Fall Drive 2010

Chris and I took our annual fall drive today. We do it every year the weekend between our birthdays. It's hard to believe I am 42 and Chris 44. It just dawned on me, I am old like my parents!!!

We just took a day drive, usually we go for the weekend, but the economy being what it is and the desire to conserve money, we just enjoyed the day. There was a pumpkin patch over in Donnelson that I had been hearing a lot about, so we decided to head that way. I was certainly glad to see that the rain had cleared this morning. It turned out  to be a nice drive down, I knitted, Chris drove, as always. At least I didn't sleep, I have the bad habit of falling asleep in the car.

            Chris posing with the old truck out front.

Our first stop was Kathy's Pumpkin Patch  http://www.kathyspumpkinpatch.com/ 
 It was fun.

 There are plenty of pumpkins, gourds, and squash to pick from. The big building in front is full of gifts and crafts for the avid shopper. I did buy a pamphlet about winter squash.

 
I did stop to pose with the old truck my self, who could resist.

After we left Kathy's we headed up the road to the apple orchard. Here we met up with a few friends.

Appleberry Orchard Located at 2469 Hwy 2, Donnellson, IA 

 I did forget to mention our friends were the four legged kind. This guy was more than will to offer up a smooch.

 This is some of the beautiful backdrops we passed as we traveled our way to
Fort Madison on Hwy 2.

 In Fort Madison as we waited at the swing bridge for a barge to come thru, I had to take a few pictures of the sure beauty of the landscape. We crossed the bridge to go to the fish market in Niota.

When we crossed back over, we stopped for a burger at the Wally Burger.

Our Last stop was at a winery in Franklin. There we sampled some good wine and heard the interesting past of this lovely little vineyard.

  

Christian Herschler District

Winery & Stagecoach Stop

Circa 1840

 





Let's Make Salsa

One of my familys favorite things is fresh salsa, the next best is my canned salsa.

Below I will take you thru a step by step process of making my familys favorite.

Ingrediants:
20 #  fresh tomato's I like roma's more meat, less juice.
10 sweet bannana peppers
5 bell peppers
2 jalapeno peppers
2 lg onions
10-12 cloves garlic
4 limes
fresh cilontro
cidar vinegar
sugar, salt and pepper to taste




It is very important to wash and steralize all your jars, in this picture I have washed them and set them on the drainboard to await a nice hot water bath. If you have a dishwasher, great load them in and set it to steralize.

For us who do not own a dishwasher, just get out your largest pot, fill with clean water and bring to boil, set jars down inthe water  and boil 5 minutes.(carefull not to burn your self)  I use a jar lift to bring them out, inverted on a clean cookie sheet to allow excess water to drip out, do not touch inner jar. They are now ready to use.




It is important to inspect your fruit/vegatables, make sure that you have washed and removed all bad spots. I have some pictures below of what is a bad spot, and what is a skin blemish. Rot spots can cause bacteria, and cause you to get sick, so if unsure cut it out.


these are skin blemishes, they are on the outside of the skin, but have not affected the fruit its self.










This is a rotton spot, you can see it affect the fruit and all, I do not use bad fruit. ( I will cut outthe bad spot and use the good part of the tomato in a salad or something.

After your tomato's are clean and sorted, put 6-8 in a basket and set in hot water aprox 60 seconds. You will see the skin starting to split.
Remove from hot water and put in ice cold water to stop the cooking process,
With a sharp knife cut around the core, the skin will just peel off, wallah, as if magic

Now that all your tomatoes are clean and peeled, put a nice chop on them, enough so that you do not have huge chunks on your chips, but not too much to turn your salsa to watery.

Chop your onions, peppers, and cilantro, and garlic. I have this great little chopper picked up at the fair, I couldn't do with out it now.  Be carefull when seeding hot peppers not to touch your face, it will burn for hours, wear gloves. If you do not have gloves put inside plastic wrap and remove seeds. Less contact with skin the better. When all is chopped add into your pot. I use a raw pack method. I just use a pot to mix, I don't have a bowl big enough.

 

 I Juice 4 limes, using all the pulp and juice possible. I think this adds a nice brightness in flavor.

 

Add 1/2 cup cidar vinegar, 1/3 cup canning salt, sugar if needed (1/3 cup) and black bepper to taste. (I grind mine from a mill) mix and let it marry.

Now it's time for a Drink!!

While your waiting to sample your devine salsa, indulge yourself in a little snort. I love this wine. It is a local, called Craisin Hell, its so good, nice cranberry, not to tangy not to sweet. just right on a fall afternoon!

If you plan on put this up in jars, place 2 cups salsa into each pint jar, steralize lids and apply caps, process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes. (this is timed after it comes to a boil when jars in pot. 

When timer goes off, remove out of pot and set on clean towel to cool, listen for the "pop"  this will tell you your product sealed. If for some reason you have a non sealer, you can eat it or  apply new lid and re-water bath.

 

When storing your jars, take off the rings and keep in a cool dry area. There are a couple  reasons whyn you remove the rings. #1 if there is spoilage, the lids will loosen and you will know right away you have a bad jar. #2 you can re-use your rings over and over agian, if you leave them on jars, they tend to rust. (when they get bad (rusty) toss, dont use, this can your jars not to seal)