Knees Things I Want to Talk About.

My new knees were ten weeks old on Monday, but after the workout they got during Friday's physical therapy session and the swelling and pain I felt all weekend, I would have pegged them as only 6 or 7 weeks of age.

A lot of the pain and suffering was a result of me being lax vis-a-vis my exercise habits while off to Portland for 5 days. Yeah, I did some stretching and spent time on the stationary bike at the hotel, but it obviously was not enough.

This morning I had a session in the therapist's pool and things went pretty well. There's still some pain going up and down stairs even with the water providing some support, but walking on the submerged treadmill--mush of the rest of the workout--was relatively painless.

I'll be back on dry land for Friday's PT bu this time I will have two days of long exercise sessions done at home to support me. Hopefully I'll see some progress, I'm told insurance will only cover PT through the 16th (approximately three months).

******

The leaves around the Northern Tier are really starting to turn. There's lots of purples, reds and oranges showing up. The bright yellow of aspen and maple haven't really "popped" yet with the exception of a few trees here and there. If the weather continues nice, I may have to go back out to Leonard Harrison SP at the Grand Canyon to snap a few pictures.

The forecast is for clear skies the next few days and highs approaching 80 degrees by the weekend so, if you're a leaf peeper, this might be a good time to hit the road--or, if you're lucky enough to live in the midst of the fall bounty, take a long look around. I figure you've got about two weeks max.

******

Terry and I went out passed Wellsboro yesterday to a produce stand on Rt. 287 to pick up some Cortland apples. Bruce and Sue had brought about a peck of Cortlands with them when they visited a few weeks ago and apples were available at the farmers' market in Mansfield last weekend. We didn't do anything with Bruce and Sue's supply until to day when Terry baked an apple pie with a few of them. The apples at the farmers' market were a tad pricey for me but Pagomar's had the Cortlands for $17 a bushel. I'll turn them into apple sauce within the next day or two. Should produce at least 24 pints for storage.

We also took inventory of our canned goods. Plenty of relish, garlic dill pickles, regular dill pickles, peaches, strawberry jam, blueberry jam as well as some grape jelly still on the shelves alongside the quarts of tomato sauce. Since some of the pickles and jams are several years old, I'm hoping they aged well. I KNOW they will be eaten now that we're more aware of their presence.

******

I hear there's a government "shutdown" going on. From the list of agencies and personnel furloughed, all I can say is, "Good! Change the locks while they're away." And while they're at it, there's plenty more under the heading of "Czar" that could probably be slashed--permanently.

I also hear that today was the first day to sign up at the exchanges for Obomacare. Many of the websites designed for that have crashed. Talk about not ready for prime time! Whether because so many people are trying to sign up or are curious about whether they have to sign up; or because the sites were poorly designed, a crash is indicative of the whole ACA. From "We have to pass it to find out what's in it," to the myriad of broken promises ("If you like your healthcare, you'll get to keep your healthcare." "This is going to lower the cost of healthcare in America."), to the number of exemptions granted--illegally--by the administration, this whole thing has been one major screw-up.

More Food Stuff.

Terry spent the better part of Thursday doing some cooking.

First there were the ribs we had for dinner (with plenty left over for supper), then there were the stuffed cabbage (she cooked up five meals which now sit in the freezer), and finally she did some bread & butter pickles (five jars went on the shelf while the one that didn't seal went in the fridge).

Me? I cleaned the jars and supervised. And ate ribs. And they were good!

From the Garden(s)

Having amassed numerous zucchini and cucumbers from our garden and Joe's, Terry went into cooking mode today.

First she baked up seven loaves of zucchini bread which will now be heading to the bowls of the freezer. Then she made up a double batch of sweet pickle relish. That gets canned in one cup jars and is in the process of being boiled as I type. We should get around a dozen jars to go on the shelf.

There are still plenty of cucumbers to deal with (thanks Joe!) and they will be turned into bread-and-butter pickles.

Meanwhile, the zucchini and cucumbers are still producing as are string beans. The onions are about ready to harvest and the beets will come out of the ground in a couple of days. There are a couple of green bell peppers that need to be taken off the plants before they weigh the poor things down. And tomatoes...if all those that set turn ripe we're going to be up to our whazzoo in cherry tomatoes, Early Girls and whatever the third variety is. Now that the ground hog has been hustled off to the pearly gates (or the fires of Hell, whichever) the tomatoes are doing just fine. And the lettuce is producing again, too.

Then there's the head of cabbage Joe gave us. That will be turned into stuffed cabbage and some will be eaten while the bulk will get frozen.

The eggplant were delicious, BTW. One got chopped up with onions, peppers, sausage, a little mozzarella cheese and a bit of tomato sauce. That was served on a bed of rice. One got sliced thin, breaded and fried. Add some tomato sauce and mozzarella on a bun and we got two meals out of it and a couple of slices got eaten along the way.

Aerie Report, September 11, 2011

I spent the day in reflection...as many of you, no doubt.

And, yeah. I remember. And I'm still mad as hell.

******

When not thinking about the changes that have happened since 9/11, I spent time doing the normal things in life: watching football, surfing the net, canning tomato sauce...that sort of thing.

******

With all the stress on security at airports, one has to wonder why we still have a porous southern border and why ICE is kept on such a short leash with respect to illegal aliens.

******

Today, we had a few showers but nothing terrible and that is a relief. Temperature was in the mid 70s this afternoon after starting out in the high 50s this morning. More of the same is forecast for Monday.

******

I've got to get the grass cut again. IF it dries out and IF I can walk that much. I've also got to stack the firewood I split months ago. It needs to dry out.

******

I got seven quarts of tomato sauce out of the box of tomatoes Terry and I picked up the other day. Since we got 14 quarts out of two boxes two weeks ago, that yield is exactly what I expected. There's just enough left over to make tomorrow's dinner: sausage and peppers.

Tomorrow I tackle the box of peaches. Slices in pint jars with 60% syrup to cover. I should get 14 to 16 pints out of the one box.

******

My thoughts are with our friend Bruce up in Massachusetts. he's going under the knife tomorrow for prostate cancer. The doctors believe they caught it very early and that surgery to remove the bad boy C-cells should be about all that's needed.

******

I'm looking forward to my surgery on Thursday. This calcified lump needs to be gone so I'll get back to normal muscle action in the right thigh. Once that's done, I'll be better able to analyze the sharp pains I'm getting just below the knee. The MRI may have shown no tears, but it sure feels like one.

******

Knee problems (and lack of any photos of deer) may force my hand vis-a-vis the New York hunting season. I'm inclined to save my $300 bucks and shrug off this year up north. I still have to get up there to drain the water system, however. (Mark says that everything is A-OK. Irene and Lee have caused some erosion on the road beyond camp, but one of the folks up there has been spreading a couple of truck loads of crushed stone in the washouts.)

******

Rutgers football got robbed when the replay officials apparently didn't look at the TWO goal line plays where the the Scarlet Knights scored but were ruled out of the end zone. Coach Schiano should have called for a review even if it cost a TO. And an on-field official missed a blatant pass interference at the end of the game that cost a chance at a field goal. (North Carolina won 24-22.)

The RU defense gave up two long touchdown plays of over 60 yards (one pass and one run), but had 5 takeaways.

The Giants just stunk up the place as they lost to the Redskins today.

The Jets aren't looking that great, either. (Currently 17-7 midway in the third quarter.)

Mmm, mmm, Good!

Fourteen quarts of tomato sauce

Fourteen quarts of tomato sauce ready for the pantry. And another going into the making of sausage and peppers as I type. Not bad from a bushel of beefsteak tomatoes. I probably would have gotten more if these had been Romas, but you can only can what they have at the stand and I've not seen any Romas for sale.

Tomatoes

With cool temperatures (under 65 degrees) and a stiff breeze blowing all day, it was a perfect day to be messing with lots of hot stuff on the stove. So this afternoon I reduced the bushel of tomatoes Terry brought home the other day to about 20-22 quarts of pureed tomato this afternoon. Two pots of that are currently simmering on the stove being reduced to a thickness Terry feels will be best for spaghetti sauce at some time in the future. A third pot is awaiting its turn on the low heat.

We're hoping to get at least a dozen quart jars canned and on the shelf tomorrow.

While I was stripping...

...Terry was in the kitchen putting up some dill relish from the cucumbers we have harvested. The slicing, chopping and dicing went well and the product of her labors looks yummy. It could have used a little color from yellow and red peppers but we didn't have any on hand. As a result, we have a completely green product.

Cup Jars of Dill Relish

Terry packaged these in cup jars and then sealed them in the boiling water manner. THAT took its toll. Boiling water for 10 minutes in (at that time) 94 degree heat (outside temp, 86 degrees inside)! No wonder early settlers opted for a separate summer kitchen. As the photo shows, she sealed seven jars and the leftovers are in an eighth jar in the fridge for immediate use.

Grass, rain, berries and bread-and-butter pickles

It only got down to around 67 degrees overnight, partly because the clouds moved in to serve as a blanket. It was completely overcast this morning and threatening to start raining at any moment instead of the late afternoon that was forecast last evening. Sure enough, when I checked the radar on weather.com there was a massive rain system located to the southwest down by State College and heading our way. Based on the speed of leading edge of the system I saw there I estimated the rain to start around noon. Time to cut the grass!

Terry went off to Curves (aka The Gossip Center) and to get the mail at 8 AM while I cranked up the mower. An hour and a half later I was just finishing up when she drove back in the driveway.

A quick check of the mail and a cold drink and I was back out with my collecting bucket to gather raspberries and a few lingering blueberries and early blackberries from the hillside. I got about a pint total. Enough for a few days of cereal, pancake or ice cream topping if used sparingly.

While I was out picking berries, Terry started to make some bread-and-butter pickles from the cucumbers we had gathered over the last few days. She had 15 of the cukes on hand, a fact that surprised even her since we had eaten several in a yogurt and dill salad on Monday and Tuesday.

I got back into the house around 11 AM just as the rain picked up. (It had started drizzling a wee bit as I started out to pick around 10 AM.) I seriously think the 80 degree temperature forecast last evening will be a mere dream as the temperature topped out at 71 at 10:30 AM--just as the rains came.

So far, and it's now 2 PM, it's been a gentle, soaking rain that should do the garden and lawn good without washing out the newly raked and packed dirt road on which we live.

Well, the cuke and onion slices have soaked long enough. Time to process them into pint jars and seal the pickles up to age a bit.

Later.

Jam, Jam, Jam...The end...for now.

Checked the fluidity (is that a real word?) of the jam this morning and found it about the same as the blue and lack berry stuff I made last year. Not perfect but serviceable. It'll do.

To sum up. Over the last few days I managed to turn this:

Eight quarts of nice ripe strawberries.

into this:

Seventeen Pints of Strawberry Jam (plus one in the fridge)

I told Terry to keep her eyes open for good fresh strawberries when she goes to WallyWorld or stops at one of the roadside stands she passes. (I got mine out at Pagomar west of Wellsboro.) I'd still like to freeze some slices and, perhaps, try a small batch of jelly.

Strawberry Jam progress: the outcome

Okay, I chickened out and added some pectin to the mix of strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice as I was boiling it for the final time. It just didn't seem thick enough to me to gel properly.

Even after that, the final product is somewhat runnier than normal jam. Perhaps it will thicken over night as it cools further. But then again, maybe not. Searching for a reason that all my jams do not gel the way they are supposed to, I poured over the directions in both books and those that came with the pectin. (Okay, TERRY reread all the directions. I'm a guy. We don't do directions. 'Kay?) In fine print off to one corner, Terry found this note: "Doubling of recipes may cause your jam/jelly not to gel properly." Of course I was doing far more than doubling the recipe which calls for just four cups of chopped berries, I had 28 cups for crying out loud! Doing this 7 times would have really, really stretched out the time needed, ya know?

Oh, and I didn't get the 24 pints I was expecting either. Far more liquid evaporated during the cooking process and sitting for 24 hours than I though might. I only ended up with 18 pints. Only one didn't seal properly even after a second run through the water bath. That one is in the fridge already. The other 17 will be heading into storage in the basement for future use on pancakes, waffles, toast, ice cream....

Answers about Strawberry Jam

I want to answer a couple of comments from my earlier post Strawberry Jam progress here, where everyone is able to see my answers since some folks don't read the comment sections and I think the answers are worthy of a separate post.

Shellmo,

I'm trying a recipe that doesn't use the packaged pectin. (Although I may chicken out at the last minute and through a couple of packets in the pot so as to be sure it does actually gel.)

Actually, I'm using two recipes and fudging a bit toward the middle. The cook books they came from are:
Preserving the Fruits of the Earth by Stanley Schuker and Elizabeth Meriwether Schuler and
The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard. They differed in the amount of sugar to add so I sorta split the difference.

Neither has any recipes for making doggie snacks, however, so Scout is likely to be disappointed.

Threecollie,

Whether I'm at the Aerie in PA or up at the Bolt Hole in the southwest Adirondacks, we seem to share very similar weather with your North View Dairy in the Mohawk Valley. The weather quacks say we may actually get a break in the weather--during the day--otherwise, we've got the same rains here in the Northern Tier of PA. Not enough of a break to do any haying, I'm sure, but any sunshine would be appreciated.

After eating every strawberry that came my way last spring either in strawberry pie, strawberry shortcake, sliced strawberries on cereal or over vanilla ice cream, etc., I decided to make jam this year.

I made apple sauce, blackberry jam, blueberry jam, and tomato sauce last fall. Some went out as special gifts for Christmas and some got happily eaten here. I've a little left--just enough to get me through to fall. Oh, plus we're finally finishing up the zucchini and pumpkin breads that were in the freezer. Of course, if it warms up for a week or two, the zukes will be producing by the middle of July so it will be back to baking breads, grilling zucchini, boiling zucchini, zucchini salad, etc.

The jars are washed and ready to be sterilized. I had to discard five of my original thirty. They were saved from commercial jars of spaghetti sauce and looked usable until I noticed the lip of the jar was too tall and the darn rings wouldn't bite into the threads. That still leaves me with 25 pint jars which should be enough.

I'll have to put the big water bath kettle on the stove when we sit down to dinner. It will take a loooong time for the propane to heat up and bring to a boil the two gallons or so of water. About 7 PM I'll be heating up the jam mix one final time before it goes into the jars. Which then go into the water bath a final ten minutes finish cooking, sterilize and to seal. It's going to be a busy evening but at least working over the stove will mean warmth.


UPDATE: Friday morning and I discover I read the weather forecast incorrectly. The Aerie will, indeed, get the same sloppy, rainy, foggy, thunderstorm laden atmospheric conditions as the Northview Dairy. Yeeech!

Strawberry Jam progress

It took me an hour to hull and quarter the 8 quarts of strawberries yesterday morning. Actually quite a few had to be cut into eighths they were so large. Happily I only had to discard two or three damaged or over ripe berries from the entire flat.

I ended up with 28 cups of strawberry chunks to which I added 21 cups (almost 10 pounds!) of sugar. That mix sat for the balance of the day with me stirring it occasionally to get the sugar all dissolved. It's really amazing how much liquid that sugar pulled out of the berries!

After dinner, I brought the mix to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly to assure it didn't burn on the bottom of the pot. Then I added one and three-quarter cups of lemon juice and brought the mix to a boil again over high heat for five minutes. This required lots of rapid stirring and a little scooping to keep the foam that was being produced from overflowing the pot like Mt. Etna.

When five minutes was up, I removed the mix from the heat and it has been sitting and will continue to sit until after dinner tonight. Then I will heat it again and bring it to a boil before ladling it into pint jars and put them through a water bath. I've got 30 pint jars that I'll be washing for the canning process. I don't think I'll need them all, but I will likely get two dozen filled with home made strawberry jam.

Since I already had the jars and lids needed for this process, the cost will be just what I paid for the strawberries ($26), sugar ($4.50) and lemon juice ($2.00) plus my time and effort (priceless--or maybe worthless). That will come to about $1.50 per pint. Well worth the effort, if you ask me.

Aerie Report

Terry and I moseyed on down to Mansfield today to have lunch at the Black Swan Cafe and to pick up my 2009-2010 hunting license at Cooper's Sporting Goods next door. As luck would have it, The Swan is closed on Tuesdays.

Cooper's was open, however and I dropped my old license on the counter along with my driver's license and $65.80 and walked out with my Resident Adult Hunting ($20.70), Archery ($16.70), Muzzleloader ($11.70), and Resident Bear ($16.70) licenses and the associated tags for antlered deer, fall and spring turkey and black bear. I passed on the elk tag raffle. (There's only about a dozen or so of those awarded every year.) It's tough enough to get a few folks together to help haul out a bear right here near home. The elk are only found about 100 miles to our west.

Now all I have to do is read the manual--again--to see if there have been any changes and send in my application for a doe tag.

******

We did get lunch. Over in Wellsboro at a pizza place where they make excellent chicken parm subs on a pita-like bread. Only the bread is better. More like pizza dough. Delicious!

******

We were in Wellsboro to go to the library and then an art show at the Gemeiner. All the artists were from the area. (I think the one living furthest away was from Elmira.) There were pencil (graphite) drawings, computer generated graphics, water colors and oils. After viewing all the works (about 100) we had to choose the one we like the best. It was tough! Terry narrowed her selections down to about half a dozen as did I--some even overlapped, such as the oil of an old Agway building. It was quite good! I finally settled on an oil rendition of an Alaskan valley in which you could see the mist rising up the slopes above the river.

I have no idea which on Terry eventually settled upon as her "Best of Show." She kept walking back and forth to change the angle at which she was viewing three of her final six. I think she picked a winter scene that made you want to don a sweater.

******

We stopped for ice cream on the way home at Pagomar's just west of Wellsboro off Route 287 and across the highway from the train depot. The trains run up and down the valley through Cowenesque. There are dining outings as well as straight sight-seeing train rides. The trains are run and maintained by volunteers. At 3:00 PM it looked like they were going to have a nice crowd for their afternoon excursion.

You are never far from an ice cream parlor here in Tioga County, PA. Some sell Hershey's, some sell Perry's and some make their own. They are all delicious and extremely reasonable in price. Terry made the mistake last year of ordering a regular cup of ice cream from Pagomar's when they opened for the first time. Today she got the baby cone and was more than satisfied. They have a doggy serving too which is even smaller.

******

Pagomar also had flats of strawberries for sale and I just couldn't resist the 8 quarts of berries. It will mean work tomorrow and Thursday. I'm trying a recipe that does not require pectin but will require time. Lots of time.

• Tomorrow (Wednesday), I'll wash, hull and cut up the berries before mixing them with sugar.
• They will sit all day with an occasional stirring before I put them on the stove to cook.
• They will get brought to a boil over medium heat, have some lemon juice added and brought to another boil.
• Then they will then sit for 24 hours.
• Thursday I'll be washing and sterilizing pint jars until, in the evening,
• I'll bring the berry mix to a boil one last time for five minutes before ladling it into the jars.
• Which will then go into a water bath for ten minutes to seal them.

It's a different sort of recipe than I used last year with the blackberries and blue berries. The both used pectin. Still, both the B & B jams came out a little runnier than I like. They make great thick syrups, however. I'll let you know how this batch of strawberry jam comes out.

Home canning.

Last weekend at this time, we were in the midst of canning 2+ bushels of plum tomatoes. The effort resulted in 28 quarts of tomato sauce as well as a batch of spaghetti sauce that we both used and froze for the future. All for the cost of the tomatoes (at $6 a bushel a real steal) and the time it took to process the jars and tomatoes.

The process is simple but time consuming. First is washing the tomatoes. A half bushel at a time, they went into the sink for a bath in cold water. Any bruised tomatoes had their bad spots removed and, along with dirt and stems, went into the bucket for the compost pile. Only a few were not salvageable.



Once cleaned, the tomatoes went into boiling water for a few minutes to be scalded until their skins cracked.



They were then scooped out of the hot water and run through the food mill. Ours is a simple affair with a screen on the bottom that allowed the pureed tomato goodness through while preventing the skins and seeds from passing into the sauce. The skins come out a separate shoot and are then run through the mill a second time to get all the good stuff out that we can.



Once the sauce has been collected, it's boiled down to reach the desired thickness and ladled into the quart jars. The jars were washed and then sterilized in a boiling water bath while the tomatoes were being processed.



When the jars are filled, they get lids held in place by rings and go back into the boiling water bath seven quarts at a time. Boiled for 15 minutes to sterilize the batch , they come out of the water to cool. As the jars cool they seal with a distinct "pop" and are ready to be stored for future use.

Essentially the same process is used for apples to make applesauce except that the apples are cored, sliced and cooked into a soft texture before being run through the mill. We put up over a dozen pints of excellent applesauce using this process earlier this fall from just half a bushel of Cortland apples.

Skins and cores all go into the compost pile where they make a fine, rich soil compost.

We've had the food mill for ages and spent only $25 for it back in the '70s. It has paid for itself many, many times over. Jars and rings can be used over and over again as long as hey aren't damaged so their cost depreciates with each season. Lids are good for one use only but cost only pennies apiece. Time and produce are the major investment. And the reward is having something without any additives and the satisfaction of being just a little more self reliant than the other guy.

The larder is now stocked with homemade tomato sauce, applesauce, and blueberry and blackberry jam. Plus there are zucchini breads stacked like cord wood in the freezer and several Tupperware containers of frozen shredded zucchini. And pumpkin bread and processed frozen pumpkin will soon be joining the zucchini.

Now if I could only find a deer or two for the freezer....

Boiling Down the Tomato Puree

We finished up last night after processing all 2+ bushels of tomatoes and actually getting 7 quarts of thickened tomato sauce canned. That left two huge stock pots (16 and 20 quarts)of processed tomato puree yet to be boiled down to the desired thickness and canned.

I put the 16 quart pot on the stove this morning and promptly scorched the bottom layers into charcoal. Note to self: Stainless steel stock pots are great holding tanks but should NOT be used for boiling/thickening any sauce. That's what the copper bottomed Revereware pots are for. After carefully ladling the sauce from the stock pot into the two 8 quart Revereware pots, I've been skimming out the little charcoal bits. It's like panning for gold.

This should get us 7 more quarts of canned tomato sauce. And then we will move on to the 20 quart stock pot for the final batch.

Why the desire to have so many jars of tomato sauce? Because Terry makes the best spaghetti sauce I've ever tasted. Two quarts of this tomato sauce will be used to make a batch of spaghetti sauce with garlic, onions, ground venison and/or sausage, and a mix of herbs and spices that can be used for half a dozen meals. That's straight spaghetti, lasagna or any number of other dishes. That's good eats! (Now all I have to do is get myself a deer or three.)

UPDATE: We ended up with 28 quarts of tomato sauce plus enough for Terry to make a big batch of spaghetti sauce. Seven jars are already boxed while 21 are sitting on the counter cooling down. Every single one of them sealed like they're supposed to. Tomorrow they too will get boxed and put into storage in the basement.

More Food Canning

We got a real good deal on some plumb tomatoes at a local center today. Terry and I had been looking for someone who might be selling bushel baskets of tomatoes for canning purposes but we were having no luck until she happened to spy a small, not very reputable looking stand on old Route 15 south of Covington. She didn't stop but mentioned it to me and I thought I'd see what the guy had in stock.

Well, inside a shed with tarps as sides, he had a couple dozen boxes of plumb tomatoes but they had no price. I asked what he wanted for the 1/2-bushel box and he said $3.00 since it was getting late and there were some damaged tomatoes in each box. Well that sounded pretty good to me so I picked up two.

When I got home and started to rinse them off, I found there wasn't a bad tomato in the bunch. A few were bruised but that could be cut out. I suggested to Terry that she go back and pick up two more boxes when she went down for the church dinner. (I would stay home and start working on these.)

She came back with 2 and 1/2 boxes. The seller told her one of the boxes she picked out "looked a little low so here, take this half box too."

We've (by "We've" I mean mostly "I've") been boiling water and making tomato sauce like crazy. There's enough to make over 24 quarts easy. I won't finish all of it tonight (heck, I'll have to get some more quart jars out of the basement and wash them before I'm done), but I'll let you know how we make out tomorrow.