Welcome to the Playroom at 14 Peonystreet!

This blog started in the "playroom". That's what DH calls artwork- playing. Wish I could live in the "playroom" forever.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Beets- Window to My World

There's really nothing prettier than beets in jar! 
You can see part of my backyard in the jar reflection.
(For PICKLED BEET SYRUP recipe, scroll towards the
bottom of this posting.)
Here's our good 'ol canning equipment.

Water is so luscious, isn't it? 
A humble unpeeled beet, steaming in the pot.

Boiling beets are pretty/ugly- look like little monsters!

Then you peel 'dem beets!

An' stick 'em in a jar witch-yor syrup!

An' before ya know it, ya got more jars joinin' da party!!

Well, all done, so I'm hangin' up my apron for the day!
But before I go, I'm going to give you my recipe for the beet syrup.
Don't forget to follow the canning instructions from companies like Ball or Kerr to make sure your beets are safe to eat come winter time!  I do not give you complete canning instructions here because they can tell it better than I can.  Link to Ball by clicking HERE.
~
Pickled Beet Syrup
Enough to fill 6 (six) Quart Sized Jars ) with beets in them.
4 cups white vinegar (5% acidity) to 2 cups granulated white sugar
. Of course you’ll have to adjust how much you make according to how many beets/filled jars you have, but that is a pretty accurate ratio of sugar to vinegar. You need to warm this on the stove and make sure the sugar is dissolved. I like to taste it and make sure it doesn’t make me pucker up when tasting. If I do, then I add some more sugar.
~~
Another little tidbit:
This reminds me of the story of the little Red Hen- how she wanted everyone to help her with harvesting the wheat for the bread.– no one wanted to help, but she did it anyway and then they all wanted to eat the bread without doing the work. The Good Little Red Hen gave them some anyway.. There’s a lot of steps to processing your own food out of the garden, but it’s worth it. America , at one time, was an agrarian society. Just about everyone had a garden. No more...The last thing I have to say is- thank God for farmers - because without them, we wouldn’t have all the food we have to eat. So if you want to go back to your "roots," plant a garden, or a least a little pot of tomatoes.

~~
And as Forrest Gump would say:
"Have a Nice......Day!"
XXOO, BB

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Updating you, one post at a time!

I'm just so busy I can hardly stand it!! I'm up to my ears in cucumbers,
 picking them every 4-5 days and making pickles!
Truely there's so much I am going to update you about,
but have to do it piecemeal, one at a time.  We're in the farming/canning season,
and there's so much to do, and the days just aren't long enough to do them!
 The corn is high too.  This is before it dried out too much.

Hello Zinnia!  Isn't she lovely?

And how about this?  I'll leave you with this picture
for now......have to run....  XXOO, BB

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