Wednesday, September 17, 2008

the land of milk and honey

i just had a peanut butter and honey sandwich with a huge glass of milk. was it our milk and honey? YES, i love our honey and this was the first glass of the newly freshened rory. it was buttery and delicious. rosemoon, tabitha's stance on how soon to drink a fresh cows milk is as soon as possible. we couldn't make colostrum custard because we used tomorrow® teat infusions to prevent mastitis and that requires 72 hours wait. i must say that i couldn't wait an entire week with no other raw milk source.

here is our milker. we got three gallons yesterday. i look to see a bit more than that once rory settles in.


we got to pick the rest of the apples from my father-in-laws apple tree. so far we have only picked five buckets full. there are still three buckets still on the porch waiting for us this weekend.

today we canned twenty three or so quarts. my job was to operate the peeler-corer-slicer. i remember using one as a kid. it makes short work of a tedious job. tabitha filled the jars, ran the stove and canner.


toly helped. his job was to take a bite out of each apple and hand it to me. we are big on quality control around here.


this was tabitha's station. see the show canner? it holds fifteen quart jars and sits over two burners. it heats up pretty fast--so did the kitchen.


these canned apples look so tasty.


stack/split wood 1/2 a rick
move bees 2 hives
can a mess of apples 23 quarts
fix milker switches
move baby sling hook at barn

fix drain by bees
- - bees still in the way
get hay 16 bales
straw, water, jocelyn pen
- - tomorrow
fork waste hay by feeder into compost
- - need new pitch fork old one is broken
mow & feed grass to cows

10 comments:

Rixa said...

Oooh, now I have canner envy! LOL Is it a pressure canner or just a water bath canner?

Hope the milking continues successfully. We moved and have to find a new raw milk source. We bought it for $4/gallon (well "donated" is the precise term) where we used to live, and I realize now what a steal that was.

Anonymous said...

Yum and I love the quality control elements of your canning procedure! I do think that's vitally important, for any home kitchen efforts - its a bit like eating the overbrowned or broken cookies so no one else has to be subjected to the misery ;)

Phoebe said...

you forgot

-jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton.



and hooooray for the milk!

Anonymous said...

Aren't those womens' sunglasses?

Anonymous said...

Please excuse the sexist remark above. BTW, another upgrade! I'll give you more details, if you remember how the phone works.
Also, it's great to see the rebound after last month's meltdown. I'm confident your winter food supply will turn out okay.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Karl!

Anonymous said...

love the baby hammock! it looks so cosy and Rome looks all snuggled up in it.

Yum, those apples look tasty. Did you do peaches this year?

Bigs hugs to all the family.

Anonymous said...

Your post reminds me it's apple butter time. Break out the big copper kettle!

Cheers.

Omelay said...

rixa, it's a water bath canner. wow, $4 is cheap.

kathie, toly takes his job very seriously.

phoebe, i thought that it was understood that -jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton was part of every list item.

matt, all the better to watch my girlish figure.

rm, you're welcome

donna, peaches? yes..

r.sherman, we fed the peels to the cows instead of making apple butter.

Anonymous said...

Definately the home of toddlers--no knobs on the stove;)

I long for raw milk--not to cause extreme jealousy before I moved 2 years ago I was getting it for $2 a gallon--I haven't had any since:(

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