Pecans

This fall we picked up over 11 gallons of pecans from our tree next to the top pasture. We had to fight the squirrels for every one but it was a battle well fought! The tin flashing you see around the trunk of the tree was my bright idea and it worked. I put it there to keep the squirrels from climbing the tree and carrying off the pecans. Last year they carried off every pecan but this year I fought back! When they tried to climb the tree and they hit the flashing they slid right back down to the ground.

There are a couple of men locally who have pecan cracking equipment and will crack the pecans for about 35 cents a pound. So we took the pecans to Mr. Barlow, and the end result is 10 pounds of shelled pecans. To buy 10 pounds of pecans in the grocery store would be over $90.

Laid Back Farms newest addition - July 2010

The Goats of Laid Back Farm

Yellow River Baptist Fall Festival

On Friday, November 5, Grandaddy and I gathered 8 gallons of green and ripening tomatoes, 4 gallons of bell peppers, red, yellow, and green, 3 zucchinis, and several pounds of yellow squash. That night we had the first "killin" frost of the season. If the frost had held off a couple weeks longer we would have had vine-ripened tomatoes and peppers and squash continuing to make. With the green and ripening tomatoes we stored in the basement, we'll be enjoying "mater" sandwiches on Christmas Day! In fact, we'll probably leave one out for Santa Claus!

Fruit Salad recipe

Our Pastor's wife made an absolutely wonderful fruit salad that has a different ingredient that we couldn't identify. She gave me the recipe and here it is:

1 can peach pie filling (that's the different ingredient)
1 small jar maraschino cherries, drained and halved
1 Red Delicious apple, chopped
a handful of grapes, red or green, halved
1 can pineapple chunks, drained
1 can madarin oranges, drained

Mix all, Refrigerate. Wonderful!

New Recipe

I just tried this new recipe and it's wonderful. It makes a "crust" on top and lemony pudding on bottom

LEMON PUDDING PIE
1 cup granulated sugar
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
2 eggs, separated
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 tsp. sale

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly butter an 8x8-in. baking dish. Set baking dish inside a larger pan and add 1 inch warm water.
In a medium bowl combine sugar and flour. Stir in milk, lightly beaten egg yolks, lemon zest and juice and salt.
In another medium bowl whip egg whites until stiff. Fold into sugar mixture and pour into baking dish.
Set pans into oven and bake 35 minutes or until a knife blade inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm

blueberry picking

Blueberry season is over for this year. A total of 48 gallons came off the bushes; a very good year with usually enough rain. Except with the rain the figs sour on the bush with too much rain, but that's okay; we need the rain, always. We went to Thompson's peach orchard in Oconee County last week and got some beautiful and absolutely delicious peaches. What's in the store doesn't even begin to compare to the taste and juiciness of fresh. We ate a few fresh and I froze a few packs. With peaches you always have to use Fruit-Fresh (ascorbic acid) on them after you peel to keep them from turning dark.
I have white tile with white grout in my bathrooms. I'm telling you that to tell you this. Perry was putting stain on the window sill, the shade in the window fell and went into the bucket of stain, splashing it everywhere in the room. We managed to get most of it up, but now I'm going to have to scrub the tile with ammonia water to clean the tile and grout and then use a product that makes the grout white again, Tile Grout Coating, because the grout in places is permanently stained with the brown varnish. This is a job I'd been meaning to do anyway before the catastrophe. I'm just glad I'd not just done the cleaning. I've been trying to "get my nerve up" to do that job because it's hard work. Maybe today.

New products to try

Here are three fairly new products that if you've not tried yet you'll want to. I wouldn't be without them. Dawn Power Dissolver comes in a dark blue spray bottle and it's for those baking dishes and pans that are so baked-on and burnt-on there's no hope of cleaning them. Spray this product on and wait a few minutes. Rinse and scrub lightly if needed and it comes brand-new clean. (I've had some dishes I thought I'd have to take a crowbar to pry it off. This stuff is wonderful. My daughter introduced me to it)
Another product is Reynolds non-stick aluminum. The uses are endless: I make sausage cheese balls with no mess, no sticking, a cheese-covered casserole covered in foil and baked doesn't stick when you use this. I grow pimentos and red and yellow sweet peppers. Rub the peppers with olive oil and place on baking pan covered with a sheet of the Reynolds non-stick and bake in oven for about 30 minutes at 450. Then place peppers in a plastic bag to "sweat" and the skins will slide right off. Wonderful roasted peppers for many recipes. Don't rinse; you'll take away flavor.
The last product is Scrubbing Bubbles toilet cleaning gel. I wouldn't be without it. It's used after you clean the toilet and lasts for several weeks before you need another.
All these products I purchased because of manufacturer's coupons and probably wouldn't have bought otherwise, so it is in their best interest to have this kind of promo on new products. They have a customer for life with me

working on the farm

We're picking lots of blueberries; picked 4 1/2 gallons this morning. Do you know how long it takes to pick a gallon? Only forever! I have a few Concord grapes ready to pick and I'll make grape juice. We'll be picking lots of scuppernongs and muscadines in the fall. The figs should be ready the last of July. Fig preserves are to die for. We're getting lots of tomatoes, eggplant, squash. The red and yellow sweet peppers should be coming in soon. I make a lot of stir fry in the summer with those. I use my iron Dutch oven, pour in a little olive oil. One yellow onion (this is a cooking onion; the Vidalia won't work as well, too much water in them) sliced into pieces and the peppers also sliced into slivers. Allow the oil to get hot and drop in onions and peppers. Cook, while stirring occasionaly. Just before done, put 2-3 garlic cloves through a garlic press into the pan. Stir. Garlic will burn if allowed to cook too long. Makes a great side dish for any meal.