cherry pie

A few years ago, Jeremy's stepmom, Barbara, gave him a dwarf cherry tree for his birthday. This year was the first full harvest, and we picked six pounds of cherries. The kids loved to help pick, because the lower branches were just at their height. They tasted a few, but the cherries were too tart to eat right off the tree. I spent an hour or so pitting them while the guys were pouring footers. I like to make at least one meal for any crew we have working, and I especially like to feed hard workers.

I knew a meal was out of the question right now, so I thought fresh cherries might work instead. I pitted and washed the cherries, added the ingredients, and put them in a large stock pot.....on the grill. The crew wasn't going to be around long enough to taste the cherry pie, so I took some of the warm cherry pie filling and poured it over vanilla bean ice cream. It was heavenly!!! Later that evening when the pie was finished, I shared it with my family; my dad even told me cherry pie was one of his dad's favorites. I love learning about family history....it always seems to happen while eating or working. How 'bout that!

Cooking cherries on the grill.

Cherries over ice cream.

Fresh from the oven.

Delicious!

Classic Cherry Pie

2 quarts cherries
2 cups sugar
2 Tablespoons butter
3/4 cup water
3 heaping Tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon almond flavoring
red food coloring (optional)
2 9-inch pie shells

Drain cherries and heat juice to boiling and add sugar and butter. Mix water and cornstarch; add to juice. Thicken. Add almond flavoring and food coloring. Put in pie shell and bake at 450 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes.

Note** I had to be adjust a little because I was cooking the whole batch of cherries at one time. This isn't hard to do if you keep the ratios the same. Typically, I would make a lattice top for the pie, but the full top with sugar sprinkled worked pretty well too.

farm country

It was harvest time at redpepper farms this past weekend, and it sure was fun. The kids loved riding in the machinery - combine, tractor, and semi - and even helped walk the fields to pick up corn that fell off the combine. Jeremy had a really nice planting of corn and we were blessed with the produce this year. How great was the feeling to fall into bed each night exhausted knowing you had done a hard days work.

Combine filling grain hopper

Tractor and grain hopper pulling up to semi

Blake driving tractor with helper Frederick

Next rows to run

Jeremy carrying Elauna to ride in combine

Grain hopper filling trailer on semi

Claire gets a kiss from dad while waiting at the elevator

Blake carrying Frederick to the tractor

Jeremy and Blake

Drink station

"The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest." Psalm 85:12

"Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness."   2 Corinthians 9:10

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."   Galatians 6:9

a green find

Today at times felt like a mad rush to get everything on my list done, from teaching my daughter the date, to cleaning the inside of the car.....and somewhere in the middle of the day I remembered I needed to check my tomatoes too. I was picking away at the tomatoes when I looked at my pepper plants...I was so excited! This was my first year growing green peppers. (I actually had forgotten about them). I guess it is the little joys during the day that make me stop and appreciate all I have been given.

To celebrate my find, I will share a recipe. This was a recipe my mom learned in Home Ec when she was in high school.

Johnny Marzetti

1 - 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 can tomato soup
1 medium onion, diced
1 package egg noodles
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/3 green pepper, diced
1/4 pound cheese
1 cup bread crumbs, buttered

Brown meat and onion in skillet. Add green peppers. Cook noodles and combine with meat mixture. Add tomato soup and mushroom soup. Put in 9x13 casserole dish. Add cheese on top to lightly cover, then add bread crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.


Extending your harvest: I keep green peppers in the freezer by washing them, quartering and removing seeds. Put in a ziplock bag and place in the freezer.

homemade pasta sauce

I was reminded today of the passage in Matthew 9:37 where Jesus was talking with his disciples and he said “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” The interesting thing about harvest is that it doesn't wait for when it best suits us to work. When the harvest is ready, we need to stop whatever else we are doing and gather the harvest. The same is true of the Lord's call on our lives. He is calling, and we need to act with obedience and promptness, because his call is an indication that his harvest is ready and he needs us to work.

My harvest today was tomatoes, and it was time to make pasta sauce. I wash them and remove the stems, then boil them in water for a few minutes. Next, I run them through my KitchenAid sieve, which removes the peel and seeds, and purees the rest. Then I add my spices to the tomatoes and cook again. Pour into the pint jars and process for 40 minutes. Pretty easy!

some of my tomatoes (small size this year)

my KitchenAid attachment

my pasta sauce

my kitchen help: Frederick and Elauna
note: one needed an apron :-)

garden scrapbook and companion planting

I was updating my garden scrapbook today, and ran across my list of planting guidelines / plant compatibility. For those of you who don't have a garden scrapbook, it is a great way to keep track of all those plant tags, plant locations, etc....and it is even a neat way to track plants that have been given to you as a gift, or from a family garden. I cut out the nice pictures and descriptions in the garden magazines sent out each spring, as that normally covers most of what I need to know about the plant, and it only takes a small space in my book. I also sketch each garden and the location of plants. If I know the year I planted a tree or shrub, I put the date next to it as well. Just fun stuff like that!

As I mentioned at the start, I found my plant compatibility chart I made a few years ago....which I added to my scrapbook. Planting for compatibility is also known as companion planting, where plants are put near one another based on how they react to one another. (I will do a post later about planting by the moon and crop rotation) Following are a few of the most common:

• Beans - plant near corn, carrots, cabbage and tomatoes
• Carrots - plant near tomatoes, cucumber, peas, sage and onion
• Chives - plant near carrots, tomatoes; do NOT plant near beans or peas
• Corn - plant near beans, melons, cucumbers, peas, squash, sunflowers
• Dill - plant near cabbage family, corn, lettuce, onion; do NOT plant near carrots, tomatoes
• Peas - plant near corn, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes
• Peppers - plant near carrots, onions, basil, oregano; do NOT plant near beans
• Potatoes - do not plant near apples or pears
• Tomatoes - plant near cabbage family, carrots, asparagus, dill, basil, parsley, sage; do NOT plant near potatoes
• Watermelon - plant near mint, beans, corn, catnip, sunflowers; do NOT plant near potatoes

One aspect to note when planting next to one another is root depth. A shallow-rooted plant can normally be planted next to a deep-rooted one, because they will not interfere with each other. Some plants help repel pests or bugs, aiding the plants next to it. For example, Dill and Mints attract beneficial insects. Anise and Coriander also attract good insects. Mints spread, so they should be placed in a container before planted, otherwise they will take over....unless, of course, you want them spreading. If you just want pretty flowers in your vegetable garden, delphiniums, larkspur, marigolds, and roses are nice options that typically react well. Most herbs add a pleasing effect to a garden, with the softer leaves and delicate flowers. They also can react with vegetables, so plant them with an appropriate companion.

Fruit trees react to other plants and trees around them too. My mom planted a cherry tree when we were younger, and we never had any cherries. It was a few years ago that I read that cherry trees react negatively to nut trees, which would explain why we never had any cherries. Our little cherry tree was graced by a beautiful backdrop of oak trees, walnut trees, and hickory trees. The poor thing never stood a chance!