Autumn/Fall Spiced Apple Chutney

This recipe looked so good, I wanted to share it:

Autumn/Fall Spiced Apple Chutney recipe

Hickory Tussock Moth Caterpillar

There was a warning about the Hickory Tussock Moth caterpillar on South West Health Line:

The caterpillar is venomous and can cause injury if touched. To learn more, please check out the following article:

http://www.southwesthealthline.ca/displayarticle.aspx?id=2487

Autumn Harvest

The trees have started to change colour and the summer’s harvest is almost all in.

It is has been a busy couple of months of constant harvesting and preserving. My cupboards are full of canned and pickled goods, and my freezer is almost full of frozen vegetables and fruits. I also have a basket of about 40 butternut, buttercup and acorn squash.

This summer I have made radish relish, dill relish, salsa and dill pickles. I have dried herbs and made fresh herb ice cubes. I have frozen over 60 pounds of tomatoes, more green and yellow beans than I can count, and about 30 pounds of carrots. I have also frozen tons of green onions, leeks, peas, turnip, corn, cabbage, lettuce and Swiss Chard.  In addition, I have lots of frozen watermelon in the freezer to pull out mid winter for the hens.

During the summer, I made several big pots of harvest soup, which is now safely in the freezer to be pulled out during the cold winter months. I also have some delicious homemade spaghetti sauce in the freezer.

To add to my stores, I am also drying beans for dried beans.

I’m actually looking forward to the dark half on the year. All this gardening and preserving is hard work. I look forward to doing some painting and crafts, and enjoying the fruits of my hard summer labour. I also look forward to a worry free winter; there is a great piece of mind knowing that you have at least enough basic food to keep your family well fed no matter what nature throws at you. It also gives me great piece of mind, to know that I won't have to pay the inflated grocery stores prices for my veggies this winter

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Update

Hi!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days! There was a big thunderstorm here on Wednesday night. Lightning hit my house and despite my computer being turned off and being on a power bar with surge protection it got totally fried. I also lost power for 13-14 hours.

Since then, I've been working on an old laptop. It's tough working on a computer that is not your own, it doesn't have any of my links or tabs, no photos or art, none of the programs I regularly use. To sum it up, it sucks!

It looks like my computer needs a new power supply and because I have a slim line tower, they are of course hard to find, so have to order one online.

Hopefully, my computer will be back up and going in a week or two - fingers crossed!

In other news, the taming of the stray kitten is going fantastic. I can now pick her about, she comes in at night and she lovin' attention. :)

Green Onions

I love green onions. I happily eat them raw as a snack, love them in salads and add them to all the soups I have been making. However, even with my snacking, salads and soup making, I have more green onions in my garden than I can use. So what to do with all those extra green onions ...freeze them of course!

Green onions are super easy to freeze. Simply wash them, cut them, and pop them in a freezer bag and freeze! Frozen green onions are great for soups, stews, stir fries etc.

Green onions fresh from the garden

Purring Kitten

I've been working hard on taming the stray kitten. We had a pack of coyotes around the house the other night and it was vitally important that the kitten was safely inside. I baited her with some delicious food and was able to scoop her up when she was happily eating. She spent the night in the bathroom and I was overjoyed in the morning that she had used the litter pan that I had put in there with her!

Since being brought inside two nights ago, I've managed to get her to come in three other times (Using food as bait). She is still very shy about being picked up, but she is doing better! At this rate, she should be tame in another or so.

She is a cute little kitty and I am hoping that after I get her tamed, using her litter box reliably and she goes to the vet, that I'll be able to find a nice forever home for her. :)

Making Friends

I was finally able to pat the little stray kitten yesterday! That made me super de duper happy! I went out armed with a can of tuna and sat on the front porch and waited for her to come, and come she did, no cat can resist the smell of tuna!

I was able to pat the kittens several times and check her sex. Yep, you guessed it, she's a girl. Damn.

Bottom line, girl cats are way more expensive to fix than male cats are, and if not fixed, she will get pregnant. If she decides she doesn't want to stay here and moves on, its one more unfixed cat that will get pregnant and give birth a crap load more kittens. Now it is super important for me to get her tamed.

I will continue to try befriending her and hopefully within a week or two, I'll be able to pick her up. If possible I will try to get her use to the house and litter trained. I have several wonderful friends who are helping me with an online auction to raise money to pay for her to get fixed. If we can at least get her fixed, even if she chooses to remain a wild cat, she will at least not be adding to the cat populations.