I've been busy, as usual, in the kitchen and garden. I had some tasteless fruit from the grocery store a few weeks ago and ran across this post over at A Sonoma Garden around the same time so I decided to make fruit roll-ups with my lack-luster plums and peaches. This is the peaches. I did them in separate batches, but I'm showing pics of both in this post. I peeled and chopped the fruit and added about 1/3 cup of water and let it cook until the fruit was soft.
Then I poured the fruit into a parchment lined pan and let it dry in the oven. This is the batch of plum fruit.
After it dried out well I cut it in strips with kitchen shears, This batch was a bit thick and took two days to finish drying, but it's very tasty and worth the bit of effort to make.
Our garden is still producing in spite of the high temperatures for most of this growing season. These are a dozen pie pumpkins which are the one of four different kinds of pumpkins that we planted. The other varieties gave up in the heat.
Each pie pumpkin yields about 2 cups of pulp, enough for a pie so I'm not complaining.
ETA: I didn't can this jar of pumpkin. I froze it.
We're, also, harvesting watermelons. This one has yellow flesh.
It's called Vineyard by Danielle Cote, and the pattern is free.
Have you, who live in the South noticed how early all the spiders a preparing their egg sacks? Goodman and I were moving our firepit when he noticed it was holding water so he tipped it over and discovered this little gem, a black widow spider...ewww.
Rocky wanted to say Howdy to all his fans. He's six months old now and ready to chase rabbits anytime he gets the chance. Yeah, we let him give Peter Rabbit a heart attack now and then. So far, Peter has won, but Rocky's getting faster everyday.
Shared at The Art of Home-Making Mondays
You're so ambitious in the kitchen! Always great to see one of your newsy posts in my dashboard.
ReplyDeleteI am glad for you August has chilled down the weather there. Here it still feels like living inside a oven (tropical nights included). Wish it were autumn already!
ReplyDeleteLove your Gardening Olympics. You're gold medal in everything you do!
You always inspire me with your kitchen ambition! I purchased plums and two peaches a few weeks ago and was disappointed with the lack of flavor.
ReplyDeleteRocky is beautiful. Looks like he has blue eyes ... and is wearing a saddle. ha He's regal looking.
August here has been much cooler and less humid. Very enjoyable. My cucumbers have died out (my fault) but my tomatoes are producing daily. I'm just peeling and freezing them this year.
Enjoy the rest of your August.
Your West Virginia friend. :-)
Wow! Homemade fruit rollups! I'm impressed! And pumpkin pulp. You are one busy little bee. Then that beautiful handknit dishcloth. Well YOU GO GIRL! And what kind of dog is that handsome Rocky?
ReplyDeleteHi there! Your fruit roll-ups look delicious. Your pumpkins do too. I wish we would have planted pie pumpkins. Sometimes we make pumpkin pies with other pumpkins too. :)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, we love visiting the Smoky Mountains. I am going to see about visiting the Mountain View Bulk Food Store on our way down next time.
Thank you for visiting my blog and have a great weekend.
:)Vicki
Hi Jeanmarie! Nice to hear from you.
ReplyDeleteAlhana, I hope you get some cooling winds soon.
Hi LesleyAnn! I freeze some of our tomatoes, too.
Hi Danette! Rocky is a mix, Mountain Cur and mystery lineage. He's all hound though. :)
Vicki, I think you'll like the bulk food store. And hey, there's always next year for the pumpkins. :)
ReplyDeleteI wish I could see (smell) the moonflower in person, it's quite lovely.
ReplyDeleteThe plum stuff was the best O.o
I think Rocky looks like a hound from Beatrix Potter's stories.
Have a nice day:D
TG, the scent of moonflower is hard to describe. Hope you're here sometime when its in bloom.
DeleteI'll have to check out the Beatrix Potter stories for Rocky's look-alike. Thanks for the tip!
When we lived in town, a large bush of moonflower grew by the window. It was so beautiful! I miss that. I just love your pumpkins and all of your garden goodies! Lovely dishcloth! Be careful around spiders.....not just Black Widows. They all can bite! Rocy is so pretty!
ReplyDeleteI sure got a li'l scare with that spider and am keeping my gloves handy!
DeleteThose pie pumpkins are so pretty !
ReplyDeleteAlso like the vine cloth, and the moon vine photo ! I have seen pumpkin decorations in the craft stores, so it is time for Fall. My husband's cousin said he saw a coyote eating his watermelons !
Hi Susan! I had no idea coyotes would eat watermelons. I'm shocked!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the fruit roll-up recipe. I'll have to give that a try.
ReplyDeleteHello Elizabeth ! Thank you for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteYour fruit roll-ups look great... I tried that last year with some apples in my dehydrator (I have a special tray for stuff like that) but for some reason it never firmed up... maybe I didn't dry it long enough.
ReplyDeleteYour dishcloth is pretty... I wish I could knit. Put that on my list of things I want to learn how to do...:)
And YIKES on the spider! That makes my skin crawl.
Rocky is a cutie-pie!
Hope you're having a great week!
Paula, I think you're right - it sounds like your fruit probably needed longer in the dehydrator to make rollups.
ReplyDeleteYou will love knitting! knittinghelp.com has great videos to help you get started.
Oh, How I wish I knew how to do canning like you. I never knew you could can pumpkin pulp. Silly hey. I really like seeing your moonflower. I think I have this plant but we call it angel trumpet flower. It bloom in the evening hours. Rocky looks like he is very eager to run and an run. Happy Early Autumn. Hugs Judy
ReplyDeleteHey do you know if that fruit leather will do the same using apples? Curious mind here want to know :)
ReplyDeleteLove your dish cloth ---need to get busy and make some more too :)
ReplyDeleteGood morning! Thanks for linking up with us this week :) You know, I think I like the thicker fruit leather that you made. The thin kind I did in the dehydrator just doesn't excite me as much. Did you actually have the oven on for 2 whole days or once it was initially dry you shut if off and let it air dry the rest of the way? Thank for sharing and have a wonderful week!
ReplyDelete