Canning Catsup and Corn Salsa

Yesterday I canned catsup from my neighbor's tomatoes and did up some corn salsa from corn that we bought at the farmer's market and a few of my neighbor's tomatoes. They grew so many tomatoes that he gives me some all the time. I feel bad taking them, but I appreciate him giving them to us. I've made all kinds of things with them.
 So Catsup. *sigh* Devote a day to making this and don't plan on doing much else for the day.  I feel like I didn't get much done around the house yesterday. And honestly I didn't. The kitchen is a mess even though I tried to clean up the splashes as I went along. (Taking pictures that you know you are going to post online helps with that too.)        

These are some of the tomatoes that I started with from my neighbor.

Chop them up. I quartered them initially. I think I might do  smaller chunks next time and just try only Roma tomatoes or a paste type tomato. 

Here I added the onion to the tomato and let it cook. 

The bowl on the left is the juice that  I drained. I later heated it in a pot and canned it for use later.

This looks awesome, but I cooled it off and put it in the blender to get it homogenized and creamy like store bought catsup. 

Here are all the cans of catsup and the 2 of juice on the right. 

The day after, I still had the canning bug. So, I did up some corn salsa. I had tomatoes still so I added some of them. Keep in mind that adding the vinegar makes it so you can water bath can this one. Otherwise I would have put it in the pressure canner.

Remember, clean, hot sterilized jars are more important than any recipe. 

Here is a picture of it all done. 

Knowing your colors for your wardrobe and your house

When I started project 333 I thought it might be fun to give it a go but I wasn't too serious about it. But, I packed up my clothes and put them in the other room. After trying to make it on just 40 things (I tried to do 33, but I couldn't eliminate that many.) I realized that all those other clothes we're not getting worn anyways. So, I brought them back out and looked through all of them, with a new eye.
Now I did decide to keep a few that were packed away because I do wear them, but most just went into the garage sale box.
I love that I feel lighter and more confident about my wardrobe. Most of the time I just wear a work shirt (flannel or some type of button up or a tee) and jeans when I'm doing things out on the homestead. The other day I butchered a chicken and I didn't want to get blood on my good clothes so I wore a pair of jeans that are too big and a tee shirt that I didn't really care too much about since it was just a cast off white tee from my DH.
I did get blood on both, but it came out.
I need to have a few nice things to wear when I go out on errands, to church or on a date with my DH. (He took me on one last week! We went to the pasta bar and saw Guardians of the Galaxy)

Now, I'm realizing in my wardrobe that I have picked out some pretty good colors for myself.
Understanding your color palate can be a powerful thing.  What if I had went through project 333 wearing colors that didn't look good on me or made me look washed out? Would someone have told me?
I figured out that I am a light summer and I eliminated a lot of my clothes that were really for autumns. They didn't flatter me at all, yet nobody told me. My poor DH can't match clothes to save his life and he always told me I looked fine/good/etc. So I didn't know.
Now I know. Don't do your project 333 without knowing what you should leave there. Read this before you get rid of anything.
I'm all for having only what you need, but lets make sure that we are actually looking our best shall we ladies?
Strangely, this theory can also be applied to your decorating in your house. You will feel more comfortable with certain colors and in certain spaces you will want a certain feeling. Certainly, you wouldn't want red walls in a bedroom when you are trying to relax. Did you know that your blood pressure actually will go up when looking at red? (I'm not sure where I read this, but I remember strange things.)

This is my color palate. I don't do a lot of browns and I try and stay away from black. It's not a great color for me really.

All this being said, I'd like to talk about my summer palate style icons.

Grace Kelly. She is just timelessly beautiful and (ha ha) graceful. Even in pants and a button up shirt she looks confidant and beautiful.

Kate Hudson. She has an edgier style that is modern and at the same time classic. She's Boho Chic and then pulls off romantic looks like this as well.

Reese Witherspoon. I really love the vintage, romantic look that she does most of the time. Even when she goes out, she still does the flats.

Veronica Lake. She exudes confidence and sexiness. It's the hair no?

And Lemon Breeland (she's a character from 'Hart of Dixie') I LOVE yellow too. Absolutely my favorite.

My absolute favorite of her outfits is the lemon shirt and jeans. They look amazing and comfort is a big factor too.


I'm back on the wagon with project 333. I am trying to make sure that everything is something that I love and that looks good on me as well.

Thanks for stopping in!

What nobody tells you about homesteading

Ok, so maybe someone told you, but you didn't believe them. You buy some land, it may or may not have a house on it. You get started, and someone has to work a real job. Unless you saved for years and years or someone left you money. Not likely, but possible I guess. We have one full-time regular(ish?) worker in our household. That of course is my DH. If you know him, you know that he LOVES his job. (If you don't, then now you do.) His job is not what someone who homesteads would think of as a homesteading type job, but I assure you that he is helping to make our area (and the world) a greener and healthier place. I'm not going to go into what he does, this isn't really his blog after all...  BUT. He helps out a LOT!

We have been planning a better rabbit hutch and looked at some online. We found a picture and modified it to meet our needs. We are working on building it now, and I'll do a separate blog about that later. But today, I'm going to introduce you to what he does all the time on The Silver Fox Homestead.

He said this was his best side. I think all his sides are best. But, I digress. That is 1 tree, and he cut some already!

This is another pile we cut down. And I'm sure I could take more and more picture of brush piles all over the yard. But I'll spare you.

Of course, our little helpers are collecting sticks too. But they play with them and then leave them around.

Since it is just about fall and the weather has gotten cooler, we are going to have some bonfires soon. We might even do up some of these natural hotdogs. So, if you plan to homestead you should plan to cut and clear many trees from your land, unless of course you buy property that someone else started homestead on already. I'm sure you will pay more for that too.  We are trying to make room for chickens in the spring and goats next year. After that we are anning for piggies. All of these animals must earn their place to stay. I am a big proponent of culling animals that bite, do not care for their young or if I have too many males. I am a meat eater and it's just a fact of life. I wanted to go deer hunting this year, but I didn't get a weapon yet and the budget doesn't have room for extras like that right now. 

Not to mention that I'm trying to save all my money to plant some fruit and nut trees on the property. 

I've got a crazy notion that I'm going to grow peaches up north and sell them at the farmer's market. Peaches in the store are going for $2 a pound. They are tiny, little, unripe, flavorless things. I aim to do better-much better. There are currently 3 varieties that will grow in my zone and I want to plant them all. 

But in order to do that, I have to make room to plant them. These junk trees need to go. I call them that because they are either dead or dying. Poplar trees don't live very long and then just fall over. And most of the Red Oaks have the oak blight. So, we are moving some White Oak trees, they are less susceptible to the blight.

Well, I better get back to chopping wood and burning my piles before it starts to snow here. 

Thanks for stopping by to see what's happening on the Silver Fox Homestead!

Rabbit-palooza!!

Two weeks ago (has it been that long?) I went to meet the Rabbit Breeder to pick up my selection for rabbits. I have been practicing on the dutch rabbits that I picked up for free. They are not mean, but not too friendly either. The doe is the only one that I really pick up a lot anyways. I ate one of the dutch rabbits so I have 3 left. One doe and 2 bucks of the Dutch Rabbits. We (The dogs and I) had a blast going up. It rained on us headed up and I worried about it raining when we were coming back as I had planned on putting the rabbits in the back of the truck in cages. 


 Krunchee and I were excited to go on a road trip. He tried to sit there (on the console in the middle of the front seats-next to me) the whole way, but it's dangerous if I have to stop suddenly so I didn't let him.  Bingley slept most of the way up.

On the way back it did start to rain, so I figured out how to put the small rabbits together in a doggie carrier I had brought along, and the other cage on the small end so it would fit when I lifted the seats in the back. People at the gas station looked at me funny as I was doing this. Since I was close to Madison I was nearing the city and city people don't tend to keep rabbits or expect anyone to care about their rabbits I guess. Anyways, we all packed in the truck. Thankfully, it's a crew cab so we all fit; Me, 2 dogs and 4 rabbits in a truck, sounds like the beginning of a joke. 

When I got almost back to the house the traffic began to go at a crawl and I was already late getting supper done. My poor DH was all alone with no dinner. Now, he knows how to cook and does a really great pizza and I almost expected him to have a pizza going when I got there. But, he didn't and he waited for me to get there. *huh...*

He told me that he had KFC from lunch and I was bringing him my extra taco from my lunch. So...

Krunchee and Bingley slept soundly most of the way back, but they played extra hard when we got back to the house. He's getting so big now. 

Rainy and traffic? What could be worse?

I Couldn't resist posting one more of my sweet Krunchee sleeping soundly in my lap. He was worn out after playing in the back seat with Bingley most of the way up. 

Now to meet the new additions to my rabbitry. 

 This is my new Silver Fox jr doe. She's still young, but in time she will bring forth many little ones for us. 

These are my new bucks. The one on the right is a blue and the one on the left is black. They will be very happy here once they get used to it I suppose. Traveling is stressful for rabbits. 

This is my Sr doe-Mel. She is a blue and black carrier and I was told she has never had less than 6 babies. I'm excited to see if the breeding that she had back at the old rabbitry took. We will see in a month or so. *fingers crossed* 

We made it back. Really late, but we made it. When I went to feed my dutch rabbits I found a surprise. Granted I was expecting it this weekend, but it was EARLY. 

 She had 7 total and 4 are black and 3 are blue. I'm thinking I might see if I can sell them. I decided that the dutch just don't taste as good as actual meat rabbits. On the other hand, if they don't sell by the time they are 12 weeks...they will end up in my freezer.

*update* The babies are having a hard time making it. I have 3 left alive-2 blue and 1 black. So, the first kindle is not going too well. I am planning to sell one, I'm thinking the rest will be eaten. It's only 2 for the freezer.

Canning Relish

Last week I was super busy and I made a lot of things. I'm pretty sure this was done on Saturday, but my memory needs an upgrade. HA HA! No, seriously...
Sweet Relish was surprisingly easy.  I cut up all the onions, bell peppers, and cucumbers and added the pickling salt (1/4 Cup for a single batch) to the, stirred it up and let them sit for 2 hours. The cutting up of all the veggies was the longest and tiring part. The rest was easy and pretty simple. I also made a double batch because I wanted to get a few pints to my awesome neighbors who give us produce all the time. Plus they had us over for a beer and gave us pickles.
A single batch is 6 medium cucumbers(6 Cups  chopped) 3 bell peppers (3 Cups chopped) and 6 medium onions (3 Cups chopped.)

Of course you want to start with clean, sterilized, hot jars. This is my pressure canner that my DH got me for Christmas a few years ago. (Before he was my husband even!) I use it as my water bath canner too. :) 

After the soaking period, I rinsed all the salt off the mixture and made the pickling mixture. 

For a single batch it is:

3 Cups Sugar

2 Cups ACV (see my endorsement below)

2.5 tsps celery seed

2.5 tsps mustard seed

0.5 tsps tumeric

Bring this to a boil and then add the rinsed veggie mix and bring to a boil again. Let cook until it is the desired consistency. I made mine a little runnier than I wanted it and next time I think I'll let it cook longer and start the relish before I get the jars going. 

When you are ready ladle hot relish into clean hot jars. Wipe rims, adjust lids, boiling water canner process for 10 minutes. I let mine go double time since I did pints and the recipe called for half-pints. Just to be sure. I always like to leave it in longer to make sure to kill everything in the jar rather than risk my families health. Plus, if it cooks a little more what does it really matter right? I doubled the recipe, but I didn't have a large enough pot so I cooked them separately until I had boiled out enough of the juice to put them together. It turned out pretty well this way. Although I think I'll make just a single batch of it next time. This makes 7 half-pints, but I doubled it and made 7 pints-2 of which went to my neighbor. 

So, sweet relish is done and I'm going to try my hand at catsup so I can use up these tomatoes on my counter. 

This is the kind of ACV that I like. It is good and good for you. I try to use it in everything that I make. Until I start making my own I suppose. But, my apple trees are not producing quite yet. Maybe a few more years before they are producing, so until then. This is my endorsement for ACV. I even drink it when I feel sick. Better than gatorade and less sugar too.  Although it was MUCH cheaper down south. I think the cost to truck it up here is the biggest hiccup. When I find a good health food store I'll buy it by the gallon and save a little bit. 

This is the finished product. It looks so pretty in the jars. I would be ok giving this as gifts for people who liked it on their hot dogs or something. Maybe a thought for next year??


And surprise...my DH made bread for me! He is really good at it. Actually better than I am, and he made honey wheat! YUMMY.  It's good straight out of the oven or warm with butter, toasted with jam or as a sandwich. I think we will make our own from now on. Easy and better for us plus no preservatives. That really is my favorite part. I hate the thought of putting that junk into my body.

He wants me to add that the recipe can be found here.

Thanks for canning with me (again!)

-Dinie