Apples and Plums

Playtime: Scooters are making a comeback lately since I started parking in the gravel part of the driveway giving them more room for bikes and scooters. Avenlea is so cute and content just watching them, walking around, and climbing in and out of the bike trailer.

 Cutie Chloe resting in the grass

 Out of gas - Chloe's scooter would "run out of gas" so I would run over with some long grass and make a guzzling sound which would fill up her tank.

 Her yelling happy face

 Speed Racer

 Happy Girl

 Love this little one!

Cabellas Grinder and Fruit Strainer: We've been looking into getting a grinder for a while and decided to go big so we would never need to upgrade or get a new one in the next 10 yrs or so (according to other people who have the same grinder). We got a 1 hp electric grinder that came with a sausage attachment as well as a fruit strainer. I've tried it out and I think it will be perfect to help with my canning and I hope it works as well come Pig into Pork time!

Nate opening the grinder!

Plums: I finally turned all those plums into yummy jam! It took 2 days and an extra trip to the store to get more pectin and sugar but they are all canned in jars ready to be eaten this coming year. I have to add I am proud to say I had a 100% seal on all my jelly!

 Unfortunately the strainer attachment didn't work with the mini plums. The pits got caught in the auger that lets all the "bad" stuff out. So it jammed and made a terrible plum pulp mess. I decided to just try juicing the plums in our steam juicer and it worked out better than I thought. I let it steam for longer than normal and quite a bit of the pulp came through too.

 19 cups of plum pulp/juice turned into 9 pints plus 3 cups of jelly. This was 3 batches and I did 2 batches a couple days ago. I am so proud of myself for finally making jelly with a good consistency! I had to let the mixture boil for about 10 minutes and did the spoon test to get it right. The jam is tart but still good. Lots of work but worth it!!

Apples for Em: Em brought up her good apples on Monday and we processed them into apple juice and apple sauce. It took ALL DAY and we only got half way through but she has a nice little stash of apple products now!

 Babies feasting on Em's yummy apples

 The set up: we quartered the apples first then steamed the juice. We ran the pulp through the strainer after all the juice was out and came up with soft delicious applesauce and clear yellow apple juice. The only problem we had was not enough pots and oven space to keep everything hot during the canning part. Not a big deal but it sure makes me want a 6 burner oven!

Em taking her turn on baby duty - She is coming back up on Friday to finish the second half of the apples. Having a sister to help makes canning and preparing all that fruit much more enjoyable :)

Garden Side Note: We have had 2 light frosts so far :( Both happened last week but it has warmed up since. The garden isn't totally dead but it did do some decent damage to the pumpkins, squash and cucumbers. The tomatoes seem to be doing ok and we are still getting 2-3 "tomatoes on the vine" every couple days. The babies eat everything that is ripe so I don't think I will have any tomatoes to can this year despite my 15+ tomato plants.