Wednesday, August 26, 2009

This And That Down On The Farm!

Michael likes to eat oatmeal for breakfast. We buy oat groats and then roll them ourselves. We have a flaker mill that rolls softer grains like oats and crushes other harder grains like wheat. We do sell the Flaker Mills in our store by the way.... Wink!! Anyway, we noticed that the freshly rolled oats tasted wonderful, but did not always get along with our digestive systems. :) We have learned that soaking the oats over night with a wee bit of vinegar in the water, takes away those effects. The recipe is for each cup of oats (already rolled) you put in one cup of water. They call for 1 Tblsp. of vinegar. That was a bit strong for us, so I just put half in. Mix the oats, water and vinegar (can be lemon juice as well) and let sit out over night. In the morning add either another cup of water or a cup of milk and cook. I was sending the oatmeal to work with Michael in a little crock I had. I was using it for something else and wanted it back for that purpose. We were going to the thrift store last weekend and I decided I would look for one of those cheese crocks with the wire bale to keep it closed. They did not have one, but I found this bowl. I LOVE it. It is much bigger than it looks in this picture. It is a pottery bowl and I am thrilled with my find.
I went out and looked at our apple trees. There are just a few apples. I am hoping by next year we will get a good crop of apples.

I also went out to check our grapes. There are lots of them. I tasted a couple. They are really close. If you can keep them on the vine until after the first frost, they are much sweeter. Here are some pictures as I walked down the row.





The Goldenrod is starting to bloom.

Here is a picture of our garden from the driveway. You can see how tall the sunflowers are. All the tall light green stuff in the grass is Sweet Annie. The sheep ate all around it and left the Sweet Annie. It smells so good when you mow it down. It is also good to bring in and dry. It keeps moths away from my wool as well as smelling great.

One of the couples in our fellowship had a beautiful pink Rose of Sharon bush. I loved the color and asked if they were easy to progate. His answer was to go and get me some and put it in a pot. :) It is doing well.

The tomatoes are starting to really come in. God has truly blessed us with some good harvest this year. I am having to clear off some more shelf space for my canned goods. The freezers are also filling up.

Did you spend time with the Lord today? Can you tell me what He is teaching you? I love to hear from you. God bless!!!

4 comments:

LadySnow said...

It all looks good!

Stephen said...

This is my first time visiting your blog. Such a pleasant place to read...thank you for the work you're doing here.

When I saw your photos of the Rose of Sharon, I thought of the one we have here at our little farm. My wife and I planted it last year, and we were worried that it had been damaged during the past winter (even though we covered it during the harshest temperatures). But it has turned out to be the proverbial late bloomer, and is now covered in gorgeous red and white blossoms. Yours will bring a lot of happiness to you, I'm sure.

The Dearborns said...

Wow those grapes look AMAZING! I have never had any fresh off the vine. They have alot of pottery here; I am hoping to get out to some of the local shops soon and find some nice pieces.

heatherdmc said...

Apples are not doing well here, I think because of the late frost killing blooms. My one tree that has always done well had three apples this year. One black, one with a bite from a deer, and one taken by the bees. Oh, I hope the local orchards are reasonable!