Visitors to Our Farm; Canning/Drying Peachs and Apples

I wish I could say I have been sitting here in the garden.

 But we have been trying to keep up with the dropping fruit and vegetables that are getting too large.  We sliced peaches, sulfured them in the same manner we do our apricots; and then laid them out in the sun for 4 days to dry.  This week our CSA members received a small baggie to try them out.

We also sliced some apples we had and dipped them in lemon juice, water and a bit of cinnamon.  Then we put them in the screened tray that Frank made last year to dry out in the sun.  Because it has been hot, it only took 1 1/2 days to be perfect.  The screened tray is really handy.  Frank put hinges on it to the top and bottom have screen.  Once I fill up the trays, the top closes down and it keeps all the gnats and flys off the fruit while drying.  I normally use my electric dehydrator, but this year our batches have been bigger and to save money on electricity, it is much quicker and cheaper to use the sun!

We had our family come to stay with us for a few days.  Carli and Collin love to take care of the chickens.  They had brought me the 15+ chicks several months ago and they always are excited to see how they are growing.  One treat that the chickens love is bread.  So they go out and give the chickens pieces of bread which brings them close to to them and to their feet.  Carli got a little scared once when they all got really excited about the bread and Carli started to scream.  I told her to throw the bread away from her so they would move away.

Then our relatives from Los Altos, who love to get involved in anything we do on the farm, visited us for several days. We picked peaches, we canned peaches and we baked many, many mini peach pies.  The idea was to experiment using different types of ingredients for the crust.  The idea is to give a pie to each of my CSA members so they can try them out and later if interested, can purchase pies from our farm.  We were very busy.  I am afraid we may have worked our guests a little too hard!!

 

PS- Happy Birthday to My Wonderful and Loving Frank.  Today is his Birthday.