Summer on the Homestead

Summer on the Homestead is always a special time of the year.  Everything is in full bloom. The Earth seems to sing with praise to our creator.  The creatures have the fat of the land.  Our milk cow has been giving the most rich and beautiful milk and we are ever flowing in the land of Milk and Honey!

Each morning we gather up the fresh milk and carefully strain it, cool it, and bottle it up.  We only milk our cow one time per day and she gives us 3 gallons of the sweetest, creamiest milk!  We are so thankful!  Our cups literally are overflowing!

I am so thankful that I have my canning buddies with me.  These kids have been canning tomatoes since they were babies.  It is our LIFE!  This is what we do each year and it is a blessing!  I love the fellowship I have with my most precious fruit of the womb, working up the fruits yielded from the garden patch which burst forth up from the hand of GOD!

We carefully wash each one.

Each tomato is cut into sections and all the bad spots and stems are removed. They are ladled into our Vitamix and pureed until the skins and pulp are all fine.

It is amazing how much boiling sauce can be made from 2 bushels of fresh tomatoes.  Here we have 8 gallons brewing.  I add all my spices (onion powder, Garlic powder, salt, pepper, chili powder, basil, oregano to taste)  I add organic tomato paste at the end to thicken it.

It is all cooked for about 2-3 hours, just gently bubbling over the heat.  The aroma is amazing!

I use hot jars and ladle the boiling sauce into each jar to the neck.  I gently wipe the tops of the jars and top them all off with a brand new canning lid and ring tightly fashioned.

If I am in a hurry, I also water bath them, for 30 minutes.  That is IF I did not cook the sauce for several hours.  You must never do this hot pack method with insufficiently cooked ingredients because it will go bad and all your work will be for nothing.

I cooked this batch plenty long enough, so I was able to turn the HOT jars upside down for sealing.  They seal wonderfully and can be stored in my root cellar.  What a blessing.  This year we were able to bottle up about 70 quarts total so far!  I use my sauce for all kinds of meals for my family, like spaghetti, chili soup, Mexican and Italian dishes, pizza, and tomato soups.  It is every bit of a blessing that carries through the entire year!

Nothing goes to waste on our Homestead.  I dumped all the scraps to our layers out in the barnyard!

Other wonderful things about this summer…We recently were able to bring our son to the SON of GOD!  Mikey was so touched by the healing of God’s hand to his broken Heart that he gave his whole heart back to God.  It is a double miracle.  My husband was so thankful to bring his son to the water to baptize him in the likeness of Christ!  He showed the world that he was buried with Christ and as he rose from the waters, he rose to LIFE in Christ.  No better news than that!  We are so thankful!

Our loving Church body sang praises with us and prayed for God’s mighty plan in our sons life.  God is so great!

ARE we moving?That is the question we all ask.  Not at this time.  It is one of those things where we count our chickens before they are hatched and we find out that it was not the right timing.  I think it causes us to trust God more with all the little steps of our paths.  We are learning to be content just where we are and we patiently wait for the Lord’s leading.  We have WAY more than we deserve and LIFE is RICH with all the things that matter most.  I have everything I will ever need gathered around my table each day!