Sun dried apples

We went and picked apples with friends a few weeks ago and I am still trying to figure out what to do with the bushel that I picked. I know, a bushel? Without a plan? But they were so delicious and the price was right and we drove out in the country to get them and what if I wanted more and didn't have time to go get more? So, I have made two quarts of  apple juice/cider, which lasted about two days, and have given away some, and I feel too lazy to make applesauce yet. I have been wanting to try drying fruit and thought this would be a great opportunity, but little did I know it would be such a pain to find the stuff to do it! One would think a piece of screen and something to cover it with to keep the flies off would work, but of course the more I read about food drying, the more difficult it appeared! Regular screen isn't good, it has toxins in it, food grade screen is required and is difficult to find, even online. Cheesecloth is good to cover the fruit, but more difficult to find locally than I anticipated. So I ended up using my oven rack to lay the apples on, Renee gave me a lead on a local source for the cheesecloth and I ended up with this:

That is two apples on half of the cheesecloth, I covered them with the other half and set them out in the sun for about four hours. This is what they looked like when I brought them in:

Yesterday, I set them out before I went to work, and of course, it is the only day it has rained in ages, and it poured for an hour before I got home, so I had partially rehydrated apples. I put them in the oven for about half an hour at 170* to dry them out a little so they didn't mold. I hoped that one more day in the sun-without rain- might finish them off. I changed things up a little, I put the apples on cake racks on a black cookie sheet with the cheesecloth over them. That worked like a charm!

At this point they are completely dry, just like you would buy in the store. I didn't add any lemon juice because we don't care if they are brown. If it looks like there are fewer apples rather than just smaller apples, you would be right, we kept sampling at each stage. I need to get more cheesecloth or a piece of muslin so I can do more at a time on the oven rack. We found that laying them directly on the cake rack caused them to pick up a bit of a metallic taste, so I won't do that again. Other than that, I think the experiment went well. I'm going to try again tomorrow!

Let the Hurricane winds blow!

Well, hurricane Irene left us high and dry! While the eastern half of the state was getting several inches of much needed rain, all we received was a lot of wind and a cloudy day. However, the cloudiness was exactly what I needed for my task for the day, planting some fall seedlings. I took off on a reconnaissance  mission at Southern States and I found that they had many of the things that I will be needing in the future, including chicken supplies and seed for clover, along with several other cover crops. They also have several varieties of chicks in late February, so we have a local supplier for chickens at that time. I like the idea of being able to pick several different types all at the same time so they grow up together; I know that at some time I'll have to introduce new chickens to the flock, but I'd like to start off easy. They also had some broccoli and cabbage plants; I bought four cabbages that I hope to turn into some lovely cabbage rolls in November and eight broccoli, because I found out in the spring that four are not enough for us! We really like broccoli. I had to both put water in the planting hole before planting and water again after planting since it is so very dry. Then I did the ultimate twofer; I mulched the plants with a layer of compost, giving the plants both nutrition and moisture conservation. I would post a picture of the plantings, but it looks just like the one I took in the spring, so I'll show you the little friend we found in the frame I was planting:

Our toad friend

 We always have toads in the garden, and I love having them there. They are little insect destroyers. I try to do what I can to attract them because we don't use insecticides and I love the free insect service. We really don't have a big problem with pests of the six legged variety, just the four legged variety. As you can see in the next picture, I have wire around the back of the tomatoes, and over the bed to keep the deer/bunnies/groundhogs out of my food.

Vertical Tomatoes

We are growing four tomatoes vertically in four square feet of soil, whereas if we were growing them in traditional cages or staked they would take sixteen square feet, or the whole square. In retrospect, I need to use either wire or stouter string for the trellis because this one is sagging with the weight of the tomatoes. See the almost ripe Cherokee Purple? The deer got all of the last ones because I let my guard down and left the wire off just before several tomatoes ripened.  In front of them I have recently planted a mix of radishes, turnips, beets, onions and spinach. I haven't seen any spinach yet, it think it might be too hot for the seed to germinate, so maybe it will turn up later when it cools down.

Seedlings

This seedling bed previously had onions, turnips, lettuce and spinach in it. I'm trying to get the most of the long growing season by planting succession crops this year, of course with the drought I'm having to water much more than I want to, I just hope that we will get some rain soon.

Not quite a farm-yet

Several years ago when Dave's dad visited us he christened our little plot the "Farm in the City". We are in the city limits, and it isn't much of a farm yet, but it is a nice size piece of real estate for a city lot, a little over an acre. The neighborhood kind of has a country feel, or used to when we bought the house over ten years ago. There has been some development etc that has caused it to loose some of that feel, but the houses to our right and left and their lots have stayed much the same; mature oaks and hickorys, some grass, and the ever present kudzu.

We have talked off and on about adding to the small garden, hickory trees, two dogs and a cat that we have already, but the only real, permanent things we have done is to plant some blueberry bushes and a grape vine. Granted, they produce, but we could do so much more. And so it begins, our quest to have a real farm in the city. As of now I am ordering apple trees and blackberry canes and preparing the soil in various parts of  the lot for food next spring. Also, for the first time I am going to plant fall crops, I hope to get some broccoli and cabbage tomorrow. Oh yes, and we are going to get chickens. I am currently planning a coop that we hope to build completely, with the possible exception of the hardware, from salvaged and scrap material. So if you have some extra hinges..........

Spring square foot garden-broccoli, lettuce, cabbage

I thought that writing about what is going on might be interesting to someone else who is on the same quest; a bit of independence and good use of our God given resources. OK, so I thought at least my sister and my mom would read what I have to say. And maybe my brother. And if I'm really lucky, my kids, who are probably going to try to ignore the whole thing. So, off to the next thing, hopefully I'll not lose steam and stop writing, I think it is going to be an interesting year.