Pulling Out the Space Heaters, and Making FROG Jam

The leaves are falling fast and the sun lies to the south. It's nearly December.

My basil plants are dry as a bone. It's time to harvest some seeds from them.

Basil seeds are tiny and black. After cutting the dry stalks, I rub the flowers roughly between my hands to loosen the seeds. They drop through a sieve into a bowl.

I enjoy saving seeds. Seeds generally should be kept in the freezer or frig, not in a warm place.

Recently I heard a strange noise outside, next to the house. It sounded like someone was out there breaking sticks. Pop!! Pop, pop!!
We couldn't discern its source then, but yesterday I heard it again and traced it ... here:

Our central heat/AC unit was running,  but the fan wasn't turning. It was making that noise. Honestly, Adam and I have talked before about the certain death of our heat/AC unit, which was installed in 1996. Last night we tried our plan: heating with small oil heaters like this:

We have three small DeLonghi oil heaters that plug in the wall, plus one small DeLonghi electric heater. Our house is small (1100 square feet), and we can close off two rooms. Last night this arrangement worked fine, but it only went down to 40 degrees. The space heaters were set low, and we only used two of them.

Where we live, winters are mild but summers are severe. We will buy two window AC units before summer arrives and see how things go from there. We hope to save a good bit of money not using the old, non-economical central unit.

I made Henny Penny's F.R.O.G. jam!!

This is actually Henny's sister's recipe, I believe. No frogs were injured in the making of this jam, haha!

I'm so glad I had a bag of our figs in the freezer from last summer. Here's the recipe as I followed it:

F.R.O.G. Jam

6 cups chopped figs (I had a bit less.)

3 cups frozen raspberries

(I added some frozen strawberries to make up for

a lack of raspberries.)

5 cups sugar

zest from one orange

juice from one orange

3 tsp. finely grated ginger root

(I should have used more.)

Combine all ingredients in a heavy non-aluminum pot and bring to a boil over medium/med. high heat. Stir often and cook like this for 45 minutes, until jam thickens and turns darker.

Process in sterilized jars in whatever method

you're accustomed to.

Makes 4 pints.

It's a yummy jam. I think next time I'll use all strawberries, which I prefer to raspberries, plus they're easier to find frozen in their own bag. And more ginger. I'm so very excited to have a use for my figs, rather than just fig preservers, which neither of us like.

Look what Adam made for me!

That's a hackle. Didn't he do a nice job, especially on that wooden base? It works well. My problem is not my spinning tools; my problem is a lack of experience and skill. So now I need to get after it and learn HOW to spin. I tried a little:

I can tell it's over spun, and all different thicknesses. But it's a beginning!

Adam bought a bag of mixed beans at the store to make this for lunch:

Warm and bubbly. Winter comfort food.

Life on the farm is quiet, beautiful, peaceful. The chickens and dogs are happy. The sunlight slants across the pasture and through the trees, and I can hardly get enough of standing there, watching.

We should probably be doing more with our garden in the winter, as some of you are doing. Maybe another year. I've put my onion bed under some straw. Soon all these bedraggled plants will disappear back into the soil for the winter, and go to sleep. 

Ramping Up the Soap Business

I had a great day at the Oriental Farmer's Market on Saturday. I sold out of Bee Balm and Insect-Repellent Lotion Bars, not to mention selling a lot of soap and some lip balm too. My inventory is at the lowest it's been in a long time. Time to get to work! Thankfully, I already have two batches of soap at home, cured and ready to sell next week.

the soap scents in these new batches

I'm also out of plantain salve, so I picked some new plantain leaves, and they're now infusing into the oils I use in the salve.

It looks like something from the murky deep.
I keep my various body care recipes in the back of my handwritten cookbook. It was given to me as a wedding present 28 years ago.

I'll be making that salve, scented bath salts, lotion bars, and bee balm this week. I'll be ready for those customers on Saturday!
I've also been saving seeds as some of our garden plants go to seed. Here I'm saving radish seeds.

I also saved peas, spinach seeds, and some  Matt's Wild Cherry tomato seeds.
I sold four packages of tomatoes and four cucumbers at the market. We have so many tomatoes coming in.

My tiger lily bed has been just stunning. I failed to take a photo of it, but I did cut many of the blooms for a huge bunch in a vase for church today. They were gorgeous.

Adam and I returned home this evening from town to find chicken feathers in two spots in the pasture. It looks like Ruby became an escape artist and is on the loose. But there's no chicken carcass, and the dogs are not going crazy, barking at a barn bay or up a tree. And there's not enough feathers to indicate any real carnage. We don't know where Ruby is. She's not responding to my cooing calls of love and treats. I hope she turns up. Adam locked up the dogs tonight, and we're hoping we find her strutting around in the morning. We'll see. She's my best layer, and I do hate to lose her.