Annie... I like peaches and all but WOW that's a lot of peaches! I also happen to adore Hungarian Black peppers. Never thought about putting the two together before.

I got a problem with fruit salsas around here- they are all more like unjelled peach pie filling with tomato and some peppers than... well, good. Blueberry salsa is worse, heh.

Maybe if I ask nice will you share that particular recipe with me? Of I'm guessing a smaller batch. I'm willing to try a jar or few, but nothing like what you got on those tables.

I haven't put up much this year. More like tinkered around with stuff. Tried fermenting a couple half gallons of cucumber pickles- success, but too many pickles. Dehydrating pineapple, kiwi, ham and turkey lunchmeats, fresh plums and huge black grapes. Taking large pack chicken breasts on sale and working them up with seasonings for the freezer to pop off with seasoned chicken whatever.

Mother bed of garlic was good- half dozen half pint jars each of three flavors of pickled baby garlic- a red wine vinegar with herbs, dry white wine and rice vinegar, and a pub mix of red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, malt vinegar and pickling mix seasonings.

A dozen half pint jars of garlic salsa.

Left me with four ropes of 15 heads or so each of garlic hanging up in the kitchen. And I've already used one up in cooking!

I did use up the tails of last years garlic to make a couple pound batch of roasted garlic compound butter and another pound of butter to chive butter.

A few jars of flavored vinegars.. tarragon, Italian herbs, and nasturtium flowers. A nice batch of Italian herb spread of butter, olive oil, and a LOT of herbs. A pint of basil and nasturtium base pesto- left out the pine nuts and cheese.

Jack, it's not the kids that have a problem, it's the adults. Elery and I have been married 11 years. He has 4 kids and 8 grandkids, I have 2 daughters and 4 grandkids. My daughters and grandkids will eat venison without batting an eye, but his children will not touch it. His daughter, who is nearly 40, actually spit a piece of sausage out and threw it away when told it was venison, she says just the thought of it "freaks her out". But I grew up eating it, as did the kids and my granddaughter hunts, she got her first deer when she was 11. Elery never hunted before and none of his kids hunt, they all live in cities. They won't even taste it, so it would be a waste of good bacon. We'll eat it ourselves and feed his side of the family beef and chicken and won't tell them what they are missing!

Beesneeds, I've tried blueberry salsa, and I wasn't impressed, so maybe it's just not a good idea, or maybe we both need better recipes!

The only problem with all those peaches is that they are clingstone, so they're a fight to process, but they have a great flavor. I'll put some in the freezer for cobbler and pie, that doesn't need to be pretty. In the salsa, the Hungarians added a nice pop of color, I was very happy with that. I used this recipe, which is nice because it uses no tomatoes, and I don't have any! It's a sweet salsa, the kids just love the stuff. I cut the sugar in half and it's still plenty sweet for me. I've left the cilantro out, I've used part chopped pineapple, I've made a half batch, it's all good....

Peach Salsa

16 cups of peaches, peeled and cut into
chunks

2 large red onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 cups sweet peppers, your color
preference

½ cup hot peppers, chopped

3 cups sugar

3 ½ cups vinegar

1 ½ cups water

1 tbls powdered ginger or 3 tbls minced
fresh ginger

1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Chop all vegetables and fruit, or put
them into a food processor and pulse until chopped to your liking.
Pour into a large stainless steel pot, add remaining ingredients and
bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.

Fill jars with ½ inch headspace,
making sure solids are covered with liquids. Process 15 minutes.

Makes 11 pints (more or less)

Happy Canning!

Annie

And I'm still working on peaches, just put 6 quart bags into the freezer. Next is jam, think. I also think we're going to get our first frost tonight, and the egg supply is slowing down, we're going to have to turn on the lights!

I'm just going to update this, because I'm still canning. 20 half pints of hot pepper relish and 10 half pints of peach raspberry melba jam. The rest of the peaches may be ready for tomorrow. If not, I'll start some more chicken stock, I need to get those necks and backs out of the freezer.

Annie

I got my garlic planted on Saturday after we had a hard frost on Saturday morning. 29F at my house at daybreak. 133 cloves of 4 different varieties buried. I put welded wire fencing over the bed to keep the squirrels from digging up the cloves and replacing them with hickory nuts.

I have a sandwich bag jammed full of cloves that were rejected for planting that I plan to dehydrate next weekend for making garlic powder.

Jack, we still have not had a hard frost, although it's been close. I think tonight is the night. I'll be planting garlic in a couple of days too, and I have more than a sandwich bag that I'll have to dehydrate. That is definitely not a complaint, it's a blessing, I think.

I did make that stock and canned 5 quarts and a pint tonight, and I cut the kale, so I'll be starting that tomorrow morning. We've picked all the squash and pumpkins, the peppers and eggplant, nothing is left except leeks and collard greens. Both are pretty cold tolerant, so I'm not concerned about them, but I've got to get the collards in jars and the leeks in the dehydrator in the next week or so.

We locked two calves into the box stall in the barn for weaning too, so it's noisy here, in spite of all the "drops" from the apple trees that I keep tossing to the cows. I think I'll be pressing some cider this weekend too.

Annie

Annie - I bet it will be loud for awhile. We took all the calves over to another pasture miles away for weaning but they weren't too happy for a week or 2. I think we will be taking the 3 steers in for processing in February. I'm looking forward to that.

The cows should all be knocked up and the first calf may drop in January since it was mid March that the Angus bulls broke into the pasture.

Jack, the two reprobates escaped last night, I locked them back up this morning, LOL. The mamas are making a lot more noise than the calves.

Today I canned 5 quarts and 1 pint of chicken stock, and 13 quarts of collard greens. We'll be putting beef in the freezer in a few weeks, so I don't dare freeze anything else!

Annie

I bet the mamas aren't very comfortable with their udders full and no calves around to empty them.

Jack, I'm sure they are not. One is relatively calm about it, wanders up by the barn and hollers every few hours then goes back out into the pasture and eats. The other one, though, is a nervous wreck and spends most of her time standing next to the barn "talking" to her baby while he "talks" back. I'm sorry for the neighbors across the road!

I'll open the barn back up in a day or two, then they will be separated by a metal gate but they'll be able to see each other, touch noses over the gate, the calves can stand right next to Mom but not nurse. I've found that if I don't close that building up tight for a couple of days, though, the cows just about tear the barn down, while the "babies" (who are about 5 months old) try to jump fences and go through gates. A couple of days worth of noise is better than animals hurting themselves.

Today's canning? 7 more quarts of collard greens, with some more waiting for tomorrow. Elery likes greens a lot and we eat them at least twice a week, a quart at a time, so I need about 100 quarts to get through until next fall. I had 34 left from last year, so need 66 this year. 20 down, 46 to go! I'm going to have to demand that my daughters bring some jars back.....

Annie

I got my leftover garlic cloves dehydrated over the weekend and pickled 3 heads of cauliflower which made 5 pint and a halves plus one pint. This is my first time pickling cauliflower by itself although I've done a cauli, pepper, and cucumber medley before.

Jack, I still have garlic to dehydrate, but we'll be out of town this weekend and my 16 year old granddaughter is "babysitting" the animals, so I'm betting that I won't get garlic dehydrated until next week. I've been using it like crazy fresh, though.

My canning was brought to a standstill by one of those farm accidents that everyone dreads. My son in law was loading a bulldozer onto a trailer, securing it with a chain binder. The chain broke, snapped back and caught him full in the face. A broken nose, a lot of stitches and a couple of chipped teeth, along with a black eye, but he was very, very fortunate, I know men who have been killed like that. He says no more chains, which I've been preaching for years, from now on it's ratchet straps.

I still managed to get 5 or 6 bushels of Delicious apples and another bushel or so of Wolf River picked and sorted, I only managed to spray a couple of times and so most of the apples are destined for the cider press.

I'd like to get some onions while they are still inexpensive here and dehydrate those too.

Annie

Happy Halloween, y'all! It's almost time to invest in post Halloween pumpkins, so I wondered if you could help me with a dilemma. Normally, I purchase pumpkins, roast them, peel and puree them and freeze them for use all year long. I know canning pumpkin puree is bad, but can you can pumpkin chunks, then drain it and puree it when needed? I have lots of jars and limited freezer space, so I was hoping I could do something like that. We don't eat much pumpkin pie here but my family LOVES pumpkin bread, muffins, cookies, etc. Thanks!

PS. Annie, how is your son doing? I just read about his accident. Much better, I hope!!

missemerald, you can certainly can pumpkin chunks, and puree them as needed. I've done it and it turned out pretty well, I just made sure I drained the puree well in a sieve lined with cheesecloth before I used it, as it was a bit watery. That may have been the variety of pumpkin, as I've only done that one time, yours may be more dense and less watery.

My son in law is doing well, thank you for asking. We stacked a winter's worth of wood for him last weekend, it had been all cut and split, so the hard work was done. He has his own repair shop, and so he's back to work, although he's still finding it hard to lie down flat on a creeper or bend over much. The plastic surgeon did a great job stitching his face up, the scars will be barely noticeable, I think. The bridge of his nose is shattered but the eyesocket is healing well and they'll fix his nose after the swelling goes down. Still two black eyes and it looks like his modeling days are over, LOL.

For those "out of the loop", he was loading a bulldozer on a trailer and a chain binder broke, hitting him in the face. He's lucky that he got away with several dozen stitches and a broken nose and cheekbones, I've known men who have been killed doing that. So he's still taking painkillers to get through the day, but because he's self employed, he had to get back to work.

Here I'm still plugging away. Elery pressed cider today while I was doing inventory at Dave's shop. It's mostly Red Delicious, with some Wolf River, an unnamed russet type from a neighbor's tree and a few stray MacIntosh. I have 3 gallons in the freezer for Elery's kids, another gallon each for my two girls, a gallon in my refrigerator for drinking and 20 quarts in the freezer. I might take some from the refrigerator and make some apple cider jelly....

Tomorrow I'm pulling the leeks and getting them ready for the dehydrator, and sorting squash for storage. It snowed here all day today so I need to get the leeks out of the ground before the ground freezes and I have to chip them out!

Since I'm the last to post, I'm going to edit this to add that I put 13 bags of mashed butternut squash in the freezer, 2 cups per bag.

Annie

Annie - I hope your SIL heals up quickly. That accident really sounds scary!

You never stop putting stuff up do you?

I picked the last few heads of lettuce and a couple dozen radishes on Saturday. We had salads with a pizza for dinner last night and I made 5 salads for lunch this week. I guess my gardening season is officially over. I do have 2 gallon bags of already milled tomatoes in the freezer to make a couple more batches of your salsa over the winter. I'll wait until a bad weather day for that chore. I also have a couple dozen frozen tomatoes for chili. I always make a big pot of chili for deer season that starts on Nov. 16.

My garden beds are all cleaned up, composted, and lightly tilled. All that remains is to put a blanket of shredded leaves on the beds. I usually tackle the leaf collecting over the Thanksgiving week when I'm on vacation. Everything except the oaks should have fallen by then.

Jack, I see light at the end of the tunnel. I think. I still have leeks and garlic to dehydrate, but I planted 150 of the garlic cloves and I've been using them fresh like crazy, I might not have enough to dehydrate. I have a lot of leeks, though, so that'll fill in the gap, maybe.

My SIL is doing better than I thought he would, but he's still pretty miserable. Stitches were removed yesterday, but he still has appointments with the dentist, the plastic surgeon to fix his shattered nose, and he's still having some vision issues, which may or may not have to do with the head injury. He owns a heavy equipment repair shop, so he's working, no paid sick time when you're the boss, but I know he's struggling.

Canning on cold wintry days? Oh yeah, so much nicer than canning in August! Since we're supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow on Wednesday, those days are coming up fast. Chili sounds good.

Today I canned 4 quarts and a pint of beef stock from soup bones, trying to free up some freezer space. It doesn't look much different, that same SIL bought a 4H pig at the fair this year and had a couple of boxes of pork that needed a temporary home, so he filled my empty space right back up!

Annie

Annie - I'm glad to hear that your son-in-law is recovering, albeit slowly. Oh, how I long for your apples, and many other of your crops!

I have way too much garlic. I've been trying to figure out the best way to "preserve" it. It seems that dehydrating may be the way to go. I think it's already starting to degrade in quality. I need to do something with it quickly.

Margi - yes some varieties can degrade very quickly. I just dehydrated the rejected cloves from planting and the rest of the bulbs I put in a paper bag and into the crisper drawer of the fridge. Garlic keeps very well in the fridge but don't try to put your seed garlic in the fridge because it causes it to get vernalized before planting and then it gets confused when it goes thru the real winter. BTDT in 2017...less than 1/2 came back up in the spring of 2018.

Annie - no more snow in the extended forecast here after we got 2" last week but we do have some cold days coming up in the low 20s and even one in the teens overnight. Oh boy winter is here!

Thanks for the good wishes for my SIL. I told him to stop doing foolish things, he fell from the trailer of a semi two years ago and broke his arm, is still carrying the metal rods in his upper arm from that one. I also reminded him to check on his life insurance, LOL.

itsmce, I wish you were closer, I'd be happy to share. Some years we have such a bounty, other years not so much, but in a good year it's just so much and many people don't can or do any preserving any more.

When I dehydrate garlic I peel the garlic and just toss the cloves into my running food processor, gives me thin and uniform slices in a flash, then I dehydrate those. I keep some for cooking and grind the rest into garlic powder, make some garlic salt and some of my own seasoning blends. I keep them in jelly jars, but I find that those moisture removing packages are necessary to keep everything from turning into a block of garlic...

Jack, I've got to plug in tank heaters tomorrow, we're also going to get temperatures in the teens next week, a few days will never make it above freezer. I think it's time to consider lighting up the pellet stove...

Annie

Annie - It's going to be a cold week here too. The high today and tomorrow will not reach 32F and it's supposed to get down to near single digits tonight. We're supposed to get less than one inch of snow this morning. I saw that they were predicting 6" in a lot of Michigan...bummer!

My horseradish harvest didn't go as well as I was expecting. My well established 3'x3' bed had tons of tree roots growing into it from the trees about 50' away. I barely had any usable roots in there because the trees roots sucked all the life out of the HR. The new 3'x3' bed I started last fall that was another 30' further away from the trees only had 4 plants in it but those 4 plants produced some really nice thick roots. I ended up moving the bed closest to the trees another 60' further away from the trees line.

I got 4 cups of cleaned, peeled, and cubed HR root from the harvest.

I turned this

Into 10 - 4 oz. jars of finished HR. I store them in the freezer until needed.

Let me tell you that it was a very emotional experience when I took the lid off the little food processor I use to mince the roots. LOL

After I harvested, I replanted 9 crowns in each of the beds for next year. If they all grow as well as the plants in my newest bed did this year I should have tons to harvest next year.

Jack, you've beaten me on that, I've tried three times to grow horseradish and it died every time. Grandpa used to shake his head and tell me I was the only person he knew that could kill horseradish!

And, of course, I love the stuff. I've found what might be a very good spot for it, so I'm going to try again in the spring.

Right now it's 18F, and we got 5 inches of snow a couple of days ago. High of 23F tomorrow, this is more like January weather!

Annie

Annie - I hear you on the weather! We only got about an inch of snow but it was 7F yesterday morning. I hope you have better luck with the horseradish next year. I think the first year I grew it I planted it in the spring but now I just replant the crowns right after harvesting in November. Just don't plant it where tree roots will grow into it!

Jack, if tree roots grew into it, I'd probably get myself confused and end up grating oak tree roots or something equally inedible. Or maybe they aren't inedible.....

I put 9 more quart ziplocks of butternut squash puree in the freezer, anything that has a stem broken off won't keep. I also dehydrated my first batch of leeks, I got 2 half gallon jars full of dried leeks, about the same amount left to do. And I still haven't dehydrated the garlic.

Annie

Wish I could have preserved a lot this year, but it just wasn't in the cards. My tractor and tiller were both down so just did a small container garden on the south facing front porch. Not enough for canning, just fresh eating. Was down most of June with a bad case of pneumonia and it took quite a while to recover. I finally had surgery on my right hand for Carpal Tunnel the 28th of October and still am on limits. Also found out my right hip was deteriorating and it's too soon to do anything about it. A week ago Friday was my last day at work. I loved working the garden center all summer, but was back inside and working on concrete all the time, including when in the garden center, was just too much.

I did manage to get a little canning done. So far green beans, zucchini relish, pickled cherry tomatoes, whole cranberry sauce, jalapeño spiked cherry preserves and applesauce. Still have a peck of apples that I got to dehydrate but think maybe too old for that. They are still good, but only better for more applesauce. Have all the ingredients for Habanero Gold, Blueberry Lime Jam and Apple Pie Jam. I got ten pounds of russet potatoes on sale yesterday for $1.99 so think dehydrating them would be a good idea. Also have a lot of onions that are destined for the dehydrater.

The grocery had turkeys on sale the other day for .37 a pound so I bought a nice sized one to add to the one already in the freezer along with two bone in turkey breasts. I need to do something with them. Maybe smoke one of the whole ones. Need to clean out the freezers.

Stll have chickens and ducks but for eggs only, not meat. I'd heard if you don't name them they aren't pets. Not true.

Madonna

Nah, they're still pets, even if you don't name them. I also got 10 pounds of russet potatoes for $1.99 but have 14 possible for Thanksgiving, so that'll use those up.

I'm still working on cleaning the freezer, so I cured a pork loin and Elery smoked it for Canadian Bacon. Then we sliced it and put it back into the freezer, LOL.

We had a beef slaughtered last week, so I've got to make freezer room. She was a good cow and a great mama, but she had those Highland horns and she made life miserable for all the other animals on the farm, as no one else has horns to protect themselves. She was getting more aggressive with people too, and I was no longer confident that she was safe to be around. So, we'll be getting a lot of hamburger and a couple of nice tenderloins which will be used for Christmas family parties.

I finally got the garlic sliced and dehydrated, so that's one of my last jobs this year.

Jack, I saw on the news that there was a horseradish shortage this year, so guard that stuff carefully, Arby's will be coming for it, LOL.

Annie

Cabbage help? So, I harvested 6 good heads (3 each red & green) of cabbage from the garden this week, but have no idea what to do with it! We don't really care for slaw or sauerkraut around here, and boiled cabbage is just ... blah. I admit, I bought the plants on clearance at Lowe's near the end of summer (along with the broccoli plants) just to see what would happen. The broccoli has already been blanched and frozen, but the cabbage...? Suggestions welcome!

Well, I canned some borscht, but you need beef, potatoes and beets for that. Peppi cans a very nice sweet and sour red cabbage and I canned some cabbage soup with ground venison and the end of the garden vegetables, using the NCHFP guidelines for processing and made sure I had the 50/50 broth and solids ratio:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/soups.html

I still have some red cabbage in my storage room with the butternut squash, but I'm going to have to use it pretty soon, I used the green stuff for sauerkraut and only have a couple of heads of red cabbage, so not really enough to can Peppi's cabbage. Good thing we like it just sauteed or in soups!

I'm guessing you don't have cold storage or a root cellar, so that's out. You could make a pickled relish out of it, though, if you think you'd use that.

What a lovely dilemma, having too much!

Annie

missemerald, have you considered drying the cabbage? Just a thought. I have diced it and dehydrated it. Add to soups and stews.

Thank you, Canfan, for posting that you have dried cabbage. I have some to do something with and that will work. I like adding it to soups and stews, too.

Yes, Annie, they are still pets even if you don't name them. Last night I was late getting out to secure them in their coops and there was a 'possum feasting on my pretty black "Baby" inside the big coop. Baby was the only survivor of the five chicks hatched this summer. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to the rodent. All of the other birds except my huge Blue Orpington rooster and and a Gold Laced Wyandotte were hiding in the small coop with the ducks. I grabbed up those last two and put them in the small coop, too. I went out early tonight and when it was time, all the birds put themselves up in the small coop. Not one went to the large coop. Ten, or is it twelve, hens, two roosters and two ducks in a coop for six chickens - through their choice. Oh, and I was late getting out there last evening because I made Blueberry Lime Jam and another batch of Apple Pie Jam.

Madonna

Darn, I'm sorry to hear about Baby, I hate it when things like that happen. It's why mine have fenced runs unless I'm there to "supervise". My predators are raccoons, coyotes, foxes and a big owl that lives in the barn, plus the neighbor's dog and various feral cats. So, mine only get to play in the yard or the garden when I'm there to keep them safe, otherwise, they go into "Fort Knox" where they are protected. It's a BIG fenced run for the 15 chickens I have right now, so they just scratch in the dirt and take dust baths until I'm there to work in the garden or cut rhubarb or wait for the farrier. They've learned that I open the gate and they can go out, but when I call and toss a handful of scratch feed into the enclosure they march right back in.

I'll be getting new young layers in the Spring, so probably 3 dozen this time, I've been selling every egg I can spare to the B&B across the street.

You remind me, I have blueberries in the freezer and no jam, I need to work on that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Annie

Happy belated Thanksgiving. I'm back at work after 10 days off.

Annie - that Canadian Bacon looks amazing! I didn't hear about the horseradish shortage but I just googled it. It seems that the worlds largest HR grower in WI wasn't able to harvest half of their crop this fall due to an early snowfall. They'll have to wait until the ground thaws in the spring to harvest the rest. I'll have to lock my freezer to keep Arby's out of there!

I found time to make another batch of Annie's Salsa using a bag of tomatoes that I milled back in August. I did have to buy the peppers and cilantro though because I wasn't sure how using frozen peppers would turn out. I also made a double batch of Chili using frozen whole tomatoes and froze it for lunches at work. Lastly I made 3 turkey pot pies with leftover TG turkey and frozen garden veggies. We ate one for dinner last night and I cut one into 4 pieces and froze it for lunches. I took the other one over to a friend that had a double knee replacement last Monday.

Thanks for the cabbage suggestions, everyone. Annie, I'm pretty sure I'd love sweet and sour red cabbage, and equally sure the fam would not. Good thing I have a dehydrator, I never thought about that!

I wish I had chickens, named or not. I am so jealous of all of you. My HOA won't allow them. The county will, but it's like jumping through hoops to get permits and whatnot. They just lowered the permit cost for chickens to "just" $435, so I guess that's something. They also measure chickens in "units". Is that a thing?

Still canning here. Defrosted and canned my last turkey from last year, just in time to buy more this year. Today, I canned 6 1/2 quarts of turkey stock, which I thought was an accomplishment.

Have a good evening, everyone. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Jack, the Canadian Bacon turned out well, not too smokey, but just enough, I was happy with it. If I just had some horseradish sauce to go with it. (grin) Not really, I have a jar in the fridge, so hopefully it'll last until the shortage is over. Good luck to your friend with the knee replacement. Our neighbor just had a hip replaced and they did it as outpatient surgery, sent him home the same day, I was amazed! The pot pie will be very appreciated, I think.

Missemerald, I'm sorry about the chickens. Heck, every chicken I own didn't cost $435.00! Wow. I should have canned some turkey stock with the carcass from mine, but we made soup and my daughters took some home, so not enough left for stock.

I did put some more butternut squash in the freezer, but the beef isn't finished yet and I need to save all the extra room I have. I did use several jars of my home canned goodies for Thanksgiving dinner, so I had to take a case of empties to the pole barn, and the stack of milk crates holding the jars that wouldn't fit in my pantry got a little smaller.

Annie

No one else?

We finally got the beef back from the processor, he was stacked up with deer and that slowed him down. All the freezers are full now, we picked up 433 pounds of beef.

We were down to one stick of venison sausage too, and Elery likes to slice those up and put them with crackers for a snack when people are over during the holidays, so he made some more:

I left one package in the refrigerator for him to snack on, and put the other 7 in the freezer, taking up the last bit of room available. I MIGHT be able to squeeze in some cookie dough, with Christmas coming up on us fast, but it's going to be a tight fit!

Annie

Annie, that venison sausage looks mighty tasty! I also saw your Canadian bacon, that looked good also. Makes me want to branch out! Which reminds me, have you tried Peameal Bacon? We had it in Canada this summer, really tasty stuff. it occurs to me that this crowd might really like it. I'm gonna try and make it when I get a deal on pork loins. If you like Canafian Bavon, try this stuff.

General question to anyone here: when is the best time to plant garlic? We have not yet had a hard freeze and the dirt has not frozen. Can I just use garlic cloves from the grocery store, or do I need to get something else? Have I left it too late?

Random thought: the garden looks so sad, as empty as it is now...

missemerald - it's not too late to plant garlic. I've heard of some people planting into frozen soil using an auger to drill holes. You can plant store bought garlic. Usually store garlic is a softneck type called California early or California Late. You won't get garlic scapes from solftneck types though. You want to plant it with the tip about 2" deep and then mulch with some straw or shredded leaves.

Annie - pass the sausage and crackers please. I didn't kill a deer this year so no sausage for me. I had plenty of chances to shoot a doe but never did. I was waiting on a big buck that I've seen a few times on my property. There is another short 3 day season the weekend between Xmas and New Years that I may hunt if the weather is decent.

Just to add to what Jack said about growing garlic. Be sure to buy your garlic at an organic market or someplace like Costco or Whole Foods. Garlic in the big chain grocery stores has often had a growth inhibitor chemical applied which stunts the growth of the cloves. I made this mistake the first two years that I grew garlic. It sprouted but never grew and the cloves were basically non-existent.

https://www.homegrownfun.com/how-to-grow-garlic-grocery-store-farmers-market-certified-seed/

http://www.raiseyourgarden.com/home/the-green-thumbs-guide-to-planting-enjoying-gorgeous-garlic

Thanks for the garlic growing tips, everyone! I will definitely check out the organic markets around here to get some... Costco and Sam's, though? I had no idea it was organic there!

I believe my kids will have a task after school this week..planting garlic!

The Costco I usually go to has had organic garlic, Northern VA. I cannot vouch for Sam's.

missemerald, I hope you find some organic garlic or hardneck garlic to plant. That will likely give you great results. But if you don't find what you want, try growing whatever you can find. My first attempt was a spur of the moment thing with grocery store garlic...a cheap multi-pack at that. I've grown several other kinds since that I like a lot, but that first one is still in the mix as it did well for me. Never know unless you try.

missemerald, I do make peameal bacon also, my Grandpa came from a place north of Toronto called Buckhorn, and peameal bacon is a very regional thing from that area. I use the same brining technique as I do when making Canadian Bacon, but I don't smoke it, it's just cured. It makes an awesome breakfast sandwich BTW!

Jack, I just saw about a dozen deer stroll right across my yard, and I think every single one was a doe, and a couple were big does. My interest is never in the horns, only in what's going into my freezer, so I've encouraged everyone to take does and keep the population at manageable levels. So, what does Elery do? First he shoots a spike horn then the next day he shoots a 4 point. Pffft. Doesn't listen (grin) This group was heading to the creek below the pond, it never freezes, so there's fresh running water there all winter. I took this picture out my front living room window, sitting at the computer!

Annie

Annie - I rarely see that many deer in a group here. Usually it is 4 to 6 at most. This year I saw the same 3 does and a 6 month old fawn come out of the corn between 8:00 and 8:15 every day I hunted. Don't really know why I didn't take one of them.

I've read about deer in the northern tier of states yarding up into huge groups when the snow cover is deep. They do it to conserve energy and warmth. They can wipe out an evergreen forest by eating all of the saplings and stripping the mature trees of bark.

They finally got the corn out of the field east of me this weekend. I don't recall ever seeing corn still standing this late in the year but then they didn't get it planted until mid June which is 6 weeks later than normal.

Jack, that was actually part of a bigger group, they walk along the back edge of my pond and down the hill to the pond, so part were still in the woods on the right side of the picture and part had already gone over the bank and down to the creek.

Several neighbors still have corn standing in the fields, and the deer are loving it. Farmers had a hard time this year here too, like your area things were 6 weeks late being planted, and then they weren't ready to be harvested before the snow came. We usually get a third cutting of alfalfa hay, only two cuttings this year so hay is going to be expensive. Thankfully I have enough. We have some local farmers that planted hemp, and the price on that is pretty good, except that buyers are hard to find.

Today I'm making cookie dough for the freezer, we'll bake it off as we need it. Does that count as preserving? It's preserving my diet by not baking them all, LOL.

Annie

Annie - Hemp is becoming very popular here too. CBD American Shaman, which was founded here in KC, is contracting with several farmers in the area. They are very particular with how it is grown and make sure the THC content is below the 0.3% limit for CBD extracts. They are building a new processing plant here as well.

I count anything that is put in the freezer preserving. If I put a 12 pack of beer in the freezer to chill it down quickly that is also preserving...I'm pickling my liver!!

Well, Jack, I know a LOT of people who do home preserving, then, if freezing beer counts! (grin)

Annie

Annie - we had a calf born yesterday at some point. I'm going over there this morning to check it out and take some pictures. Not sure if it's a boy or girl yet. We may need to bottle feed it with milk replacer until the mother starts producing milk. Our other 6 cows should be calving sometime in the next few months.

Luckily for the calf the weather is and will be mild. It was in the low 50s yesterday and we are supposed to be in the upper 50s and low 60s all of this week. If the calf was born during the snowstorm last weekend it might have had a hard time. Hopefully the weather will be mild when the other calves drop.

Question for you. How old should heifers be before they are bred the first time? We have 2 that are 14 and 16 months old now. Right now they are in a different pasture from the bull along with our 4 steer.

Edit : I went over to check out the calf this morning. We threw some feed in the trough to bring the cows up to the fence. All of them came up except the new momma and the calf. They stayed about 75 yards away but the calf did stand up and then they both moved off even further away. The calf looked healthy and was jumping around and even running a little. They are so fun to watch when little! All we could tell is that it is mostly black with some white on its face. Going back over this afternoon and we will go in for a closer look and watch to see if it's feeding yet.

Jack, I don't like to breed heifers until they are at least two, and if they seem a little small, I'll wait longer than that. The one thing I don't want to do is have to pull a calf because Mama is too small in the pelvis, and so I wait, I always err on the side of caution in such matters.

I doubt that you'll have to bottle feed that calf. It needs the first colostrum from Mom, of course, for the immunities and antibodies in that, and for gut health. If that baby is on its feet and moving around, and Mom is letting it nurse, it's getting what it needs the most. Mama will start producing milk after the first couple of days, it will replace the production of colostrum. I haven't had a single cow that hasn't produced enough milk and usually they are so engorged with milk by the time they calve that I feel sorry for them, and hope their baby is a big eater! Congratulations on the addition to your herd, I hope it's a heifer if you want to increase your current breeding stock. I do love the calves. When I have a pregnant cow I just watch and wait, and hold my breath until I see that baby on its feet and nursing, and then I smile. It just makes me happy.

It's almost 2020, but I'm still sorting through butternut squash and freezing the ones that are beginning to show signs of age, so I put another 10 bags of squash in the freezer.

Annie

Annie - thanks for sharing your cowgirl expertise! That was very helpful. I had read 18-24 months before breeding is recommended but 18 months seemed too soon to me. The oldest heifer will be 2 in September so that would be a good time to have them bred to get a late spring calf.

I watched the momma and calf at a distance with binoculars and saw it feeding so I guess it is getting the colostrum it needs. Later we went out into the pasture to get a closer look at the calf and put out a hay bale. It is a male so no increasing the herd with this one. Several of the other cows look like they could drop a calf any day now. I tried to get a good picture but with the glare of the sun and not being able to get real close the pictures I took didn't turn out well. It is very cute with the all white face.

What do you do with all that frozen squash? Can you make zucchini bread with butternut? I just imagine it as enough squash puree to feed 100 babies for a year!

The only thing close to preserving that I've done recently is to grind some dehydrated garlic and onions into powder. I'd like to make some of it into garlic salt and onion salt but I need to research what ratio of salt to powder to use. Any idea?

LOL, Jack, I don't even know that many babies!

I use the frozen squash in place of pumpkin to make pies or pumpkin bread, and I have a dinner roll recipes that uses it too. My oldest daughter is extremely fond of that sweet potato casserole with the brown sugar/marshmallow topping, and that's good with squash too. I make a squash soup, much like the stuff found at Panera Bread, and we just eat some of it as a side dish. My mother loves it, so double bonus on that, she's getting pickier as she gets older.

Funny about those white faces, it's a dominant trait, so even the black ones get some white on their faces and some of them are just so darned cute. Whenever I try to get a picture of one, it seems like Mama wants to plant herself right between my camera and that baby, pictures are hard to get!

Annie

Well here is the crappy picture I managed to get. I took 5 or 6 and this was the best one.

I blame the sun. LOL

Edit : We had another calf born sometime between Christmas Eve and this morning. It is a heifer, brown with a mostly white face. We wouldn't have seen it but my buddy noticed a coyote running though the field next door so we went down to check on the first calf and there were 2 calves and their mommas hanging out at the far end of the pasture.

Annie - how long do you wait from calving to breed a cow again? Can we breed the cows that calve this winter in late fall 2020? That would be ideal if we can time the calves to be born around September 2021.

Oh, Jack, nice red cows. You know I do like my Herefords, and I still get a "surprise" calf every now an then, like that one last November!

Absolutely you can breed those cows this fall. I had one old Hereford that had a calf every single year for 18 years. Even when I tried to give her a break and not breed her back, she managed to escape or mingle where she wasn't supposed to and then we'd have a calf. She was dedicated! (grin) I've had other cows that would skip a couple of cycles but not that one, LOL. Anyway, as long as your girls are in good shape physically, which they should be after a summer on pasture, you're good to go. I like to wean a calf at about 5 months and give Mom a little time to put some weight back on before she's bred again, so that would put you nicely into fall with those winter calves you have now.

Annie