Preserving Your Bounty...

When I look at this sweet bounty of fruit, I thank God for His provision of such delicacies...This wholesome goodness will feed my family giving them nutrients and vitamins they need to live healthy and feel good. I am thankful for these blessings in such a hard economy era, that we are able to have this food on our table to enjoy and sustain us. I am thankful for my dear Church Family who give their fruit from their trees so that we may glean from it. This week we were blessed with a whole basket full of plump golden peaches to enjoy.We picked plums and apricots from our own backyard trees and fresh blueberries from a local farm. I am doing the happy dance!

I knew we wouldn't be able to eat the peaches fast enough before they would go bad so I made a light syrup and canned 4 pints for future enjoyment with peace of mind they will taste just as fresh as they were picked from the tree. The kids had some with their lunch and loved every bite!

Since I never made blueberry jam before I thought I would use my blueberry bounty for that...
I am not sorry for it either...This stuff is remarkably delish!
I was also blessed with the opportunity to share my knowledge of canning with my dear friend Marmie yesterday. I truly was honored to be able to serve as a Titus woman, teaching a younger woman canning skills which she will be able to continue herself for her family and prayerfully she will be able to pass her canning skills to her children and other women. As a homemaking Mama I hope to keep this art alive for future homemakers...They will surely bless their families with good things for teaches frugality as well. I prefer to know what the ingredients are in my food...Look at all the labels in stores...Many contain ingredients that are chemically & artificially made or filled with high fructose corn syrup and empty calories and preservatives or no nutritional value whatsoever. By simply taking some time and preserving your own food as much as possible and cooking from scratch will benefit your family so much more that all the bad junk out there...It takes little effort to go the extra mile...This is still a work in progress in my home...every little change you make is always good. If you have any questions regarding canning and don't know where to start...I would be more than happy to help you out!
Happy Homemaking!

Summertime Blues....

 
The week started off a little rough starting over the weekend with our car breaking down on the freeway a little over an hour away from home. We got towed home safely....We were not about to let this tragedy bring us Summertime Blues. Our wonderful Church Family came to our rescue bringing us to church on Sunday....Fellow shipping in the evening with a sweet dinner....We were blessed to barrow a car for the time being and had a delightful field trip with friends on Monday. So really the only blues we were seeing were in the blueberries we went to pick at The Berry Company Farm.
Freckles enjoyed her blueberry picking experience even though it was in the 90's...It was a scorcher out there. Leave it to me to be the ones who didn't bring hats or sunscreen. Thankfully we didn't get burned and we had plenty of water to keep hydrated.
They were not only pretty berries, they were delightfully sweet. We will be making blueberry jam this week along with our plums, then my girlfriend is coming over for her jam making lesson...We will be making strawberry and apricot from my tree.
Even little quails like eating blueberries!
 
Look how blue our blueberries look...I think it was from the blue bucket Freckles used.
 Hope your having a happy Summer week.

Weeks End Glance....

We had a good week this week...I accomplished a few things which is always a good thing. Mr. Darling is busy, busy going back and forth to San Diego for his Summer internship, the kids and I went to the beach with our sweet gal friend Marilee. It was a great day watching them play in the waves..I even got a little kitty snooze in...The sound of the ocean relaxed me, just wish I could have brought it home with me.

I worked on this cute little patchy scrap piece and will be quilting it next week, making it a sweet throw pillow to sell. My mind is set on doing shows again. I haven't done art shows in years...so I have lot's of work ahead. I'll keep you posted.

I found this cool yellow shadow frame while thrifting, so added my print to it...So cute...
This will be for sale too!
 
Then I worked on a couple collage pieces to add to my shop.
The houses above and this darling Daisy Gal in full bloom. Precious isn't she?

Drinking lemonade...
Cause it's Summer time!!!

Oh yeah, my apricot tree is ready and bearing fruit...Yay!!! I made apricot jam and cherry jam to add to my strawberry. My friend will be coming over next week while I give her jam making lessons...Plus we're making a trip out to the blueberry fields to pick ....Maybe I will turn that into jam too! Yum!!!
Stay tuned for this fun tutorial I will be sharing...
Using cute bandanna's!!!

Oh, if you live nearby and have a pool & wish to have us over..
.We'd be more than happy to hang out with you
Freckles is praying for it!
 Tee Hee...Hope your having a fantastic Summer!!!

Tomatoe~Tamater~Tamatoe...

However you say it or however you spell it....It's delicious!
 We stewed up some tamaters yesterday for future recipes.....Unfortunately I didn't grow these babies in my garden. Last year I only got two then the plant died. My soil here is like clay so, there is nowhere to grow them except a container...Which I killed accidentally. I am new to tamater gardening.
Someday...prayerfully we will have a garden where I can plant food.
Okay, okay...So I got some tamaters, washed them....
then boiled them for 1 1/2 minutes until the skins cracked
After they are boiled, I placed them in cold water and peeled the skins completely off.
 It is very easy! I prepared my canner with water and brought it to a boiling simmer. In the meantime, I cored the tamaters and cut them into bite sized chunks, poured them into a clean pot with juice, seeds and all bringing it to a boiling simmer for 15 minutes adding salt, pepper and sugar to taste.
Once they were finished simmering I poured the tamaters into prepared canning jars with lids, placed them into the canner, submerging the jars into the boiling water bath and processed them for 35 minutes.
Voila! They are now stored awaiting to be used in a meal. Yummy!
 I can't wait to make a delicious dish for my family using these wholesome goodies.
Here are some ideas for you to use stewed tamaters in your recipes:
Pour stewed tomatoes over macaroni
Use it to make Tamater Soup
Make homemade Tamater sauce
Use it in Roasts
Make homemade ketchup
Meatball Soup
****
Did you see My 100 year old Gramma Custer on Jay Leno?
Clicke here for part one and here for part two!
She is a HOOT!!!!
Linking to It's A Very Cherry World

100 years...

Oh to live 100 years....

And play the harmonica!

Dorothy Custer...My Step Gramma turned 100 years old this month....What an accomplishment! She was recently chosen as The Pioneer of the Year in Twin Falls, Idaho and flew to Burbank yesterday to be on The Jay Leno Show which will be on tonight! My Step Mama and her siblings will be there with her to celebrate her big day. And boy...does she play a mean harmonica! You go Gramma Custer!!!

 Happy 100 years....and here's to many more!

Happy Campers...Our Backyard Camp Out...

As promised...

Here's the pictures of our camp out in our backyard.

We had so much fun the last few days in the great outdoors.

It felt like camping in a campsite...

Even better, since home was just a few steps away.

Freckles enjoyed it so much, she wants to keep it all set up for a while...

So we can camp out more nights.

We had snacks available and yummy little plums

picked fresh from our plum tree.

Even Missy was having a grand time outside, rolling around in the grass.

She was by our side the whole time we camped.

I set up my old table with chairs and vintage table cloth....decorated and all. It was charming. If I were to ever go camping out in the woods somewhere I would want to bring all of my stuff to decorate the campsite. Wouldn't that be fun?

It took me two hours to figure out how to put the tent together since there were no directions.It drove me crazy, but I finally figured it out by looking at the picture. We placed my vintage quilt on top to add some charm to it. We also added a little red polka dot welcoming mat.

When the sun went down we set up a lamp outside and played card games, then crawled into our tent and snuggled up in quilts and afghans watching a movie on the computer...

Hope you enjoyed our campsite tour.

 Have a great week!!!

Linking to:

It's A Very Cherry World!