right now

right now

Sep 27, 2012

I only thought the garden was done...

I lied, I thought the garden was done, kaput.  Then I remembered the other day that I asked hubby to leave the pepper bed alone since they were well behaved plants and weren't really infested with any sort of bugginess (is that a word?).  I've been up to other things inside the house and kind of forgot about checking up on them.  

All 16 pounds of them!


Nope, canning season wasn't over yet.


I also tried making hot sauce for the first time.  As usual, don't expect a recipe out of me, I don't use them.  I chucked a bunch of the mini-bell peppers that are a pain to freeze in the crock pot along with some jalapeƱos and a bunch of the yellow and green Trinidad Spice peppers you see in the photo above.  Added "a bit" of vinegar and a jar of last year's frozen tomatoes that were still in the freezer.  Cooked for several hours then blended with a stick blender, added salt and garlic, cooked a bit more and pressure canned a few pints along with a jar of fresh that we are using already.  Very yummy and now I'm thinking of making some of it into a bbq mop for our next pork smoking event, since the final sauce product flavor really hinted at it.  Not much of a recipe, but that's how I roll :)



Pickled jalapeƱos, Trinidad Spice Peppers, 6 qts frozen bell peppers (not pictured) and a bunch of hot sauce!


Although I'm not canning apples anymore, I still pick them up at the farm stand for fresh eating.  Finn is the apple connoisseur around here.  We all like them in some fashion, but for him it's a religious calling to sample every apple that passes by.


Above apples according to Finnegan:  "these are nice to look at, but taste gross"... there you have it.  These are Fuji I think, but I wouldn't judge any apple on this year's crop, apples have been dealt a difficult hand this year.

Speaking of bad crops, the pumpkin growers down here are calling it a total loss.  Crazy, the pumpkins look beautiful, but when you touch them or go to lift them, they collapse into a mess.  Too much rain.

So I've been avoiding the obvious, where the he(( have I been the past couple of weeks?!  I have no excuse for myself except motivation.  I have been busy with the kids's stuff, they have swim team, music lessons, Loch is in the Robotics Lego League, and of course we are Cub Scout leaders so that eats up a lot of time as well.  Of course none of this is a valid excuse for why I can't find 15-30 minutes to sit down and blog since you all do way more homestead-y chores and still manage to do it, I'm just a hot mess this year for some reason LOL.  Rest assured though, we are all alive and kicking and just waiting for the next wave of inspiration and industriousness to arrive.  Until then I'll continue cleaning up 2 square feet of the garden and losing interest or pulling all the stuff out of a cupboard to clean and then walking away from it with ADD  :)

There is a huge elephant who is not in the room yet, but can be heard wiping his feet off on the doormat outside... the deployment schedule has arrived.  Hubby leaves in just a couple of days and will only be home for 7 days over the next 2 months, after that we don't know how long he will be here before he leaves for 6-10 months.  We have heard this is the most condensed workup cycle that has been done, usually these training missions pre-deployment are a little more spaced out, but I guess we can thank the new crisis in the Middle East for that.  "New crisis" and "Middle East" should probably not ever go into the same sentence but I just did it LOL.  So anyway, now we aren't even sure if our holiday plans will be a go.  Oh well, I'm not afraid to say I can't stand Obama (military family, no big surprise there) but we will loyally "go with the program" and not complain too much, the deployment is needed and we've had him home for almost 2 years so we are fortunate.

Hubby took the boys camping last weekend!  I was home ALONE for a night!  I realized that I had never, ever been alone without any of them, how strange!  I'm not ashamed to say it was awesome.  :)


Hubs & the boys - Knotts Island, NC

What was really cool was that apparently he did indeed feed them and keep them from harm's way, they came back the next day intact.  I had to save my "I told you that would happen" for another day...


p.s.  I have been trying to keep up with everyone and none of my comments are posting on blogs unless I'm on my desktop computer!  I usually read my blogs on the laptop so I apologize, I'm going to see if I can find the issue tonight.

16 comments:

  1. Wow that's a lot of peppers! Glad you found ways to preserve them.

    Sorry to hear the hubby is going to be away from home again. I'm praying for peace so everyone can come home and be with their families.

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    1. Sparkless, that amount of peppers took me by surprise!

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  2. That's a lot of peppers. Your pepper sauce sounds yummy. I'm a sucker for anything hot. I'm just too lazy to pull out the pressure canner too often, which definitely limits me- but I manage.
    Sorry to hear about the upcoming deployment mess. I do wish we could have everyone home.
    Judy

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    1. Judy, the sauce was indeed spicy! I don't have any choice but to pressure can most everything due to my glass top stove, I can't heat up the amount of water I need to do water bath otherwise I'd do more of that. My pressure canner however heats up and is ready to go in about 15 minutes without injury to the stove LOL

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  3. We are getting ready for our next deployment. David has been home for two years and will be leaving this spring sometime. I know he is needed but I am just not ready for him to go!

    I lost a lot of blogging motivation over the last two months. I have a lot I want to write about but just never seem to get it on the blog.

    Your sauce sounds yummy!

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    1. Christy, good luck with all the deployment preparation - I think the "pre" phase is worse than the actual deployment, at least once they leave we can start counting back down to return!

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  4. Sixteen pounds of peppers is rather awe-inspiring! You sure have had a loooong, wet, hot, humid summer. Glad you're getting some relief. We know you're out there, blogging or not. If we get worried, we'll pepper you with comments. I love the photo of hubs and the boys. That's a keeper.

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    1. Susan, ....and it's pouring again today! Ugh, this was one of the last days I could have hubby out there doing the heavy work LOL, but instead he is "rearranging" his tackle box on the kitchen table..... :)

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  5. It's been a while since I've checked in on blogs at ALL, and good gracious those tomatoes on your top photo were HUGE! Way to go on that pepper harvest. I'll just continue to drool over it all from here. I love anything spicy, I bet that hot sauce is incredible! Thank you for again sharing your husband with our country. I remember tears from his last homecoming when reading your blog and seeing the pictures. You are incredibly strong.

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    1. Megan, aw thanks. I'm glad you are settled into your new place, I'm sure it will take some adjusting but at least its not 100 degrees out there anymore!

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  6. What is your secret Erin??? I wish our pepper plants were so productive. Good luck with the deployment, I hope all goes well!

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    1. Anke, no secret, I really neglect my peppers, poor soil, no water LOL... I think they just like Virginia!

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  7. Good luck with the family stuff -- your peppers are awesome. Reminds me to check my sauce. My Fujis are terrific this year -- different climates.

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    1. Stefaneener, glad you got some good apples, out here they are yuck. I bet your sauce is amazing, I didn't ferment or anything this year, just crock-potted...is that a word? LOL it is now.

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  8. I'm still talking every day to my bed (cold frame covered) of three different kinds of peppers, but apparently this isn't a good year for them. Very slow in forming peppers and not a lot of them. Good thing man does not live by peppers alone. At least around here this year!

    Our apples that were so nice and plentiful last year are the pits this year. Just the way it goes, I guess. Some things were really good, some were not.

    I wonder if your discomboobulation this fall is because of the upcoming deployment? I so wish he didn't have to leave you and the boys for nearly a year again. We can all pray for the day to return when there isn't a place in the world for U.S. military personnel to be deployed to.

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  9. oh no,not again and Amen ,momma pea,I double that I dare say any more the way my mind is going.I actually forgot Jane was Jane ad thought she was you and commented about her kids? Ya?No help for the wicked==lol

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