The County Fair & Camping & Everything Else

Wow. Over a month since a post. You know it's summer!

Here's what we've been up to........

 Layton and his ribbons from fair.

 Miss Timber Ann and hers.

 Our county fair was the first weekend in August and we entered a number of things. Our most exciting entries though were our chickens! Both Layton and I entered hens this year in the fair and Layton also entered our drake Magpie. We had a great time. As with every fair, there were things that we entered that we were sure would be first place winners.......which got nothing! and then things that we didn't even expect to be noticed that won first! Each year is a surprise!

We've also been camping.

 Picking blackberries from a small patch in the field.

 Cooking hot dogs for our second nights meal. The first night we were treated to....

TROUT! Caught by the world's best 5 year old fisherman! (And yes, the barefoot 2 year old is flailing a hatchet. Thankfully it's rather dull.)

Watching Daddy gut the fish and then cooking it. After it was cooked and we divied it up, I asked Layton if he wanted any. He looked at me and said, "No Mom, I caught that for my family to eat." His heart just melted mine. What a sweetheart.

We spent 4 wonderful days in the back woods and loved every minute of it. Well, except nap time in the tent when it was 90 degrees outside. Thankfully our tent was mostly shaded. And the creek was less than a 1 minute walk from camp.

I took a survey of all the trees there and found that most of them were very straight. I mentioned that to my husband and told him that we could probably easily build a cabin with what was available there. While he liked the idea, the hour and a half drive to work everyday turned him off slightly.

The garden is finally producing. We're eating peas and green beans and broccoli along with some strawberries and spinach. The hoop house is like a jungle and we've been getting lots of cherry tomatoes and a few plum size ones too. I have a huge Brandywine in there that I am waiting on so very patiently. I can't wait till it's red! The Delicata squash is also looking great. I can already taste the buttery nuttiness of it paired with some wild rice this fall.

And speaking of fall........are we already almost there?! Hunting season starts this month. Archery begins this weekend and rifle starts next month. Here's hoping we'll have some venison to butcher too!

 Last but certainly not least, Wyatt and his BMX bike. He's 14. Have you had a teenager? O.k., then you know what it's like. He specifically asked me if I could post these pictures on my blog. He also wanted to know if I could upload videos. I think he may be thinking of hijacking it and turning it into a blog all about BMX.

 Ya gotta love that kid!

I hope that your summer has been wonderful!

Canning 101: Tomato Puree

What is a gal to do with all the tomatoes in her garden? If you're like me, you just eat them because you hardly get enough to eat fresh thanks to your short, cool growing season. But if you're like most of the other people in the USA, you can them!
Come on, most people can't eat 300lbs of tomatoes fresh anyway. I get mine from a farmer that drives over from the heat area (just about 30 minutes away) and attends our farmers market.

Tomato puree is quick (I mean quick!) and easy and can be used for so many things.

Take your fresh, washed tomatoes, put them in your blender and blend to a nice smooth puree. Yep, we're throwing the tomatoes in whole here- less the stem of course. No blanching, no peeling, nuthin'.

Once you've pureed your tomatoes you're going to want to pour them all into your stock pot and heat to a simmer. Here's the point where you decide how thick or thin you want your puree. Bringing it to a simmer for a few minutes will keep it thin, heating it for a longer period (depending on how juicy your tomatoes were) will reduce it to a thicker puree.
Pour your puree into warm jars, place your lid and band and water bath for 45 minutes. It's that simple!

You can use your puree as a base for tomato soup, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, or anything else. We eat a lot of "red soup," as my kids call it, in the winter so this is a quick yummy way to make it for them.

If you're looking for a few more things to do with tomatoes, here are a couple recipes:

BBQ Sauce

8c pureed seeded peeled plum tomatoes

1c pureed seeded green bell peppers

1 c pureed onions

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 Tb mustard seeds, crushed

1/2 Tb celery salt

1 dried chili pepper, seeded and crushed

3/4 c molasses

3/4 c malt vinegar

1/3 c Worcestershire sauce

2 Tb chili powder

2 tsp pepper

To a large stock pot, add half of the tomato puree. Bring to a roaring boil. While maintaining the boil, add remaining puree. Cook over high heat, stirring frequently, until reduced by half, about 1 hr. Add green pepper, onions, garlic, mustard and celery seeds and chili peppers. Return to a boil and cook apx 10 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients and heat back to medium boil. Stir frequently and cook until desired consistency. For general BBQ sauce consistency, about 45 minutes.

Ladle into hot pint jars leaving 1/2" head space. Place lid and band on jar. Process in hot water bath canner for 20 minutes.

Honeyed Yellow Tomato Butter

5lbs yellow tomatoes, cored and quartered

1 1" piece peeled ginger root

1 Tb whole allspice

2 cinnamon sticks, broken into pieces

2 c sugar

1 c honey

In stock pot crush tomatoes with potato masher. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and boil gently until tomatoes are soft, 20-30 minutes.

Press tomatoes though a food mill or sieve. Discard skin and seeds. Measure 8c of tomato pulp.

Meanwhile, tie ginger root, allspice and cinnamon sticks into cheesecloth, creating a spice bag.

In another pot combine tomato puree, sugar, honey and spice bag. Stir until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring frequently. Cook until mixture thickens and mounds on a spoon. Discard spice bag.

Ladle butter into 1/2 pint jars, leaving 1/4" head space. Place lid and band on jars. Process in a hot water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Fair 2010

Our family loves the fair! The rides, the exhibits, the rodeo, the animals, the games and yes, even the food. Fair time is the one time a year where we let our standards on eating slip slightly.... o.k., ridiculously. Here are some shots from our fair time fun!
First, here is Layton's calendar. For about 3 weeks before he kept asking, "When is the fair coming???" We resolved that 5x/day question with a "countdown calendar." Each day he got to put a sticker on the calendar. He could then count the days remaining until fair. When it was full of stickers- we were off!

This is Wyatt's Lego entry in the fair.

Here is Layton's.

Both the boys won first place in their division but Layton was the only one who would pose for me in front of his!

Mmmmmmmm, cotton candy.

My good friend's two daughters both showed their pigs in the fair this year.

Wyatt and Layton on the big slide.

Layton driving his truck.

Timber lasted for all of 15 seconds once this ride started. The kind gentleman that was supervising stopped the ride so she could get off. She looks thrilled, doesn't she?

Mason was an angel the whole time, hanging out in the Ergo on my back.

I entered a couple of baked goods this year and took home 2 second place ribbons and 1 third. I keep all of my fair ribbons in a drawer. It's fun to go back and look at all of them, what they were for and when they were from.

Do you and your family enjoy the fair? Did you enter anything in your local or state fair this year? I'd love to hear about it!

Family Fun

Apparently 4 gallons of blueberries is just not enough for our family. We headed back up to the blueberry farm today to pick more. This time, I remembered my memory card!The farm has 350 blueberry bushes and 7 different varieties of blueberries.
Wyatt was pretty impressed with the size of some of them!
Here's Mason, trying to be a good sport on my back while I pick. He was pretty good at picking, too bad it was the leaves off the bushes.

Last weekend we got to spend some time at the river soaking up some sun. Wyatt was still at camp so he didn't get to join us but we still had a great time!

Gavin carved out a little pool near the shore line for the kids to play in.

Throwing rocks in the water is always good for a couple of hours of fun with our kids!

What do you do for fun with your family in the summer?

Blueberries

We went to the local blueberry farm today and I actually remembered my camera! The only problem was that as soon as I got my camera out to snap the shots I realized that my memory card was missing!!! Doh!! That was disappointing. Oh well. We got the blueberries and that's what counts. We picked 4 gallons in just over an hour. Timber ate most of the ones she picked but both Wyatt and Layton picked 1 gal each. The whole time Layton kept saying things like, "We're working!" and "This is fun!" and "I'm only picking the blue ones mommy!" I was amazed at how well he did (as good as my 12 year old!) I was so proud of his dedication and hard work.

My friend Ida asked me, "What are you going to do with all of those blueberries?"

Hum, good question. That thought hadn't crossed my mind. I guess I could make a cobbler, or I could can a bunch of them, or freeze them. What do you do with blueberries? Any super good recipes you'd like to share? What about blueberry syrup? Now that sounds yummy!

buying local

When you live where we do it's not always easy to buy local. Our local area doesn't support a whole lot and once you go beyond our area, you're driving at least an hour and a half to anywhere else. So I started thinking about the things I buy in respect to food. Where is it all coming from? I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the things in our home actually come from either California, Oregon or Washington!

Brown Cow- Antioch, CA
Nature's Path- Blaine, WA
Annie's Naturals- Napa, CA
Muir Glen Organics- Sedro-Wolley, WA
Pacific Natural Foods- Tualatin, OR
Kettle Chips- Salem, OR
Lundberg- Richvale, CA

Our meats come from local farmers or farmers in Eureka, CA. Our milk comes from Organic Pastures dairy in Fresno, CA and a local dairy in the next town over. Our eggs are our own. Our grains come from Azure farm in Dufur, OR. Our cheese and butter, from the local cheese factory.

So while not everything comes from right here in our little part of the country, I'm glad to know that at least they're in our broader local area!

Where does your food come from?