Nichole

I have been drying/roasting my cherry tomatoes, in halves. I sprinkled some on my pizza the other night and they were amazing! I have also thought about dehydrating the mushrooms. I normally slice and freeze when I get them marked down at the store, but I want to try something different. I haven't tried the dehydrated kale yet. Something funny though, when I try to type "kale" I automatically try to capitalize it, because my DH's name is Kale...lol

I have always laughed at the potatoes wrapped in plastic. For the cost of three potato, I can get a whole bag! And the applesauce pouches, some of the things that I see I wonder if people actually buy them, but they do! I do like to get baby carrots though. Here it says they're $1.84lb, but I get them for $1lb, so they're the same price, if not cheaper than whole carrots. Mind you, that may be the sale price, but I only buy stuff on sale.

I know! Without him I'd still be arguing back and forth in my head about which one to get! LOL I felt so bad when he came in with it, since I ended up telling him that I was looking at two different ones. I REALLY wanted to get the squeezo, but financially it is a better choice to go with the cheaper one. And it works just fine too. We put a few pounds of tomatoes through it and it did fine. I'm guessing the spiral clogging up with tomato seeds is normal? That was our only problem. ...that guy can always read my mind somehow Daylily - I can't say whether or not the Victorio is made with cheap plastic now or not, but the brand I got yesterday (a cheaper brand than the Victorio) had really thick strong plastic. I was very surprised.

Ok, that makes sense. The U-Picks around here irrigate I believe. We picked around 6 gallons and DH and I ate them ALL in 2 weeks... I should have put some away, then eat what we wanted fresh... lol Oh well I didn't spend a whole lot on groceries those couple of weeks!

Wow, that seems really late to me. We started picking at our local u-pick mid June and they were over probably by the beginning of July. Different types of blueberries?

You guys will never guess what just happened. LOL DH walks in the door saying "don't look, don't look, I have a surprise!" He picked up a strainer from Rural King on his way home. It was one that I had tossed out of my lineup of possible strainers because there were some complaints about it in some reviews. I can't quite remember what they were though. It's a Norpro Sauce Master. . At first I told him how sorry I was but I just spent 2 hrs researching some different ones. Then he told me that he got it for like $35. I was going to have him just take it back, but I do need one right away and I figured I can use this one until I have the money for the Squeezo. It will be added to my list of "expensive things I want to get but don't have the money for right now" list. The spiral is actually surprisingly thick. We are getting ready to try it out, so I will have an update on it's performance. I will definitely keep an eye out for the Squeezo on Ebay, that is a great idea! I always forget about that place... Thanks!

I'm torn between the two! whenever I buy something, I want it to be as sturdy as possible. I try to avoid flimsy plastic, I want my kitchen items to be something I can pass on to my future children. But it's so darn expensive! lol I am looking at these two strainers. The Victorio has a plastic hopper, chute, and a plastic spiral. The price for this one is about $95. (w/o extra's it's $50) The Victorio The Squeezo is all metal. It seems to be something that is going to last and meet my requirements of lasting a long time. But...this one is $259! (w/o extra's it's $200) Squeezo Both of these come with their extra screens, I figured I might as well get them all at once. I REALLY want to get the stainless steel one, and it seems like if I get the one with plastic, that's almost $100 that could have gone toward the "good" one. I really need to get one soon, I'm really itching to start making tomato sauce for the first time. I keep asking myself, is the plastic hopper a big deal? To me, no the hopper isn't. I think what concerns me is the spiral being plastic. That can't hold up forever. I know there's no guarantee that the metal one will either, but a lot more likely. It's not like I'm only going to be using it on tomato sauce either. When we have kids, I plan on making our own baby food, we will be getting apples coming in a couple years so I can make applesauce, etc. So, I guess my question is, would the plastic on the Victorio be that big a deal to you?

I have read: Common Sense, by Thomas Paine The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe Little Women, Louisa May Alcott Gone With the Wind (working on it right now) The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck Charlotte's Web, E.B. White Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand The Cat in the Hat, Dr, Seuss To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee Many of the books listed I have on my "to read" list also. I loved Atlas Shrugged, listened to it on audiobook. If you have a book that you want to read, but it is really long, listen to it. It makes it soo much easier. I did the same with the Grapes of Wrath and currently Gone with the Wind. I do have Moby Dick on audiobook but I just couldn't get through it. I kept ending up ignoring it. lol Maybe someday I'll try it again.

Just reading the title had my stomach churning... I have an appt. in a couple weeks that I am dreading. I know I have at least one cavity, it's been so long since I've been there. Really dreading finding out the $$$...

Compared to you guys I'm a lazy gardener! Since the heat wave, I haven't been able to get out and weed without risking a heat stroke! Since the garden is the only thing getting water around here the weeds went crazy. So, I took a old piece of carpet that the dogs ripped off of the stairs and used it to cover up the weedy spots. With the heat, it kills them in a couple days! I just move it to another spot once the weeds are dead. I've been weeding by hand in spots that are too tight for the carpet. Doesn't look the best, with carpet laying about the garden, but it does the job!

Jeepers - Yeah they're getting big! I'll have to post pics of the chickens and pups I've been wondering this lately and thought maybe you guys would have an opinion. Part of the benefit of a chicken tractor is supposed to be the manure the chickens drop on the ground right? Well, I was thinking, if chicken manure is a hot manure that needs to be composted, wouldn't this harm the grass too? I move the tractor everyday, but still with 24 chickens in it, there's a lot of poop!

That is a really good idea! I'd put wheels on all four corners (maybe even some in the middle since it's long?) and see how that works. I'm gonna keep that in mind for when I get goats again!

Thanks guys I have been kinda MIA lately. The weather was soo insanely nice, I've been working outside more. Between starting my seeds, the 12 MORE chicks I got (yeah I'm addicted), and keeping up with random farm stuff, prepping kinda got left on the back burner. But I suppose it's all related to prepping, since it's the upkeep of the farm. Oh yeah, DH and I got two puppies so they have kept me busy! They're turning into good little farm dogs!

With this awesome weather I finally got to building a chicken tractor for my chicks! They are getting so big!

That's awesome TMC! I added it to my wishlist too! I can't wait to read it I discovered Grit this last year and love reading it. Congrats!!!

That sounds really good! I'm gonna have to try it.

AH - What is your summer kitchen like? I have heard of them, but I have never seen one. Sounds interesting!

I've got a pot of minestrone soup on the stove right now. DH and I are both sick so I figured I'd try out one of the packages of dehydrated soup mix I bought. We know we like the Bear Creek brand but I've never tried this one before but it's cheaper. Hopefully it's good.

LOL I'd be there in a heartbeat! At our old house, we had an apple orchard in our front yard! I loved it, but my dad, not so much. It was always fun in the fall when the apples would start falling off and rotting (we had so many we couldn't use them all) and I would have to mow under them. It was like muddin' in rotten apples. You'd get stuck all the time. I think that's why my dad doesn't want any apple trees. For me it's a fun childhood memory

We didn't have anything exciting, just ham and cheese with some cottage cheese on the side. Last week though, I put a spin on your typical grilled cheese. It had feta cheese, cheddar, and american cheese. Then I put tomato slices and some ham in it, grill it and your done. It was really good! Quick too!

Yeah they were American. How would you go about doing that and what would be the reason to do so?

I'm at work right now on lunch and I found some backpacks on markdown for 3.50 ea! I was just going to buy some to make ghb's for hubby and I, and make a basic bob for my siblings. I know what I'm doing today!

I finally found some more persimmon trees on the property! Kinda embarrassing that it took me this long to find them, since we've lived here 6 years, but oh well! We did have a couple in the horse field, but the horses chewed all the bark off of them. (They had plenty of food, they were just bored I guess.) So those finally died last year. I was so bummed out about it too! I was planning on buying some more trees, but they take so long to reach production age. I'm still planning on getting some, but at least these will tide me over until the planted ones start producing. I absolutely LOVE persimmon pudding! We have the Covered Bridge Festival every year here in Indiana, and that's something I have to have. Persimmon pudding and persimmon ice cream. I already have a little bit of pulp in the fridge, I'm gonna be out there everyday scouting for them now!

$4.00 a loaf! Wow.