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.
