[AQuietAndOrderlyLife]

One of my grandchildren trying to milk a Saanen. 🥰

[AQuietAndOrderlyLife]

We have Saanens at my youngest son’s property [where I live], and Nigerian Dwarf goats at my son-in-law’s property. We run the Saanens with our milk cows and chickens, and the NDs are with hair sheep and chickens. The ram stud eventually had to be separated because he got too big and aggressive… started beating up our prize bucks / herd sires! Eek. There’s talk of butchering him since he’s already done his job and we do not want the sheep flock to get too big.

The NDs are registered with the ADGA and we show them [my daughter and her family shows them].

[AQuietAndOrderlyLife]

When we knew we’d be in the same place for a while, we started with high-dollar perennials … asparagus and various berries. These items are very expensive even when in-season, so it made sense to plant these and free up money to spend at the local farmers market or stores. Greens, too – easy to grow and have 2 crops [early spring and fall … and winter if you have a cold frame or greenhouse]; the high-quality greens at the store are expensive.

Prior to that [when we were still unstable and moving a lot], we just grew what we ate the most of … tomatoes, green beans, leafy greens, potatoes, etc.

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A few firsts for this year … but for context I’d like to say this is our 17th year of having a garden. 🙂

I experimented with growing black beans so I’ll have a better idea of how much to plant next year. That’s a quart from 39 plants … keeping in mind that it was a very rough year for beans here in general. My youngest son used to grow them, but I never have … next year I plan on planting a full row [50ft].

My son-in-law grows our potatoes, however I wanted to grow a few here, too. I planted 5 of his purple potatoes from last year and harvested 9 lbs from that. I planted 20 of his Peruvian Pinto Gold and got 78 lbs from that. I turned back around and replanted 20 of the Pinto Golds for a second harvest of 10 lbs. I will not do a second harvest next year … will save that spot for another green bean planting instead. I pressure can my potatoes in cubes … skin on but scrubbed well.

And another new-to-me thing is I got a large freeze dryer last March. I’ve been so thankful for it!! Lots of my raspberries went in there, and all of my zucchini [45lbs, mostly shredded]. Also most of my tomatoes and that became tomato powder. My herbs, too … freeze dried herbs are really close to fresh!!!! Very excited about that. Other fresh produce went in there, too … but now I’m focusing on cooked individual items and also complete meals for homemade “MRE”.

[AQuietAndOrderlyLife]

I’m Joanne – this is me with grandchild #6 [James], born at home almost two weeks ago … and then my other 5. 😀 I was a single mom and am still single; all my children are married and we all live near each other. I live on my youngest’s property. I’ve lived in all sorts of bigger cities [like Phoenix, San Antonio, Tacoma, etc], but always wanted to be in the country; we settled in SW MO about 13 years ago. My youngest got us in to gardening [organic and heirloom] when he was 8 and we’ve had a garden ever since [he’s 25 now]. I enjoyed homeschooling them, and now I get to help with homeschooling my grandchildren.

My passion is gardening, but I can’t grow it all!!! We share some duties … for instance, my son-in-law grew most of out potatoes and sweet potatoes. This year he grew about 1,500lbs of sweet potatoes, and more than that of several varieties of potatoes. Collectively we raise chickens, dairy cows [Dexter x Jersey], dairy goats [Nigerian Dwarf at my daughter’s and Saanens here], and hair sheep. We’re all pretty self-sufficient, but are still working on being off grid.

Besides gardening, I really enjoy hiking, camping, bird watching, puzzles, cooking, baking ….

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We all have a different roll to play and do our best to pitch in. I cannot do every job, so when I need help I just ask someone. 😀 It happens naturally that us girls do a lot of the work around the property because the guys all have day jobs, however the guys get a lot done as well.

[AQuietAndOrderlyLife]

I have TONS of good recipes … in my opinion and in the opinion of everyone I feed 😉 I’ll share this recipe though since it’s seasonal … I have a video for it, but I’ll also paste the recipe here.
Video: https://youtu.be/TpJqZJYj0ew

The recipe. Put the following ingredients into a pressure cooker pot … or just simmer it all on the stove. I used the pressure cooker to speed up the first part of the process / break things down a lot faster.

6 pounds of cored pears or apples. I do not bother peeling. And that 6lbs is AFTER they’ve been cored.
1c sucanat (you may not have that … if you do not, just use brown sugar)
1/2c filtered water (need something in the bottom of the pressure cooker to get it going)
1T cinnamon
2t ginger
1t nutmeg
1/2t allspice
1/2t cloves
1/2t salt

Pressure cook on high for 15 minutes. Natural release for 10 minutes (or longer if you are busy).

Carefully pour the contents into a large stock pot. I had a total of 16lbs cored pears, so my 12 quart heavy bottom stock pot was perfect … it’s nice to have room for the mixture to splash up without getting all over the stove. A grease screen is also helpful for the bigger bubbles that happen later in the process.

Use a stick / immersion blender to get everything blended up smoothly. You may also do this part right in the pressure cooker pot before pouring into the larger stockpot. If you do not have a stick blender, either mash thoroughly [in this case, remove the skins at the beginning] or batch process in a blender [in this case id allow it to cool some first].

AND THEN ADD 1c pure maple syrup per 6lbs. Deliciousness.

Now you just simmer for a long time on low and stir as often as needed to where it does not burn to the bottom. 12-24 hours or so. I ‘parked’ my stockpot in the oven over night (no heat), took it back out in the morning, and put it back to simmer on the stove top. What you are looking for is a nice thick mass of yumminess. The ‘plate test’ or whatever it’s called is helpful, too, if you are not familiar with making apple / pear butter. Spoon out a blob of apple / pear butter onto a plate … if liquid forms around the edges it’s not ready. If it all stays a blob and no liquid forms around the edges, it’s ready.

Adjust seasonings to suit your preference.

1/4″ head space, hot jars, hot pear butter. Water bath can according to your elevation. I’m above 1,000ft, so I do 10m for half pints or pints and 15m for quarts. Under 1,000ft – knock off 5 minutes from each of those times. Over 6,000ft, add 5 minutes to each of those times. Not sure? Here’s a free version of my most-used canning book: National Center for Home Food Preservation

Enjoy! [Side note: my 16lbs of pears filled 24 half pints]

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If I’m really on top of things: in envelops in glass mason jars … vacuum sealed in my refrigerator. That’s the final stage, anyway!!
Here’s how I’ve been doing it for several years; my youngest is actually the one that got us started in heirloom gardening when he was 8 years old … that was about 17 years ago, so we have been saving seeds for 17 years. We try to save fresh seeds each year, and are to the point where we mostly grow our own seeds … except when we decide to try something new.
The first stage: collecting seeds throughout the gardening season. These seeds go on my “seed saving table” in my living room, waiting patiently for me to have time to clean and package. (they wait on coffee filters on paper plates, or in paper bags or boxes, depending on what type of seed and how much of it I have)
The second stage: cleaning and packaging. Usually I just clean and package in bulk – whatever envelop size needed for the amount of seeds collected of any particular variety.
The third stage: this happens some time in the fall or early winter when I have time to relax. I grab my second-stage envelops and re-package the seeds into smaller packs for selling or giving away. I always portion out what I need FIRST, and then re-package the rest.
The fourth stage: this is the ideal final stage 😉 all of the seeds are stored in vacuum sealed mason jars until I either use them, sell them, or give them away.
Currently I am in the middle of stage 2.
(the photo is some of my starts for the last season)

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by  AQuietAndOrderlyLife.

[AQuietAndOrderlyLife]

We definitely don’t hide the truth.

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We all enjoy gardening, so that helps 😉

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Thank you 😊

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This is me all the time 🙂 🙂 I’ve always been known for wearing the same shirt for days … I guess it’s an autistic thing. Sweater weather might make the days stretch longer though? 😉