What Would Laura Ingalls Wilder Do?

Mixed Berry Jam

I just don't know how those pioneering folks did it: living off the land is hard work.  I spent last night and part of today harvesting some of the vegetables at the farm and then preparing them for either canning or freezing. 

God, I miss Walmart.


I  have to admit, however, that I'm pretty pleased with how purty the strawberry/raspberry/blackberry jam turned out.  And just look at my latest endeavor:

Oh, yeah: I'm Pickling.

I'm also trying my hand at fermentation:

That's the cabbage that will hopefully become sauerkraut.  Of course, the batch I tried to do a few weeks ago just kind of molded . . . but I have high hopes for this batch!  Too bad we don't tend to eat sauerkraut.

I'm hoping it'll all be worth it.  I mean, I spent a chunk of last summer freezing peaches, and it was great to have those around for pies in the dead of winter. OK, so I only made, like, one pie all winter: but at least I had the option.

In other reluctant-homesteading news: I thought you'd like to see some before and after pictures --

 

 

BEFORE we let the bees clean the extra honey (but after we'd already extracted all we could ourselves)

AFTER the bees got every last bit of honey out of the frames

It's actually kind of gratifying to see the carnage inflicted by the usually-pristine bees.  Guess they're not as OCD as I thought.

And, OK, I had set a goal for myself to write the next installment of The Toxic Tour tonight, as I'm sure you're waiting with baited breath to read what happened next.  However -- after working a whole three hours in the shop today, then spending two hours lounging at the lake with Bee and Mr. C, then an hour making jam and pickles -- I'm just too exhausted to spend that much time writing. 

Sigh; this unplanned summer of subsistence living is taking it's toll on me.