Hello, friends. Though the garden is winding down, I've been harvesting tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, broccoli, summer squash, melons, a few dried lima beans, pears and figs. Small amounts of tomatoes have been canned several times. I celebrated a birthday the first week of the month, and told J I wanted to check out an Amish store I recently learned of, and go by a native plant nursery. Though the prices were fairly high, we picked up a few things at the Amish store, and I bought 6 plants at the nursery. There were two types of phlox, and cardinal flower. I hope they'll all thrive.
Here is our new pond sitting area. I think J did a great job. We're still waiting for cooler weather, to enjoy it. It looks like it won't be long. I braided onions for storage. Homestead Corner put up a video for shelf-stable apple cider mix. I got all the ingredients, and mixed up a batch, but again, we're waiting for cooler weather to try it. Figs and basil were dehydrated. I prefer using the frozen basil cubes, but there are a few recipes that call for dried. One is the vegan parmesan, and you need the dried basil, for it to keep for any length of time. A recipe makes enough for several weeks, and even in the fridge, I learned it can go moldy if not nice and dry. I've offered basil to several friends, but no one has yet taken me up on it.
A couple of posts ago, I mentioned a one day sewing class I took this summer. The potholder on the right is what I made. Sometime within the past year, I picked up a vintage metal potholder loom for $1.99 at Goodwill. It came with enough loops to make one, though they were stretched and in sad shape, like they'd maybe been put together and taken apart a time or two. That's the one on the left, which I enjoyed making. I asked J for some cotton loops for my birthday, which were dyed with poke, and sold in an Etsy shop. I'll make that one next, and have seen how you can make them from various things, including wool and cut up T-shirts. Otherwise, buying the loops is expensive, and kind of defeats the purpose, in my mind. I've started another sewing class, which runs 6 weeks. We're making an apron, lounge pants, and whatever other projects we want to work on. That's the part I'm most looking forward to.
I'm eating less of the GF bread these days. It's on automatic delivery from a local bakery, 4 loaves at a time. I had one loaf get moldy in the fridge, so I'm now keeping all four in the freezer. When it arrived, I put two slices in per bag, and froze it all, so I can just pull out what I need, as I need it. I took all the bread ends, dehydrated them, and made bread crumbs. There was a little bit of leftover tomato paste. I needed a small amount of marinara, for some eggplant fries I tried making, and the tomato paste was the perfect amount for this. Mayonnaise was made. I cut several inches off my hair, which helps it curl more, and makes me happy. Our young hens are all laying, so we're getting 21 most days. As you can imagine, that adds up quick. On a day J went to the VA, he brought several dozen to hand out to those who wanted them. He also gave several dozen to a man who helped him with a bus job, one in which he really needed another pair of strong hands. As far as the bus, the reassembly is almost complete, and we're hoping to be taking a trip soon. The Fall equinox arrives Tuesday night. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for cooler days. Take good care, friends.
