IM back

I can't believe it has been so long since I blogged. Since the last time I have canned lots of food. My storage is looking good. And after the earth quake I know I need to store more water.
I decided that I want to sell my house and move to a place were I will never move from and get a garden and orchard in and of course the vineyard. So I ripped up the old carpet in the living room and put down hardwood floor. i went to Lowe's and they were so helpful. It took a week from start to finish. It looks so beautiful. So I will do the dinning room next. Last Sunday I drove around the neighborhood to look for open houses to see prices and what else I need to do to get the most for my house. I still have a lot of wood to do. Upstairs I was just going to replace the carpet. Besides painting all rooms. I have one room left to paint. It doesn't look to bad I just wouldn't be able to say freshly painted inside and out.
I just don't know what to do with all this stuff. I put about 20 items on Craig s List only got scammers responding.  I will have a garage sale soon.
I will write again soon.

New stove

Hopefully I will have a new stove soon. i have a person coming today to see if I can change my electric stove to a gas stove. I hope its not to expensive to do that. Then I have to figure out what stove I want and a new Refrigerator. I shopping I will go a shopping I will go.

Cannery and processors tour

This Saturday the Georgia Organics sponsored a trip to a commercial cannery and processing  plant. It was so interesting. Anyone can use it, you bring the food you want to can and your jars if you are going to use tin cans they have a supply of them.  There are big tables, cookers, steamers, juicers, and pressure cookers. The meat processing part is in a separate room with more tables, saws, vacuum pack machine, curing locker, hanging locker and a locker you can rent space in to keep your meat frozen. The people that work there are wonderful. And will help you if you need it.

I came home and canned my salsa. it took me all day to chop and assemble all the ingredients and then I can only put 7 quarts in my canner at a time. At the Cannery I could put 90 cans in at a time. This will take some thinking and planning to go  to the cannery .

My quest to eat all organic has proven to be a little more difficult then I thought it would. I can't find organic food. Yes I have gotten some but to find 50 lbs of tomatoes is hard to find. I'm still  searching for a organic farmers I can just go out and buy mu veggies from.

More later

Last week

It has been awhile since I Blogged. So here goes. Volunteered at the Attack of the Killer Tomato that was last weekend. All the food was very good. All had to have Tomatoes in it. 30 restaurants. A great band played and everyone I saw was having a great time.

I helped my brother and his wife unpack 3 pods of their life. I came home and looked around. I am motivated to declutter even more. I am still looking for the perfect place to retire. Maybe not retire but to live and not move. Have my garden and animals were they have a permanent home.

I planted lettuce yesterday and my squash will be moved into bigger pots today, I planted some seeds and they are going great but I don't remember what they are.I didn't mark the container I think they are cabbage.
I guess I will find out .

My fresh goat Feta cheese was so good. Cheese is so easy to make. My journey to becoming more self -sufficient is getting closer. I'm looking now for Organic Tomatoes so I can put up my Salsa, Spaghetti Sauce, Pizza Sauce. I need about 50 lbs. One day I will have grown them all in my own garden.
Have a good day.

Cheddar Cheese and peaches

Wow this weekend was filled with lots of fun. Saturday I went to the local farmers market. I was a little later then last week. There was more people buying everything they could get there hands on that was fresh right from the garden.
I bought a box of peaches, dehydrating some right now Made Peach Liquor with some more. I made a spicy Peach Barbecue sauce and last night had some with my fish dinner. I have a few peaches left that I will can later today.

I also made Cheddar Cheese, it is still drying then I could put on the wax. Then I have to wait about a month before I even know if it turns out. It was very easy. I think I have a new project.

Now I have to get my goats. So I will have fresh milk.

Made Mozzarella Cheese today

My Mozzarella Cheese turned very good. I could of eaten all of it at one time. I went online and looked up in several cheese books I have for a recipe.  There were so many recipes and most had the same ingredients, it was the process that was so different from recipe to recipe . So I finally just picked one  and made it. The whole process was about 1 1/2 hours. I should be able to get it down to 1 hour.
 I ended up with 3 balls  and 2 were easy to finish but the last one just would not get stretchy and shiny. So I just ate it. It was so good.

Milk is about 86% water so when you are through making cheese you have a by product. Whey can be fed to animals, put on your garden or make Ricotta Cheese. That is what I did made Ricotta Cheese. I cooked and cooked and nothing so I added some vinegar and cooked some more still nothing. By now I'm getting a little discussed so I strained the whey in the cheesecloth and I got maybe a handful of cheese. I asked my friend Nancy Coonridge from Coonridge Organic Dairy.  in Pie Town NM. She told me if I made the Mozzarella with citric acid then the whey would not make Ricotta Cheese. Which is exactly what I did. My next patch of Mozzarella Cheese I will try another recipe

My next cheese is going to be cheddar cheese.

More later.