Caponi Art Park, Sunday September 27th

This is the third year for the Medieval Fair and it will take place from 12-4.

Applesauce

I canned 13 pints of applesauce, using the apples from our tree naturally. Our tree is a Harelson and the apples are abundant this year. I've frozen 2 gallons of ziplock bags and 1 gallon of dried apples.

I found this site to be especially helpful for canning applesauce.

The recipe I used:
3 pounds of apples, peeled, cored and sliced
3/4 c water
2-4 T sugar
2 T lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick

Cook over low heat until it's mushy.

Canning

I have been canning a lot of my vegetables this summer.

So far I have made:
Pickled beets
Pickled zucchini
Dill pickles
Pickled melon
Thai pickled beans
and bread and butter pickles, which I made on Tuesday.




The recipe is from Mom.

Bread and Butter Pickles: Mary Pearson
For 8 pints

4 qts sliced cucumbers (not peeled) approx 12 large
1/3 c canning salt

Add salt to the cucumbers, cover with ice cubes and let sit for 3 hours.

Drain and add:
4 medium onions sliced
1 green pepper sliced
1 red pepper sliced
3 cloves garlic, whole

Combine the following ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil.
3 c distilled white vinegar
5 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp tumeric
1 1/2 tsp celery salt
2 T mustard seed

Add the cucumber mix and bring the whole thing to a boil. Fill steril jars with liquid and process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.

I added some new shelves to the basement and have moved my food storage and canning down. Looks like a proper Mn basement.

MN State Fair 2009

Ahhhh the MN State Fair. Food, people, Food, fun, Food, milk for $1, Food.... did I mention Food?

P and I went on Friday. We started off at Channel 9 and caught it just as it was ending the morning news. We then went to the 4H building and then the Fine Arts Building. Congrats to Ellen for her Honorable Mention for her first entry. That was awesome!

P's stamina (or lack there of) meant that I did a lot of things on my own. The Moo Booth, the butter sculptures, Horticultural Building, and Heritage Square.



Heritage Square was mostly full of "historic" junk, but I did enjoy the wood turner, the blacksmith and the log house.

I did get a lovely surprise by discovering my stockings in the "special case" with all the other honories. I received the Best Socks ribbon sponsored by Needlework Unlimited.



That was a huge thrill! They are the first things you see when entering the main door of the Creative Activities Building!

I entered my stockings in the "textured socks" category, but I did not receive any ribbons for that category. I will be interested in seeing the judging sheets. I can already predict the comments.