The Weekly Digs #218

Preserving

I set out to go get some more grapes from the farm stand this week because I was hoping to get to 50 jars of grape juice this year. All the farm stands we go to are pretty far away from our house, so I always call first to make sure they have what I need. 

We have 3 options of different local farm stands and all three said either they had a failed grape harvest, or they didn’t have enough to sell in bulk. It was super disappointing! 

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I haven’t planted any grapes yet on our own property but this let down has motivated me to get some planted next Spring. It will still be three years until they are big enough that we will get a harvest.

I also realize that if the local farmers didn’t get grapes it means that I probably wouldn’t have been able to get them either in my garden. Fruit is tricky because it only takes one late freeze to wipe out an entire harvest. 

I love Concord, Mars, and Sunbelt grapes (all slipskin types) but recently I tried some muscadine white grape juice and it was the best thing I’ve ever tasted. 

Since muscadine grapes are native to the southeast and handle the bugs, disease, and humidity well, I’m probably going to start by planting a few varieties of muscadines before I venture into the other types.

I did end up at the farm stand anyway and I got apples, peaches, and pears instead. I got a ton of apples because I really didn’t want to miss out on the apple harvest too.

I made 7 quarts of applesauce, then decided to freeze dry some. I haven’t shared this yet, but you’ll see on next week’s YT video, we upgraded our freeze dryer to a XL size! It’s huge! I got my XL freeze dryer HERE.

We put all the apples on the trays and froze them in our deep freezer. I like to pre-freeze everything since it saves some energy.

Then we set up the new XL freeze dryer after the fact and realized even though it was a 110 volt plug in, it used a different kind of outlet and it also needed a dedicated 20 amp circuit. 

I had shown the requirements to Cam before we got it, and Cam said he must have looked at it too quickly and when he saw the 110 volt power he just assumed it was the same. 

Cam said he could probably run a line himself and do the electrical but I recommended we pay a professional just to make sure it’s all done right.

Cam is very handy and knows how to DIY a lot of things but I always feel a little uncomfortable about electrical stuff since it’s more risky to mess with.

I was able to convince him that we have so much on our plate already, it’s ok to outsource sometimes 🙂 We have a neighbor that is an electrician, and he will likely make it out next week to get it done.

In the Garden

In the garden, I planted two rows in my caterpillar tunnel with Napoli carrots. They mature in 55 days. I’m not sure if they will be large enough by winter, but I’m experimenting.

The grasshopper and cricket damage on my other set of carrots was pretty extreme so I hope the ones in the tunnel do better.

We are harvesting zucchini, cherry and slicing tomatoes, collards, cilantro, lettuce, green beans, and corn right now. 

Books I’m Reading

Thanks for all the blog ideas last week too! I decided to periodically add a few other interesting tidbits to the weekly digs and this one is per request: Books I’m reading right now.

First is what book is on my nightstand right now: Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms. 

I’m about a third of the way through the book, but so far I’m really liking it. In the intro and first couple of chapters I was highlighting so many good thoughts! I don’t think I’ve ever highlighted so much of a book before.

The other one I recently purchased and gave to my kids is 1000 Hours Outside: Activities to Match Screen Time with Green Time.

It’s a good book, but not exactly what I was expecting. The book contains ideas for things that the kids can do outside. My kids made flower crowns, picked zinnias and froze them in silicone trays with water to make flower ice, and did tic tac toe with sticks and stones.

It had some fun and creative ideas, but there were also a lot of obvious things like nature walks and playing in puddles as something to do outside. It’s a good book to borrow from the library instead of purchasing. I think it would be the most fun and used for kids ages 3-10.