Preserving Kale (and any other greens)

I really,really want to like Kale.My midwife tells me that she finally found a way that her boys will eat Kale! They are asking for seconds! She blanches it first, sautees it in olive oil, and then adds toasted sesame or sunflower seeds and seasoning.They love it.Since Kale is like one of the very best vegetables there is for you I am determined to get it into our diet.I have about 20 plants so hope to get several gallons in the freezer this year!

Wash Kale............

Fold in half and cut off stems.

This is the Kale with all of the stem removed.

Blanch is boiling water for 2 minutes then immediately dunk in cold water.I just have my strainer right in my sink and either spray it with cold water for a few minutes or have my sink full of water and put it right into the water.Either way works.You just want it to be cooled right away to stop the cooking process.After cooling,roll the greens up in a towel or something absorbant.(I used a diaper! lol) SQUEEZE to remove water!

The last step is to spread the greens onto a cookie sheet and freeze.When frozen you can pack into your freezer bag! Beware that a huge bag of greens will shrivel up to practically nothing! lol

Time to make butter!

When I was getting ready to make butter the other day I thought....You know,I ought to take pictures for those who have never had the chance to make butter! :) So here you go! The first one is the cream in the churn (3 quarts).I get that much from about 3 gallons which is what we are getting every day currently.Not for long though as we have another cow getting ready to freshen any day!

Here the butter is done and still sitting in the buttermilk.

Buttermilk is drained her and the butter squeezed together....

Next I add water and squeeze,squeeze the butter to get all the buttermilk out....

Drain the water and squeeze as much out with your hands as possible and you are done!

What I want in storage this year for food.....

40 quarts of pickles
50 quarts of saurkraut
40 quarts salsa
20 quarts hot peppers
40 quarts frozen corn
1 gallon dried corn
15 quarts frozen green peppers
125-150 quarts of frozen vegies (other than corn)
30 quarts apple pie filling
Dried apples and pears ?? how much
10 quarts of sun dried tomatoes
20 quarts apple sauce
25 pints of pizza sauce
50 quarts tomato sauce
Green salsa
Enchilada sauce
Blackberries
Dried potatoes AND stored potatoes
Squash
Diced onions
12 pints relish
Beets?
Apple cider in freezer? We need another freezer for this so we shall see.....


I am sure I am forgetting some things but I can add to this later!

Just because it isn't a struggle for you.....

does not mean that it isn't a struggle for the next person! I have been thinking alot on this lately.

Two different women get married to two different men.They are both sweet,good hearted,christian women BUT

The first woman has been trained her entire life to be a keeper of the home.She is at total ease in the kitchen,she has been taught how to manage a house,to garden,preserve food,sew,knit,train children,take care of her husband,she breezes right through everything when she gets married because she is confident and capable.She has a thankful,positive attitude which helps her tremendously with the stress of being a wife/mother.She knows how to train children and does it naturally.She  lives her life for the Lord and strives to please him every day but she has her struggles too.She just keeps trying.She loves Him with all of her heart.

The second woman didn't have the privelege of being trained for marriage/motherhood.She can't cook,has no idea how to keep laundry/dishes/cleaning caught up,gardening is totally out as she can't even get a meal on the table, she has no clue how to do anything with a needle and even if she could,she has no idea how she would even have TIME.She is stressed out and finds it extremely hard to stay positive.Her children don't obey because she has no idea how to train them and also finds it totaly overwhelming to even think about training them along with keeping everything else up.She lives her life for the Lord and tries to please him every day but she struggles desperately.She just keeps trying.She loves him with all of her heart.

BOTH women have the same heart but their own definition of "easy" is so different because of their upbringing.They are no different in God's eyes because he looks at the heart.How sad if the first woman should look at the second and say "Whats the matter with HER? She can't even cook a good meal for her family and look at how messy her house is and how bratty her children are!" She can't be trying, I mean how hard is it to do those simple things?

Both women struggle but at totally different levels.It is crazy how human tendency is that when we learn something, and it becomes easy for us,we want to look back at those who haven't gotten there yet and say "Whats the matter with you? This is easy!" It's a TERRIBLE attitude,totally ungodly.I have been guilty of it myself.If I have learned anything,become good at anything,I should be thankful to GOD.I should always remember how hard it was before I became good at it and should be patient,helpful and encouraging to those who haven't learned it yet.Another thing to remember is that we learn at different speeds.You can't say that once you have been a christian for 1 year, you should know this and this and this.By 5 years you should know this and this and this etc.The Lord teaches everyone differently.There most certainly should be, and will be, GROWTH in Christ if a person truly *is* a christian but that growth looks different for different christians sometimes.

I am so thankful that the Lord loved me even when I was a brand new christian knowing very little.He doesn't love me anymore now that I know more.He loves the new,ignorant christian as much as he loves the 100 year old christian who is full of HIS wisdom.

Do I ? How worthless of me,who has been given this love to turn around and feel less love for the struggling,ignorant christian than the strong,wise christian!

It is so easy to think "Well thats just common sense!" or "There is no excuse for that,anyone should know that!"

Us who are blessed to have godly training,let us not be impatient and condemning to those who want to learn and change but struggle so much because they have such a long hard hill to climb! If you start climbing the hill 3/4 of the way up you aren't going to be near as tired when you get to the top as the person who starts from the bottom!

A few gardening pictures from this year.

The first is my garden standing at the house,looking out to the garden,The 2nd is up against my house.You can see that it is only half way finished lol but the first part has comfrey and echinacea planted in it.Not sure what all else I am going to plant yet.The 3rd picture is standing on the other side of my tomato patch.I thought it was SO pretty!!I hope I get more tomatoes than I can handle.They were starting to get a little early blight after a bunch of rain but they are doing better it seems! I am so thankful! I was worried!

More gardening pictures

The first picture is the morning glories growing on the fence I have right when you walk into my garden.Then there is a close up of some of my green peppers.I have about 15 plants and I hope to get plenty in the freezer this year! The 3rd picture is a close up of my flowers that
are in the front of my garden and the 4th is the blossoms on some beautiful,heirloom,"dragon" beans that I am growing this year! I just thought they were so beautiful!

Cleaning and organizing

That is what we have been doing around here for the past several months.I have gotten to the point in life where I need to simplify.I tend to take on way to much.We have been working on getting rid of things for a LONG time now and things are finally coming together! It is looking sooooo wonderful and it just lifts my spirits to have a clean,open,decluttered house.We no longer have a play room but have gotten rid of most of the toys.See,we had hundreds and hudreds of toys and 90% of them didn't get touched.So now the 10% we have are only the good ones.The ones that everyone plays with.We have a big box of blocks,farm toys(barns/tractors/animals etc),baby dolls and accessories,and one container of misc. toys.It is SO wonderful.SO much easier for the children to pick up! They would get overwhelmed at the amount of toys we had before and not even know where to *start* with picking them up!We are storing them upstairs and when they are done being played with they can get put right back into their containers.I don't like having them play in a room downstairs (that is where the play room was) because I couldn't hear or watch them which means that I couldn't correct any bad behaviour.So this is perfect!

Yesterday I cleaned out most of my cabinets and today I am wasing ALL of my windows.That is going to be a project! :) I have so many other things to do today too but it is just so nice that everything is starting to look so good and decluttered.It makes life so much easier.I am convinced that the most important step to having a clean and organized home is to GET RID OF STUFF.Most of us have so many things laying around that we never touch and just clutter up our lives.Get rid of it! It isn't worth the time and if you are a mamma like me,life just goes so much smoother with a clean home.Now as I said,I still have some ground to cover.I have not arrived at "organized" yet :) but we are definitely getting there! Horray!