What's Fall Without Pumpkins?

Headed out to the garden yesterday with three of the four kiddos in tow. I wondered to myself if I missed going to a local pumpkin patch instead of simply skipping out to the garden. Nope, I really like having my own. And next year, I plan it to look more like Charlie Brown's and invite friends over to help pick the many pumpkins. Yes, that will be nice.

365 Photo Challenge...

 Getting back in the habit...365 photo challenge!

...sharing a few favorites from the month of October...

{Dec 2012: although I really enjoyed this photo challenge, I no longer keep my 365 account open}
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For the Love of Canning!

Oh I have fallen in Love...with canning! Its an old love, renewed and grown into something I can trust. No fear, which is something I think many people must overcome when learning to process food.

And to help me on my quest to process our garden (and lets be honest here -whatever else I can get my hands on!) is the book Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry, by Liana Krissoff. I have read/studied many cooking-canning books, but this book is the one that it all finally "clicked" for me. I highly recommend picking it up and giving it a go -you won't regret it! 

Old Farm, Old Pipes...

 We finds ourselves replacing the barn/animal corral water pipes. At least its not the middle of winter.

And Finn is Lance's right hand man...in training!

Food Crafting!

Picking, canning, blanching, freezing, drying, testing, tasting and making notes for future batches. That is what I've been up to. I also squeezed in a bit of sewing with two identical harvest aprons for me and a good friend. We wore them picking apples for our annual apple pressing gathering. It also happened to be my birthday. What a great party!

Gotta Believe in Your Dreams...

If you told me 3 years ago this would be what I saw when I pulled into my drive, I would of told you you were crazy! Oh we imagined it, but could never quite grasp how it would actually come together. But here we are. Believe in your dreams, you never know where they'll take you...