Here in Northern Minnesota, the first snow of the year seldom melts. But we’re thankful that ours has and today it’s already 41 degrees F, plus sunshine! I’m so glad. As usual, I’m late planting a few things. I still have some garlic that my friend, Sherri, gave us, plus the black walnuts off of our tree that we are going to plant on the south side of the woods in the Wolf Pasture. Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer than today, with sun, so that’s the day we’ll be planting. I’ve got to wait till the ground thaws out, as it’s frozen right now.
I baked half of a Porcupine squash yesterday and boy oh boy do we love it! It’s velvety, thick meat is so sweet and savory we could hardly stop eating. Matt, Mike, and Dara agreed! We’ll keep growing this one for sure. It’s also very heavy, with the thickest ever meat. Wow!
A few days ago, I was on Facebook Marketplace and found a whole case of chopped green, fire roasted, chiles in 24 oz. containers, for sale for $15. In Cloquet, which is an hour and fifteen minutes south of us. But my daughter-in-law, Kelly Jo, works there and was only a couple of blocks away from the seller. She agreed to pick them up for me, which she did. I told Bill and Kelly to keep whatever they wanted. David was down there last weekend, deer hunting, and he brought them up to us. I gave several to our friends, Matt, and Dara and Mike. I still have many pounds left, which I’ll be starting to can up in half-pints and quarter-pint jars. (Sometimes you just need a little bit of chiles for a recipe, and I don’t want to waste any.) When you re-can foods like this, you process them for the exact same time and pressure as if they were fresh. I can’t wait. It’ll be quick and easy, and the only ingredients are chiles, salt, and lime juice. So very nice.
I guess this week is Mexican week as I seeded out Anaheim peppers I’d gotten from Lynn and Jesse, the folks who will take over the seed business next August. They were such nice peppers. I decided to chop them up and can them in Cowboy Candy syrup, which I did. Boy, they look so wonderful! I can’t wait to try them in a couple of weeks — maybe for Thanksgiving.
Our big Angel Trumpet is blooming like crazy today. We keep it in the south window of our living room, and it sure likes it there. As there’s a crawl space under the new addition, I put it on a piece of thick insulation foam board to keep its “feet” warm, which it appreciates.
Today I’m washing dishes that haven’t gotten washed lately and will put the kind of limp carrots in ice water, in the sink, when I finish. When they firm up, I’ll get them canned. Gee, then there’s Amish Coleslaw, Gaucho Relish (from the Sugar Rush Peach peppers in the basket in the entryway), and some more beef to make more room in our stuffed freezers. Whew, what a great feeling!
The Northern Lights have been awesome lately. I finally discovered that I could actually take night pictures with my cell phone, which is David’s years’ old phone. It was so much fun taking pictures of those beautiful ribbons of color in the night sky. We love living here so much!
— Jackie
