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State of the pantry:

• 9 pints sweet and sour pickles
• 4 quarts hot dill pickles
• 20 quarts tomato sauce
• 3 quarts + 15 pints corn and tomato soup
• 16 half-pints+ 1 pint salsa
• 2 4-oz of hot peppers (mostly jalapenos, some hot cherry, some habanero)
• 2 pints + 2 quarts tomato vegetable soup
• 12 half-pints + 3 cups cinnamon/nutmeg applesauce
• 10 quarts grape juice (refrigerated but not canned–we’ll drink it all pretty quickly :)

This represents about half the total food we canned–my mom took about the same amounts of the tomato sauce, soups, salsa, peppers, and applesauce as are listed above. We also gave a few cans away. We would have had more pickles, but the crock pickles went bad–probably too many cukes for too little brine.

Now I just have to figure out where to store it (small house, no basement, everywhere else freezes in winter). :) Yay, maybe I can get more computer stuff done; we’ve been canning almost every weekend from the beginning of August until now.

You know what day it is!

Aaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr

This is our new rooster, Negra Modelo (or Sr. Modelo, or Macey). He is an Ameraucana, born earlier this year. We got him from the Klossners. He spends a lot of time stalking hens, grabbing them by the tail and then quickly jumping on them before Red comes over and knocks him off. We have him penned separately until Red stops attacking him on sight. He’s a really pretty boy; sure hope he works out OK.

We’ve been spending a lot of time trying to convince the chickens to go home to the new coop at night. They are conditioned to go to the old coop at nightfall, and it’s hard to break habits. Two nights ago we got all but 3 hens and Negra, then today it was just Negra (who had to be lured into the coop storage area using a hen).

At least two of the baby guineas are ker-plonking (hens). Whew. We’re still not sure if the white Ameraucana baby is a pullet or a cockerel; it acts kinda cock-ish.

Moving has not affected egg production. We have over 7 dozen in the fridge. Phil better get his ass over here or I’m going to have to distribute them at work.

The first tomatoes came in this week which means we started canning (although we did do a couple of batches of pickles already). This time it was Corn and Tomato Soup; soon we will be doing tomato sauce, salsa, peppers, and other tomato and pepper variations. Our crock pickles were a disaster; probably too many cucumbers and too little brine, so they went moldy. Oh well, maybe next year. Our cucumber vines had some kind of blight so we didn’t get many anyway.

I love how one minute it’s fall and Thanksgiving, next it snows overnight and it’s the Christmas season. Doesn’t hurt to watch ‘A Christmas Story’ after demolishing Thanksgiving dinner, either.

After years of attempting to dry hot peppers by stringing and hanging them in the loft, we decided this year to go with a more reliable method. Lately it’s been staying warmer longer into the fall and thus the heat isn’t on as much, thus making conditions less favorable for drying…which means we’re lucky if half the peppers are in decent shape when it’s time to use them. Either they turn brown, or they mold, or they just look not so nice; especially the habaneros, which are very likely to mold. So we decided to pick up a dehydrator. A piece of advice…if you’re drying a huge batch of habaneros and jalapenos, you might want to put the dehydrator out on the porch or outside, if possible. Fortunately Pee suggested this ahead of time…our porch is now suffused with a powerful mace-like stench. But a few peeks have verified they’re all drying nicely (cut in half, but so far they’re holding their color nicely). I should try fruit leather next and see if it ends up with a peppery flavor; that sounds so good I might throw a jalapeno in the blender with the fruit!

My mom and I have been walking the long trail around our property every morning. Here are some recent views:

Sumac (center property)

Some kind of berry, western property

North of the house, facing west

Hill directly west of ours (Johnson Hill?)

Village of Palmyra

On the way to Wegmans (Hogback Hill Rd. maybe?)

Behind Wegmans, Newark NY

Between the Whata Wash and Walgreens (Newark)

-epe