Labor Day Weekend
It’s been hard keeping up with the blog (lots of drafts to publish still!), work and fixing up our little farmette. This Labor Day Weekend, I was determined to at least post a little something!
Our tomatoes are coming in like crazy now, so much so that I can barely keep up! I spent a good bit of the weekend cooking and canning marinara sauce. Chris didn’t marry an Italian, but the house sure smelled like he did! Garlic and basil permeated every inch of this old house. We finally harvested our first big potato haul, canned homemade banana peppers and mixed up some fresh salsa. Our friends came over and brought this delicious cream cheese filling with prosciutto (what doesn’t prosciutto make delicious?) to make homemade jalapeno poppers with. The poppers were absolutely divine and absolutely did give me horrible reflux, but even after that it was totally worth it!
On a walk of the property yesterday I made two wonderful finds – an abundance of wild grapes (not to be confused with the berries of the Virginia Creeper!) and 2 giant chestnut trees. Some quick reading leads me to believe the grapes may actually be better after the first frost so more to come later in the season. The grapes leaves have a delicious citrus-y taste so I’m already dreaming of dolmades. As for the chestnuts, I’m already planning on freezing the nuts for a Thanksgiving dish. Once I find decent recipes for both of those, I’ll be sure to share 🙂
When we bought the house, the owners son spoke multiple times of the “prolific” crab apple tree on the edge of the side yard. I had never had a crab apple that didn’t taste like the bottom of my shoe but I was pleasantly surprised with these semi-sweet and beautifully colored tiny apples. I spent the evening cooking them down to make jelly. In the short amount of time the crab apples cooked for, it managed to make the house smell like fall, a wonderfully comforting scent. And tonight, despite the warmth of the day, the air feels a bit crisp – a small reminder that cooler weather is just around the corner. For now, it’ll strain overnight and I’ll finish canning it tomorrow (who am I kidding…I’ll be lucky if I get to it by Wednesday!). The pretty pink lemonade-colored liquid is just what has already strained out.
And finally – here’s a picture of George “meeting” his sister Fritatta. There was much chirping back and forth through the door (on both sides!) before Fritatta meandered away to find something more edible.
Back to the grind tomorrow, but feeling grateful for this unwinding weekend with my husband, friends and family.
