Pickles

These are the pickles Big D canned about 3 weeks ago. D says they turned out pretty good. (Eventhough I am pregnant, I don't care for pickles so I haven't tasted them.)



Here is the recipe he used from a friends grandma. They are a little spicy.

Boil:
13 c. water,
3 c. vinegar, and
1 c. non-iodized salt.
Make more solution as necessary - this fills approx. 7 quart batch.
Wash pickles by hand or washer.
Put into jars until full.
Add:
1-2 cloves garlic
2 chili peppers (dried)
solution
2 dill stocks and tips
2 bay leaves.
Put on canning lids
Put in boiler for 10 minutes.
Take out and make sure they all seal.
Let sit for 2-3 weeks.
Enjoy!

Garage sale "find"

OK, so we are crazy.

(Oh, yeah, you already new that!)

Or maybe, it is my husband that is crazy.

He might actually agree to that statement

after unloading the full truck last night

from our garage sale find.

Shall I show you?

Can you tell what is in there?

Did I mention it was full?

Do you give up?

Canning jars.

Lots,

and Lots,

of canning jars.

Did I mention that the truck was full?

Of lots

and lots

of canning jars??

Have I mentioned that we like to can?

Have I also mentioned that we have 3+ kids and not a lot of time?

WHAT WERE WE THINKING????

Oh, maybe in a couple years we will have time to fill this many jars.

I'm afraid they will be on Craigslist in a year...

Did you get that the truck was FULL?????

...but it was the deal of the century!

The New Hat

Big D's work had a very nice company wide picnic for the employees this past weekend. It was h-o-t over in Mount Vernon. It was at a beautiful "flower farm" as we told the kids (RoozenGaarde). Of course no tulips at this time, but still a lovely place for an event.

There was excellent food from the people of Max Dale's in Mount Vernon. There were games set up for kids and adults - although it was too hot for most of the adults to participate. Good thing there were lots of canopies and shade trees to sit under. There was also a "bouncy castle" which the kids l-o-v-e-d!! The company really seemed to work hard to make it a good family style picnic.

There was also a clown. H was not too sure about him, but B was very intrigued. You see, this clown was doing amazing things with balloons. Here is one example:

B-man stood in line so patiently! He was so interested in what the clown was doing. You can see one of the yellow twirly balloons popped on the way home so it looks a little different than when he first got it, but it is still exciting.

There was fun had by all (especially for a picnic for work!) but it was awfully hot. I'm sure we would go again next year if they decided to do it again.

We also had stopped at the Mount Vernon Ace Hardware to get our old pressure canner checked and it was A-OK. Guess we better get some more canning done now!

Oh, and check out that new shirt of the B-mans. Perfect - no wear at all. Nothing missing, nothing broken. No threads, crisp. A tad big at a boys size 5, but still perfect.
Island Thrift: $2.00.

I love that place.

Strawberry Update

Here are a few picture I managed during a somewhat social event of strawberry "picking" with the MOPS crew. (It was a good turnout and some other young families were there as well.)


Here's the H girl, "Look Mommy, I got one!"


Li'l D was intrigued by these messy red things, so I guess he didn't get the connection between these yucky things and the yummy things that end up on his dinner plate (which he is all too happy to gobble up and promptly demand more) that and I kept the bookie in his mouth so we wouldn't have a problem diaper later in the day after stuffing too many berries in his mouth... not to mention possible choking on, or the moldy ones that were also around.
Look at H's face here (click on the picture to really see her). She is really contemplating something... maybe "Are the berries better over there?" or "I wonder how long we will have to be here?" - though I guess that is what B's face is saying, or possibly "Why aren't any of the other kids carrying Halloween baskets?"

"Look B, how many do you have in your bucket?" This was about all each of them picked in their baskets - usually picked by me after they yelled "I found one!!" but didn't want to pick it themselves after a "lesson" from the farm's attendant about how to pick the berries with the greens still on the tops so they last longer. (I think the kids didn't want to do it "wrong".)

Here's li'l D again... different berry... still contemplating.

And here is H "Mommy, do we have enough now??" Seriously. I guess they weren't that interested in picking the berries either.

Actually, it went fine. It was a bit breezy as the farm is on the west side near the salt water (you can see it from the fields, really quite a beautiful piece of property.) I thought the rows were extremely close together, closer than I remember seeing at other U-pick berry places when we picked in Whatcom County (years ago...). Maybe this is the sign of "progress" - move berries closer together for more production. Although if that was the plan, I think it probably failed this day after all the kids moving around the rows squashing every 10th berry or so when they tried to move up and down the rows.

We didn't stay very long at all. I talked to a couple moms and the kids picked a couple berries for a while (only $1.50 worth!). The hardest part was li'l D. He kept falling backwards and landing on the berry plants. Then of course the other kids would need something and I can't bend over all that comfortably right now - dare I post a belly picture? (Sorry, no face... bad hair day!) Everyone was dirty and dusty and yucky red hands. After probably 20 minutes, it was past time to go. Everyone was happy to leave - no complaints from anyone except li'l D who might have finally figured out what these funny red things were.

I knew this would not be the jam berry day. So I was not disappointed by the amount of berries, and the kids were really quite proud of what they did have, even though some other kids in line said "You don't have many berries" to my kids in innocent enough voices that mine weren't too confused like "Should we have gotten more? Isn't this enough for lunch??" And then on the way home we stopped at the farm's roadside stand in town and picked up a 1/2 flat to make shortcake from and freeze some individual berries for later. Tomorrow night is official start of jamming season at our house, so I will also let you know how that goes. Big D is going to the (dreaded) storage unit today to get all the canning supplies and see what we need. I can't wait to use our own jam again instead of the almost flavorless stuff we have been getting lately from the store.

So we did the strawberry thing. I may be in for it, but I am looking to see if there are raspberry farms here on the island, or if we have to go off to pick those. Or maybe we can just find a place that brings the raspberries in to town in boxes so we don't have to drive so far and add gas to the cost of the jam!