Wedding flower pictures

Matching ceremony arrangements

The dinner table 

The florist did such an amazing job with the arrangements.  A big thank you goes out to Emily at Belle Fiori for working with us to provide very tasteful and personal arrangements to help frame the day.  It was very special to have our own home grown varieties in the arrangements as this is not something a florist can easily do, not knowing her supplier.  We definitely recommend her services to anyone!

The bride

Salsa Verde, 2013

I made my salsa verde without a tomatillo crop.  Last year they were abundant, but this year I got three marble sized fruits.  I did some research and found that my suspicion was right.  You do need more than one plant to have a crop.  Check out the link which answers most questions you may have about growing them yourself.

I did have a good amount of green tomatoes on hand.  My 4th of July variety is even the same size as most tomatillos, so it worked out well.  I did every thing the same as last year's salsa verde.  I doubled the recipe for 7 half pints and 4 full pints.  I enjoy the roasted, smoky flavors of grilling the ingredients before processing.  Next year, I will put in more than one plant!

Sauerkraut, Chapter 2

I will not go into the how of making sauerkraut again this year but refer you to last year's sauerkraut adventure.  With the sauerkraut cutter restored, I was able to really refine the process into a much smaller time frame.  It took me less time to make my sauerkraut from start to finish than it took the Packers to play a football game.

The combination of a sauerkraut cutter (four blades vs one knife) and a pounder (one large chunk of wood with a long handle vs a wine bottle) made all the difference.  I had a one-woman assembly line going in my kitchen.  The cabbage went from sink, to cutting board (cut in quarters), to cutter, to weighing and salting, and into the bucket to be pounded and juiced.  I was so happy with how it all went.  Six large heads of cabbage are happily fermenting in the corner of my dining room.  I was able to get my husband to pound one round of cabbage during half-time when he popped in for a little coffee.

During the whole process, I was able to spend some time just thinking about how long the cutter has been making cabbage into fine shreds for our family.  It sat dormant for so many years, that seeing it in action again brought a little part of family history to life again, for me.  My dad was the person who ran the cabbage over those same blades.  Instead of a stainless steel bowl, my mother had her large, stoneware crock underneath it to catch the cabbage.  My younger sister and I were positioned underneath on either side throwing into the crock any stray pieces of cabbage as we watched our mother reach under to occasionally add salt to the layers.  As the crock filled, it would be slid out and one of my older sisters would take the pounder and push and pound the cabbage and salt together as it wilted.  The liquid would flow out from its cells to form a brine.  The process would continue until the crock was nearly filled.  It was covered with a large plate and a rock or other weight to keep the cabbage underneath the brine as it fermented.  The crock was pushed to a corner of the dining room until it was ready to be canned.  I remember it also being in the basement which may have been during a storage or fermenting period, but our basement wasn't really all that warm for fermenting. The University of Wisconsin Home Extension has a very good publication for making sauerkraut that explains the process very well.

I felt a connection to my father as I ran the cabbage over the blades.  I remember one time that he cut his finger pretty deeply when he allowed his hand to get too close to the cutting blades.  Adding a new quarter head to the top of the lower one kept my fingers out of harm's way.  I cut up the last portion with a knife to avoid the same fate as my father.  It is amazing to me to think he was younger than I am now when I sat on the floor at his feet picking up stray cabbage.  Parents always seem older until we reach that age ourselves.  

It was good to make that first run on my own to allow myself to swim in those memories a little deeper than I would have if I was distracted by conversation.  Now that I know what I am doing, next year it will have to be a party.  I think perogies should be on the menu...with dandelion wine!

A little bit of gardening in the little bit of light after work

The time has come for cleaning up the yard a bit.  I made my first cuttings of the season so the coleus can make it into next year's garden.  I put a few other plants in the garage so they don't get hit by frost until I can cut them back and take them in.  I always soak them through to make sure I don't bring a mouse family into my house again.

The light is growing short after work so I have to get things done a little bit at a time.  With the remaining light I had after the other jobs I did tonight, I started cleaning out the flower garden.  There are still some everlastings that will take a bit of cold so they get to stay.  The zinnias were still blooming so I cut a large vase of the best flowers.  I have opted to purchase seeds next spring and get just the two varieties I liked the best,  Benary's giant and cactus flowered.  Both are multicolored varieties.  The benefit of pulling out the zinnias and cosmos that have gone to seed is now you can really see the flowering kale that I planted behind all the rest.  The plants have grown up to two feet tall and are really starting to color up with the cooler weather and shorter days.  The wedding flower garden has taken on a whole new look by pulling out the brown and mildewed stems and letting a fall crop take the limelight.  I will have to add a photo when it is light enough to take one!

What's in your canning kettle?

I have been enjoying a little bit of domestic time now that the wedding is done and the flowers are no longer on the top of my list.  I will post pictures, but I promised my daughter that she gets first dibs on posting wedding pics.  She wants to share them with the florist first, who was absolutely terrific in working with us.

I thawed out the eight gallon bags I stowed in the freezer and made my spaghetti sauce this weekend.  When you start from frozen, it takes a bit more time.   Little by little I got them in the electric roaster and cooked them down.  A bit of this and a bit of that and 24 hours later, I had 10 quarts and seven pints of spaghetti sauce and an additional four pints of chili sauce.  I made a modification to the spaghetti sauce and added two tablespoons (minimum) of red wine vinegar to each quart of sauce to raise the acidity.  I water bath canned them instead of pressure canning with the increased acidity.  I have no meat in my sauce when I can it.  All should be good according to my research on the adaptation.  The chili sauce was in the Ball Book.  The smell of this cooking was delicious with all the spices and vinegar cooking down for several hours.

I also had a few pounds of pears from the neighbor.  We ate several fresh, but they start to over-ripen quickly so they are now pear chutney which I made from The Pickled Pantry.   This recipe also smelled so good as it was bubbling on my stove top.

I have windfall apples from my sister chilling in the frig for a new batch of applesauce.  Don't you just love autumn?!

Wedding flowers on the way!

I got up early with my buckets and scissors and headed out to the garden yesterday morning.  I carefully selected and trimmed each flower and tucked them into my buckets.

The best of the best went to Belle Fiori for their addition to the table and church arrangements.  Zinnias were definitely my go to flower for this was my most heavily planted as well as the most seasonally select in my garden.  The hydrangea bush still had a few blooms on it with a nice pink blush so those went in as well.  I had some statice and Mexican torch flowers that added to the bright colors my daughter desires for her fall wedding.  To round out the selection, I tucked in some previously cut and dried hare's tail grass.  Michelle did not like this from the seed catalog description, but I ordered it any way.  When she saw them hanging in the basement, she had to agree that they were going to be sweet additions.  The women in the flower shop were most intrigued by the grass of all the things I brought.

I get to see how things all came together tomorrow morning when we pick them all up.  I can hardly wait!