Processing the Harvest

No, but I was reading about miniature jersey cows you could buy - and would have one but for the hurricanes flooding here - and I do not think cows could climb the stairs to get up when one is coming.

 

And sitting back; from todays telegraph, Tim Stanley on Gould's Marlow:

'Mostly I just kill time; and time dies hard.'

Back inside, after not accomplishing anything outside - for chicken scraps and see the computer was on--------------> back out to feed chickens.

 

So what if you are out of baked dessert bases Colne, they can wait and you won't starve in the meantime! You need to take chill out time apart from keeping the animals fed of course!

 

I noticed that the crab apples were ready, so Ive made some jelly:

--
Not bad for a first attempt - I need to get a finer mesh bag 'cos its a little cloudy & I had to guess at the amount of sugar to use 'cos the crab apples were quite sweet to start with - but I think its going to set properly, it passed the cold spoon test..

 

Looks ACE Nick - such a delicate and pretty colour too,
maybe nice with strained blackberries and should set OK?
For jam,
Jenny

 

lovely jam Nick. I have planted two crabapple trees just for that - to use as a base for berry jams epically. And I liked the picture - it is a bit nostalgic, an English kitchen with your very different wall outlets, different salt bottle, hob (or stove here) and just a feel of it, it looks just like my parents kitchen snap would. I just got off the phone with my mother so have an English sensitivity right now possibly.

And just for fun - she talked of our Canadian relative's son (my cousin, her nephew's son) who stayed for some days last week (We have a very large family and diverse family, diverse in oddness and achievement and location on the globe - almost none are average - and being in London right on the tube my parents get lots of people staying) So he showed up; he is over six foot, three hundred pounds, (21 stone), bare arms and neck covered with Greek Mythology tattoos, dreadlocks to his waist, ear plugs, and a very casual dress sense. And they took him to their very formal Church's outdoor banquet for the war remembrance. They found him charming, my parents and the Church. He works with people with mental problems and has a extremely soothing and kind personality. Also he had been staying at a castle just previous where Princess Ann had visited and met her. Talking to my mother does make me remember what a backwater I live in, a pretty one, but still... they are always up to something.

I take this to mean I need to quit my personal rambling posts - I am sure you are right. I need to quit here and get back to a political/historical/philosophical forum. For years I was; only have been banned eventually from the best couple (one hard left, one anarchist) for being out of step with the gestalt of the place. Anyone know any good talk forums for worldly discussion?

And to stay on topic a bit - today I plant onions.

 

stay with us Colne - I always look forward to reading your - they aren't rantings -- ramblings maybe....
do you ever browse any of the other threads on GC? Or do you stick to this one and the International Gardening thread?
My OH and I went to pick Tulameen Raspberries at our local PYO this morning. Took us an hour to fill 2 boxes = 1.8kg coast £ 11 which is expensive but it is a prestigious fruit and we have elderly neighbours around whom we pick for as they can't get out and about much anymore**. Just had them sprinkled with a morceau of vanilla flavoured castor suger and fromage fraiche.
** So, everyday you and I still can is a precious bonus,
and we must never forget that Colne,
Jenny

 

No I didn't mean that at all! I meant that you need to take time to rest from all that you do during the course of a day and posting on GC is one way of taking time out. A saying my grandfather used to quote.....'you'll meet yourself coming back!' A good description of doing too much without a break.

 

My mother is 88, my father 93 and they still keep their house unassisted - and keep amazing dinner parties - to join them in a meal means 5 hours or so of amazing conversation and food. People finally tear them selves away and have to go home. If I were to list their exceptional experiences and accomplishments it would take pages. (my father is a member of a pretty exclusive Professional society, my mother FRS) Just to list some of my fathers things:

Worked his way through a top university in a grindingly hard subject (he worked cleaning a church and property and as a laboratory tech for jobs (2!). Also he took his pilots license, was captain of a top pistol club, and was in a band simultaneously) Graduating he was recruited to by an aircraft company and was on the team which developed the structural beams of aircraft - ones that could flex and be very light that are still used today. Then being drafted (WWII) he worked designing military aircraft parts - they started them at 12 to 16 hour days but found they were not productive that way and stepped back the hours so my father (a lifelong sailor) joined a sailing club and did racing.

And after the War he hitchhiked across America, joined a millionaires yacht at San Francisco as crew - it was going to Alaska. After it kept staying in Vancouver instead of moving on he jumped ship and took a job at a Canadian university teaching surveying and for breaks would do private job way back in the remote wilderness surveying timber, logging tracts - renting the equipment and hiring his students. (He did a big job on Vancouver Island where he was crossing a deep gorge on a huge fallen tree and slipped - losing the gear. he had it insured, but after paying out everything was pleased to break even.) So he also went in with some other lecturers and rented a cabin in Whistler for a couple entire seasons (the skiing resort) and became an expert at skiing.

There me saw my mother and was drawn to her, and one day going to his class his car would not start so he hitch hiked in, but was getting late so at a stop light he stood in front of my mother's car and asked for a ride - and so they met.

My mother finished her studies and got a job in San Francisco as a commercial artist - so my father moved down and got a job surveying in the remote mountain top - coastal range - LORAN towers for the military/government where he would lead a crew up the forested, wilderness mountains - pulling chains and surveying up to locate them Exactly in place. And perused my mother in his free time - marrying her. He would take her back into the wilderness all up the coast on back packing trips, one of the earlier ones to go way back into the remote camping trips.

And so he thought he would go off into the world and took us allong, getting up to all kinds of things like building the road from Kabul to Kandahar, dams, airports, military aircraft facilities all over from Arctic to Arabian desert and Asian mountains. In the process they studied archeology Teheran for a good period, taking us camping at dig sites, and places of great historical significance and beauty. We caught trout in sight of the great Buddha of Bamiyan, and cooked them on the folding table of the camp stove - at our tent - that being normal for us. But the stuff they got up to (we all were almost shot running a road block in IRAQ during a coup - by the way my third grade desk mate (two person desks) was an Iraqi princess.) Was amazing - and that world is over totally now.

When my father was a boy his extended family had large grain farms and all would gather for harvest. The great grain wagons had 8 foot wheels and were pulled by huge draught horses - the grain cut with scythes that had a sort of basket that caught the grain stalks and put them in a pile where the women would tie them into shocks - three stacked in a tripod, one across the top, to cure and be protected. Then the men would pitchfork the cured shocks weighing sixty pounds onto the high wagon - where other men stacked it into tone of harvest a load. And off to where a traveling threshing machine (threshing and winnowing being the hardest part of grain farming) and for shares it would be separated into straw and bagged grain. These were large successful farms - in living memory. The men and women were like solid iron. They would have huge communal meals of fantastic foods - one needs 4000 calories to keep up such days.

The computer slows to an agonizing pace if you do long posts (the site slows actually) seconds for each letter so you have to type and go off - so I will not tell more stories - but this is just to say old people. They saw some big things. And mortality, life - the great wheel - except for Christianity and then who can know.

 

Thank you so much for a fascinating insight into your folks' lives Colne. You were very lucky to have been born into such a family and you have enjoyed a very interesting life with so many memories to ponder when, in old age, one is forced to take life at a slower pace.
But not today - folks to meet, places to go, chooks to feed and harvest to gather in.
We are so very, very lucky,
Jenny

 

Gosh, that reads incoherently, I mostly typed it blind and then went off to let it very slowly come on the screen and not proof read.

I am loving my dried carrots and happy I dried 20 pounds so have plenty. 6 colors, white, yellow, red, orange, purple with orange inside, and purple all the way through. I sliced them almost 1/4 inch, about a standard slice for carrots - then put them in boiling water for 8-10 minutes till almost done to eat, just a bit tough. Cooled them in cold water, and dried them about 10 lbs a batch in my little dehydrator. Several times I had to rearrange the shelves, and then mix them up in a bowl and put back to keep them drying uniformly. I put them in vacuum packs and keep a jar of them handy.

The dried carrots need simmering in water about 5 minutes, then I add the chopped peppers (I have 5 kinds) and simmer a bit, add the okra, dried onion, and cherry tomatoes whole and a touch onion instant soup. Simmer till done - and then I like the dreaded ramen/pot noodle sauce packet with half the noodles broken up (chickens will get the rest) and a few slices of my hot smoked sausage. It sounds bad but is great - veg with a touch of spicy meat (6 small slices) in a clear broth.

If you like soups dry some carrots when you get too many - and I think courgetts and boiled beans too - flying squirrels ate my bean plants - I think they drink the sap after cutting the stalk, swines, so no dried beans for me this year. (stem borers killed my courgetts so same too)

 

Mostly gratuitous dog picture: lexie



And tomorrow I hope to get up at 4 am and be at the harbor by 5am and try a bit of shrimping. I had forgot it will be Saturday so may be all taken at my spot if there are shrimp, but give it a shot. I am getting a couple in my net here on the bayou so it is time to see if they are in.

Shrimp move really fast. They are in schools and swim as fast as fish - all there, then off one hour later. They come and go so quickly - not at all the popular image of them just sulking about on the bottom like rock crabs - they travel in big groups and range far and fast. Some do stay hanging out but the big numbers move about.

Also I am tackling a rod up for fishing live shrimp off the harbor for trout with a popping cork - a large Styrofoam float with lead inside it, like this



They are a little over 4 inches long and the one I like has lead inside the lower part to give it weight for casting, and so it floats upright. The bait hangs down 2 - 3 foot and one jerks it to make a 'pop' sound which sounds like a trout feeding off the surface, the top is cupped shaped to make the sound - and it works otherwise like a heavy fishing float. This one is about 2/3 life sized.

I also will have a flounder rod rigged, and a rod for redfish, incase I do some fishing. Most likely the shrimp will be sparse, but will probably get 4 dozen anyway, which would be enough for a bit of fishing. But then I have filled a five gallon bucket with huge ones when it all works just right.

these are typical for here

 

They look superb - the "shrimps" in your hand Colne. Our shrimps are miniscule by comparison in the UK. Those would be regarded as prawns here. Is the bayou salty and do shrimps move from sea water to unsalted water without harm to their digestive system?
Jenny

 

Here the word shrimp covers all of them, prawns and shrimp. (except where prawn means langoustine, but that is a Northern water thing. Shrimp are sold in 'counts' these would be 40's - how many to make a pound. occasionally we get the 9 count here in our nets, not often - like this one:



(picture from web) You can buy them from the shrimp boats often, or really big ones anyway - but I like those smaller kind better, and they are cheaper. 10 - 12 count would run $4 to $6 a pound. The 40-50 count $3.50

So I did not go this morning, things kept coming up and being a Weekend I was not wild to go because one is likely to be excluded. There is room for 4 to net inside the harbor - almost all the areas closed to netting, so if 4 people are netting you are out of luck. Then you can net off the wall outside, but that is not so good, or go wading off the beach, but with my shot shoulders I cannot do that much. To shrimp one uses a much bigger net than the tiny one I have shown. It weights 20 pounds and has to be held high when in waste deep water - and thrown with great force to make it open out before falling on the water.

I would love to go this comming morning but a weekend again so may as well wait till next week.

The shrimp have a complex lifecycle where they spend different parts of their lives in different salinities. They can take the water being virtually fresh, but migrate depending on their food and what they are up to in their lifecycle.

Blue crabs (our kind) are like that too. Males like low salinity so almost every crab you catch here will be male. But they go in and out to the islands into fully salt water for different reasons. These estuaries are vital to 90% of Gulf of Mexico fish for some point in their life, or for their food that has to be in them for some point of their life. That is why it is so incredibly hard to build on salt wetlands nowadays, that is being recognized.

I am inside to rehydrate - it is 91F, 33 C out now, with no breeze, 62% humidity, and beating sun. I am as wet as if I had dipped into my pond. You can actually wring out a shirt - or trousers, and get a puddle of water if working during the hot part of the day. So need to drink a couple liters of weak iced tea - then back out to shovel out the chicken house and dig in several loads of leaves into where I am planting some beans.

 

thank you for that detailed explanation Colne. Thankfully, the humidity you have to endure never occurs in the UK.