I bought some sweet potatoes yesterday. Going to try to find a recipe to bake them with marshmellows and brown sugar I think it was. Had them a few yrs ago at an ex's aunt's for Thanksgiving and they were yummmy. Not sure how she baked them but do know there was marshmellows and I think B.S.

I don't know, Miss Gloria. I would think the humidity would be beneficial. I keep my starter in the refrigerator and just make a bit of pre-mix the night before I need it to make something. For instance, if I were going to make biscuits tomorrow, I would take some starter, about a cup full, out of my container and add it to a couple of cups of flour and enough water to make it about as thick as pea soup. Then tomorrow I would put back in to my starter container the same amount that I took out and use the rest for my recipe. But my starter is always wet. Sniff it though and you would swear I've been making hooch. That is what is going on when the yeast reacts with the flour. LOL

Randy YUMMY. I love squash and my mom froze some up last yr that was given to her. Sure hope she gets some more given to her this yr. She usually cuts it up and boils it

I have been cooking winter squash today and putting it away in quart containers to freeze. Normally I use jars and process them so I don't tie up freezer space, but I do the squash this way. I am baking the squash in pieces as the Hubbards are too large to cook all at once. There are three ways you can cook them though. I have used the microwave to cook some, but I am not fond of using the microwave for cooking. I look upon that appliance as something to reheat food already cooked. But you can also boil the squash pieces. They have to be cut up in pieces small enough to get into the pot, generally about 2 inches square. Once cooked, the pieces are easily peeled. My choice for cooking though is baking in a pan with some water in the bottom. I put the pieces cut side down so the skin is up. I bake them for two hours at 350 degrees and that will cook the pieces through. Then I scoop the squash flesh from the skin and pack it in plastic containers for freezing. When thawed and heated through, add some butter, cinnamon and brown sugar and it makes a very tasty dish.

Randy You sure have been busy. My pears are still hard, waiting for them to ripen. I might have found a nice guy like you that likes to can, make jellies and jams, makes homemade bread, etc. He's got a vineyard too and makes wine. I'm meeting him for lunch tomorrow. We've talked for hours on the phone. He's Italian and he loves to cook...He was born here but his parents came over from Italy. He's got a strong accent for someone that was born here. He's a semi retired engineer. We click very well on the phone and praying we click in person,. He seems like such an awesome guy. He brought up his 2 girls alone since they were around 8 & 10 yrs old after his wife left him. One is in college and engaged and the other one is a jr in H.S.

I spent most the day in the kitchen today.  I did a bucket of apples and it took until a bit after 4:00 to get 7 quarts of applesauce out of them.  I thought I would get more than that, but it didn't happen.  I still have one more bucket to do and I will be done with apples for the year probably.  It's still possible that I will use some apples from a later tree to make some apple pie filling.  I picked pears yesterday and spread them out on the basement floor to ripen up.  They are Bartlett Pears.  I think I picked about 12 or 13 gallons of pears.  I want to make some pear preserves and pear jam out of them.  If I have any left, I will just can them as pear quarters.

I did some blueberry jam yesterday after coming home from church.  I made a couple of batches of 'no sugar added' jam and a couple of batches of regular jam.  I have been using 8 ounce jars for the 'no sugar added' jams.  They don't keep as well as regular jam after opening, so the smaller jars ensure they will be used up a little faster than a larger jar.  If they are neglected too long, mold will develop.  The added sugar in regular jam apparently acts as a preservative so the jam will last much longer after opening the jar.

My blueberries are all frozen at this point.  So I thawed them in the microwave yesterday so I could crush the berries for jam-making.  That worked pretty well.

It's been a long day here today.  I didn't get started peeling, coring and quartering apples until 12:30 and it took me 5 hours to do 7 gallons.  By the time I got them cooked down and run through the food processor though, I had about 3-1/2 gallons left.  I got the rest of the stuff into the apples for making apple butter, but it was too late to start putting it into the jars.  I'll start that in the morning.  I knocked off just a few minutes before 10:00.  

Had a busy day today, but managed to get in a jamming session.  I made a couple of batches of Boysenberry with no sugar added, and also did a couple of batches of regular Boysenberry jam.  We generally feed on leftovers on Sunday evening, so the kitchen was available.

Wow Randy that's alot of beans...you had a good year with your beans...

Our strawberries come in later than the berries from California and Mexico, but most people here in Oregon don't or won't use those for making jam anyway.  Our strawberries will be available just about the time school is out and will last about three weeks before the quality goes down enough to give up the idea of making jam.  I checked the pantry yesterday and I see I have one case (12 pints) of strawberry jam left from last summer's efforts.  That's surely enough to last until we get into jamming mode again this summer.  With the older granddaughter gone away to school, I have quite a bit (4 cases) of Marionberry left in the pantry also.  With Ari at home, I suspect we would have been down to about one case.  She loves her Marionberry jam.  I picked about 75 pounds of Marionberries last year though and I may still have some crushed berries still in the freezer ready to make more jam.  I still plan to pick about the same amount of the Marionberries this year though as we have a friend that will need some and they don't have them down in southern Oregon where she lives.  She (Scarez) pops in on GardenHere occasionally but not as often as I would like.  I'll be planting some pumpkins for her in my garden here also.  I have a bit more room for them than she does.  Besides, that way she may come up and see us more often.  LOL 

Thanks Randy, I'll be looking for it, just let me know if I miss it.....LOL

Randy

I'm finally reading this. Would love to see all the pics of Fiona making  the soap as I would love to try my hand at it sometime. I love the soap that I bought off her but the postage is way too much to continue buying it....Let me know where it's posted so I can read it. I had a hard time getting on here today. yesterday I kept getting sa script error each time i got on here. Not sure what that is though.....

Soapmaking? What kind does she make, Randy? That's something I'd love to learn. I do make candles out of soy wax, but I've never done any soap making. I guess I kind of figured that candles were expensive enough -- at least in the outlay of supplies, and I didn't need another activity to deplete my already limited resources.

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