Canning Pickles, Sadie and Hops and Recipe

Hello

The pickles are done and the air in the house smells wonderful.  Red peppers aren’t out in our area year and that would have added a bit of color.

CHOPPED SUEY PICKLES

6 large cucumbers seeded if desired (I don’t seed them)

11 medium onions sliced

3 large sweet green peppers

3 large sweet red peppers

1/2 cup salt

1 pint vinegar (2 cups)

1/2 pint water

4 cups sugar

2 Tbs celery salt

3 tbs. mixed pickling spices

1 tsp. curry powder

Slice cucumbers, onions, peppers thin.  Sprinkle the salt on top and add enough cold water to cover vegetables.  Let stand overnight.  Drain thoroughly.  Add vinegar, mixed spices, water, sugar and celery salt.  Boil about 10 minutes.  ADD CURRY POWDER JUST BEFORE BOILING TIME IS UP.  Pack into sterilized jars and seal at once.

Hooking, Canning and Morning Glories

Hello

Every day there are more and more morning glories.   I think after 14 years of living here I have finally found the right spot for them.

The barn is going to be cleaned today and I am planning on working on the chicken caravan on the side yard.  I will take a photo of it when it is complete.   I just love it.  My friend Lynn her husband and I made it before I first got chickens.  She has a wonderful large house on wheel which she moves around and I wanted one that I could move around but I didn’t have the space to have one as large as she had.  I looked at Greenfield Farmers Co-op and they had this heavy-duty wagon with very sturdy wheels  and the metal is like mesh but stronger.  It worked perfectly for 5 or 6 hens but I have 7 hens that need to go into it so I am redoing it and adding a nest box on the outside back of it.  The wagon has a handle and can be moved.  I painted it bright yellow with a green tree on the door.  I hope to get the gals in the back of the barn in there soon.

The Girls from Canada
Louise and Marie Jose

HookingLouise and Marie Jose are sisters.  Louise is a wonderful hooker having just finished a portrait she found of a relative.  It looks exactly like the picture of him.  Her sister is an excellent knitter and is knitting from some very old patterns.  Look at the rabbit hat, I am encouraging her to sell the patterns.  I would love to make that hat.  We certainly don’t want to lose these wonderful old patterns.  I only see Louise at the summer event.  We have lunches and suppers together to catch up on each others lives and we do e-mail during the year. CanningToday I am going to start making Chopped Suey Pickles.   I have been making this recipe for over 35 years.  It’s a two-day process but it really doesn’t take a great deal of time.   Yesterday I picked about 12 cukes of assorted sizes and one purple pepper.  I will have to buy 5 more colored peppers today.  I will slice the cukes thin and peppers and onions and sprinkle them with salt and add enough cold water to cover them and let them sit overnight.  I will include the recipe tomorrow and also pictures.  These are delightful in the winter and have a tangy taste.

Wonderful Useful Wooden Box

These last few pictures are of the dyeing which was done at the hook-in.  The colors are wonderful.  I spotted this wonderful wooden box  and fell in love with it.  Great for hooking items, now I am looking for a couple and will stop at my favorite antique shop, STRAWBERRY FIELDS and see if she has any.

These last few pictures were taken at the hook-in.  The dyed wool is beautiful.  A lady at the hook-in had this wonderful wooden box.  I just love it, so suitable for project and very portable.  I will be on the look out for these at my local antique store, Strawberry Fields. Happy Day to You

Rug Hooking Weekend

Hello

I am back from the hooking event.  A wonderful time was had by all.  I worked on two projects while I was there and have included the pictures below.

Blueberry Jars

Nubble Light House
Camp WOol Pattern

                                                                                                     

Nubble Light House
A Camp WOol Pattern

The Blueberry Jars rug was started in Nova Scotia at a class held by Deanne Fitzpatrick.  The class was about stories and each member of the class

got up and told the story they wanted to hook.  What wonderful stories were told.  I wanted to make a rug with my Mom and Dad and myself in

from of our home.  Deanne asked what kinds of things did you do with your family.  One of my favorite things we did was to go blueberry picking at my Uncle Homer’s farm in Chesterfield, Ma.    There might have been 20 of us picking berries on a sunny July Sunday.  My Grandfather, Aunts and Uncles and cousins and of course my parents and myself.   We would tie buckets around our waists and off we would go.  At noontime there would be a wonderful lunch spread on tablecloths laid on the ground.  Off we would go again.  We brought the berries home and my Mom would go through them and pick out the twigs and leaves and then can them.  They were put on shelves in the cellar till the winter winds blew and I would be sent down to the cellar where the wonderful blue jars would be sitting on the shelf and soon the smell of freshly baked blueberry pie would be floating through the air. So that’s how the Blueberry Jar rug came to be.  By the way the caps are walmart bags!!!!  I really couldn’t find anything else that would work.

The lighthouse pattern came from Camp WOol over a year ago.  I am using handspun yarn, wool strips, roving and fleece. I am planning to do the ocean next and hope to get this done by fall.  This rug will go to my oldest daughter Cindy.  Nubble Light House is one of her favorite places.  I plan to do a rug for my son David of his dog and cat and a rug for my youngest daughter, Elizabeth which will be of her horse.  These things all take time but are so enjoyable.

NO SHEARING TODAY.  Marley, the little imp was wet so we hope to do it next weekend.

If you ever get to Nova Scotia please stop in Deanne’s shop, its wonderful and inspiring. She also has a wonderful website and Blog.  I hope to take another class from her soon.  And Camp WOol is in Kennebunk, Maine.  The store is full of woolen projects and a vacation destination.  Every year in the spring she holds what is called Camp WOol.  A retreat for hookers, it’s so much fun.

More tomorrow about the hook-in.

 

 

 

Hook-In

Hello

 

 

 

 

 

Today was a great day.  There are tables at the hook-in where people can put out things for sale.  I went over and found a beautiful oldish rug for $20.  What  a find.

It just so happened that Janet Connor was giving a talk on antiques rugs , repairing them and their value.  The rugs she showed were wonderful and her repairs were impeccable.  Some rugs were really old.  The designs are still sought after today.  SHe looked at the rug I bought and said that it was in good shape and need only minor repairs.  She valued it at $150.

My friend Debbie and I gave talks today.  I gave one on hooking with fleece and roving and Deb gave one on punch hooking with rug yarn.  They both went well.

Today I  have been working today on My blueberry jar rug which I started at Deanne Fitzpatrick’s workshop last October in Nova Scotia.  I will include a picture tomorrow.  Tomorrow I will work on the Nubble Light House picture which got at last years Camp Wool.

We had rain here all night but a home hardly had any.  Off to get some blue wool for tomorrows project.

Good  Day to You

Making Sauce and Mrs. Brown

Hello,
Quick Sauce

Quick tomato sauce

I make this sauce all summer and freeze it.  Sometime I cook it on the stove but the easier way is to do it is in the crock pot.  You can make the sauce into spaghetti sauce or add it to stews or soups.  I started with onions. peppers and garlic from the garden added some fresh basil and a leaf from the rosemary plant and a bay leaf from the small bay tree that I have.  Simmer those and add the skinned tomatoes and cooked for about 10 minutes.  Then into containers to enjoy when winter’s chill is in the air.

Brandywine Tomatoes

The tomatoes were at least 1/2 a pound each,  I boiled them to release the skins      The ride up to New Hampshire was wonderful.  I was on Route 91 all the way and I have to say driving though Vermont is my favorite drive.  The mountains covered with mist and deep valleys and covered bridges along side the highway who could ask for better scenery.  Tomorrow I post pictures of the event.  I am giving a demo on hooking with fleece, roving and yarn.