A HUGE thank you to Susan and the Shepherding Camp crew who came out to help put up fencing and to learn why you should never, ever buy a property that isn’t already cleared and fenced, even if all you’re putting out there is a vegetable garden and a dog.
Although we lose an hour of daylight in the evenings now I am thankful the weather has helped out this effort by being so very beautiful this weekend.
I could use a month of days like this.
Halloween is already over, can you believe it? I swear time goes faster and faster every year.
I didn’t manage to get many pictures once we got out with our friends but I did get a few of the kids to show off.
The star costume this year was Emily’s – she went as a Weeping Angel from Doctor Who.
Oona went as a witch (after changing her mind thousands of times) and Neve went as Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride.
The only disappointment of the evening was the lack of houses giving out candy. It seemed no one really wanted to participate in Halloween this year. Of course, less candy in Oona’s bag is not necessarily a bad thing for my sanity.
We are all pretty proud of how Emily’s costume turned out. It was a collective DIY effort, and at times I thought it was going to thoroughly kick my butt. Props to Maddie and Emily for sculpting the face. I am especially proud of the wig (chunky black yarn sewn onto panty hose and sprayed with faux-stone paint from Lowe’s).
There were a few things we didn’t quite finish on it (her eyes should have been covered over to look like a statue’s) but for a few hours of fun, I’d say it was rather amazing.
Creepy, right?
As luck (and awesomeness) would have it, my friend Jessie’s daughter Katie went as a Weeping Angel as well. The two of them together was pretty neat.
It’s too bad they wanted to trick or treat – it would have been quite scary for them to stay on the porch to hand out candy.
We spent the calm after the storm getting ready for a very much anticipated holiday. Halloween is a big deal around here.
This year was a little less festive than previous years – we’ve been very farm focused (and HEY! All of our fencing posts are in the ground as of today!) and also my friend Elizabeth did not host her annual party, as her husband has a broken leg.
But no matter! Some traditions carry on.
Today we watched:
The Nightmare Before Christmas, Scary Godmother, Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, and The Village.
School work for today was fun Halloween coloring and making our pumpkins.
Everyone chose their patterns and spent several hours cleaning out and carving their pumpkins.
Gulliver pitched in as well.
All of the pumpkin guts went out to the chickens, who greedily ate up their fall treat.
For dinner I whipped up a Tomato – Cheese Soup and some lovely little witch – hat – shaped parmesan and dijon in puff pastry.
Left to right: Neve’s Kitty in a Tree, Oona’s Kitty, Emily’s Jack Skellington, and Maddie’s Doctor Who.
Tomorrow night it’s Halloween craft and movie marathon day for school and then it’s off to my friend Jessie’s for trick or treating.
Happy Haunting!
For the Parmesan Puffs I bought some frozen puff pastry and rolled it out a bit once it softened up. I spread some Dijon mustard and some paprika on the bottom layer and then covered that with parmesan cheese (FRESH!!). I placed the second piece of puff pastry on top, brushed it with melted butter and popped it in the oven at 375 for about 15 minutes.
If you live on the east coast, chances are you are waiting for “Frankenstorm” to hit.
We made sure all of our vehicles had gas, went grocery shopping and did all of our dishes and laundry.
Fortunately (for us) it looks like the storm will be hitting a bit north of us, so we likely won’t have to worry about much weather, but better safe than sorry, right?
We spent some time putting posts in the ground and plotting out the fence line yesterday, making sure that whatever tree trunks and brush that is still out there won’t interfere.
Today is pretty grey and windy, but so far no rain. Paul is working on more posts while he can, and I am enjoying some rare quiet time in the house.
Oona has been sick with some sort of virus that makes her tired and irritable, and she has spent a large portion of the day asleep on the couch with Gully.
So really we are in a state of “Watch and wait” to see what will happen with the storm. I made pumpkin bread from a Trader Joe’s mix that Susan gave me (I added pumpkin seeds to the top – delicious!).
I worked on Emily’s Haloween costume a bit (sneak peak of her wig….)
And I have been working on the second sock of my Halloween pumpkin socks.
Hopefully we won’t lose power, but if we do, there’s plenty of candles and fuel for the fireplace. Either way, we’re all cozy and toasty and enjoying a lazy fall SUnday.
Happy weekend!
What DOES one do with 76 pounds of apples?
A lot.
There’s my Butternut Squash and Apple Soup. Apple Pie. There’s Martha’s German Sausages with Apples and Saurkraut. Fried Apple Rings. Brie and Apple Tarts.
You can chop up or slice apples and put them in pancake batter, on waffles, in crepes. You can eat them sliced with a good quality cheddar or other cheese. Throw some on a sandwich with some ham and goat cheese.
Apples are ridiculously versatile. They go equally well with sweet and savory foods which is why you will find them in everything from pies to curries.
Around here, though, we use an awful lot to stock our larder withe the grandmother of all comfort foods: applesauce.
I try to fill the freezer each fall and it usually lasts until around the end of January. This year we may get a few moths more, with all these apples!
We like the deeper and smokier, more complex flavor that comes from roasting the apples before pureeing.
Chop up as many apples as will fit in your baking dish. I usually do one 9 x 13 pan at a time so I am not enslaved to the applesauce all day.
You can leave the chunks fairly large.
For this size pan I add about 1/3 packed cup dark brown sugar, about 3 to 4 TBS cinnamon, 1 tsp cloves and a dash of nutmeg plus half a stick of butter, sliced into TBS – sized chunks (so about 4 TBS).
Mix everything just enough to incorporate the sugars and spices in with the apples.
Then put in a 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes to an hour – checking every 15 minutes or so to turn over apples and prevent the top from burning.
Once the apples look nice and soft and juicy and brown you can remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool enough to puree.
I use a stick blender to puree the apples – you can use a food processor or blender if you like.
I store about a jar at a time in the fridge – it never lasts more than a few days with these apple-vores around here. The rest I freeze in large mason jars and defrost as needed.
YUM!
Today we took a school field trip out to the local orchard for apple picking.
The kids have been waiting not – so – patiently for this for a few months now, but I wanted to wait until the orchard had a wider selection of apples than just Jonagold and Golden Delicious.
Today we were in luck and nabbed ourselves some Fuji, Winesap and Jonagolds.
It wasn’t the best day for picture – taking, unfortunately. It was very, very bright and very windy.
It didn’t take long to fill up our bags and trudge back up to the apple barn to pay.
And pay we did. We picked SEVENTY SIX POUNDS OF APPLES.
That’s a lot of apples to carry. And we made sure we got some fresh apple cider donuts and apple cider slushies.
It was a very sugary morning, and now I have SEVENTY SIX POUNDS of apples in my kitchen.
There’s going to be a lot of apple sauce happening this week.
I cannot believe it is already October, can you?
I wish I could say there’s something to report other than burning, burning, and more burning.
The good news is that instead of a giant pile of brush preventing us from installing the fencing, we now have a small pile of smoking ash and small chunks of trees.
Today was rainy and chilly (a perfect start to October, if I do say so) so we didn’t start mapping out the fence line.
We did have school, nap, and watched old episodes of Warehouse 13.
I made Butternut Squash and Apple Soup (but this time I slow roasted the squash and apples in butter before pureeing them).
I worked some more on my Halloween socks, and the kids got a little stir crazy.
You can tell by the pretty princess wings Gulliver’s been sporting.
Two days of school are behind us. I think we are getting close to figuring out our rhythm for the year, and I am rather pleased with how well it has been so far. Oona has taken to it like a dream (as long as I get her lessons done first thing. She gets antsy if she waits too long).
Last year we did a lot of work on letters and sounds, shapes and colors, so this year we are expanding on that with sight words and counting and basic geometry.
Neve is starting off reading the first Harry Potter book. I’m excited to see how much more she’ll enjoy the books than the movies.
Emily doesn’t really care what I put in front of her to read; she’d just be happier if she could sleep till noon first.
Maddie’s working on some advanced math and chemistry that terrifies me. Good thing I have teacher’s guides. And a husband who is a whiz at both.
And to complete our cozy little schoolroom, we even have a class bully.
Hey kid. Gimme all your snacks or I’ll come sit on your book.
I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that it is the first of September. Not only does this begin my favorite part of the entire year, but this fall promises to be more exciting than most.
Right now there is excavating happening out in our stream, in preparation for a culvert to be placed. This way we can actually get over the stream with things like hay and feed.
This is the last big push before the fencing goes up.
While Paul digs out the stream I am busy preparing lesson plans and getting everything ready for school to start on Tuesday. This year we have a new addition to our class: Maddie. She’ll be joining us as a student and working hard to get ready for college next year. She’ll be bunking with Neve in the former playroom, and I am looking forward to having an extra set of helping hands around!
Merry Magpie Farm 