We still haven’t seen three days in a row without rain! We listen to the weather radio several times a day, plus watch the local weather on the news, hoping for the window of dry weather to make hay in. We were supposed to have that window so Will hurried out two days ago and cut a field of hay. Well, yesterday they changed their minds and called for rain this afternoon. Okay, we’d bale this morning after the dew was off. We woke up to not only dew but also a bank of black clouds. Will went over anyway and decided to bale out of the windrow to save time because rain was definitely on the way. You could smell it coming. He got one bale done then it started to sprinkle. He quickly got another when the bottom fell out of those clouds. Yep, it poured. It’s kind of finished but they’re calling for more rain for the next few days. We’ll get ‘er done one way or another.
I’ve got to tell you about a wonderful canning tool I’m using. At the Dallas Self-Reliance Expo, Cecilia Chavez stopped by the BHM booth to show me the beautiful canning funnels she makes out of pottery. A lot of people, me included, don’t really like using aluminum or plastic canning funnels but up until now there has been no choice. I brought home one of the amazingly beautiful funnels and have been using it ever since. Mine fits wide mouth jars and is so pretty it doesn’t sit in a drawer until I use it. It hangs up with my baskets so everyone can see it. If you’d like to check them out, contact Cecilia at cpcchavez@sbcglobal.net.
Our gardens are doing fantastic and I have Provider and some other snap beans ready to eat and can up. Our young cherry trees are starting to bear this year. Both Carmine Jewel and Evans Bali cherries are giving us plenty of snacking cherries but not enough yet to can up. Although they’re “tart” cherries, we find them pretty darned good to eat.
My lilies and daylilies are blooming their heads off and we enjoy walking through the yard each morning to see “who” is blooming today. As you can see, Hondo doesn’t share our enthusiasm for flowers! I especially love the Wonder Of It All from Dancing Daylily my favorite daylily site to go toonline. (www.dancingdaylily.com) Becky and her husband have tons and tons of exceptional daylilies at a reasonable price. I’m so excited when a new variety blooms. (And daylilies ARE edible for those of you who spurn “flowers”! If you could bear to eat one…)
— Jackie
I bought a stainless steel funnel from Lehmans. Love it!!
All,
I sure wish I could send some of our rain to you!!! Boy, do I!! We did manage to get some hay baled yesterday. It had been rained on for 5 minutes, but the sun came out and it dried pretty well in the afternoon when Will raked and baled it. There were some tough, clumps though; the baler plugged up four times on a five acre field of very tall hay. It about killed Will, pulling it out. I pulled till I ran out of “Jackie” and luckily, our friend, Darryl, who’s field we were on, came out and helped Will. Whew!
I agree that aluminum and plastic funnels are not good for canning. (I try to avoid plastic as much as I can with food anyway.)
Years ago (okay, decades ago), the canning sets came with enameled funnels that matched the canner. Those are rare to find now.
I have come across stainless steel funnels that are the same shape and size as canning funnels and those work well. The pottery one is very pretty though.
Well, dogs do what dogs do, it is somewhat like what bears do in the woods, it’s their nature….so hope he doesn’t injure any pretty or valuable plants. l Love the daylily. This one reminds me of a huge fancy daffodil out of season…the cherries look great too. I am looking into the lady’s canning funnels. Rick
Hope the weather allows you to get the haying done. Beautiful daylily!
I do have two stainless steel funnels for canning.
It’s been VERY dry in VT too. I’m on a shallow well and haven’t done any canning because it takes a lot of water to can. On another note…I almost busted a gut seeing the picture of Hondo.
Jackie.. Please send some of that wet stuff my way to AZ…I am watering twice a day and have an $80 water bill to show for it…../all of my plants are just hanging in there..of course I also lost a few….yes we all need a pantry of home canned food…I am buying some produce and canning them ..it is the best I can do…..I am hoping you can get the haying done..
So I guess all the rain must get used up over in Minnesota before it hits eastern Michigan (thumb area). We’ve had seriously dry weather here. Hope you’ll manage to get that hay in!
I have two antique glass funnels that belonged to my grandmother. I use them sometimes but I still prefer to use her stainless steel one because I live in fear of dropping the glass ones on the porcelain sink drain and breaking one. It keeps me connected to my grandmother. Sorry to hear about all of the rain. We’ve been in the same boat until the last two weeks (eastern NC) now it’s 115 heat indices. Miserably hot. Thank heaven for a/c. But farm crops are looking really good.
Comments are closed.