Getting rid of Fruit Flies quick, easy and green

My daughter found this on YouTube the other day and said it worked great, so I tried it yesterday and she was so right! 

I wish I could give proper credit to the person who posted the video but my daughter doesn't remember who it was. 

Here it is:

In a small jar, such a half-pint canning jar, pour Apple Cider Vinegar to at least half full.
Add 2 drops of liquid dish detergent and fill the jar with water to create suds.

Place near the area of the pests and go away.   I left it overnight.

In the morning the bottom of jar was filled with all the fruit flies that had been pestering me.

Just remember, it must be apple cider vinegar.

How did your tomato crop turn out?

I wondering if anyone else had a lousy tomato crop this summer.... 

Mine started out great but quickly went bad, like many other gardeners around here.  I don't know if it was the crazy weather we had or if they developed something organic like a fungus or blight.

The first tomato that ripened weighed over a pound, and there were many that size.  However, it went bad even before it had a chance to completely ripen.  I did manage to harvest about 15 pounds, but much more than that went bad.  The last basket of tomatoes I harvested wasn't quite ripe but I brought them indoors to finish ripening with some green ones.  Within two days they all went from being beautiful to being rotten overnight (and still half green).

Several people I spoke with around here had a similar issue with their tomatoes, and I am curious if any of you had a bad crop too and your thoughts on what caused it.

We had crazy weather, a cold, wet spring changing overnight to the dog days of August (in June/July) and autumn weather in August.  Right now it feels like October.

I look forward to your feedback.

Happy Gardening!

Where's the chicken?

Well!  Didn't we have a frightful start to our morning today.  Nick went out to let the girls out to roam and when he did role call he counted one missing.  Needless to say the search was on for our girl.  He looked high and low, backyard and front yard, checked the hen house three times before he told me about it.

Having one of the girls go missing was bad enough, but several days ago one of our neighbors lost a couple of his birds to a coyote.  Since we live in a somewhat residential area that was a surprise.  About all we see here are skunks, hawks, and stray cats.

I went out to help look for his favorite little girl and began counting:  3 Easter eggers, 3 RIRs, 3 Black Sex-link, and 3speckled what-ever-they are.  One of the speckled girls is what he believed was MIA.  Counted again, all girls accounted for.  Poor Nick, for some reason he was thinking we had 4 of each breed, we actually have 3 each of 4 breeds.  What a relief!

Two weeks ago we began letting the girls run free in the backyard farm area, but because of the huge hawk that roosts in our huge pine tree hunting food, we stay outside with them to stand guard.  The girls love being out of their run.  They eat bugs and greens all day then have their usual grain meal indoors.  They have been growing so fast, can't wait to start seeing eggs in their laying boxes.

That was our morning, now I am canning baked beans. 

Happy Weekend!

One Pot Pasta with Meat Sauce and Cheese

One Pot Pasta with Meat Sauce and Cheese

This is one of my husband's favorite meals.  With garlic bread and salad on the side, it is tasty and filling.  Don't let the amount of water and thinness of sauce trick you, this ends up being a hearty thick sauce.


 Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 pint home-canned meat/spaghetti sauce
1 pint home-canned stewed tomatoes
1 pint hot water
1/4 cup +/- tomato powder (home-made if possible)
1 Tablespoon parsley
1 tablespoon dehydrated Parmesan cheese (more or less depending on your tastes)
Pasta    2-3 ounces per person uncooked  (I used 7 ounces of Penne this time)
sliced mozzarella cheese for topping

Process:
Combine and heat over low temperature  Tomato Sauce and Stewed Tomatoes, allow to simmer about 15 minutes then add the boiling water and stir well.
[The sauce thickens as the pasta cooks and absorbs the water. ]

Add Tomato Powder and Parmesan Cheese, stir.
Add Pasta, combine well, cover and set on low until the pasta is al dente.
Add Mozzarella slices on top and allow to warm and melt about 15 minutes.

Serve.

Hello everyone! It's been so busy here......

The end of the garden season has been keeping me so busy with cleaning up the garden and yard, and preserving all the fresh food I can lay my hands on.

Absolutely love my Presto pressure canner and Nesco dehydrator.  I have been canning nearly every day and running the Nesco every day.  I have also been testing Linda's Pantry (225sage on YouTube) meal in a pouch/jar recipes on my husband....  they have been passing the taste test and he even requested that I prepare some meals for him for lunch at work.  We have a small slow cooker (1 quart) that we have never used and will be ideal for preparing his lunches at work. 

For the first time in all the years I have canned food I have pressure canned meat!  The first test was a package of breakfast sausage links.  I processed 14 links in a pint jar.   The next day I opened the jar, they looked okay, completely cooked, but we didn't like the texture.  Too soft and mushy.  So I removed them from the jar, drained and patted them dry, then put them in the dehydrator for a while (about an hour +/-).  Perfect!  They dried out just enough to restore the texture and the flavor.

I have dehydrated tomatoes, corn, bell peppers, carrots, celery, green onions, mushrooms, potatoes (not crazy about the potatoes), and zuchinni.  And have purchased freeze-dried chicken and peas, and dried eggs in #10 cans from Honeyville Farms.  Excellent!

I also processed some leftover roast chicken.  There was enough white meat to fill a pint jar.  It processed beautifully!

Along with these two little jars, I processed 4 1/2 pounds of chuck roast cut into large cubes and filled 3 pint jars and one 1 1/2 pint jar.   I added a bit of S&P, and a few herbs which I usually add to my roasts, and added just a bit of boiling water to each jar.  Processed all six jars for 90 minutes at 11 lbs pressure (for my altitude) and let cool for 24 hours afterwards.

Now I am watching the store flyers for sales on meat so I can stock up.

My cupboard is also holding jars of ground beef, stewed tomatoes, spaghetti sauce with meat, green tomato mincemeat and sliced peaches.


In addition to all this, I thought I would test out the mylar bags and oxygen packets for the food in my pantry.  When I can find things at a good price I stock up, just like the rest of you probably do.  Problem is some items tend to get stale before I have a chance to use them, especially boxed cereal.
So I tested the mylar/oxygen packet on a large box of Cheerios.  It took two 1-gallon mylar bags to hold one large box of Cheerios.  No problem.  I separated the box into two 12-ounce bags, inserted the packet and sealed with the Food Saver.  Then I watched and waited expecting to see the bags constrict, but it didn't happen..... not at first.  Next day the oxygen packets had obviously done their job and I had two nicely shaped,  vacuum sealed packages.  Love it.

This is what I have been doing..... I'd love to know what you have been busy doing now that the season is nearly over and how you are preparing for the next season.  :)

Happy Preserving!