One Thing Led to Another.......

Ok, so a little task like laundry.....today exploded. It's not that I have a lot of laundry to wash either. Here's what happened:

None of my clothes fit right. Time to change out to winter/fall clothes. New closet door hung over the weekend but closet floor surface finish damaged by drywall dust. Hmmmmm. I will change all my clothes to this closet, sorting them into Goodwill/packed away/or keep out as I move them. Simple right?

I am currently staring at two empty closets, a huge pile of clothing on hangers, and a small quart of floor stain. I started all projects simultaneously. Why? Yeah. I don't know.

The bigger weirdness might be that I stopped to blog about it....

How we Harvest and Freeze our Peppers

It's simple really. That said, note that we didn't know how easy it was and it took us a bit to perfect what is common sense to most people.

Wash them. This seems like a pain, fresh from the garden BUT where we live there is high lead content in the soil. While the soil we grow our vegetables in is imported and amended, our neighbors soil isn't and the dust that blows and settles from that can be really dangerous. So we rinse with water before we eat anything. It is kind of a letdown that we can't pick and eat and graze through the garden......but not as big of a deal as getting lead poisoning.


Cut off the top, then cut the pepper long ways. To de-seed we use a spoon and scrape them hollow. We learned that if the seed flap isn't removed, it turns black in the freezer. It's still ok to eat, but looks icky.


Then we pack in freezer bags, suck the air out, and seal. We try to store in quantities that we will use, but peppers can be used a bit of a time out of the bag. I also discovered that the pepper will shatter when they are frozen. Pounding the bag is much more fun than chopping!

Now, it is also important to note: wear gloves when prepping hot peppers. The oil is really hard to get off and if you wipe your eyes of eat a cracker (stick your fingers in your mouth) or change a baby's diaper....all are in for a not so nice surprise. We have wiped an eye on more than one occasion. Wearing gloves solves this post pepper (unless you continue wearing the gloves the rest of the day and that is just weird...).

What if you forget to wear gloves? We have experimented with several remedies. We have tried baking soda, toothpaste, dish soap, flour, milk, ice water.....The most effective has been to take a big handfull of baking soda, use water to make it into a paste, then vigourously rub that all over your hands, or to wash hands with baby oil. Either way, once your done wash hands with regular soap. The one time I got it in my eyes I just rinsed and rinsed with cold water. Any other suggestions are welcome!

How We Process Tomatoes, Raspberries, and Pumpkin

We cut the tops and the ugly bits off, place in a stock pot (NOT aluminum, the acid in tomatoes will eat through aluminum), mash a bit with a potato masher, and then bring to a boil. Boil at a low flame setting until the tomatoes go all mushy and soft, let cool a bit, but into freezer containers and let cool some more. We then put the containers in the refrigerator when cooled, the freezer. Simple. Note* This is only safe for freezing.

Raspberry jam: 1/1 ratio of fresh raspberries to sugar. Boil down a bit, until jam consistency. Pour into jars. Done. I don't add pectin since the berries have it naturally. It is wicked good and a little scary when boiling- it looks like bubbling, gurgling hot lava. We then refrigerate, but you can pressure can them at this point too.

This year's harvest was affected by the late Spring frost. We didn't get any berries in the Spring and Fall berries are sparse. I am collecting a handful each day, rinsing, and adding to a container in the freezer. I hope by the end of October to have enough to make enough jam for us over the winter, but it is unlikely.

Pumpkin: I used to skin and boil chunks but this year I decided to halve the small sugars, de-seed, and bake. Baking retains more flavor and mineral/vitamin content. When they are soft, I let cool and then scrape out the good goo. I measure out 2 cups per bag, push the air out, seal, and freeze.

I buy my pumpkins for the most part. Despite actively vacuuming off the squash beetles with my shop vac every day, I lost the war. I won't use chemicals so I am dreaming of the summer at the farm when I will use chickens to de-bug my precious pumpkin plants. Pumpkin is my favourite vegetable ever. Pumpkin curry bisque is my favourite food. With crusty sour dough....yum. Pumpkin pie smell is my favourite smell ever and I am currently working on trying to convince through blog comments my favourite soap maker to make her Chai soap (smells the same) into a shea butter body creme, a linen spray, and a super fat soap.

Growed Up

One of my recent favorite blogs to read posted a picture of a Colorado sunset. That made me homesick for something I haven't known for a long time.

Sometimes I get called out on my childhood stories......"I grew up in Eastern Rural Colorado..." or, "I grew up in South Side Chicago....." or, Greeley, CO or Jennings, Sulfur, LA, or Kanankee, IL or Iowa.

All are true. So, where am I from?

All of those places and experiences shaped me in major and heartbreaking ways. Even when we move, I will call Iowa home. We moved to Iowa when I was 16. But sometimes, when I am driving home from the night classes at the rural campus I teach at, I get a pang of homesickness for the vast, yet anything but flat, open spaces of Eastern Colorado. The wide open sky, so little light pollution that you can actually see the stars (even the Milky Way), the clean smell of the wind, and how you can see trouble (both the metaphoric and the tornado kind) coming from miles away- even watch the devastation from a safe, yet beautiful distance. I miss the noise of wildlife and the quiet after a blizzard. The sunsets are so achingly beautiful that I cried at age 14 when I was told I had to go back to Illinois. You see, in that home I was loved, nurtured, and treated like a human being. Forever will the landscape surrounding that farmhouse be tied to who I am.

When I moved to Iowa I was on my way to being on my own. I met Dear Husband shortly after and a couple of years later we married and began a different life together that I had only known in brief encounters and on the ranch in Colorado. We made a home that makes its foundation on respect for each other and fostering our creative lives.

We are about to move again. Not next week or even in the next year, but it is impending and change is coming. We will be faced with the question yet again. We will say Iowa because it is simple and true. Iowa is very much woven into who we are now as a family. We will bring that with us. I will carry all of the places I've been in my heart.

Thank you for the memory.