How is it already November? (AKA - Time to start the holiday crafts!)

Ok, ok, I know November has just begun, but in the crafting world it is totally time to get ready for the holidays!  And I have to admit, I am kind of having fun.

Little Leia also likes the colors I chose for the Autumn Bunting Banners...

I have started on new bunting banners for the holidays, including this one with Thanksgiving or Autumn colors.  Perfect for decorating your front door or your dining room for the holiday festivities.

I have also begun working on stockings.  I love the chunky, big, sort-of-pottery-barn stockings.  So I created my own pattern (which I will release soon) for a fun crochet stocking.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out!  I will be offering folks the option to choose whatever color they like that will match their home.

I have a few other holiday items on the hooks and needles I will show off soon!

Are you getting ready for the holidays at all yet?  Or are you like the hubby and think I am way too early?

Ash

Playing in dirt and prepping for winter-

It is most definitely Fall!  It has finally started to cool off, and it feels like it is time to begin chores to ready ourselves for the winter.  In our area, we hope the winter will bring more rain than usual, hopefully with a little help from El Nino.  That means weatherproofing, planting, etc.

Our friends at Vicarious Ranch have been in need of help to prepare for the rains, and I have been happy to help.  It has been a great deal of fun to play in the dirt, see all the farm animals, and learn more about the workings of farm life.  My part in the project involved fertilizing and mulching each tree, and then spreading compost down the rows between the trees. Then Mike came in with the tractor to till up the very hard earth and mix in the compost so they can plant peas as a cover crop.  I learned much about fruiting trees, as well as some of the timing involved in planting in our area. 

I am a helper!

At Vicarious Ranch, they are conserving water as much as is possible.  By mulching, water as allowed better absorption into the soil with less evaporation.  The cover crop will be watered by the rains and what the trees don't use.  And in turn, these peas will replace much needed nitrogen into the soil and can also be used as food for people and their animals.  Like these wooly pigs!  I couldn't help taking some pictures of the piglets...

Here at Fiberton, we are taking all the cues and pointers we can from our friends at Vicarious.  It has been inspiring to see what they are working on (as well as getting actual experience) and I am hoping to get our few beds readied for the winter and add a few more.  I would love to plant more of the greens that both myself and the rabbits love for the winter, and use this winter as an opportunity to learn our local growing season better.  

Speaking of the rabbits, this week Penny and Rory got their 3 month trims.  Look at this before and after!

Super fluffy Penny! 

Ok...so not a great haircut, but look how much smaller she looks!

This is a typical 'after grooming' scene.  I'm a bunny barber!

Sadly, Penny has taken a bit ill.  One of the things that angora rabbits can get is fur block or wool block.  Her trim was much needed not only to get the fiber off her for us to spin, but also because as it gets longer, the fur gets harder for them to pass and clogs their digestive tract.  Today I am starting her on some higher powered enzymes that can be found in papaya (papain) and pineapple (bromelain).  I usually give them some pineapple juice in their water to help maintain their digestive health, but Penny is at a point where eating and drinking are difficult for her, so we will be going with a strong enzymatic supplement mixed into a nutritional drink (the suggestion we have read about is using Ensure) and feeding it to her with a dropper, and keeping her on hay and greens.  Hopefully we will have her out of the woods asap.  More on her status soon!

What are you doing to prepare for winter?

Ash

3 Ways to Use Your Apple Harvest

As I mentioned in my previous post, we have lots of apples! In Fall, I think that when it comes to food, pumpkins try and take center stage, but I feel that the apple is too often overlooked.  (I am biased, while I do love pumpkin and I love the idea of eating seasonally, I am definitely a huge proponent of the apple and all you can also do with them.)

So, yesterday, I worked on the first of 3 ways to use your apple harvest.  (Don't worry, I will share more as I try out recipes.)

First, my go to way of putting up apples is always apple butter.  I LOVE apple butter!  It makes me think of my great grandmother.  She was always canning and her apple butter was just the best.  Unfortunately, her recipe wasn't passed down to anyone in the family, but I have found a recipe that I feel is pretty close (or at least as much as I remember...)

I used this recipe from the lovely food blog Simply Recipes.  

I follow pretty much everything they do.  I would suggest that if you have a dutch oven, it works wonderfully for this task.  Mine is a 3 quart dutch oven by Gourmet Living which is very affordable for a dutch oven. 

Post apple softening in cider vinegar and water.

I like using our second hand food mill to reduce the apples to create the puree.

I know there are a lot of crock pot versions, and I am sure they are also good, but I just like the hands on approach and I have a lot of say over how thick and how it sets up and I can do the whole process from start to canning in about 3 hours.

Just after canning.

They make really good gifts. I always make sure to make myself plenty and then have at least a few jars for gifts.

Cut out some small squares of cute fabric and viola! A lovely gift for the holidays!

Ok, enough on apple butter.  So, while I had apple simmering, I found a recipe through Pinterest (hey, speaking of, follow us on Pinterest here) for a crockpot apple crisp.  

I found the recipe for the slow cooker apple crisp over at Chrissy's blog called The Taylor House.

I only changed one thing, due to not having just old fashioned rolled oats.  Instead I used my package of Bob's Red Mill Rolled 5 Grain Cereal. 

Was a great substitute for the regular old fashioned oats!

I quite enjoyed this recipe...actually the hubby and I enjoyed it so much that we forgot to take a photo before we ate it all...

Finally, another fun idea I saw on Pinterest was on my mind while working away.  That was a great way to use the old unwanted rinds and peels. (As you will see, you actually use these in the apple butter, but not in the crisp.)  I love trying to use everything, so you can imagine how excited I was to find a recipe for making your own apple cider vinegar from the remains.  

I found the apple cider vinegar recipe at Annemarie's blog, 

Real Food Real Deals.

I will note that this is the first time I am trying this recipe, and results won't be in for quite some time.  But it was easy, and we use apple cider vinegar for all sorts of things here, including upset tummies, recipes (like apple butter! Ok...Ok...I will stop going on about the apple butter...) and even to help keep the angora rabbits healthy.  So I was all about giving this a try!

My apples making us some vinegar.

So in about a month and a half I will be letting you know how it worked out.  But if I understand, this is basically a form of lacto-fermentation so I am sure it will be quite nice.

I still have plenty of apples, and plan on getting many more from our local you-pick over the next couple of months, so keep an eye out for some more ideas for these little gems.

How do you like to use your apples?

Ash

It's Fall! That means apples and yarn!

Guess what? It is Fall now!  Today!  (Even though the temperature it is still in the 100's here...) And to help usher in the new season, this past Sunday we went out to our local 'you-pick' orchard and collected a bunch of apples!  Which means soon I will be making and canning apple sauce, apple butter and apple pie filling.  Although I may have to go get more apples if I want to do all that....

Our local 'you-pick' orchard...we braved the 105 degree
afternoon for our apples.

But oh, Sundays really are quite lovely for a drive in the country!

The hubby enjoyed the drive, too.

Not a bad haul for our quick afternoon out.  

Fall is also the perfect time for lots of cuddly yarn!  We have been trying to spin up a bunch and I just loved this nice plush pile of freshly plied and washed alpaca yarn.

Cozy, comfy yarn!

I am trying to spin a bunch up for a show that we are heading to in mid-October.  You can, of course, find our selection of yarn here at our etsy shop!

And we recently gave these little cuties a trim so I now have some super soft baby angora fiber to blend into our yarn.  Look at this face!

Little Jet is too cute! 

Soon I will share our stacks of yarn and pics of our freshly canned goods with some recipes, too!

Ash