A Season for Preserving Food

I swear all I’ve done the last couple of weeks is prepare food for the winter.

That includes a lot of mozzarella cheese for me and the family.  I still have to do mozzarella sticks.  I’m also making chevre.

I have plenty of sweet corn frozen.

Some of the goats have taken advantage of my corn shucks being tossed out. Everyone else was still out in pasture.

Dolly and Cookie

Cookie in particular has been good about coming up early to sneak a treat.

My tomato plants are dying; I lost a lot to rot from the hail; I am picking them early to preserve every drop of liquid in them, but I am working on canning the tomatoes that are left.

I have cold pack tomatoes.

I am making sauce for the family now.

I have also been chopping and freezing okra and hot peppers.  This year I decided to try canning my roasted beets with a honey rosemary glaze instead of freezing them.

I just need the Habanero peppers to turn orange so I can make my son’s salsa.

Just as I finish this summer canning, I’m going to move on to the fall stuff because I’m seeing orange in the garden.

I think I might be ready for the first frost this year.

A Weekend to Get Stuff Done

We have a beautiful weekend, so I’m working hard to get a lot done.  One thing was to get rid of the last of the pie pumpkins from the garage.  Some were pretty bad, but there were quite a few that the goats could enjoy.

Maggie, Cinnamon, Hera,Myson, Cupid, Casey, Cookie, Marge, and everyone else

Haley

Fat wethers (Moose, Casey, and Myson) fighting over a piece

Moose won!

Antigone, Joani, Flower, Cutie

Cinnamon, Hera, (Gidget behind)

Margarita and Maggie

Cutie checking to see if there’s more in the box (and Caroline wanting in the milk room)

Yummy!

Fall Harvest and the Gander Count

Even though the garden is done for the year, I’m still preserving the harvest.

I’m working on baking and freezing both squash and pumpkins.

The birds get my left-overs.  They do enjoy it.

Widow goose in back, gander, gander, young goose

I don’t think I’ve ever given the final gander count.  There was one baby that I wasn’t sure about gender.  Well, it is also a gander.

The one with his wings out looking nasty, is really nasty.

I will tell you, there is one gander who is quite the jerk.  He bites at me all the time.  He sticks his head out the fence and bites the goats’ tails and legs and ears.  Some day, he’s really going to regret that when a goat retaliates.

nasty gander and Myson

Two girls; two ganders.