Traditional Homemaking Fall/Spring 2009! - Page 4

[1jooj]

Originally Posted by artparent

seriously : i need to eat at your house this winter.

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Welcome anytime! I have had the great fortune of meeting several MDC mamas IRL and ALL have been like hitting the jackpot. :

[Katico]

Savory, crunchy cherries! Huh! Who knew!

Tonight, instead of ordering out supper I stared at the fridge until I was inspired by odds and ends.

leftover half an onion + carton of milk close to expiry + a couple of potatoes that were almost past using+ some canned corn and evap. milk

= corn chowder! Made some drop biscuits to use the last bit of milk and it was really good. All those things would have been pitched in the next day or so if I hadn't used them!

I have been trying hard to see food as money spent - to throw out anything is not only shamefully wasteful, but it is literally throwing away money.

Also going to get back into the habit of using my drying racks indoors for alot of our laundry!

Went yardsaleing this weekend and picked up some great wooden blocks and an old metal dollhouse for DD. Does that count? Thrifty, I guess!

[1jooj]

Originally Posted by Katico

Savory, crunchy cherries! Huh! Who knew!

Sorry, I mean cherry tomatoes.

Corn chowder and drop biscuits sound

[MamaFern]

im trying to get myself loving home making..some days i really get into the rhythm, but its really hard for me other days..

in my last home/town i made our own bread and did a lot of other baking but here, up until 2 days ago i had an oven that didnt work. my landlady finally replaced my stove with a brand new one, so i'm going to get back into that. i guess another factoe isa that i was very isolated in my last town, so i had a lot more time at home.. now im out and about a lot, and finding it hard to get everything done.


i have been canning a bit this season, plan to do lots more..the local food security network is holding a workshop on old fashon home canning every wednesday night for the next few months, so im planning to get in on that. i really love how much my new community values healthy eatings and sustainability. we have an active community garden, which next year i wsill hopefully have time to work at, and i have been working on a friends farm weeding in exchange for veggies and hopefully some lamb at some point.

and i just signed up for a share of locally grown csa grains. its 100+ lbs of kamut, spelt, red fife wheat, hard winter wheat, hard spring wheat & oats. im really really excited about being able to grind our own grains and flake our own oats. now i just need a grain mill! im looking at the family grain mill. anyone have any experience with this one? the meat grinder attachment can be use dto make nut butters too, which we eat a lot of.

im also trying to get some knitting done for selling at the winter fair here.

so after writing it all out, i wonder how i can still feel like i dont do enough.. i see so many other mommas doing such amazing things and i wish i could have enough energy or time to get more done in my days.

[artparent]

i feel the same, fern. not enough time, not enough energy. oh well!! easy does it! just imagine when your little ones are big enough to help you!!

i got my last skeins of yarn today, to take with me to london and hopefully return with some presents. very exciting! i bought large circular needles to make a throw and hopefully a wrap for park days.

oh, and my mother, who used to work with batik, had several embroidery hoops, so i've got a couple to take along.

i could not find any shoes here, my shoes are great structurally but are very badly faded and stained from the indigo in my jeans. anyone know anything about dyeing shoes? suede. i could get another year out of them if they were a little more presentable

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[simplespirit]

I have days when I feel the satisfaction just ooze from my heart; a warm glow of appreciation... and other days when I want to pull my hair out! My kitchen is tomato central at the moment. I need to buy my pumpkins soon; I didn't grow any this year. And apples apples apples. my family loves homemade applesauce and it is the one food I can't not can...

I think, for me, the frustration with traditional homemaking is my job. I struggle with the balance, even after nearly 20 years of working outside the home (on and off), of being away from the house then returning to pick up where I left off.

This past weekend, I worked 2 twelve hour shifts at the hospital while tomatoes covered my table, countertops, deck... I spent yesterday trying to play catch up. Arrg...

[MamaFern]

simplespirit: my sister is a nurse and i lived with her for a year.. i know how hard 12 hour shifts are on a person..and she didn't have to come home to kids or tomatoes.

well, my day consisted of house tidying, laundry & hanging, baking chocolate zucchini muffins, and now im dehydrating apples. a pretty productive day all in all! oh, and meals and snacks for the kiddos, picking up and dropping off at school, walking downtown to get mail & groceries.. kids are not in bed yet though....

[artparent]

sounds great, fern.

squeezing in more social time. i did clean, though, and laundered some things. i made a huge beef stew a couple of days ago, it has been so great to be able to get out and see friends and not worry about the hunger at the end of the bus ride. tomorrow is my first day staying home in a week, i can't wait! maybe time to start packing

i keep meeting more and more old friends who have fallen under the spell of homesteading, traditional solutions, full of energy for all of this!!

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[Chloe'sMama]

Ohhhh, can I join???

DD is 15 months, but I worked up until a few months ago. I am beginning to love homemaking and wish I had better 'skills'. Always looking for ways to get motivated and streamline my processes.

Great!

[artparent]

exactly what i'm going for.

welcome, chloe's mama!

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[MamaFern]

Originally Posted by artparent

exactly what i'm going for.

welcome, chloe's mama!

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oooh. nice link! thanks

[1jooj]

My mom came over and we canned 34 quarts of applesauce, froze 2 gallons of apples sliced for pie/cake/whatever, and saved a quart of sauce for dinner. It took us just over 5 hours, working nonstop, together, and fast.

Beyond that, I got a little laundry, daily barn chores, and NOTHING ELSE done today. Dinner was mostly leftovers and the rest handled by dh, as the kids had a school open house. Then I got home from the school thing and found that a college friend from out of state had popped in while passing through. She'll be back tomorrow, and tomorrow's plan for me is to can more tomatoes, cook a decent dinner, tidy the house a great deal, and suit up to show my friend the bees.

Thursday will need to be a quiet day, as this is a big holiday weekend coming up. We'll see how that works out...Lately, I feel like I've been kept from feeling that satisfaction even from the most productive of days, because our house has been so busy and full of people who don't live here. Just today, I had 4 different parties stop in at the house, for different reasons. Three of those parties ate dinner with us, so...yeah. Really a busy place. Not feeling like a refuge.

And I am still uncertain about gifts for my children this weekend. I want so badly to give them something they will love. Wondering whether I could get each of them a book store gift card and then take them to the bookstore to redeem. Is that weird? Help!

[simplespirit]

Originally Posted by 1jooj

And I am still uncertain about gifts for my children this weekend. I want so badly to give them something they will love. Wondering whether I could get each of them a book store gift card and then take them to the bookstore to redeem. Is that weird? Help!

Books are the best gift ever! My daughters' book are treasures... at ages 20 and 22; they still have all of the books we gave then over the years... hundreds! From cheap Little Goldens (I have some with price tags of .89!) to expensive hardcover collectables; these are being held onto for future generations.

The toys and clothes that were given at the same time are loooonng gone. Books are forever

Today... more sauce and salsa! Pints, pints, pints of jars... down to the basement and onto the shevles for winter days!

Blessed Be, my sistahs!

[mommathea]

Yesterday I canned 16pints of dried beans - red, black, pinto, and white northern. and froze 6 cups of white northern. Last night I used one pint that didn't seal and just mixed some barbQ sauce. The kids ate it like there was no tomorrow. lol.
I find that if I don't can or freeze the beans then I don't use them. And I was able to get some super cheep.
I need to buy some more jars. Some how it seems that each year I end up with less and less jars.

Today is bread day. Right now I have 6 loaves raising. Hopefuly this afternoon I'll get to another 6 loaves. We'll see how the day goes.

I finished my 'hot water bottle' rice socks. They turned out pretty well, but I bent my last needle sewing the jean material. I need to stock up on those. lol.

Next on my list is making up soups for the comming winter. My mom never did many soups and stews - dad like meat & potato kind of meals.
What kind of soups do you normaly serve? Favorite recipies???? PLEASE?!?!

[artparent]

wow. sometimes my brain just makes the leap in ways that seem so unbelievably obvious, but i never got there before. you know, like ohhhh, T-shirt!!

so here we are again. canned beans!! when i lived in canada with a big freezer, i would cook up a giant pot of beans, after soaking them a good long time, and i'd add a type of seaweed to the beans to make them more digestible, so they were really great . then i'd put them in the freezer. so i'd been thinking that in my tiny london kitchen, with my tiny freezer, that that wasn't possible

thanks for opening my mind!! this is pressure canning, yes? and how easy would it be to have homemade soups canned and ready to go : i can't eat onions, which eliminates all storebought soup so i've never lived with that convenience. i'm so excited! now we'll see how long it takes me to get the equipment set up.

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[artparent]

my friend came over and taught me to drop spindle!!

i've been practicing using this video.

i love it. my yarn is really slubby.

i started packing, we'll see if i can cram it all in.

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[vermontmomma]

Originally Posted by AFWife

Stock Question for the experienced mamas!!!

I made chicken stock for the first time yesterday (go me!) I boiled it down fairly concentrated (I guess...it fits in a 32oz jar and I had a LOT of stuff in it) and put it in the fridge. (I plan on using it this week) I checked on it today and it's solid...Is this normal? And how do I go about using it? Do I use it like bouillon and spoon some into water and heat it?

dh "just took care of" 14 broilers this week and instead of freezing whole like the rest he quartered and bagged them in meal sized amounts and then boiled the 14 carcasses in our big canning pot. we cooked it down to 2 quart jars and a half gallon jar of super concentrated stock and it's delishious: even without salt or anything. i made some miso already and it was the best ever.
good stock will firm up like that. it makes it really healthy (the old chicken soup cure)

[vermontmomma]

Originally Posted by 1jooj

And I am still uncertain about gifts for my children this weekend. I want so badly to give them something they will love. Wondering whether I could get each of them a book store gift card and then take them to the bookstore to redeem. Is that weird? Help!

i would love books as a gift anytime and always have. perfect!

artparentressure can only i think because of the acidity. my yarn is also delightfully slubby. i'm going to spin two batches together for a two ply slubby yarn.

[greenmamapagan]

Another spring mama here, thanks for remembering us
We are really getting into the garden, don't you love that urgency when Spring hits and you just want to plant a billion things
Inside the house is not happening so much as I'm still feeling my way as a mama of two instead of one but we'll get there.

[1jooj]

Up early and on the for my third-to-last day of fasting. I have a houseguest, and she gave me the excuse to drop in on the bees. Wow. They have made up their honey stashes and are almost ready for winter, I think. Everyone looks healthy, but I need more supplies. Going to have to plan for it, since we are also buying some hay, and we have holiday expenses this weekend.

artparent, does that spinning just take forever?

Still on tomatoes, and I hope I'll have the chance to go tomorrow and get the kids their book store cards. Thanks for the feedback! I thought about actual books, but this way we get an outing, and I can get them a coffee. I picked up a couple of crafting items, too. New window paints and some fabric paints for puppet making. I hope they get excited.

Pressure canners: I have a pressure cooker, just a "cheap" one (not that it didn't cost plenty) that supplies only 10lb pressure, probably could fit 4 pint jars. Could I use this, or do I need an actual canner to pressure can stuff? I don't need to do beans ahead, I usually have enough time to do a quick soak for the dry bean recipes we do...but it would be nice to have canned soups. I think that would make such a nice gift, and it would be another thing to make with all the garden vegetables.

Eggplants. I don't like them dried, and the books say pressure canning. A friend fries them to freeze, and I think I read about slicing and freezing with paper between...but that sounds so fussy.

My mom about died when she saw the shelf I was using for my canned goods in the basement. I admit it was scary. So we hijacked a shelf from a closet, and now I have another decluttering job to manage. But at least it's less likely that all my pickles will go crashing to the floor. And I did get independent verification that I made a LOT of pickles. If OCD Mom says I did...

I figure on canning another dozen quarts of plain tomatoes, and the rest I'll cook down into sauces. Saves space and gets me closer to the desired result anyway.