Thursday, August 19, 2010

Glad To Be Back...

 Sorry about my blogging absence....the kids & I spent the entire summer (6 weeks) at my parent's farm outside Worland, WY.  We all had so much fun.  The kids were able to help in the garden, they thought picking peas was the best...read on to see more on that; pulling potatoes made a close second...while weeding wasn't so much fun.
We also canned beets (a first attempt for both my mom and me) which turned out well (even though I'm not the biggest fan of beets).
There were lots of little chocolate lab puppies...soooo cute. A couple of dogs, cats And 12 free range chickens to feed every night.  They LOVED helping take care of the animals each night...especially the chickens & we were so happy to find the first little (tiny, really) brown egg just days before we left.
We can't wait until next year...but until then, I'm back to blogging..

The peas...
The kids loved helping with every step (and I think we did this 3 times)...I know it's a little late in the season for peas...but keep it on hand for next year :)
 
 1. shell the peas (kids, at least my kids & my nieces LOVED this part...probably because they like to eat them)

 2. Add peas into lightly salted, boiling water, boil 90 seconds.  Remove promptly to an ice bath to shock the peas & stop the cooking.
3. Pat the peas dry on a clean towel, and transfer into a freezer bag, or if your lucky enough, vacuum seal them.
4. Then into the freezer to enjoy later, as needed.  My kids prefer to eat peas frozen (or cold)...also they great for teething babies (older babies that can chew up their food...and, of course, watch them while the eat)

2 comments:

katesCottage said...

Anna, GREAT blog! Glad you had so much fun at your parents' house!!! I made cooked jam for the first time this year! Strawberry, triple berry, blueberry and will hopefully do up some peach and sour cherry too!!! We'll never starve as we will always have bread {from flour in our food storage} and jam to eat! ;)

XO!, Katie

Anna said...

I hope to be making some jam too this year...if everything goes as planned :) It will give me something to do while all the kids are at school...and homemade jam is always better :)