the Hawkeye Food Outlet. We're getting together with V's family soon and I wanted to pick up a few things. I was amazed to find organic udon noodles for $.75 per package. Since we like these with stir fry I stocked up. We also got some tortillas for $.50/pack. And they're having a sale- 10% off all week leading up (I think) to inventory on Friday/Saturday. We may go back in a day or two since they were out of something I was looking for.
Home again and purchases stowed, I worked on tomatoes. I got another 7 pints canned. So I'm up to a dozen pints of diced tomatoes in the pantry so far. Now I'll start working on sauce as I hopefully will start getting a few more tomatoes per picking. I also dried the skins again. I've got quite the collection going so I'll have to break out the coffee grinder soon to finish them off. I also whipped up a bit of fresh salsa. Mmmm....
Late afternoon, we had a family swim, I watered the rest of the garden, made dinner and then it was time to watch Warehouse 13. Now, I've got to head to bed soon since it's back to work tomorrow. V's mother will be here in a few days so I really need to re-convert the sewing room into the guest bedroom tomorrow. Looks like it will be a busy week...
Curious-how are the Amish farms doing crop-wise? Droughts or are they ok in your area? And do they welcome non-Amish shopping there?
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Warehouse 13, good episode tonite. It's funny seeing Brent Spiner there! I could KILL Syfy execs fo cancelling Eureka, my favorite show on the air. Bastards.
The Amish farms are affected by the drought as well. Things were a bit more green down there because they had more rain a few days ago when we just caught the edge of a line of showers that went through but they are still dry, dry, dry. And yes, they do welcome the 'English' as they refer to non-Amish. They actually do quite the tourist trade. Justine and I were remarking how we are always careful how we dress when we go there- while not Amish, we try to be somewhat respectful of their customs and don't wear anything revealing and I rarely wear pants.
DeleteI totally agree about the Syfy execs. What were they thinking! We don't watch a whole lot of TV but some of those sci-fi shows are some of our regulars. We were also crushed years ago when Firefly was cancelled.
I really should start some sauce right now, but I know hubby said he'd go out and pick for me tonight and I know he'll bring in even more so I don't want to start yet LOL! Yes, it's too hot and I said "no more" to the garden, but hubby can take the heat better than I haha!
ReplyDeleteMy tomatoes are just now starting to really kick in. I picked tonight and will probably be making sauce tomorrow and again on Friday.
DeleteI'm curious - what do you do with the dried tomato skins? I like the idea of using every bit of something. Wish I had the shopping opportunities you all have - cheese curds... mmmmmmm. Isn't it funny how we refer to our day "off"? Yes - off doing a million errands!
ReplyDeleteAh, the tomato skins. I found a blog post and then an article in a magazine (when I was at the dentist of all things- she has great reads!) about drying your tomato skins crispy, then pulverizing them in a coffee or spice grinder and making tomato powder. It can be added to foods for a flavor boost or reconstituted with a little water to make tomato paste. This is my first time trying it but I'm kind of excited.
DeleteWe do have some great shopping places here. We've hit Stringtown for years and years but we just recently discovered that one of the food service companies here in town has an outlet store. Yes, they have a lot of processed crap that I would never buy but they also have some great deals. And you never know what you will find when you go there as it's always changing. But I was really, really excited by the udon noodles.