So many hobbies!

Silk

All I've been doing the past week or so has been spinning silk hankies.  Lots of silk hankies.  This is the result.  This is a 3-ply yarn that I will finally be able to use to continue knitting my silk shirt.  After 4 ounces of silk hankies, I'm rather tired of spinning them.  I really hope I have enough yarn to finish the shirt.  I look forward to spinning other things.

My girlfriend and I picked blueberries this morning.  The cold front that's been hanging over the midwest meant that it was a cold 50F this morning and we were bundled up in thick sweat jackets with the hoods up.  I managed to pick a single bucket full before the cold of wet feet drove us back into the car and the heater.  Kroger has 5 lbs. boxes of blueberries on sale so I supplemented my picking with some Michigan berries picked by someone else.  Another friend and I have a date on Friday night to make some blueberry jam for her family.  Before then, however, I'll be making some for myself.  Well, to give away as presents this Christmas.

Speaking of jam, I'm also hoping to pick Concord grapes this September to make grape jelly, grape juice and possibly raisins.  Hmm, I may have to take the following Monday off so I can get all the grapes processed and canned.  I have to say, work seriously interferes with my play time.

Well, people, have a good week.  It's time for bed.

Jam!

The strawberries have been picked and the jam has been made.  Blueberries are next.  I got an email today from the place where I pick and the berries should be ready to pick in a couple weeks if the weather stays warm.  I'm thinking of making blueberry jam this year for the first time in several years.  I still need more Christmas gifts.

Does anyone else out there make jam?  If you don't, you should try.  It really isn't hard and the stuff you make yourself is SOOO much better than the crap you buy at the store.  I've been a jam snob since I was a kid.  First Grandma made jam for us, then Mom made it and I've been making it every summer for probably 30 years.  (God, I feel so old!)  So if you've never made jam, try it.  You don't have to pick the fruit yourself.  If you don't have access to U-pick farms, buy some fruit at your local farmer's market or, at the very least, at the grocery store when the fruit is in season.  You'll be amazed at how good you own jam will taste.

What I'm reading

Little House in the Suburbs:  Backyard Farming and Home Skills for Self-sufficient Living

I still haven't given up the idea of having my own house, either in the country or in the 'burbs.  This book holds basic info on gardening, keeping chickens and home skills, like soapmaking.  The writing is entertaining and very approachable.  It gives me ideas of what I want, and frankly, how much land I'm going to need as a bare minimum.  I still want an asparagus bed, a few fruit trees, a couple rhubarb plants, bees, a garden, some blueberry and raspberry bushes... hmm, the suburbs might now have enough land for me now that I think about it.  Oh, I have such dreams...

You would think, after so many Christmases with my dad under the kitchen sink, that I would know not to put too much down the garbage disposal.  Yeah, apparently not.  Thirteen and a half years in my condo and I've plugged the kitchen sink for the first time.  I tried plunging and that only got me soaked, and let me tell you, it was truly disgusting.  Then I tried Liquid Plummer.  Nothing.  And now I can't plunge because the darn stuff in sitting in my sink and I'd rather not burn myself.  <sigh>  I have an appointment with Roto Rooter tomorrow to have my drain snaked.  I really wish I would have watched when Dad did it so all those Christmases ago so I could do it myself now.

It's strawberry season and I'll be picking on Sunday.  We're supposed to have a sunny, warm weekend so the berries should be beautiful.  Sunday afternoon, I'll be making Strawberry jam.  Since it's also rhubarb season, I'm thinking of making Ginger Rhubarb jam, too.  So much jam, so few opportunities to eat it.  I always end up with far more jam than I can possibly eat.  Guess the family and friends will be getting jam for Christmas this year.

Blueberries

Last year, I managed to miss almost the entire blueberry season.  I wasn't able to freeze a darn thing last year.  This year I've already picked twice.  This last time - Saturday - I picked 15.5 pounds of blueberries!  I've already got 6 1.5 quart containers in the freezer and I've still got 7 pounds more to freeze.  I'm not sure if I'll pick this coming Saturday.  It depends on how many quarts I end up with in the freezer.

It doesn't look like there's going to be a peach season this year.  Most of the peaches were lost when our 2 weeks of 80's temps turned to freezing.  From what I've heard, they've also lost about 3/4 of the apple crop.  I was really looking forward to drying apples in my dehydrator this fall.  Here in northern Michigan, they also lost almost all of the cherry crop.  I feel kind of guilty for enjoying the unseasonably warm temperatures we had this past spring.  It made so many of the fruit trees bloom only to have the temps drop and kill the blossoms.  And now we're having an unusually warm summer.  Kind of makes me wonder if we'll have another warm, dry winter or if this winter is going to kick our very cold butts.

On this final day of the Tour de Fleece, I've been plying the singles I spun earlier.  I've been plying from a center-pull ball and made the mistake of leaving it alone while I picked blueberries.  When I came home from picking, the ball was on the floor, much to my dismay.  Upon picking it up, I also noticed that both singles had either been chewed in two or pulled apart.  Personally, I'm thinking it was the first one.  So, I wound what was on the bobbin onto a ballwinder and started plying the rest of the ball.

I leave you with an unusual picture of the kids.  They haven't slept together on the same blanket since they were kittens.  Galen was sleeping on the pillow and Tyr apparently decided that she wanted to have some pillow time, too:

Have a good week people!

Strawberry jam

Believe it or not, this is a double batch of jam.  Picking was terrible at Rowe's this morning but it was my last chance to make strawberry jam this year.  It's been so hot, I couldn't chance not being able to pick at Whittaker's (my usual place) next weekend. I much prefer Whittaker's over Rowe's because they're a small farm family and not at commercial as the other place.  Plus, Rowe's was overgrown with weeds which made picking incredibly frustrating.  Mostly, I just like the Whittaker's better.

I'm starting to gear up for the Tour de Fleece, which starts when the Tour de France starts on the 30th.  On Ravelry, I've joined Team Crankypants, Team Tardis and Team Spindling.  I'll be spinning yarn for future woven scarves and finishing up the second sock I'm spindle spinning.  I'm really pumped about this!

Back online

Finally, after an entire week of being offline, I'm connected again.  I was without computer and TV cable.  Not being able to get online was worse than not having cable.  It was worth it, though, because my condo is rearranged and looks great.  I had to snake the TV cable around the livingroom from one side to the opposite side which meant I needed to buy a 30 ft. cable.  The computer had the same problem.  Snaking the cables isn't pretty but it works. 

This morning, I drove to Ida, Michigan to pick strawberries.  There's a place closer to me but they're far too commercial for my tastes and the place in Ida is family owned and run.  I just like them better.  Happily, it was perfect picking weather:  about 70F with a nice breeze.  The berries were plentiful and it's not even peak season yet:

The weather has been so gorgeous today, I've had the windows open.  This makes the cats very happy:

My sisters and I worked so hard on my condo.  I purged a lot more stuff.  Again.  My sister forced me to give up some of my 17 hobbies that just didn't fit into a small, one-bedroom condo.  I've given up bookbinding, canning in anything larger than a jelly jar (I can't give up making jam) and stained glass.  I need to post the stained glass stuff on Craig's List and hopefully free up more space in the basement.  I'm pretty proud of how the "new" space looks:

I've still got some papers to go through but I've now got a paper shredder so the piles to the left of the picture will be gone soon.  What I'm most happy about, however, are my new Expedit bookcases from IKEA.  I love the clean lines and they give me oodles of new storage space:

The cats are thrilled. 

Three more days

The camping gear has been moved upstairs and waits by the front door.  The car has been cleaned out and the back seat folded down, ready for Wednesday's loading.  I've gone to the grocery store and I've got 2 1/2 quarts of strawberries and 4 apples sliced in drying in my new food dehydrator:

I've wanted one of these for a while.  Besides these store-bought berries, I can't wait to dry the strawberries we'll pick in June and then the blueberries in July, maybe cherries and definitely the apples picked this fall.  These strawberries will be added to three servings of oatmeal for breakfasts next weekend.  This is the second batch in the dehydrator.  The first one had strawberries, apples and pineapple.  I'd love to show you the dried pineapple but it was so good I kind of ate them all.  Next time the pineapple is on sale at the grocery store, I'll be picking up a couple to dry.  Yummy.

The spindle spun yarn is drying and I'll have a picture for you later this week.  I managed to spin the singles on each spindle so closely in length, that when I finished the cop on one spindle, there were only 8 inches of singles left on the second spindle.  I couldn't have gotten it that close if I tried on purpose.  Because they were so close in length and the plying spindle was so heavy, I decided to wind the cop off the third spindle into a center-pull ball and ply it back on itself into a second skein.  The first skein was 2 ounces which is the minimum I need to enter into the skein contest at Maryland.  The Finn I decided not to spin because it's just too dry here and the wool is way too full of static.  It's too hard to spin an even yarn with the wool flying all over the place.  I'll have to wait until it's a lot more humid outside before I try again.

Only three days until we leave.  I've got a short work week but those three work days are going to feel like forever.  Wish me luck.

Oh, and for your viewing pleasure, the kids sleeping on the couch:

More swatches

 

I found my stash of yarn from the sheep breed classes I took a few years ago.  I had completely forgotten I still had them.  Clockwise from the upper left we have Romney, Coopworth and Border Leicester.  These are all long wools which means longer fibers, generally a nice shine and usually coarser than wools such as Merino and Corriedale.  (Click here to see the various breeds and read all about them.  There is a HUGE variety of sheep!)

 

I've been occasionally surprised by how some of the yarns has knitted up.  These, clockwise from the upper left, are Blue-faced Leicester (BFL), Romeldale, Polypay and Texel.  The two on the left are long wools and the two on the right are fine wools.  All of these would make wonderful sweaters.

I'm contemplating making Pumpkin Butter this weekend.  Here's my issue:  I've always made my preserves/canning from fresh picked fruit.  This time, however, I'm considering using canned pumpkin instead.  It just feels like cheating to me to open a can instead of going to the local Farmer's Market and buying a local pie pumpkin, even though taste tests have shown that canned pumpkin is just as good as the fresh made stuff.  I've even got a can in my pantry (my Pumpkin Cranberry bread is to die for!) ready to be used.  So is it cheating if I pop open the can or should I just suck it up and go buy a pumpkin?

Apples

 

Let's hear it for apple orchards... and fresh cider and donuts.  Alice and I picked apples at Erwin Orchards Saturday.  This is our haul.  Half of those apples are mine.  One of those bags is half a bushel.  I don't know about other states, but it seems as though every apple orchard and cider mill in Michigan also makes donuts.  And those donuts seem to be more moist and tender than any bakery donut you could find.  Man those were good!

The fresh picked apples are great, too.  I've already had 4 apples today and the day isn't over yet. 

 

7:30 this morning and I was peeling and coring apples for apple sauce.  See that yellow bowl?  Two of those full of apples was 12 pounds worth.  It took about four hours from start to finish but I ended up with 10 pints of chunky applesauce:

 

Chunky applesauce is my favorite.  I like my food to have texture and smooth applesauce just feels like baby food.  I filled a couple jars too full and they leaked in their hot water bath.  They still sealed but I need to watch them to make sure they stay sealed.  Those three that leaked will be the first ones eaten.  Mmm, yummy chunky cinnamon apple sauce.  I somehow managed to get to the end of summer without freezing any fruit so I'm thrilled to have fresh applesauce to eat during the winter.  My mom has already requested a jar.

There's still a half a bushel of apples left and I can only eat so many.  I'll take any suggestions on what to do with them.  I think I'll freeze a few quart bags to make apple crisp during the winter but that's still only going to cover a few.  So tell me, do you have a favorite recipe that uses apples?  Muffins?  Cake?  Coffee cake?  I'm not so much into pie, partially because it's way more work than I want to do.  I prefer something cakey and crumbly.

 

She helped when I was peeling, too.

Strawberry jam

 

Making jam is one of my favorite summertime activities.  I'm not that thrilled with the facial I get each time but I love to see the filled jars all lined up.

 

Nine jars of Strawberry jam.  I'm going to love cracking one of these open when the snow is flying.  It's summer in a jar.

 

Four jars of Strawberry Balsamic jam.  I'm still on the fence about this one.  The balsamic vinegar adds a dark, smokey flavor to the jam.  It'll be good, I think, on biscuits or rolls but I'm not too sure how it'll go on a PB&J, which is how I eat most of my jam.  Still, I like trying new recipes.  I'm sure I'll find homes all of it.