Neither Here Nor There

When Life Gives You Grapes....

Ok, we know how this is going to end, right?

When I casually asked my neighbour earlier in the summer if she ever did anything with her grapevine behind their barn, I honestly wasn't hinting.  I totally forgot all about it until there was a knock at the door yesterday with her 8 yr old daughter standing there heaving a basket of grapes up to me.

What else could I do?  I made grape juice.   I had to, because at the rate Natalie was eating the grapes themselves, I was risking massive purple diaper blowouts.

So one of these:

Made two of these (cleaned and destemmed):

And made a lot of these (mashed, boiled, sieved, settled, sieved, boiled, bottled, boiled):

It sounds like a lot of work, but it really wasn't.  It was easy!  And the juice has absolutely nothing added but is honestly one of the best tasting grape juices I have ever had.  It's that perfect mixture of sweet/tart.  I'm not sure if my Weck canning system worked and the seals actually sealed (I'll find out tomorrow), but I don't think I'll have any problem getting rid of the juice before it goes bad.

That's more than I can say about Natalie.  Seems like she's taken to the canning pot.

*by the way: this is a different neighbour than the one who shares her apple orchard with me.  I know, I know, I seem to have an affinity for mooching fruit off neighbours.  But we do have our own plum tree....

The Fruits of Our Weekend

I had a strong craving for hummus lately but I always have an issue finding something to dip into it.  Long story short, I had Vanessa making homemade pitas in no time! No kidding, she actually had an excellent handle (no pun intended) on the rolling pin and making them *just so*.

About half of the puffed, so I consider that a success.

(and the recipe, of course..)

Next up, Apples!  I took the girls in the bike trailer out to our 'community orchard' out in the country (really, its our neighbours, but 'community' sounds so much hipper than me just sponging fruit off people) to pick some apples.  This was our second weekend out there, so all in all, we got about a bushel.  I'd love to say 'we' for the next sentence, but lets be honest: When you peel over 100 apples by yourself, you kind of want the credit for it yourself.   Here's a batch getting ready for the freezer. 

I mixed the wedges up with some ascorbic acid (other wise none as Vitamin C) powder (to keep them from browning) and sugar (to hold their texture and flavor) and Voila! Now we have a freezer full of apples to keep us through the winter.  They aren't as green as they look, by the way - I just took a crappy picture.

I couldn't let them ALL go in the freezer, so I made a yummy breakfast for the girls by experimenting.  Here's what I came up with:

Baked Apple Oatmeal:
3 cups of oatmeal
2 cups of sliced apples
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup of oil
1 cup of milk
a handful of flax seed
2 Tbsp maple syrup
cinnamon, to taste

Mix up the dry ingredients first, then the wet, then bake it all in a greased casserole dish at 175°C until its brown.  

The kids LOVED it!

Stand in the place where you live

She stands on her own!  Luckily, as I always do, I had my camera handy.  Look how proud she is.

She's such a little monkey - she also climbs...

Rips apart roses...(check out the 'caught' face!)

And steals apples.

Speaking of fruit, we did a fruit run today.....Something tells me I'm going to be baking this week.

Milk Run Day

We've been buying raw milk from a local farmer, and we have been totally underestimating how much we go through - so we had to do an unexpected milk run out to the farm today.  I can't believe we went through 4 Litres of milk in 3 days.  How can 2 little girls drink so much milk?

We love to take the kids out to a farm every chance we get, its always a lots of fun for them, esp this farm.  The family loves kids running around, and our kids love going there.   It win-win.  Plus, in a nutshell, our milk source gives us the following:

• The opportunity to buy local
• The opportunity to show Vanessa where it comes from
• A fresh supply of healthier, hormone-free and probiotic milk

It starts here:

And ends up here:

Yummy, creamy, goodness.  Nectar of the.....uh, cows.

As for any question about the benefits or dangers of raw milk, here is a brief overview:

• raw milk products in childhood has a “protective” effect for some allergic conditions (e.g., asthma, hay fever, eczema)
• raw milk and cheeses may contain microflora (“beneficial bacteria”) that produce metabolites and other antibacterial compounds that may be toxic to foodborne pathogens
• pasteurization is a process that is often used to cover bad farming practices (crowded feedlots, grain feeding, treatment with antibiotics and hormones, etc.) in mass production - something that isn't a worry if you have a local, well-maintained source
• raw milk in germany is regulated tested exhaustively, and has been shown to be of the highest quality

Bottoms up!