A Few Bits and Pieces

We all know this one well, but it never hurts to review.

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Titus 2:3-5

I received an especially generous birthday windfall recently and hot-footed it down to the local restaurant and janitorial supply. I purchased a lovely stainless steel colander and a good stainless grater along with a canner-sized restaurant quality pot and two 2-pound bread pans. Ladies, it is always worth your while to purchase quality kitchen and homekeeping equipment, even if you have to make-do with junk and save your egg money to do it. Forget the various forms of global discount stores when it comes to these purchases and go for professional quality that will work well and last. I can promise you that if our pioneer grandmothers had access to stainless steel they would have abandoned enamalware and tin in a heartbeat. I love the history and heritage of old kitchenware, but in the long run you're better off hanging it on the wall and buying quality tools for the very important work you do in the kitchen.

I found a really good bread making site, complete with instructional video. I'm on a quest for the secret to making a chewy, rustic sourdough loaf with blistered crust and big holes out of predominantly whole wheat flour. I lost the starter I'd had for several years, probably because I gave myself a bit too much leeway as to what to add to it, and have had to make another one. So far, everything seems to be going well. I used freshly ground organic whole wheat, bottled water (no chlorine) and a touch of malt flour. I honestly don't know the rationale for adding the malt, but I found reference to it here so I thought I'd give it a try. Every day, or even every 12 hours if I think of it, I've been feeding the starter by discarding half and replacing it with the same amount of freshly ground flour and un-chlorinated water to make a soft dough. Time will tell if it will all work out, but so far it looks promising.

Here are some other interesting sourdough links I found:

Sourdough Baking

Carl Griffiths 1847 Sourdough Starter - free for a SASE

rec.food.sourdough Starter FAQ

Citric Acid: For me, citric acid powder is a household essential. I started out using it in making goat milk mozzarella, and have since found many uses for it. It's great for lots of applications that call for vinegar (natural cleaning products, cleaning out the coffee pot, polishing the rust off of cast iron, etc.) 1/4 teaspoonful mixed in a quart of water makes a good hair rinse for use after using a soap-based shampoo. You get the same effect (removes soap curd and adds shine and manageability) without smelling like a pickle. Some older recipes call for "sour salt." This was nothing but citric acid. I make a refreshing summer drink out of shiso leaves (which is an whole new post in itself) that uses a bit of citric acid for tang. I buy my citric acid powder online from Liberty Natural Products.

Here's an interesting blog with a recipe for Shiso drink

I got the first batch of cowpeas canned and was blessed that all the jars sealed. Today I'm using my big, new pot to make a monster batch of pinto beans to can. Some might ask why can something that keeps so well in it's natural state? Cooking beans right can be fairly fuel intensive, plus the fact that it heats up the house. I use basically the same amount of fuel in the same amount of time canning up a large batch as I would cooking a single batch. Plus, a quart of perfectly cooked pintos is wonderful convenience food. I'll document the entire process in a later post.

And finally, Kathi, my friend at at Oak Hill Homestead faithfully posts Thankful Thursdays. They always make me feel good.

Till next time, Blessings.

Judy

Tomatoes, Cowpeas and Stagefright

I have 2 favorite ways to preserve tomatoes. Both save space, after all the bulk of the tomato is water, and concentrate the great summertime tomato flavor. One way is by dehydrating. I like to use small to medium sized paste type tomatoes cut in half. I scrape out the seeds and salt lightly before putting in the dehydrator at about 110 degrees and dry them until crunchy. The ones you buy in the store packed in oil are more leathery and that's nice, but for efficient preservation I like them dry so there's less chance of mold. I can always reconstitute them to the degree I prefer before using. The second method I like is to preserve tomatoes as paste. Again, tomatoes are mostly water, so I start out by chopping them coursely, salt them and heat them briefly, then pile them into a colander over a bowel to catch the very best tomato juice in the world. After they drain I run them through a food mill to remove skin and seeds and put them into the crock where I cook them on low with the top off until they cook down into the most lovely tomato paste you ever tasted. No crockpot, no electricity, no problem. Pour the puree into shallow pans, cover with cheesecloth or something similar to keep the bugs out and let the sun do the work. Undoubtedly the Lord wished me to talk about tomatoes this year instead of dealing with them, as I have none. Now southern peas, that's a different story. . .

I've talked before about "manna from Heaven" on the homestead. That's whatever crop produces in abundance in a particular year. Some years, here on Tabletop Homestead, it's been squash. That's not going to be this year, as best I can ascertain I have my first case of squash vine borers. This year the winner is. . . .

Southern peas, otherwise known as cowpeas or specifically black-eyed peas, cream peas, crowder peas or several other names. They're all Vigna sp. in the Latin.

I'm going to be putting together a list of good recipes for southern peas as the beginning of my personal cookbook. I nag David all the time, when he makes something delicious, about not writing down what he put in it, but I'm just as bad.

A good list of black-eyed pea recipes.

More recipes.

301 black-eyed pea recipes.

And so it goes. Google "recipes" and search "black-eyed peas" within the original search.

This is one particular recipe that interests me, as I'm also trying to build a repertoire of whole wheat recipes and bulgar isn't hard to produce at home from stored whole wheat. I was also thinking about how one could substitute things like lamb's quarter or poke for the spinach. I haven't tried this recept yet, but I believe it has the makings of a good basic recipe that could be adapted to other nice additions (tomatoes, peppers, nuts or seeds, fresh cheese or sour cream, etc.)

SPINACH WITH BLACK-EYED PEAS

Printed from COOKS.COM

---

1 lb. spinach, frozen or fresh (defrost frozen)
1/2 c. bulgur wheat #2, soaked 20 minutes
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
Pepper to taste
1 c. dried black-eyed peas
1 med. onion, minced

Steam spinach; drain and chop; set aside. Cook black-eyed peas until well done but still firm. Drain and set aside. Brown onion in oil. Add peas, mix well. Add to spinach and wheat (bulgur). Add salt and pepper to taste.

And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. Genesis 3:10 KJV

At work the other day I pulled up my blog to show off the previously posted picture of Oran the Superfluously Naughty One. Then, when several people said that they wanted to read more I actually had to leave the room. The thing is, I have kept my life very compartmentalized. Folks at work know I'm a little different and I often get "Well, when things go nuts I'm coming to live with you" but still, I have two lives. Now, the people I work worth are dear, dear people who I love, but up to this point I've basically blogged to an anonymous audience. I almost feel now like someone who's pulled up to a stoplight enthusiastically singing a song or giving themselves a good talking to when they look over and realize the people in the next car are watching their every move. It kind of makes you want to duck your head and go "Oops." I'm a little concerned that now that I actually have to come face to face on a regular basis with people who may read my musings it might somehow distort the integrity of my writing. I happen to be the most introverted person I know and have over the years learned to manage this in a people-oriented field of work. I know, though, that God takes us out of our comfort zones in his own time and at his own good pleasure and on that note I welcome my new readers and re-commit myself to keep sharing honestly what goes on here at Tabletop Homestead.

Until next time, Blessings.

Judy

There I Go Again

I promised in previous posts to be more faithful in my writing, and wouldn't you know it a month's passed with nary a peep from the Tabletops (that's the Table Hills, or Tabletop Hills, or Tabletop Mountains in south-central Oklahoma for those who don't know us.)

I was blessed a few weeks ago with the opportunity to cut down my working-in-town hours to one 12-hour shift per week. I can't go on enough about the benefits we've reaped despite the cut in cash. Ladies, if you're edgy, stressed or vaguely ill for no apparent reason and you're working full-time, consider cutting back. Put the figures on paper. Consider your gas; vehicle maintenance; value of the vehicle lost due to mileage; clothing; meals eaten out; time taken away from frugal pursuits such as gardening, sewing and food preservation; and the time you lose transitioning between your town job and your role at home. You'll probably find that you don't make nearly as much as you think and the intangible benefits of peace for your spirit are priceless. Though some might disagree, but I speak from having walked way too much of the path of the world. Women are hard-wired to the home. Some just hide it better than others.

The main reason I haven't posted lately is because I've been so blessedly busy here on the homestead. I've concentrated on getting the house in order and am ready to move on the the barnyard and garden. Without sounding like a groupie, which I'm not, I have to add that I've gotten back to my Flylady routines and the fact is they work. There is a segment of the population, especially among ladies, whose minds just flat work differently. Yes, prayer is essential. Discipline is essential. Flylady simply provides a way to slow down and organize our thoughts. She truly understands and capitalizes on how the easily side-tracked female mind works. Learn a few basic principles without turning the teacher into an idol, give glory and thanks to God and it's amazing what can be accomplished. 'Nough said.

My birthday was this week and I asked for and received a tiny voice-activated recorder. I lose 90% of the good ideas that come to me while I'm busy. I've tried carrying a pad and pencil but inevitably end up sweating all over the paper and stabbing myself with the pencil. My dear husband's first question was "How are you going to keep up with a recorder when you can't remember what you had for breakfast?" Then, being the helpful and resourceful man that he is he gave me a little pouch on a string that's just big enough for my recorder and my cell phone which he insists I carry on me when he's gone. The string is long enough to go around my waist and the whole thing works great. Now I can sit down in the evenings with my days "dictation" and transcribe it to the appropriate list, computer file, calendar, etc. I'm on a roll!

Another recent blessing has been satellite internet. It's enabled us to disconnect our land-line phone and it generally works well. The biggest benefit for me has been in the downloading of large text and audio files. Here Dave's finishing up the mounting pole:



We're still working on finishing the pig butchering and I experimented with canning some of the bacon I'd made. Here in southern Oklahoma it's just too hot to hang it, no matter how well it's cured and smoked, so I did a little research and this is what I came up with for my method. I fried the cured and lightly smoked bacon until it was about 3/4 done, packed it into sterile 1/2 pint jars using a jar funnel to keep every speck of grease off the rim, put on hot lids and pressured at 12 pounds for 90 minutes. I added no liquid. At this point, 2 weeks after processing, every jar remains sealed. (Fine print disclaimer: Do as I say, not as I do. Always follow USDA guidelines for home canning). Here's some of the bacon in progress:



The rain we had in June was nothing short of amazing. This is my front herb bed with fennel, sage, soapwort, catnip, and tansy.



I'm in the beginning of a learning/doing curve regarding the Christian woman's headcovering. Knowing that I would need something extremely practical for the kinds of work I do on the homestead, I recently ordered several sizes of scarves in cotton, rayon and silk from Dharma Trading Company. This is a company that specializes in fabric dying and painting and they have lovely quality "blanks", various clothing pieces in white and black. In addition to the scarves there are several pretty, modest dresses and skirts that show promise. My order arrived quickly and I was very satisfied with the quality. This is one of the scarves, a white cotton "gauze" which actually has the feel of a light, finely woven cotton sack towel. It's 27" x 27" which is about the smallest I prefer. It doesn't slip, stays tied and soaks up the sweat. (Yes, I know, Yuck! But it's a fact of life on a homestead in the southern plains.)



And this, well I just don't exactly know what to say about this other than this is Oran being Oran and, well, it's a full time job.

"Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. " James 1:21

Gotta get busy. Till next time, blessings.

Judy

Summer's Here

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Genesis 3:19

As anyone who's pursuing the agrarian life knows, or soon will, God wasn't kidding about that. I spent the day working in the garden. When it gets this hot and hotter, the best plan is to get garden work done in the cool of early morning, but I seem to always drag it into the afternoon and later. It's not especially pleasant working in the heat of the day, but I think it's prudent to acclimate oneself to the heat if one is going to live in the south. I generally work about 30 to 45 minutes, then take a 15 to 20 minute break and tank up on water. I came in on one break today and granddaughter Lianna had fixed me the perfect snack for replenishing electrolytes: sliced tomatoes sprinkled with salt and lime. How she knew to do that I'll never know, but it was delicious nonetheless. I harvested the hulless oat plot today. Quite a bit of it was still somewhat green, but I was afraid the drier tops would start shelling out if I waited. I cut the tops off with scissors and left the straw to incorporate back into the garden. Right now there's a pretty good pile of oats on a screen on the livingroom floor. We'll put it back outside to dry some more tomorrow. I grew up in southwest Oklahoma, wheat country, and I had to laugh at myself harvesting grain with a pair of scissors. I also dug the onion crop today, and it was pretty dismal. We'll have lots of pickled onions, anyway. I let the grass get ahead of me in the row and onions don't do well at all with competition. David and I pulled all the garlic a couple of days ago and I worked on getting it all in, also. The oat, onion and garlic row will all go back in dry beans for a fall crop. We've been really concentrating this year on "calorie crops" - those crops that provide the most protein and calories. For us that's been mostly beans and cowpeas. One can only live so long on summer squash and tomatoes.



This morning my son-in-law Donald butchered another of our small pigs. I'm quite proud of him as he's really getting good at slaughtering effectively and humanely. It's such a blessing to have 3 generations here on the homestead working together, helping each other, just living life. I think there are six more pigs to go and we're caught up. These are small pigs, butchered at about 100 pounds. They have to be split a little between the hams just to fit on the gambrel.



Lianna and Oran know exactly where their food comes from. Here they're helping their daddy move the pig.



David added on to the electric fence to fence some of the front pasture a few days ago. Here's Lena, the Ancient Horse (she's 25 and still beautiful) and some of the goats enjoying fresh grazing.

There's still lots of work to be done this week: finish dehydrating two cases of peaches, finish getting in the garlic, mow, replant empty garden rows, weed, can more pork, the list goes on. If we ever got caught up I don't think I'd know what to do with myself.

Till next time, blessings.

Judy

"The Real World"

I've thought on this before, but never put it into words. At work today (my alter identity, my "real" one being the me and the life I write about here) I was telling a dear friend about the herb I'd found that increases breast milk production. I directed her here to see the picture. She asked me if I ever wrote about her. I told her I only wrote about my life on the homestead, and that she should come to visit more often. :) The conversation got me to thinking about "real life." So many people who don't understand or oppose a simple agrarian lifestyle like to think they live in the real world and we live in a fantasy. These are the people who live in houses practically identical to their neighbors with 5 feet in between; whose lives center around what they do away from home (work, school, sports); who fall asleep at night to the sound of cars going down the road and sirens; who buy and eat "butter" that is about one molecule away from plastic and meat that is sluiced in various viruses and carbon monoxide before being bound up in polystyrene. They grow "gardens" of completely useless pretty flowers and poison any good ground they may have in order to grow a monoculture of inedible lawn grass. They clothe themselves in the latest fashion, regardless of how uncomfortable, impractical or immodest it might be. They plant a TV and/or internet ready computer in each childs large and plushly appointed individual room, completely sabatoging any chance of real family time. And this, they say, is the real world.

Lord willing I will stay on this piece of out of the way land, serenaded to sleep by the frogs and the cicadas and the whipporwills, with an occasional mid-winter refrain from the coyotes. I will haul my water into the house in a bucket, to keep me humble. I will grow and process my food, my meat, knowingly intimately the realness of what I feed my family. I will make my simple clothes and continue in learning about covering my head in submission to my Lord and my husband. I will create real things, useful things. I will teach my grandchildren and try to provide an example for my daughter. I will venture to town as little as possible, finding ever newer ways to provide for the needs of those I'm responsible for right here on this homestead. I will praise the Lord for the love growing in my home; my good and competant husband, my precious child and grandchildren; the roof over my head; the fertile soil and the gentle animals that keep it so; and for His grace in saving one such as me to a glimpse of heaven such as this.

This is life, as real as it gets.

May you all share the blessing,
Judy

Never Complain About Rain On The Plains

This will be just a quick post.

Another storm blew through last night, this time from the north. We received probably another 1 1/2 inches of rain, which topped the ponds off and laid the corn down just a bit. It's been such an incredibly wet couple of months, but we consider it all blessing. This morning the grandchildren and I picked green beans, probably a gallon after snapping. Tomorrow I should have enough for a canner load. It seems like each year brings an abundance of one particular vegetable. I always call it our manna. This year it looks like it will be beans.

Dave butchered a goat for a customer in the city before lunch and we enjoyed some great 3-generational family time. While he worked I snapped my beans, our daughter Rachael crocheted and the children played nearby. After lunch Dave worked on expanding the electric fence for the goats, horse and mule. We found few wild plums ripe on the edge of our property and Lianna and Oran ate the whole bunch. Rachael wanted to learn how to make homemade mayonnaise, so she and I worked on that for a while. This evening was spent putting together my monthly order of soap for the Oklahoma Food Coop.


Till next time, blessings,
Judy

Shame On Me

I am a procrastinator. I always have been and it's certainly a thorn in my side. The longer I put something off the harder it is to do; hence, it being 3 months since I made a blog entry. Forgive me, dear readers. There's certainly not been a shortage around here of things to write about. I'm not even sure where to start and how to organize it, so I guess I'll just approach this post as a ramble.

My sudden disappearance from the online community started with some mid-life issues, the worst of which was a sudden inability to sleep. Without going into the details I'll simply say that I'm sleeping again and have immersed myself in the very best medicine, life on the homestead. I had begun to feel lost and disconnected and am happy to report that by prioritizing my duties to family and home I am once again centered.

Last month we enjoyed a precious visit with the Michael Bunker family and their Christian agrarian community in Santa Anna, Tx. God in His sovereignty and providence knew exactly what He was doing in the timing of this visit. I'm anxious to visit again and fellowship with the great folks of this group.

We've been way behind on our butchering, and I was thankful when my daughter and son-in-law took it upon themselves to butcher two hogs. Our hogs are a pot-belly/standard cross that max out at usually around 120 pounds. It makes for easily butchering one in a day, along with the advantage that the entire carcass will fit into a chest freezer pending cutting up and processing.

We bone everything out and I crack and use the bones for stock making. We canned the hams, shoulders and loins in quarts for what my daughter calls "Instant Pot Roast." She opens a jar and adds potatoes and carrots for a quick meal that doesn't taste quick. I used the neck meat ground with the heart, liver and onions to make "Dirty Rice Mix" (my son-in-law is from south Texas/Louisiana stock and appreciates Cajun food) which I canned in pints. David used some this morning in some rice along with a can of pinto beans and it was yummy. We freeze the ribs for barbeque with the side meat on for a meatier cut. The belly meat and shanks I'm curing in brine for use as bacon and in beans. One skill I want to master is curing meat for keeping without refrigeration, and I decided the shanks would be a perfect practice cut. My granddaughter Lianna has been heping me cut meat for several years now and has recently graduated to a real knife. Grandson Oran has just earned his "butter knife."

Yesterday we butchered 6 rabbits and I spent today putting those up. Here's Lianna with the pans of legs and loins ready to be roasted lightly prior to packing in jars and canning.

Our total yield was:

• 6 quarts of hind legs and loins canned with broth made from the backs
• A generous appetizer quantity of livers, delicious fried lightly in butter
• A meal of "Buffalo Wings" made from the front legs.
  
• Enough leftover meat bits and stock for a big batch of rabbit and dumplings
  
• A nice plate of belly meat for the cats.
• About 1/2 pint of rendered rabbit fat, a delicacy.

I considered our potato harvest this year to be the Great Potato Famine of South Central Oklahoma. It was a fairly dismal yield for 65 feet of row. However, God used it to teach and humble me when what to my (self-assumed) practiced eye looked to be 7 quarts turned out to be 14 quarts. Now I'll think of it as The Year of Loaves and Fishes.








I've identified a new medicinal plant, White Milkwort (Polygala alba). It's reported to be useful in increasing the milk supply in lactating women.
















With this year's crazy, wet weather the garden has been a bit off-schedule. I managed to get green beans, dry beans, corn and cowpeas in during a break in the rain along with tomatoes and peppers, but have been quite late with the rest of the warm season crops - squash, melons, cotton, okra. These I finally got planted just in the last week or so.
We're beginning to pick green beans and am finding that I'm well pleased with the bush variety "Strike." Another variety that I'll definately plant again is the pole variety "Grandma Nellie's Mushroom Bean." My standby pole varieties are Kentucky Wonder and Rattlesnake, which is quite tolerant of the heat. The garlic I planted last fall is almost ready to harvest.










The squash and melons have germinated quickly in the warmth and abundant moisture;











The experimental plot of hulless oats are turning. . .









And the corn will be ready soon.











We've been thankful for the abundant rain, as we know well that in a matter of a week or two the southern plains can turn quite desert-like. Looks like more rain's on the way.

Till next time (hopefully not so long a time), blessings.

Judy