Preparing for the worst

In theory, Hurricane Earl should arrive tonight. We live about 40 miles west of the coast, so I'm not expecting much more than rain and some wind. With the dry summer we've had, I'm hoping for lots of heavy rain.

But, when it rains, we often lose the power, so I decided to can a batch of tomatoes, rather than freeze them. It took a little while, but I think I have the hang of it.

This batch started out as 10 lbs of heirloom plum tomatoes from the CSA. I think next time I'll squish more tomatoes into the jar. But as a first-time try, I feel pretty good about it.

Baking for 1

The newest Beechnut has turned 1! To celebrate, I baked a rainbow cake just for the birthday girl. I'm sure Martha Stewart would fail me on the final presentation, but all the children at the party approved of the cake!

The cake recipe came from this site, found through Tastespotting. It was pretty simple to make and the kids went nuts when they saw the inside. I also made cupcakes using the same method and they were pretty popular.

Happy Birthday, Beechnut2! We love you!

First harvest from the CSA

This year we bought a share in a CSA and this is what our half of the share looks like:


As part of the share, we have to work 7 hours on the farm. I went last Sunday to do a few hours of weeding, the highlight of which was getting to ride in the back of a pickup truck from the parking lot to the fields. I haven't done that since I was a kid!

The share this week consisted of:
Baby turnips,
Radishes,
Beet Greens,
Turnip greens,
arugula,
mixed greens,
and a head of lettuce.

It will be fun to figure out what to do with all these greens... I'm sure it will involve bacon!

Making applesauce

making applesauce
Originally uploaded by screwtop

All the magazines I read this summer talked to me with a singular message: buy a patent handbag. Oh wait, those were the fashion mags. The cooking mags told me to can fruits and vegetables, in the event of nuclear winter I suppose.

So I bought a pressure canner yesterday and used up the last of the apples we picked with the Beechnuts and canned my own applesauce.

I'm not a total stranger to this concept. My mother has canned almost everything you can imagine. I usually freeze applesauce and I made my own baby food for BN-1, but canning seemed a little advanced. Once I got into it, and thoroughly read the instructions, it was pretty easy.

Quick note: if you try this yourself, make a LOT more whatever-you-plan-to-can than you think. Four pint jars were all I got out of about 10 lbs of apples.