Happy Halloween

It has been a very busy month on the farm! The turkeys are growing before our eyes. The garden is still producing vegetables for dinner and lunches. The chickens are laying eggs galore. Walnuts have been dropping in abundance and there are pumpkins everywhere!

Sugar Pie and Fairytale Pumpkins have been harvested!

Pumpkins in the barn and lots of eggs such pretty colors.

Pumpkins at the garden gate

Pumpkin in the birdbath

Pumpkin Chocolate fudge. It is a new favorite on the farm.

Using sugar pie pumpkins from the garden, the puree is mixed into the batter

Happy Bats!

Hand knitted pumpkin by Tyler, age 8.

Turkeys roosting the yard and pumpkins at the well.

Kitchen full of fall and pumpkin goodies.

Sunshine streaming through the rainshowers.

Shadowy afternoons.

Walnut drying station! 

Produce weighing station.

I love you, Mom! xo

Masks and pumpkins

Pumpkin treats made for students  along with popcorn balls.

Early fall morning after the stormy night. So many walnuts ready to be gathered.

Walnuts for Sale!

~ Happy Fall and Happy Halloween! ~

Hope Floats Scarecrow

The school where I teach puts scarecrows up on the fenceline every year to greet the farmers and community members during the harvest season. This year our school is also attending to Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Students and staff have been encouraged to wear pink on Fridays and are writing letters and notes of encouragement to cancer patients receiving treatment. On the 30th of October, students will have a Hope Floats Assembly and enjoy ice cream floats as a treat. 

In the greenhouse is Hope the Scarecrow. I made her out of a sunflower head with walnut eyes and nose and red pepper lips. She has mini sunflower hands and barn boots. The pumpkins and gourds were painted with tempera paints and the gooseneck gourds were given a necklace of chicken feathers for a dressed up look! In celebration of all of the families and fighters of breast cancer and thank you, Mom for your incredible fight 19 years ago. ~ Keep spreading the Hope and Love! ~

Dehydrating Cantaloupe

Amish Cantaloupe from Seed Saver's Exchange turned out to be the best tasting surprise in the garden! This cantaloupe is what we remember the orange-fleshed melons tasting like when we were kids. 

The cantaloupe were anywhere from 4 pounds to over 9 pounds on the produce scale. We picked more than 100 pounds of cantaloupe and there are more ripening right now.  Wondering how to preserve them as we couldn't eat that many cantaloupe at once, we decided to try dehydrating them.

The book that came with the Excaliber dehydrator said cantaloupe aren't always a successful fruit to dry.  Still, we had to try.  So we simply prepared them like we would serve them: Cut the melon is half, scoop out the seeds, cut into quarters, peel, them slice each quarter section about 1/4 inch thick. Put them in the dehydrator at 135 degrees and in 10 - 12 hours, the slices were dry...and delicious!

This jar is holding about 8 cantaloupe! That's hard to believe, but true! Next we will try frozen cubes of cantaloupe for smoothies!

Every Color of the Rainbow

Every color of the rainbow is ripe in the garden right now! We are busy picking, chopping, slicing, brining, stewing, canning, preserving the harvest! What is happening your kitchen now?

Peach Picking and Harvest

Looking down on the peach tree! Tim is standing on top of the car port as the tree has produced so much fruit this year, it is easier to pick from above!

This lovely tree is loaded no matter how you look at it!

Up close, the peaches are tree ripened and beautiful. They are super juicy and very sweet. We don't know what variety of peach the tree is, but it seems to be an earlier ripener, cling free, easy to peal and disease resistant.

Picking the low to the ground peaches and waiting for the next call for a full bucket from above.

Three bushels were lined up ready to go, but it wasn't enough!

As soon as the bushel baskets were filled the peaches were taken inside to immediately cool.

Off the roof and hauling bushels into the house.

One little tree and two pickers later we had more than 200 pounds of peaches ready to eat fresh, can, make into jam, peach butter, dehydrate, and a fresh peach cobbler for the evening!