Supper

Ten bean and sausage soup. Just a mixture of 3 cups of 10 dried beans washed. Then water, onions, garlic lemon juice, half pound sliced sausage, salt, pepper, and chili powder and let simmer on the back of the stove all afternoon. 

And skillet AuGratin Potatoes made with those Hickery Holler homegrown dehydrated potatoes.

Add a small pan of hot rolls and you have a meal : )

Hope everyone has a great meal and see you Monday morning!

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Ice For The Rabbits

With nursing doe rabbits with a cage full of young ones lots of cool water is essential in this heat that we have had the last couple days.

Several times a day we make trips to the rabbit pens with frozen bottles of water. The rabbits lick the cool condensation as the bottles melt and lay against and over the bottles to cool off.   

Don't forget that if you have lots of little ones in a pen that they drink lots. Those water tips will fit on a 2 liter coke bottle. Freeze them and make hangers out of old wire or clothes hangers. We hang several in the cages throughout the day and as they thaw the animals always have cool water. 

And another way to recycle those bottles. For us we don't drink much out of bottles but we get friends and family to save them for us! 

You can also lay these frozen bottles in your chicken, goat and dog water bowls to keep them cool!

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Thinning Apples

Our chore today has been thinning apples. Too many apples on a tree can be disastrous. The weight of too much fruit ripening causes the limbs on young apple trees to bend and eventually break, especially in high wind. Too many apples also makes for small apples. So when our apples are about the size of walnuts we thin them out. 

As you can see these apples are way too thick for the size of this tree. 

We like to thin them out to about this spacing. As you can see in this picture the tree can support this weight comfortably there are no bending branches. Also notice that all the apples are uniform in size and shape. Taking care of your tree like this not only makes sure that you have a better harvest but that your trees are healthy to bear for many years to come. 

As the year progresses we will continue to monitor the growth of the fruit removing any damaged or deformed fruit or removing fruit if we notice the branches supporting too much weight. There have even been years that we have supported the branches with boards underneath propping them up for additional support.

We certainly are glad to see all that fruit and the goats will enjoy green apples for a couple days. If we are lucky at the end of all this work we will be rewarded again with this kind of harvest.

How are your apple trees bearing this year?

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Fruit

Peaches..Indian Blood Red 

 Grapes

Blackberries 

Spearmint

Plum

Apple

And more apples!

It's gonna be a long and busy summer : )

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

The Boss Has A Birthday!

Oldest Grandson Hank turned 3 yesterday. His mom Fred and Baby O took him to the big town pool for a special day.

Seems just yesterday he was toddling.

But he has become a young man! He starts three year old preschool next year at the school.

Grandma and Grandpa bought him a giant tub of dinosaurs for his birthday he was thrilled.  He loves dinosaurs. He says his best friend is Papaw : )

Happy Birthday Hank and many more!

Love Mamaw and Papaw

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Sweet Potato Starts

Now that my sweet potatoes are ready to go in the garden I will finish my post on sweet potato starts. Remember earlier we had suspended one of last years potatoes in a jar of water and we had sprouts emerging from the potato as it sat in a sunny window. 

As the sprouts emerged from the potato and leafed out the jar filled up with roots in the water. I would occasionally snip off an end and place it in a separate jar of water. 

Usually within a week you would see roots emerging from the base of those cuttings. Once they were nicely rooted and I had all that I wanted they were transferred to the garden and planted in a mounded row. 

I like to protect my sprouts with milk jugs for the first week or two to protect them from that strong summer sun while they are getting used to their new home . Don't forget to continue to water them.  After about two weeks your sweet potatoes should be ready to remove the top and start developing vines. 

And that is how to start sweet potatoes. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Southern And Confused

For those of you that read this blog regularly you know that I am a Southern woman. Born and raised in small town in the deep south. On this blog I rarely post anything political or controversial because to be honest I think that it's not necessary most of the time. I can get what I have to across without  the drama and there is enough drama floating around out there without me adding to it. But certain events of late have me confused and angered and I feel that maybe those of my friends out there can shed some light on this subject. I would like to know my friends what you think!

Recently Food Network and another corporate sponsor both publicly disassociated themselves from Paula Deen.  I am not a huge Paula Deen fan but I do own a couple of her cookbooks and I do respect the success of this hard working  single mother who has built an empire from nothing.  She was fired  from my understanding for using the racial slur nigger almost 2 decades ago in a legal deposition. Now I in no way condone racism and would like to think that I am not racist but I do have to admit confusion on these issues.

 You see I am a child of the 50's and 60's. I grew up where that word was used regularly by just about every adult that I ever came in contact with. I am sure as a child I used that word myself from time to time along with other words that I probably should not have used. Just like all the other children around me. Children learn from their environment.  It was a common practice in the area I grew up in. Just as the people of the area called the french or Cajuns "coon asses" and the Italians "dago's" the black people were called niggers, or in polite company coloreds. These were the days when I went to town and there were separate bathrooms for the black people and everything was separate. I do remember riding in my parents car and seeing KKK slogans painted on the roads. There was a place called Spook Hill not far from where we lived. It was a place where the black were hung  long ago. It was the South of the 60's and 70's. It was what it was. I did not create that world but was born into it. 

About the time I hit junior high school in the 60's this little thing called desegregation happened. They loaded my little, white, junior high self along with a whole bunch of my white neighbors on a school bus and decided that I needed to go to the black junior high school on the other side of town. We got out of that school bus and had to cross picket lines to get onto the school ground. And I might add both black and white picket lines, lined by police.  I attended 2 years at that black junior high school which were the worse two years of my school career. I was called every racial slur you could think of by my black school mates.  The black teachers were terrible to us and it was obvious we were not wanted at their school any more than the blacks were wanted at the white schools. Fights broke out daily among the students and I literally never went to the school bathroom the entire time I was there. I would wet my pants first and literally kept a change of clothing in my PE locker for that reason. The bathrooms were the worse place to get jumped! For the first time in my young life I learned real fear for my safety.  And this little white southern middle class farm girl was AFRAID!

I survived my junior high years and bear the scars silently to this day but feel I lost a little piece of my childhood on those school grounds. Eventually things settled down and I went on to high school and the nation seemed at times to heal and adjust to this new thing called civil rights. At times altercations flared up just as they did those first years on the school ground, but thing got better or so I thought. We all grew and maybe changed a little. I now had black colleagues and black friends. I now had black neighbors and the world was a different place. Not perfect but different and we were all making an effort I thought to be better Christians and maybe better human beings. Learning to be more respectful of what we said and how we said it and how that other person may feel. Eventually we even had a black president. 

It's a new century now. I no longer live in the deep south. Now I am a white haired grandmother of 4. I haven't heard the word nigger in years (other than from black people in their music on the car radio and TV).  I personally haven't said that word in many, many decades. I as an adult have made a conscious effort to remove that word from my vocabulary forever. I have never heard that word cross my daughters lips nor my grandchildrens. I have a personal rule that if you walked into my house and you were blue I would ignore it. I do not do racial discussions at all. I avoid all racial conversation. Why because the  lines of etiquette are blurred. I do not even know how to address the black race anymore. Once they referred to themselves as people of color. Then it was African American. Then it was black people.  And it is not just the black race. What is the current correct reference to people of Mexican descent, or Asian or any race. 

Maybe they need to just be people! Maybe we need to all just be Americans!

I feel sorry for Paula because I feel that political correctness has become very confusing for us old southerners. Is it really fair to go back and persecute someone for a racial slur made 20 years ago. Will there now be a racial nazi out there hunting down celebrities that have ever had the audacity to utter a racial slur in the last half century or so. Are there not black issues that the media could concentrate on that would help to improve the lives of black people and possibly have a positive effect on making their lives better.  I'm really not sure what this accomplished other than ruining the career of a hard working woman. 

Here I am almost a half century from junior high school and we're still fighting. 

And I am going to throw this out there for thought. When your two year old picks up a bad word and you make a big deal out of it what do they do. They use it more. If you want the word nigger to die then quit using it! That includes the black people out there throwing it around. That includes music and tv. If actors refused to use it in movies and singers refused to sing it and no one used it then it would fade away. If you refused to buy music that had it in it and refused to buy movie tickets then it would no longer be used. Don't believe me when was the last time you heard the word groovy......just think of all the once popular words that have just faded from daily use. It would silently slip into oblivion where it belongs.  

Paula has apologized for her hurtful words of long ago. Maybe we need to all learn a little true southern christian grace and accept that apology and all move on.  

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

The Return Of Canning

A little late but canning season has returned to the farm. We picked and canned 30 jars of mustard greens. Last year we canned mustard greens on May 14th so as I have predicted we are about a month behind schedule in the garden. 

A quick and easy green to grow and can mustard greens are great during the cold winter when my family craves those scarce greens. 

About a month later than usual but it is good to get back in the swing of things. If you are interested in canning greens you can find my tutorial from last year HERE.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Supper

I got a nice little haul out of the garden this morning. The neighbor also shared some cucumbers, onions and zucchini for a dozen fresh eggs.  The cucumbers are a bit smaller than I usually pick them but they were good.

For supper I made Rabbit Jambalaya. You can find the recipe HERE I just substituted rabbit for chicken.

The first potatoes of the season and just enough peas for some creamed peas and new potatoes.

You can find a tutorial on how to make this HERE

And traditional Southern Mustard Greens cooked down with bacon and onions.

Crusty corn bread hot from the skillet.

Find my mama's Country Buttermilk Cornbread recipe HERE

And for dessert Impossible Pie

IMPOSSIBLE PIE RECIPE

• Preheat oven to 350°F

• In a large bowl combine

4 eggs
2 cups of whole milk
1 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup of melted butter
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1 cup shredded coconut

• Mix well with a hand beater or electric mixer.

• Pour the liquid mixture into a buttered 10” or larger pie plate or casserole dish and bake for about 45 minutes or until a knife comes clean when inserted into the center.Don’t try to use a smaller pie plate or dish with this recipe, because you’ll be sorry when you’re cleaning the bottom of your oven floor. The “pie” will puff up while it is baking and if the plate isn’t large enough it will spill over the sides.

Remove the pie when done and allow it to cool. Refrigerate

All these vegetables should be readily available at your local grocer or farmers market right now and in season. 

What's for supper at your house?

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Hickery Holler Workout

Recently O Wise One talked to an old friend of many years ago who wanted to come visit. He was not bringing his wife because she did not like to travel where she had no place to work out! Now in all fairness I have never met this person nor do I want to make light of the need to exercise regularly especially at our ages. But that is one of those statements that I call a "come here and let me slap you!!!" statement. I feel the need to explain the Hickery Holler Homestead exercise/workout regime. Who knows maybe I will start marketing it.....

First of all it requires rising long before our old friend the sun makes and appearance. Why because by 9:00 am it will be 95 in the shade and every animal on the entire farm will be calling your name wanting fed / watered / petted / walked or let out to pee! And every biting insect within a mile radius is waiting for you to emerge with that tender white meat exposed be it deer fly/ tick / sweat bee / yellow jacket / or gnat!

Now for equipment. 

A garden hat is not broken in until it has atleast one hole! Mine is well loved...

For workout footwear garden clogs do nicely. No fancy ones just the everyday old garden clogs. These complete with a hole I just discovered in the bottom. Yes I have completely walked the bottom out of my garden clogs but they are a necessity for me because at the end of my workout I can simply walk over to the garden hose and wash off my feet and the shoes at the same time. Then they go on the back porch rail to dry until next time I need them.  Maybe I'll charge extra for that hole ......

Next you'll need some gloves. I prefer the ones with the thick rubber coating on the underside to prevent those nasty stings from the stinging nettles that love my gardens. 

The next necessity is his and her hoes. Razor sharp and always ready to go at a moments notice. 

   Now pick a row! Any row. O Wise One and I have a quota for ourselves we each have 3 rows a morning minimum we are responsible for hoeing. Not just the rows but the three foot space in between each row. 

Most people when they exercise these days have to have music and have an ipod stuck in their ears. Not here in Hickery Holler cause we got class! Our music comes from the old radio set out in the middle of the garden under an old rusty tub. Not only does it give you some good country music from the local radio station called "The Farm" it also helps to keep the deer out of the corn fields at night. 

Many exercise in a gym with a television monitor projecting scenery in front of their treadmill. Here in the holler we just have the Good Lord's gifts spread out for all the world to see spanning  field and fence row.

And at the end of our workout we have left behind a pile of weeds and grass shriveling in between the rows in the hot summer sun. Testament to our accomplishments of that morning.

34 rows later and when you get to the other end of the garden in a week or so you get to turn around and start all over again. And that is just one garden.  

By about 9:30 the sweat bees are out and sweat is running down my back so it's time to retire the hoe for the morning. But we're not done yet. The chickens need water and feed. The dogs need let out and the rabbits and goats are ready for feed and water.

Not done yet though. The eggs need gathering, lets pick some peas, and lettuce and digs a few new potatoes for supper tonight. The neighbor dropped by some zucchini and cucumbers in exchange for a dozen eggs. Hmmm supper is shaping up nicely. 

Okay the morning garden workout is over. As for me I still have to shell peas. Throw 2 loads of laundry on the line. Wash and spin lettuce then cut up and put in jars in the fridge.  And is it noon yet. Gotta get some lunch made up. Then finish the laundry, dinner and some more gardening maybe in the evening once it cools off. 

So if anyone ever tells you they don't have anywhere to work out you just slap them up side the head or send them my way. Or tell them about this great new Homestead workout I promise you when I get finished working them they will think the gym is a piece of cake. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter