There is Frost on the Pumpkins

Quite literally!

This is the pumpkin patch this morning.



Life on the Farm

The fencing man who was supposed to show up Sunday and did not, finally did come  on Tuesday.  He finished trimming my broken  Red Maple and the other maple in the west yard.  He also  cut down the broken peach tree in the orchard and hauled off all the debris. He will be returning (no set time you understand) at some point to trim around the concrete building that is the orchard's west fence and to build a fence  around the orchard hydrant that has always been a weak link for the cattle.

I have lots of other things for him to do.........will add as he returns.  We make no firm plans knowing how these things go.

Daily chores continue.  The chickens are giving us 7 eggs consistently.  I am getting way ahead.  DH is checking cattle daily.  He also has rounded up and out three more calves that are ready to be weaned.  I can hear them bawling.  They will do that for a few days before settling down.

We are still not feeding hay to the herd.  We are feeding to the weaned group near the barn.  They are basically dry-lotted, meaning not grazing open pasture.

Cooking

I made orange marmalade.  The first time I tried using Ina Garten's recipe and it was a disaster.  The problem may be my candy thermometer is not correct.  I should have just used common sense and the cold plate test but tried to get the batch to the correct temp.  Never did and ended up with jars of rubberized or candied stuff.  I think I can redeem it in my next batch of mincemeat.

I had oranges left and they were not really of good eating quality so I made a smaller batch using Alton Brown's recipe.  However, I used the time element not the thermometer and also used the cold plate test.  I think it turned out OK.  We did have a small test this morning on a half English Muffin.



I am very wary of internet recipes..much safer to use ones from friends or sisters!

I have several things I want to get done before Thanksgiving:  paint two extra kitchen chairs; wash down the kitchen cabinets (DH will help me with that) and fasten the back porch shelving to the wall with very long screws we got yesterday.  I also will be  soap making again.  I would like to have several batches curing.  I may try a different recipe  or two.

Weird Squash - Test Pie

We got a scattered heavy frost this morning and are supposed to get down to 28° soon.

After milking yesterday morning, DH and I loaded up the sweet potatoes and took them to the MIlk Parlor.  I sill have to clean and sort them and then will bring them to the house unless I can get the hallway in the barn up to desired temperature.  We use an oil filled heater out there.

We also brought the squash in and temporarily stored them in the west chicken house.  It is insulated with bales of straw in the ceiling but will still be too cold so I will move them to the barn also.

I was so curious about what kind of flesh I would get from the strange shaped ones.....they were supposed to be Butternut seeds and not saved seeds.  Some were quite normal but large and others almost round.

Here is the one I tested.



I used a ruler to give some idea of the size,




I wanted to try the Victorio strainer with it.  I have never used it on pumpkin.  If I am satisfied with the results, it saves two steps:  Scraping the flesh from the skins after cooking and pureeing the remains .


I cut the squash into smaller pieces, added some water, covered and baked at 400 until tender.  It didn't take very long,  under an hour.

Then I ran it through the strainer using the pumpkin cone.  It went very quickly.  The only negative and it may not be too bad is some very tiny pieces of skin also came through.  I am curious about that.

I removed the shield that drains the pulp into the bowl before I took the picture.


The real test is now in the oven.....I made a pie this morning using the recipe from Joy of  Cooking.  The pie made too much for my 9 inch dish.  I will bake the leftover in a custard cup.  Next time I would simply reduce the amount of cream by 1/2 cup or use another recipe......or try to find my 10-inch pie plate!

Lorraine, I also spread some mincemeat over a part to test.  I hope I marked the edge of the crust enough that I can tell because I want to test it first.

I got three one-pound packages with one cup left over from this squash......this means I have enough squash to make approximately 50 pies!  I need to give some away but I am probably the only person I know who would use this method to make a pie (or 50 pies).

Will report back  later.