Helen, GA: Vacationing with the Granddaughters

 What a wonderful trip we had a few weeks ago with our two little granddaughters!  We went back to the cabin in Helen, GA.

Of  course we made a stop at the Cabbage Patch Hospital!

 

 Got coffee at the Jumpin Goat Coffee Roasters in Helen.

 Enjoyed the resort's horses.

 Went hiking,

 Horseback riding,

and just relaxed.

 We also drove up into the mountains, ending up in North Carolina.  Back in Helen, we enjoyed the quaint little town with all it's Alpine charm.  We even had a carriage ride through the town.

What a blessing to be able to vacation with our grandchildren!

Puttin' Up Vegetables

In our part of Northwest Florida, we are in the middle of our growing season.    Again, the Lord has blessed us with an abundant crop.  We've canned our snake beans, frozen our squash, peas and corn, and are in the middle of harvesting the tomatoes and cucumbers (did anyone say tomato sandwich?).

Baby watermelons and muskmelons are on the vines.  Soon, though, as the summer wears on, it will be too hot, and the garden will take a little break (and so will we).  Of course, things like peppers and eggplant will struggle through and revive again toward the end of summer.  Then we will have another opportunity to plant a late summer garden with squash, snake beans,  some late tomatoes, and possibly some more potatoes.  I like to stretch out the growing season as long as I can.  

There's nothing like fresh garden vegetables during the summer months, and if you can preserve some of them for the winter months, you will not only have some mighty fine eating come winter, but you will also save quite a bit on you grocery bill.  

If you haven't tried freezing your produce, give it a try.  It really is an easy thing to do, and something the kids can help with as well.

Last week we finished freezing our first row of pink-eye-purple-hull peas.  This pea is akin to black-eye peas, but not as dry.  

After shelling the peas (grab the kids for this task), I wash them under running water and put them into a strainer to drain.  Work in small amounts. 

 I go ahead and put them in my wire basket that I use to blanch them in.  Next, I blanch them in a large pot of boiling water.

 After two minutes of blanching, I quickly drain them and plunge  them into ice water to begin the cooling process.

Here are some squash I put up a couple of weeks ago.

After cooling in the ice bath, I gently lay the vegetables on a clean dish towel to further cool and drain.

 

Aren't vegetable pretty?

At this point, the hard work is done.  Now, all that's left is to put the vegetables into a freezer container.  I measure out about two cups of vegetables for each quart bag.

 After pouring the vegetables into the bag, I gently squeeze out as much air as possible and lay the bags flat.  This way they stack nicely in the freezer.

 Place them in the freezer and that's all there is to it!  You'll be all ready to enjoy the fresh taste of summer all through the coming year!

For more information on canning and freezing methods, check with your local County Extension Office.  They have all kinds of valuable information on gardening and preserving foods.  You can also check with the USDA's website here. 

  

Girl Power for Father's Day!

I'm guessing that most any mother would be proud of her children and probably think they are just geniuses.  I'm no exception!  Yesterday my daughter, granddaughters and I went on a country road trip to a farm not too far away in Lillian, AL.  We were on a mission to purchase another bushel of corn.  Couldn't be just any kind of corn.  It had to be "Silver King."  Now Silver King is the kind we have growing in five rows of our garden, but for some reason this year, it is not looking very productive.  So no worries, there's so many farms close by, we decided it would be a nice day trip to just go farm hopping and buy some.  We found a charming family farm here called Cassebaum Family Farm.  
 We purchased our corn and headed on to Elberta to find a place to eat.  On the way, we found another farm with blueberries for sale. We stopped and decided to pick some berries with the girls.  We hadn't planned on this, and believe me, the Lord had blessed us with lots of blueberries, and LOTS of sunshine.  We were dripping wet by the time we paid for our berry delights.  
We jumped into the car and drove west to Foley, AL, a beautiful little town in lower Alabama.  It sits north of Gulf Shores, AL, on Highway 59.  We visit Foley and these other little towns several times a year for antiquing trips and festivals, so we felt at home.  We found the little Pharmacy, called Stacey's Drug Store, which looks to be the original soda shop/pharmacy from back in the 30's or 40's.  Gracious, this little place is so full of antique ice-cream parlor charm!  They have the original soda fountain, a player piano, juke box, and a model train running all around the top edge of the room.  They even have 10 cent coffee!  I had to sample it, and it was delicious!    
After eating a delicious lunch and ice cream at Stacey's, we headed back to Pensacola.  We had had a most wonderful day, but we still had all that corn to put up!  
Now for the proud mother part.  On the way home, my daughter informed me that she was going to build a lounge chair for her hubby for father's day.  I didn't blink too much because this gal of mine has a history of tackling any kind of job.  And my oldest granddaughter is just like her...has to be right there in the middle of everything.

 Shelly promised me more pictures to come as she progresses along, so stay tuned.  Here is the second picture:

Here's more!

She got 'er done (with a little extra help)!
Can you see that drill gun smoking?

 

It was a breeze!

From start to finish, 3 1/2 hours!

 

A Day on the Farm Canning Memories

What a pleasant, productive day on the farm!  Hubby and I hit the floor running.  I fixed Mom's famous cheese biscuits and then went out to feed the chickens and pick beans.  Daughter Shelly was coming up with the grandgirls to a day of canning and jelly making.  We had already canned 21 quarts, but the beans have been coming so fast, we had to drop everything and do it again.

  Hubby and I kept passing each other between the house and shop.  He was setting up the propane burner while I was filling jars with snake beans.  Shell and the girls got here as Hubby took the jars out to the shop to process and I was picking more beans.  Shell took over that job, 

and I came in the house to fix the little ones' jelly biscuits and start snapping beans.  Shelly finally came in and we sat a while snapping the rest of the beans.  Then off to wash them and fill more jars for Hubby. 

Finally, after 3 batches of beans, we had a quick lunch.

Lillie and Lanie got into my vintage jewelry and came dressed in their finest to a luncheon of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

 

 

  After a little rest, we thought we would treat the girls (and us) to a little swim time, splashing and relaxing in the water.  

Finally, we decided we better get started on the strawberry jelly.  After two batches, we ran out of sugar and pectin.  Shell went to the store but they had sold out of pectin!  We decided to freeze the remainder of the strawberries and call it a day!

 

We canned a lot of beans and sweet jelly for the winter, but more than that, we canned a lot of precious memories!