Sweet Autumn Clematis

I have a Sweet Autumn Clematis vine on the fence by our driveway. Every September, I’m amazed when it blooms. It’s a beautiful vine, very vigorous. It covers a good part of the fence and grows almost to the top of the dogwood tree nearby.

I noticed this year that the bees LOVE it as well.


One reason I like this clematis is because it blooms when a lot of other things are fading. It’s a crisp white & green among all the brown in the garden!

What’s blooming in your garden right now? Any great fall blooming plants you’d recommend?

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Fire Roasted Red Peppers

I’ve been reading all kinds of books about canning (as you can see by the “What I’m Reading” section to the right). While reading through, Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal FoodsI found a recipe for roasted red peppers. Instead of roasting the peppers in the oven, I decided to roast them over a fire out back.

There’s just something wonderful about roasting peppers and tomatoes over a fire. It gives them a wonderful smoky flavor that you just can’t beat.

I roasted some jalapeños and some red peppers, both regular red peppers and red pimento peppers. Last year I froze my fire-roasted poblano peppers and we enjoyed them chili and on pizza all winter long.

This year I decided to can them following the recipe from Well-Preserved. One piece of advice if you decide to do this, make sure you allow at least 1 inch of headspace, that she advised in the book isn’t enough. And make sure you only fill the jar 3/4 of the way with peppers, she says “the peppers expand a bit during processing”, but that’s a bit of an understatement, they expand quite a bit!

ROASTED RED PEPPERS
from Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods
4 pounds red peppers (8-10 medium peppers)
1 cup bottled lemon juice (I used organic)
2 cups white wine vinegar (I used organic)
1 cup olive oil
2 medium garlic cloves, sliced (I used small whole homegrown cloves)
1.5 teaspoons salt (I use Real Salt)

Roast peppers in oven or over fire (to roast in oven, place peppers on baking sheet on rack about 7 inches from broiler in oven). Broil peppers, turning them often with tongs so that they blister all over. Let peppers stand in bowl with cover until cool enough to handle. Remove the charred skin, cut in half and remove core, stem and seeds.

Combine lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, garlic and salt in saucepan and heat just to boiling over medium heat.

Have ready 3 scalded pint jars and their bands (to scald dip in boiling water). Simmer lids in small pan of hot water to soften rubber.

Pack peppers into the jars and pour the marinade over them (only fill jars 3/4 of the way full with peppers). Using a butter knife, pop any air bubbled in the jars. See that the garlic is evenly distributed. Be sure to leave 1/2 to 3/4 inch of headspace (I would recommend 3/4), or the seal might fail. Wipe the rims, put on lids, and screw on bands.

Process the peppers in a waterbath canner for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the jars to sit in the water for 5 minutes, then remove to a towel lined counter or cooling rack. Allow to cool, check seals and store in a cool try place for up to 1 year.

I haven’t cracked open a jar of these yet, I’m letting them marinade for a few weeks before I do. I think they sound delicious for sure. I’m considering doing the same thing with eggplant as well.

Any delicious recommendations for how to use roasted red peppers?

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Enjoying the Last of Summer

I realized I haven’t given you an update on Lucy in a while (if you don’t know what happened read about the original injury here and here’s another one a month later). She’s been progressing quite well this summer and is now able to go on 20 minutes walks with us in the evening. We’re going to start adding another short walk in the morning soon. She is only limping a little, and occasionally she even jogs a little bit. Her injury hasn’t stopped her from enjoying the summer, she’s been sunning herself every afternoon and chasing bees whenever she gets a chance, although chasing deer, rabbits and the UPS man is still off-limits.

One of Lucy’s favorite summertime treats; watermelon ends. She gets very excited when she sees me bring one home from the farmer’s market, and as soon as she hears me cut it, she’s by my side in the kitchen waiting for the end. Out to the porch she goes with her watermelon end and you’ve never seen such a cleaned out rind when shes through!

There’s just something about watermelons that say “summer”. I’m truly sad that summer is coming to and end, the chill in the air and the twinge of color on the trees lets me know that it won’t be around much longer. I’ll be sad that watermelon season is over, but I’m also looking forward to fresh bread and soup season!

What foods you associate with each season?

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Weird or Interesting? You Decide

I am one of the new writers over at Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op, head on over there today and check out my post. I wrote about how most of my friends either tell me I’m the weirdest or the most interesting person they know. Why? Because I grow some of my own food, collect rain water, keep bees in my backyard, shop at farmer’s markets, buy raw milk and make everything from scratch (I mean everything, even crackers, oh yeah and maple syrup).

Weird or interesting, what do you think?

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Lightening the Load

This past weekend we had a garage sale with our friends. Since we live in a community with a front gate and restricted access, we had the garage sale at their house in town. There’s nothing like having a garage sale to make you realize how much stuff you really have that you don’t need.

Since we had our basement waterproofed this summer, we carried everything up the attic. Before putting it back down into the basement, we’ve been sorting through stuff and getting rid of all those unnecessary things you accumulate over time.

It’s kind of funny because this is our 3rd garage sale and we’ve gotten a reputation in town for having great stuff. Everything is nicely organized by genre, we have a kitchen table, holiday table, housewares table, electronic section, etc. It’s perhaps the most organized garage sale you’ve ever seen.

Having a garage sale is a great way to remind yourself that you have too much stuff already and don’t need more! I find that it really keeps me from buying things I don’t need throughout the year. We’ve just about exhausted our supply of “stuff” though so I don’t know if we’ll have enough for another garage sale any time soon. Since we’re not buying new things we aren’t accumulating things to sell later.

All-in-all it was a successful sale. I took 3 car loads of stuff to their house and only brought home a few boxes (and those all went to the Goodwill the next day). So my house is much lighter, as is my mind, after getting rid of a lot of things I didn’t need.

What about you, do you have garage/yard sales or do you just like to go to them?

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