Comstock Ferre & Sandwich Bread

This past week, I was in Hartford, CT on a business trip. Had a bit of sleet & snow & of course, cold. Everyone up there is pinning for Spring very badly. I'll admit the snow in the woods & parks was beautiful but I wouldn't want it in my backyard in March either!

While there, I took the opportunity to visit  Comstock Ferre Seed Company in Wethersfield, CT.

They are a very old company (selling seeds since 1820) and were purchased by Baker Creek a few years back. It's so nice to go in there & just browse.

Wouldn't you love a couple of those seed bins?

They also have a nice selection of antique garden implements & I wish they marked what everything was. I just had to use my imagination. The seed selection was sparse but I was able to purchase some seeds to add to my inventory.

Overall, had a great meetings with happy clients, nice dinners w/my travel companion & travel wasn't a hassle.

After getting home late & realizing that I had not asked Greg to water my veggie plants, so I watered them at midnight & then not getting to bed until around 1:30p this morning,  I decided to stay home today. After the morning conference calls, what to do, what to do? Experiment with more bread making!

I purchased a Pullman Loaf Pan last year but was too intimidated to use it.

This pan makes a uniformly shaped sandwich bread so I decided to try a recipe today.

Bread cooked.

Out to cool.

Hey it worked! I'll let you know how it tastes after breakfast tomorrow.

I also gained another follower while I was gone. Cherie Campbell decided to hit my follower button. Cherie, it doesn't appear that you have a blog, but if I am mistaken, please let me know.

Glad to be home! Tomorrow we are headed to St. Augustine to purchase a few vegetables at our favorite produce stand ... County Line Produce, just outside of St. Aug. & then off to the farmers market at the Ampitheatre & last but not least a bit of lunch at our newest favorite restaurant - Gas Full Service (no website, FB only). They serve only local food (meat & produce) & are excellent!

Expecting rain this weekend. Plan to catch up on blogs while it's raining on Sunday.

I was Homesteading Hannah for the Day

I was home from work today & decided to do a few things.

Dehydrating - I had received more carrots from the CSA & also dug up some from our garden (about 10 or so little fat stumpy ones). I also had some green bell peppers & cubanelles that we weren't going to eat any time soon. Also had a 1/2 bag of frozen peas I wanted to try.

Yogurt - I was out so I bought a 1/2 gallon of raw milk yesterday on my lunch hour.

Plants - Needed to start hardening them off.

Laundry - Every time we go to the Country House, I get behind in laundry as Saturdays are generally laundry day around here.

Bread - We are out, so instead of buying I decided to make some.

I got up a little late, around 7:00 (hate the time change). And, here was my day ....

- Made coffee & fed the cat(s). One is ours & another just eats here.

- Took out milk for yogurt. Took out chicken breasts to thaw for dinner.

- Washed, peeled & sliced the carrots. Started the water to boil, to blanch.

- Washed, seeded & de-veined & sliced the peppers.

- Rinsed the peas & put on a towel to dry.

- Blanched the carrots & spread on a towel to dry.

- Got dehydrator out & arranged the veggies on all 9 trays. Turned on for 6 hours.

- Warmed milk to 180 degrees (watched carefully so it never boiled). Let cool to 110 degrees.

- While milk was cooling took plants out of rack & put on patio table to harden. Noticed they were a bit dry & had some bugs flying around. Watered dry plants & tried to spray my homemade concoction of garlic, cayenne, diotamacious earth & dish detergent. It was stopped up so started straining process through a coffee filter.

- Took out & chopped frozen veggie for worms.

- While waiting for concoction to strain, tempered leftover yogurt & mixed into the cooled milk.

- Put yogurt in containers & filled mason jars w/hot water & put in a cooler.

- Concoction still straining so I warmed the whey from the last time I made yogurt & made the bread with it.

- Put bread in a bowl to rise.

- Put strained concoction back in sprayer & sprayed plants.

- Fed worms.

- 45 min conference call.

- Warmed & ate leftover lunch.

- Divided bread dough. Rolled out 8 herb rolls for dinner (w/dried herbs from a few weeks ago) & put in a baking dish to rise. Rolled out 2 loafs & put in bread pans. Put one in fridge & left the other one out to rise.

- Cut tops off beets (from CSA as well). Took turnips out of fridge (from CSA 2 weeks ago).

- Another 45 min conference call.

- Put loaf of bread in oven. Checked dehydrating veggies.

- Took compost material to compost bin & added leaves.

- Took bread out of oven.

- Started taking veggies from dehydrator. All done except the peas, put those on for another hour.

- Cut chicken breasts in 1/2, seasoned, made a marinade & put them in to marinate for a couple of hours.

- Peeled & cut up beets & turnips. Seasoned & sprinked w/olive oil.

- Strung beans for dinner.

It's 6:00 & I just realized I never started even one load of laundry. And, I still need to make dinner, take plants in, put dried veggies in mason jars, drain the yogurt & put in containers. Glad Greg is home so he can help!

In addition to keeping up with the dishes, I did stop to heat & eat leftovers from the night before (pork tenderloin w/sauteed squash & onions). But, it has been one busy day! I guess that's what I get from trying to do it all in a day. I should have washed, peeled & sliced the veggies last night. That would have saved at least 1.5 hours.

Regardless, it was a productive day!

I felt like Mama Pea, Leigh, Jane, Canned Quilter, Mary Ann, Michelle, Sandy & kymber all rolled into one. I don't know what I would do if I had animals to take care of too!

p.s. We did make some progress on the garden over the weekend. Got the blocks straightened (a relative term) & the hay bales torn down. I'll post on that separately.

Putting the cave before the cheese & It's not a Squeezo but ...

No new news on the Garden Prep, Driveway or In-laws move. Weather & life have gotten in the way. We have had over 18" of rain at the Country House since we started the driveway (about 4 weeks ago). We should have put it in last summer when there was an 18" deficit ;)

I decided to test re-hydrating a few of my carrots. It works!

Top - dehydrated / Bottom - looks just like the original!

On another note, it's windy & COLD. If it was just cold I would be a happy camper. But, the wind makes it miserable. Woke up to 33 degrees w/wind gusts 16 -20 mph & it's supposed to be 28 tomorrow morning. I know that's not anything like many of you guys are dealing with, but for us here in the Southeast, that's COLD. But it's going to warm up to normal, in the upper 60s w/lows in the upper 40s, the next week. I like those temps & am looking forward to Spring but dreading the heat & humidity that comes afterwards. My little seedlings are growing & the plan was to start hardening off this weekend but with the cold temps, I'll wait to start next week.

This was a typical week for me ... Estate Sales Thursday at lunch & Friday afternoon. I try leave work around 3:00 on Fridays & if there is sale nearby, I'll stop. Found a mini muffin pan & 'like new' blanket at one -- ho hum. Then went to one at a very eclectic house where 2 nice gentlemen used to live. There was life sized Betty Boop in the foyer, Marilyn Monroe memorabilia in 1 bedroom & Adonis like memorabilia in another bedroom. However, the kitchen had a lot of nice items, all priced too high (this particular vendor isn't apt to discount unless it is a REALLY high dollar item). I didn't need a Kitchenaide 620 mixer. This particular model sells new for around $800 & they had it listed for $445. I guess that would be a bargain to some, but like I said I don't need one as I already have a lesser one that works just fine for me.

While I continued to browse, I came around the other side of the kitchen & I saw it! It's something I have had on my Craig's List items for quite some time & NONE ever show up. I even mentioned that fact over at  5 acres & a dream a week or so ago. Well, there she stood,  the same brand that Leigh has (but w/o the strainer attachments).

It's a Roma & I got it for $20 & if it's been used, you can't tell. Woo Hoo! 

Now the bad news. I know when I see something that I think will get good use I should just go ahead & buy it (if it's a decent price). I've lost too many deals by not acting quickly. Well, I happened to notice a dial gauge on a pot in a partially closed cabinet. I pulled it out & it was a 21 qt. Presto Pressure Canner! It was one of the older models but was in great shape. It didn't have a price. The vendors were busy & I was on my lunch break so I walked away w/o finding how much they wanted. Told Greg about it & he said that we should ride back over there Saturday morning. We did, & it was gone ;( Oh well, they probably wanted $75 for a $110 item. 

After the Estate Sale we headed to my bosses house. He just remodeled his kitchen & had an old wine cooler that he wanted to give me. Yes, I said give me! 

I have a smaller wine cooler that is stocked w/wine so didn't really need another one for that purpose. But, I have been reading about cheese making & have learned that if you don't have an actual wine cave, root cellar or continually cool spot to age cheese, that a wine cooler will work great. So, even though I have never made hard or aged cheese & I don't have a source for milk yet, I have a place to age my cheese when I do get around to making it. Plus, the price was right this time.

Lastly, we are yet again making meat stock. This batch is the best yet. I used frozen meat pieces, leftover pork roast, porkchop bones, ribs bones & of course chicken bones. We cooked it in my roasting pan for about 28 hours, cooled, skimmed off the fat, warmed & canned 12 pints this morning. 

I put Tattler lids/rings on 2 of the pints as a test. The only real difference in instructions that I can tell so far, is that you tighten the outer ring as soon as you take them out of the canner. Crossing fingers that they work as advertised. Of course, the real test is the 2nd, 3rd, etc. uses in the future.

I also saved all the bones I had used & put those in the crock pot, covered w/water last night. Today, we are trying our hand at making mock demi glace with that bone broth. We started with about 2 quarts of triple strained bone stock & it has been simmering for about 6 hours & reduced by a little more than 1/2. It doesn't seem to be thickening though, so we'll see. Probably not enough marrow left in the bones.

It's marinated ribeyes, twice baked potatoes & roasted asparagus for dinner. Going to cook those steaks quickly, cause it's windy & COLD outside.