First Annual Apple Butter Day

We did it, we successfully made apple butter the old fashioned way.  Many came, many helped and for that we are soooooo thankful.

A brief note about what apple butter is:
Apple butter is a highly concentrated form of apple sauce (though I hate to put the two in the same sentence).  It is cooked on low (traditionally over a fire) for a very long period of time so that the sugars actually caramelize.  Apple butter was traditionally made to use up the overabundance of apples.  It also preserves longer than apple sauce due to the higher concentration of sugar.  One common confusion is that it does NOT contain any dairy.  I assume the name comes from the consistency because you cook and stir the apples for so long that it becomes thick and almost creamy like butter.  It is different from apple sauce in that it is MUCH more thick and richer in flavor.  Think rich apple jam.  Another important aspect of making traditional apple butter is the community labor.  Due to the length of time of stirring many people share the work, and enjoy the time together while working.
Note that you CAN make apple butter in a crockpot and it is quite delicious.  So far though, the consensus around our house is that the old fashioned way made a much yummier product (good thing).

The rewards-

Starting with 3 bushels of apples.  I used 2 bushels Cortland and 1 bushel Honeycrisp.  The night before we had an apple peeling and coring party.  There was 6 of us and it only took a couple hours.

We started by adding 2 gallons of apple cider and reduced it by half; then we started adding apples in stages as they cooked down.  Beginning stages-

Lots of stirrers on hand and most everyone had a smile on their face while taking their turn-

Time for a thickness test-

Once no water is seeping out of the butter then you start adding sugar and spices-

It should be thick enough to stick to a plate upside down.

Determined-

Beginning canning-

Scraping the pot with biscuits is a treat for the end, and helps clean the pot.

In the end we yielded only 46 pints.  I was anticipating more but it depends on the kind of apples, the amount of water, etc.

Here is the recipe I followed-

• 2 gallons real apple cider
• 3 bushels apples (1 bushel = 40lbs apples), any ok cooking apple will do
• Sugar (I used 16 lbs white, 2 lbs brown.  Add to taste depending on your apples)
• 1/2 cup cinnamon, or to taste
• 2 ozs cloves, or to taste

We ended up not getting 1/2 bushel of apples into the butter due to concern of time.  So the 2.5 bushels yielded 5.75 gallons or 46 pints of apple butter as I said above.  The recipe estimated yielding 12 gallons butter, so as you can see different apples cook down differently.

Time and stirring

We started the cider around 8am and started adding apples around 9am.  We began canning around 5:30 pm, I think.  So thats 8.5 hours of cooking/stirring.  You MUST stir constantly as I have been warned it will ruin the whole pot if any hot spots are formed since the apples will stick and burn.

Last, cleaning the pot.  We used an antique brass kettle and wanted to make sure we cleaned it properly. (Note that when cooking with apples be sure to use a non reactive pot).  First, wash out excess sauce with soap and warm water.  Second, scour the pot with warm ashes (this really worked well).  Third, wash the pot with soap and warm water again and rinse clean.  Dry it completely.  Oil the paddle and store everything in anticipation of doing again next year.

Conclusion, the work was most definitely worth it.  Now eat the apple butter on warm buttery toast with a side of bacon.... for dinner.... like we did last night.

P.S. there are many other uses for apple butter in recipes, look them up. :)

Trees, Leaves And Kids

Posts have been more sparse than normal, I know....

Fall is in full swing, but the leaves have been dropping quickly after the recent rain and winds.

The rain was beneficial though to a new member of our landscape....  a new Japanese Dogwood tree we planted!
This variety is supposed to be more fungal/disease resistant which is a good thing for the marshy area we live in.

We cleared out the last overgrown patch in the side yard and planted it there.  Progress post on the side yard HERE.

This area had ALOT of thorny overgrowth.  It supposedly was the dirt and rock dump site when the previous owners had their septic system updated.  This pic was taken before the rail fence installation.

Excavating began; LOTS of roots, thorns and rocks.

Then the digging....  Many hands make little work.  Many little hands make more work.

Getting in the hole was a must.

"Plant a tree, for your tomorrow".... the song goes something like that.

So all that rain has been good for this planting, helping the roots get established.

Ending with some fun in the leaves.

At this point I put the camera down and tried to join in.....

Quinoa Experiment in Conclusion

So as expected the quinoa did not get past its 'green stage' before a hard cold hit.  Unfortunately this killed my plants.  Since the quinoa came up later than planned this was expected but we figured we would give it a try.  Anyway, here is what's left (beautiful picture, right?)-

Quinoa CAN tolerate cooler weather, but not frosts before their green stage.  Quinoa is an early spring crop preferring cooler soil temps.  It can be stunted if many of its growing days are over 90 degrees F.  I attempted to start them in the late summer for a fall crop but they did not germinate immediately to get good growing in before the cold season.
Anyway, if you are interested in more here are my other posts on the quinoa experiment.  Seeds were from here.
Quinoa Growing Experiment and Fall Garden
Cover Cropping and Sneaky Quinoa

At the moment I am not planning on growing it next year.  I have moved onto wanting to grow naked oats instead.  We eat and use oats way more than we do quinoa.  We will see.

Something else in danger of frostbite is Penny.  Poor thing has went into molt having to get through cold nights with these naked spots.  She needs a scarf-

I have insulated the coop with straw but other than that they are on their own.  Last year they did just fine.  They are hardy chickens and the gradual cooling (with no heat in their coop) is good prep for the cold winter.  Only thing they get extra in the winter, besides extra straw in the coop, is cracked corn to build their body fat.  I have to break the ice out of their water daily but thats it.  I'm still getting eggs so the trip to the coop is needed anyway.
So dead plants and naked chicken necks..... thats all the excitement I can take for now.

Farewell 2013 Pigs and Giving Thanks

It was a dark and stormy night as we said farewell to the pig yesterday evening.  I just realized I did not get any pictures of them this past week.  I think the last pictures were from last week.  Anyway....

Piggies at 8 weeks old-

 Pigs around 25 weeks old (sorry I didn't get a better picture of all 4)-

We estimate they weigh around 250lbs each.  So they put on about 200+ lbs in the 17 weeks (4 months) we had them.  250lbs is around the ideal weight you want to be sending them off at.  This is for efficiency reasons.  Maybe I will post more on that later.

Corralling them into the trailer last night was an adventure, in the dark and in the mud.  Thankfully Jonathan was home to help man handle them.  We managed to get the biggest three in without too much stress but the smallest pig slipped out the trailer door before we could get it closed.  Pigs are VERY smart, crazy strong and can be VERY dangerous when panicking.  Once the smallest was separated from the group it panicked and became quite hard to get into the trailer.  Jonathan and our friend did a great job handling the pig and thankfully no people or pigs were hurt in the process.  Might I add that Jonathan did NOT grow up on a farm so kudos to him for learning how to handle these animals and not afraid to muscle the pigs around.  There was alot of contact and muscling that went on.

We are very thankful that all 4 pigs were sent off healthy yesterday.  We're keeping 1 pig's meat for our self and have sold the other 3's meat to friends.  This 'thanks' even made it onto our Giving Thanks Tree-

Baby girl is thankful for simple things as well-

I would like to make Thanksgiving as big of a deal as Christmas in our house.  Taking time to give thanks is super important (you don't have to wait till Christmas to give thanks for our Savior being born)!  I know it is hard to compete with a holiday that brings presents but I believe many things can be done to amplify a holiday.  Kids are easily swayed with cookies and crafts. :)

I am by no means an organized mommy, so doing simple things like crafts and cooking with the kids is NOT a part of my everyday life (some mommies have this skill).  I do my best though.... even if it brings on false labor pains in the act. :)

Hoping everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and takes time to truly give thanks!

Pigs, Kids and Squash

Yep, that's pretty much what is in this post.  Just some pictures of such.
We are VERY thankful for friends making the effort to bring us their pumpkins and squash.  One friend has a dad who is a butternut squash farmer.... she dropped off boxes of squash for them.  The pigs prefer them even over the pumpkins.
Carrying a batch of donated pumpkins-

He's on a mission-

Over the fence they go-

Piggies don't waste anytime-

Watching the animals is a part of our daily routine.  Little Man is telling Baby Girl that he read somewhere that squash seeds can help as a natural wormer.

The pigs are looking good.  Probably about 230-ish pounds average.  Just a few weeks to go.  Much leaner than last year and we believe will give us better quality bacon as well (last year's bacon was very fatty and hard to get crisp).

This little piggie has not had a good past week.  He must have got in the water trough and got water in his ear.  It was obvious he had an ear infection.  We gave him some medicine (that will be out of his system in less than a week, so no worries to our pork buyers).  I brought him a pumpkin here to help him feel better.  Giving the meds part was interesting.  Ever try and give a 250 lb wild animal a shot in the neck without any restraint system (ie head chute)?  Well he decided to cooperate once, probably cause he knew not to mess with a pregnant women (don't worry, my husband did the muscling part).

Onto other things that are fun.... trying to clean the yard of leaves and pine needles with playful kids-

At least little man helped some-

Leaves are mostly up, snow fell yesterday.  We are looking forward to Thanksgiving.  Last one as a family of 4.