Preserving Apples at My Kitchen Table

It all happens in the kitchen doesn't it!   Whatever food we grow or raise or purchase, in the end, winds up in the kitchen, doesn't it?

Our kitchen area is the hub of much of our household activities. I just love the whole 'kitchen table' in the kitchen idea.  Growing up we had a kitchen table in the center of the kitchen, and it was always the center of activity.  

We ate off of it ... 

We processed food on it ...

We had family discussions around it and even one on one discussions around it at times ...

My dad would enjoy a cup of coffee sitting around it when a friend would drop by for a visit.  Of course, the friend enjoyed a cup of coffee too.  

Big family meals with extended family and friends happened around that kitchen table.

Fast forward some 40 plus years and in my home today, apple preservation is happening around my kitchen table ...

We brought back a box of sun crisp apples from our travels and today I started work on preserving them.

I filled up the dehydrator with slices ... 

I used the cores to make apple juice, but instead of making apple jelly with it, I opted to freeze it and use it in baking sweet breads later this fall ...

I set aside enough to make an apple cake which will be frozen for the holidays ...

I set aside a few for eating fresh ...

and I set aside one for adding to chicken salad I'll be making later this week.

This is my first time working with sun crisp apples, but it won't be the last.  These apples are delicious and hold up well just sitting in a pretty bowl on the kitchen table while waiting to be used!

Yesterday, we ran errands all day, so I didn't get around to doing the laundry from our traveling.  I tackled that today as well.  Since I was going to have a day of doing laundry, I decided to wash our bed linens as well.  Oh, my goodness, what was I thinking!  By the time I got it all done, I was exhausted and had myself a sit down.  (I did the apples in and around the laundry!)

At the end of the day though, I felt a great sense of satisfaction:  

The laundry was done ...

The apples were in the process of being preserved and I had a plan of how I was going to use the ones not preserved ... 

We would be able to sleep on clean, crisp sheets ... there's just something about sleeping on freshly laundered sheets that feels so right ...

And I paid bills and thought about our financial goals for the rest of September. (The next 'Hunkering Down' post is coming on Friday!)

All of this took place on and around our kitchen table!  Our kitchen table isn't Pinterest worthy, nor does it sit idle with pretty decorations showcased on it while being relegated for holiday or 'company's coming' meals.  Our kitchen table is a workhorse that bears the marks of having raised 3 active children; it has and continues to serve the family that lives here in many ways.

Our kitchen table and I go back a long way, lots of memories have been made at that table and I can't think of a single one that I would want to have happened anywhere else!

until next time,

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps free up more disposable income in budget which we use to help meet our financial goals for the year.   

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means. 

I'm Back!

My yearly August/September break is over and it's time to get back to blogging.  I'm feeling energized and recharged and look forward to sharing from my pen or maybe I should say from my keyboard!

(picture:  look at those pretty flowers!  I snapped this photo outside an Amish grocery store we visited which you'll read more about later in this post.  I get lots of inspiration from seeing how they do and plant things and this is one of them.  I can duplicate this look!)

I look around me and I see so much to be done that I have to remind myself to make a plan and work the plan.  That plan for me starts with making a to-do list in my daily planner and then working the list.  (Click here to see how I use my planner as a 'to-do' list.) 

As I get older, I'm careful to factor in rest time throughout the day as well and that reflects itself in a shorter to-do list. I'm okay with that though for it's in those rest times that I'm able to do more handwork such as hand sewing, crocheting, reading, working on learning watercolor painting, writing or any number of other things that keep my hands busy while allowing my body to rest.

On my to-do list today is to get unpacked from some traveling we just arrived home from yesterday.  While on this trip, we visited an Amish produce auction and purchased fresh from the garden lima beans and October beans.  I worked on shelling the lima beans as hubby drove and I rode.  By the time we arrived home, all the lima beans were shelled.  I'll work on getting those blanched and in the freezer today.  Have you ever shelled beans while riding in a vehicle? (pictured:  the lima beans that I shelled.)

We purchased more produce from that Amish produce auction, which you'll hear more about in the upcoming week.  We weren't able to grow a garden this year, but there are other ways to keep our pantry well-stocked as we continue to eat from it daily and visiting this Amish produce auction is one of them.

It's a misty, dreary kind of day here today that's reminding me that fall and winter are just around the corner which brings me to another thing I did yesterday.  After I finished shelling the lima beans I jotted down some notes on an upcoming challenge, I'll be doing here that I'm calling "Prepping for Winter."  I've written out a list of things that need to be done before winter gets here.  Here's the first 3 items on my list ...

Top off pantry with basics.

Prep for colds, flu, etc.  This will include herbal, over the counter and homeopathic meds.

Get a few freezer meals and or heat and heat type meals in place for times when sickness comes for a visit.

There are several items similar to these three on my list.  I'm getting very specific with each category and listing steps for each.  My goal is to go into winter this year as prepared as possible.  I hope you'll join me as I try to get all my winter preps done by the first of November.

That's it for today, I look forward to meeting you back here on Monday!  One more thing, it's good to be back ... I missed you all!

until next time,

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps free up more disposable income in budget which we use to help meet our financial goals for the year.   

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means. 

A Journal of My Days: 8/5/24

No post this week as we are in full blown hurricane prep and watch mode.  As of this writing, our area is forecast to get 15 inches of rain, we are being told to prepare for flooding, so that's what we're doing along with the normal hurricane preps.

Hopefully, I'll be able to be back at the end of the week.

Update 8/11/24 ...

We are fine and survived the hurricane without any damage to our property.  I don't think I've ever seen such torrential rain for the length of time it rained, and I've lived through several hurricanes! There is heavy flooding in the area as a result, but we are fine.  Thank you for your prayers.

We have entered an extremely busy season for the next month or so, so I'm going to take a short blogging break.  I'll be back towards the end of September.

Everyone stay busy and stay hunkered down with your finances, I'll meet you back here in September and we'll get caught up!

Until then ...

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps keep in sewing supplies.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

Hunkering Down 2024: Weeks 29, 30 & 31!

Whew!  That's a lot of weeks to get caught up on, but we can do it!  Let's see, where did we leave off before sickness invaded our home ...

I believe our last post included the following ...

The big news this week is that everything went according to plan!  We were able to meet all of our financial obligations and make a double payment on our targeted debt!  That felt really good!

For the rest of this month, I'm going to try to squeeze out another extra payment for our targeted debt.  I don't know if we can, but we won't know if we don't try.

So, how did we do ...

We did very little spending while we were sick except for prescriptions ... that's really about the only good thing that came from our being sick, everything got put on hold including spending!

Did we manage to come up with enough money to make another extra payment on our targeted debt?  Yes, we did!!!  All total, we made 3 payments on it in July.  I know it sounds silly, but every time we make an extra payment, it fires us up to try harder, sacrifice a little more and stretch what we have a little further in order to do it again.

Even with all the setbacks we've had this year, we've already met a good part of our financial goals we set for the year back in January.  If we were to stop right now (which we're not) this year would be a success in terms of reaching our financial goals.

When I chose our goals for this year, I tried to make them realistic and just a little stretching.  Success fuels success and I knew if the goals were unrealistic for our income that it would all be just a big failure and just as success fuels success, failure fuels failure too.  It's better to set realistic goals and meet them, then set unrealistic goals and fail them.

It will take longer to achieve realistic goals but unless you have a windfall of money the turtle method of achieving our goals really has the best long-term results.

It feels really good to set realistic goals and then work hard to surpass them ... that's what we've done and are doing!

Speaking of setting realistic goals, let's see if we can make a double payment on our targeted debt in the month of August!

What are your thoughts on setting realistic goals?

That's it for this week, what about you, how did your week go and what financial goals are you working toward?

until next time,

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps free up more disposable income in budget which we use to help meet our financial goals for the year.   

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means. 

A Journal of My Days: 7/29/24

The theme for this year is "Laser focused, hunkered down and spending as little money as possible.” 

We're talking gardening, bargain shopping and pantry building and how we utilize all three to keep us fed and cared for without breaking the bank!

(Pictured:  Echinacea flower head from my herb garden.)

So, how did we do with both of us being sick with bronchitis at the same time?

In the garden:  I harvested the last of the elderberries.  The race was on between me and the birds!  They like elderberries too!  I like them for their medicinal properties, I'm assuming the birds like them for their taste.  At any rate, I had to be on my toes and diligent in harvesting them because the birds were doing the same thing!  It was a race ... truthfully, all I wanted was enough to make elderberry syrup and tincture for the year, I wasn't greedy, the birds were welcome to the rest ... but I did want my share!

I've been in seed saving mode.  I saved seeds from two different varieties of tomatoes and from lima beans.

Over the weekend I felt well enough to do some work in the garden in preparation for fall planting.

I removed old spent plants from containers ...

Pulled weeds and ...

Checked on the cabbage seeds I had planted before we got sick.

I also harvested moringa and cut back some of my other herbs.

Yes, I was a bit tired, but it was a good tired!

Our harvests have been small as pictured, but with both of us being sick at the same time the size of the harvests were a blessing.   Pictured are tomatoes, cucumbers, pears, squash and apples.

In the kitchen:  for four days straight, we ate off of paper plates and prepared the simplest meals possible that used the least number of 'dishes' to prepare ... why did we do that?  In the midst of both of us being quite sick at the same time, our brand new well pump that was installed in December of 23 when our new well was dug ... stopped working.  Yes, it did!   Long story shortened, the company we purchased it from stood by their product and repaired it with the promise that if anything else went wrong they would replace the whole pump.  I'm sharing this saga with you to make a point ... we were prepared with stored water, paper products and a plan.  Living a prepared lifestyle made the difference between an uncomfortable situation and an unbearable one.

Thrifting, bargain, and/or loss leader shopping at the grocery store, farmers market, etc:  None!  We didn't go anywhere or do anything we didn't have too!

In the Pantry:  Once I started feeling better, I started on some small dehydrating projects.  I didn't have the energy to take on big projects, but smaller projects were just fine.  Pictured are dried echinacea from our herb garden and pineapple pears from our pear tree.  Those dried pineapple pear slices are delicious!  I've been snacking on them, will use them chopped up to go in granola and in the sliced form they are in now to make fried pies for special occasions.

I'm doing the same thing with apples from one of our apple trees.  

I prepare one dehydrator full at a time and no, I don't use any kind of pre-treatment.  I just peel, half, quarter, cut the core out and slice right onto the dehydrator trays.  The simpler food preservation can be, the better I like it!

In other news:

Click HERE to read what I've been up to in the sewing/creating world this week!  I haven't done any sewing but do hope to finish the seersucker dress I have started this upcoming week.  I also picked out a small cross stitch project to work on, we'll see if I get around to it.

It's the little things that make my world go round like one of my granddaughters reaching for her iPad one morning to call grandma shortly after she had awakened!   Be still my heart ... this long-distance grandma thing is hard!  I pray for a close relationship with all my grandchildren and do whatever I can to make it happen.  If you are a long-distance grandparent, I would love to hear things you do to grow your relationship with your grands.

I saved enough affiliate money to purchase a new to me sewing book that's been on my wish list for a few weeks, Wardrobe Embroidery by Warunee Bolstad.  This book has given me inspiration and the tools to extend my wardrobe or freshen it up with a new look.  (Thank you to the friend and reader who introduced me to this book.)

My teaching notes on self-control that I used in teaching a young wives and mothers Bible class have been posted.  You can find them HERE.

We're enjoying watching the Olympics, is anyone else watching them?

That's it for me this week, what has your week looked like?

until next time,

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps keep in sewing supplies.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.