Cabezas de Ajo

While the girls and I were enjoying the fair and the heat of the Yakima Valley, Andy was having fun harvesting our garlic and braiding them together. Andy loves braided garlic. He's funny like that. ;) 

TRY IT! 

To peel garlic, either cloves or heads, put them in a jar, replace the lid, and shake it! It takes a minute or two, but it works! 

This little piggy stayed home. ❤️

I caught these two (at the Yakima Valley Jr. Fair) in an embrace while resting and trying to cool off in this blasted heat. They went to market today, but hopefully they sold as a pair. Come on, who can resist a cuddly pair of piggies?!  

Sowing the seeds...

Meet our fall harvest. 

Crockett's Kraut

We harvested two VERY large heads of cabbage this week and Andy (Andy Crockett King of the Urban Frontier) requested it be made into sauerkraut.  He also insisted HE make it!  I made sure to have the ingredients at home ready to go including: easy to find juniper berries, hard to find pickling salt, and five pounds of homegrown cabbage. The pickling has begun! This recipe should yield about seven pints. Did I hear you say something about a Reuben sandwich?!! 

Cat Nap

Looks like the same ol' Tina, but she is beginning to mouse like the cat she was born to be!  

She started mousing last night.  I'm sure she's done it before, but I finally witnessed her doing it.  

 

Living in the city there is an increased number of rodents in our area and having a farm with smells, spilled feed, and decomposing food scraps, we attract a few extra as well.  Last night, I caught a mouse sneaking through the barnyard, so I grabbed Tina--PHYSICALLY PICKED HER UP--and dropped her out the back door.  I ran to my bedroom window and called her over.  (Luckily, she listens to me.)  I removed the screen and pointed to the barnyard.  She sat in the middle of the yard and looked.  I kept staring until she noticed the movement on the ground.  Tina went into total lioness mode!  She stalked it, pounced on it, and although I couldn't tell if she actually killed it, it was such a relief to see her out there mousing like a REAL farm cat! 

This evening, she willingly walked outside, I called her, and she sat until she saw something move.  

It has begun.

Rabbits are HILARIOUS.

This picture is too much. It even made Andy chuckle when I showed him. Hahahahahaha

Silly rabbits...

Thievin'

I couldn't just let those plums fall off the neighbors tree this year. No way! I sent Andy up onto the roof of the barn to pick what was ripe and then I made him promise to go up again to get the rest in a week or so. :) 

I didn't think we had as much as we ended up with (which was 12 pints and 3 quarts!). They leaked and floated to the top, but after troubleshooting and calling mom-in-law, Robin, they sealed and should be safe to eat and save. The floating is more than likely caused by me not heating the fruit before adding it to the jars, and the leaking is because I overfilled the jars with syrup. Matilde enjoyed licking syrupy fingers and gave me a smile of approval. Andy is now trying to figure out where we will store the jars.