Apples and Pears and Plum-Bums, oh my!

We've had a rough 48 hours with our sweet bunnies.  It's taken up a lot of our energy and time.  We've been running around busy for the past 6 weekends, so we were very glad to have NOTHING planned.

Today has been a Saturday-at-Home-Day, lounging around the house, snuggling kiddos, sewing, picking fruit, and adventures in fruit dehydrating.  Hubby also did some handy-man work around the house ... I always love to see when he fixes things around the house.  It's so very cute!

Remember the table runner I was going to make?  I finished the product, and it is now cute on my table, accenting our great fresh-picked fruit.



I decided to play around and use the same fabric to accent a hand towel in the kitchen:



I think the towel ended up pretty cute!

Sweet hubby took the kids outside this morning, and they came back in with a basket of apples and pears, as well as a basket of plums.  The apples were huge!  AngelBaby adores apples, and was giggling with the anticipation of biting into one of our home-grown giants!




See the super shiny apple in the left corner?  That is a nice-sized store-bought apple.  Our home-grown apples are huge!  About the size of a softball.  They are deliciously tart - perfect for either an apple pie or apple crisp - yum!

We didn't even pick an eighth of our plum tree.  It's overwhelmingly full with beautiful deep colored plums.


Here's a funny plum.  Hubby told the kids it's a Plum Bum, which had the kids giggling hysterically.  What can I say ... we are a very silly family.



Dehydrating is not a very pretty process, but we are all loving the idea of dried plums, pineapple, apples, and pears.  We might have to run to the store next week and try making banana chips - YUM!



I think we are going to try making fruit leather for Family Home Evening on Monday night.  We don't have the right sheets for the food dehydrator, so we will probably attempt to make oven fruit leather.


Seriously though, doesn't the idea of a plum-bum make you giggle?

Happy Earth Day!

We came home to flowering trees, and it's gorgeous!  I need to get outside more, and get my vegetable garden ready to plant ... not to mention all the pruning that needs done after last week's heavy snow.  It feels like we jumped right over spring - last week it was snowing, this week we're barefoot, and AngelBaby asked when we can run through the sprinklers... sounds suspiciously like summer already!

There is beauty around:

The Magic: turning Grapes into grape juice!

When I was 9, I spent the summer at my grandparents house. If you ever wanted to see how a backyard could be turned into a beautiful edible garden ... you should have seen my grandpa's back yard.  The back fence was covered in the beautiful vines from concord grapes.  The trees I would climb were delicious apple, pear, and peach trees.  The garden was full rows of corn as tall as grandpa, tomatoes, strawberries, and all sorts of other farmer's market deliciousness!  Once it was picked, grandma canned it.

My two favorites were canned pears - grandma would pour cream over them, and the canned grape juice.  I loved the sound of the lip seal breaking - the pop that meant something yummy was about to be served! 

The grapes are memorable to me - I would eat them off the vine (seeds and all!), and my tongue would turn deep purple.  There was the time when the goldfish died ... and I buried him in the soil of the grape vines, with a rock-marker that had my poetic eulogy scribbled in crayon.  Then there was the grape juice --- the delicious grape juice!

So when I saw the grapes out on the vine, I knew there was something I needed to make!

This batch was made by boiling the grapes, then straining the juice, then canning it.  I was so proud of myself, that I called my mom.  My mom kept me on the phone as she went to her basement and dug through until she found grandpa's "juicer" from 1978 (that's before I was born!) - she sent it priority mail, and it's now sitting happily on my stove!  I've made a batch already, but forgot to take pictures, but don't worry - I have many more batches to make, lol!  My grandpa would be so proud!

What you get when you DON'T plant a garden:

When you end up not getting around to planting a garden, don't assume that fact gives you permission to ignore the area.  After all, you never know what might grow without your help!

Things like ... I dunno ... Grapes.

Clusters of grapes everywhere!

Seedless Red & Green sweet Grapes - Yum!

Our bowls are overflowing!

Delicious!

1/10th of our Concord Grapes!

In My Pretty Garden, The Birds Sing Good Morning

Rumour has it that the people who built this house payed an obsene amount of money to have the yards landscaped. I think the rumor may be true! I am sitting here at the computer, next to an open window. Right outside me is a tree with delicious smelling blossoms. Surrounding that tree are armfuls of Tulips. If I walk outside in the front, my garden beds are covered in red and yellow tulips, purple flowers, and little purple and yellow ivy flowers. The grass is thick and soft, and invites even the most grown-up person to lay in it's softness, and watch the lazy clouds float above.

























































































































See, I told you it was beautiful!!! It's a really nice yard especially since I get to sit back and enjoy all their work. And while some people may think of dandilions as a weed, it's heaven sent for us! My kids pick all the dandilions they want, but leave the garden flowers alone :) It's the best of all worlds!