Quilt Cam Time

Whenever Bonnie Hunter is home and has some free time, she goes down to her sewing room in the basement.  She turns on her camera and chats with us, answers questions and encourages us to sew along too.  Sometimes it is spontaneous, other times are planned in advance and announced on her blog.  But always, it is lots of fun... sewing with hundreds of your closest friends all around the world!

I have sat and sewed with her in the past, but today is Saturday and that means a trip to the local Farmers Market to purchase my third bushel of apples this year.  I have to peel, core and slice apples to place in the dehydrator and dry so that I have enough dried apples for fried apple pies to eat throughout the year and for the fair next summer.

So this is where I spent the afternoon... in front of the computer, chatting with Bonnie, green bag full of apples, trash can for peels and cores, tray and slicer and the the dehydrator trays.  As I fill each tray I make a run to the kitchen and add it to the dehydrator.  Quilt Cam time lasted about 3-1/2 hours .... and with Bonnie as a distraction... just long enough to fill the dehydrator with 9 trays of apples.

After 12 +/- hours of drying, I fill quart size ziplock bags with 6 oz of apples...that is enough apples for a batch of 25 fried pies.  So far, 69 pounds of apples giving me 17 bags of dried apples will make approximately 425 fried pies for the fair.

This last bushel of apples I have to process will be for pies for the family this winter.

Farmers Market Revisited

It's another early Saturday morning and once again I'm heading to the local farmers market. This time I am better prepared. I brought a little basket (yes it's a sock monkey!) for CJ to put his treasure in. I also made him an egg and cheese bisquit to eat as he walked along... no biting into any fresh fruit this time :<} He has become quite the talker and I had to name each item he pointed to and he would repeat it back to me. Today, we were looking for more peaches to dehydrate, but he was fascinated with these little yellow squash..so of course, they came home with us.
And we had a nice veggie omlette for lunch!



Along with the normal yelllow peaches, I found some white peaches, my husband's favorite. So they, too, came home with me to be dried to snack on all winter long.

Farmers Market Adventures

We have been babysitting our 2-year-old grandson this week while his mom takes a vacation. Satuday, it was my turn to get up early with him so that grandpa could get some much needed extra sleep and I decided to take him to the local farmers market in search of some corn. I don't usually go there since we have our own garden full of vegetables and fruit, but we haven't had much luck with growing our own corn and decided it was time to buy some locally and put it up for the winter. We walked the length of the market hoping for some lettuce for a salad tonight. He was looking intently at each stall... pointing out all the balls! (peaches and tomatoes and anything else round) Didn't find any lettuce, but we did find these eggplants. My grandson decided it was his "kickball game" (his name for a football) and he had to carry one under each arm to the car! I guess I'll be making some eggplant salad and maybe some eggplant parmasian this week!

Next I bought four dozen ears of peaches and cream corn and had to carry them just two car-lengths across the lot from the sellers truck to my car. Of course, I had my eager helper with me. He dragged one of the four bags of corn across the parking lot with all his might... refusing any help.... very loudly claiming "NO Nanna ME do it!" pushing my helping hand away. Several shoppers stopped to watch. He pulled and pulled refusing any help. "NO Nanna ME do it! Traffic stopped. Those plastic shopping bags were not up to the abuse and quickly the corn poked holes through the bag and he left a trail of four ears to my car. An older couple driving through the lot kindly sat there smiling and watching and waving him on! He made it to my car then ran back... twice... gathering up his "breadcrumbs"! So proud of himself! I'll never go to market again without my camera!

Here is some of the the corn shucked and ready for freezing. I was also able to can some jars of green beans from the garden while he napped.


And these orange cherry tomatoes run through the juicer made a nice "wake up" snack later on.


Hope you are enjoying your own garden harvest this year. If not... don't forget your camera when you go to the farmers market!