Goings on in the fall garden

rainbow chard, planted in July is going strong

Packman broccoli, in flower.  This attracts a lot of bees and other pollinators

My lettuce and spinach patch, now about 30 days or so old and we are picking from it.  Cut and come again style.

My root trio- radish, beet and carrot.  Radishes are about done, beets in about 30 days and carrots for winter.

This radish is starting to bolt.  Its easy to tell from the broken leaves (usually its one big leaf, lobed leaves are for bolting radishes)

same trio bed with radishes removed.  It really loosens the soil nicely for the beets and carrots to grow

from near to far: turnips, rutabaga, kohlrabi and spinach....all 30 days in

hard to see but if you look closely I've got onion seed sprouts started here to overwinter for spring next year.

Spring lettuce gone to seed.  Also attracts pollinators and provides me some seeds.

anyone know what this is?

Boston beans, homemade dishwasher powder and laundry soaps

pressure cooking on my barely adequate stove

I've been trying to convert some of the things I used to take for granted into things I make homemade.  A year or so ago we gave up grocery store canned goods (metal cans) because of BPA.  As a result, simple easy lunches like beanie weanies (baked beans and hot dogs) had been virtually removed from our diet.  I was getting pretty good at using the pressure cooker to provide cooked beans for us but still that requires enough foresight to get the beans out and soak them, sprout them...you get the idea.  Last week though is the beginning of the end of that inconvenience!  I canned my first batch of Boston baked beans!  I know real exciting but we were missing having that as a food option.  I used the recipe from Jackie Clay's Growing and Canning Your Own Food  which I'd recommend if you want to take canning to a level beyond just single ingredient fruits and veggies.  If you don't, the classic Ball Book of Canning is just right for just about everything else.  I don't think I can just post the recipe but it was basically navy beans, brown sugar, molasses, onion, mustard and bacon- which the instructions didn't say to cook and drain the bacon but I think next time I will since there is a LOT of grease in those beans.  They are super tasty though!  I think this is the start of some serious bean canning because that will seriously make dinner time easier to do on the fly.

the turkey roaster was the only pot big enough to cook them in

finished jars (after a few were given away)

A few other items I now DIY are dishwasher and laundry soaps.  I found the recipes on a website (I think e-how) but since I've adjusted it a bit I'll just post mine.  I was using those cascade complete packets with lemishine on the side but I'm not missing the cascade at all.  I can't seem to get away from lemishine though.  That stuff just rocks!  If TEOTWAWKI happens I'll have to try to get case loads of the stuff....oh wait, I won't have electricity most likely so nevermind.  I need a good liquid dishwashing soap recipe if anyone has one.

Dishwasher Machine powder

1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
1/2 cup kosher or canning salt (I use canning salt...its what I have on hand)
1/2 cup lemishine or citric acid

(after breaking up the borax clumps) dump all ingredients into a wide mouth quart jar.  apply lid and shake.  Use about 1TBS per load.  If you have cruddy water like mine you'll need to add a 1/2 TBS of lemishine in the prewash pocket. 

My laundry soap is just as easy...can't remember where I found this one but its really close to the way I found it.  Its gets even my kid's nasty stinky cloth diapers clean so I feel pretty good about it.

Basic dry laundry soap

1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
1/2 cup kosher or canning salt (can you tell I have bad water?)
1 bar of Fels naptha shaved

I take the ingredients and put in the powder-y stuff first into my blender.  I put the shavings on top and pulse until I get a nice fine consistancy.  I use about a heaping TBS in each large washload.  Its best to dissolve this stuff in hot water first but I'm usually too lazy and it does just fine.   I would imagine you can substitute the Fels Naptha but I kind of like the smell.  We were formerly using Country Save and it had absolutely no smell so a little scent is nice.

Raw

The new of raw milk and cheese raids just keep rolling in don't they?  This Grist article suggests the problem will get worse and not that that is any surprise to me but it still just makes my stomach ball up to hear about it.  So it brings me to a pretty final realization in my head that dairy is out of the realm of possibilities for us.  No herd shares, no underground, no nada! 

Quick funny mental image but my son has been singing "cow, cow, cow, moo!" as I'm typing this..not sure why but its super cute.

It makes me wonder though, if I say takes my cheese or any kind of dairy product say to a pitchin or a family get together....will I be breaking the law?  Say I make my bread with whey from the cheese I make, is my bread illegal (for sale that is)?

I'm not even sure if we will drink our milk raw.  There is an awful lot of hype about its "healing" properties and quite frankly I'm not so sure.  One producer from my FB page said they "healed" three chronic illnesses with their milk.  A baby with an ear infection, a three year old with a runny nose and a viral infection in an adult....now first off...why wasn't the baby drinking human milk?  Seems like a momma as crunchy as to server her baby raw milk would breastfeed....not buying it. 

Going off course here but anyone follow the supposed food gurus?  Mercola, Weil, Weston A. Price, heck even Dr. Oz jumps in there....who are you supposed to believe?  They all have some overlap and some contradictions to each other but in trying to follow any of their advice I find myself really confused over simple things like say canola oil- which I don't use much because most of it is GMO- but Mercola and Price say its rancid unhealthy oil and Weil and Oz tout its as very healthy. Butter, which I use a lot of, is praised by Price and maybe Mercola but for Weil and Oz its unhealthy saturated fat.  Meats are avoided for all but Price.  Soaked grains to remove phytic acid or unsoaked to help move out cholesterol?  See how confusing this can be?  Of course this comes back to raw milk as Mercola and Price sing raw milk praises.  Not sure about the other two but Oz would probably warn about how dangerous it is.

Thats all I have, sorry for my rambling on and on.  Its been that kind of week already!