Raw Almonds

We belong to a group that gets real food, fresh from the farmers, and once a year we are able to order truly raw, untreated, almonds.

We order a 50 pound box.

And the day the almonds arrive we stop whatever we are doing and get them measured out, vacuum sealed, and into the freezer.

We eat almonds every day.

When we are close to running out of them in the kitchen, I pull a bag from the freezer, dump them into a bowl of water with a tablespoon of sea salt, and soak them overnight.

Then I put them in my dehydrator at about 105 degrees, and dry them until they are crispy. It make take up to 4 days. Sometime in the future I will do a separate post on that.

Here we have our 50 pounds of almonds ready for the freezer!


Thanks for stopping by.


Blessings,

Dyan

It's Raining What???

During a recent storm we checked our weather station hanging on the kitchen wall and were quite amused to see the scrolling print at the bottom edge.

That was quite a storm.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Dyan

Canning Potatoes

We got a deal on a 50 pound box of Organic Russet Potatoes and we had been wanting to try canning potatoes, so this seemed like the perfect time.  We couldn't believe how beautiful these potatoes were.  They were huge!

First they got a good scrubbing in the sink.

Then Tim volunteered to do all the peeling. Bless him!

I cut them up into small pieces and we soaked them to get some of the starch out. We changed the water several times before transferring them to pans of water on our wonderful vintage stove we use for canning. ($100 on Craigslist and it works - I kid you not!!!)  

Then as the pressure canner was heating up with jars in it, we began heating the potatoes just enough to get them hot but not cook them. We were told they would end up mushy if we let them cook.

On the left is a large pan of clean hot water to pour over the potatoes after we put them in the canning jars.

We ended up with 28 quarts of potatoes to enjoy all winter, and we still have about 20 pounds left in the "pantry" on our awesome Orchard Rack (my Christmas present last year).  The water ended up "starchy" when the jars cooled, but we were assured that it will not affect the taste or the safety of the contents.  If we had been more patient and soaked them longer, we could have gotten more of the starch out.  Something to remember for next time!

This isn't mine, but it's just like it.

(Just so you know) :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Dyan

A Big Day On The Farm

Yesterday was a milestone for us.  After all of Tim's hard work, we fed the cows in the barn last night for the first time.  It took some coaxing to get them in there.  The calves were the first to explore and find the manger full of hay.  Eventually the Moms came in too.  It was raining incredibly hard which made it even more of a blessing to have them under cover with dry food.

 

Today he wired the lights and this evening when I go out to feed them I will be dry and so will they.  It does my heart good :)

Blessings,

Dyan