Homemaking Mondays: Apples and Final Pantry Prep

 

Hello! 
October has come and it's a lovely fall day.

The clouds are more like cotton batten. 

There is mist floating on the lake and the birds are quiet.

For now the wind is still but later in the day it seems to be 

determined to blow off even the most stubborn of leaves.

This past week I've been working on my final pantry prep.

The big bins of orchard apples have arrived at the store

and so now is the time to make dried apples

and applesauce.  

Also apple pies! 

There were more local carrots at the store

so I dehydrated a bunch more of them.

It's nice that with dehydrating them that they 

fit in the pantry better leaving room for other things.

I still have some beans that I want to can up for quick meals.

That will come once the apple rush is over. 

Are you making final preparations to your pantries before winter?

This week I also changed up the living room and put my chair

under another window.  This gives me better light and 

having the standing lamp is better for in the evenings.

I know I've shared this before, but I do love having 

a cozy spot in the house where I can both

relax and work.

At the moment I have a cowl that I'm knitting. 

It's in a seed stitch which is new for me.

I had to rip the first attempt out because I kept 

getting the knit/purl mixed up.

So now it's working much better but isn't without

it's imperfections. It'll be warm!

I was out with my daughter surveying the last of the

flowers in the garden when she spotted these little blooms.

The sweet peas I planted did in fact give us a handful of blooms.

Every year I try more but they rarely bloom.

SO I quickly brought these in to enjoy out of the frost.

I also harvested the last of the kale in the garden.

It's all tucked into the freezer for nice winter meals.

Even in the late fall there is still beauty to be found in the flowers.

These seed heads and dried delphinium petals are lovely. 

I did bend a few down to sprinkle seeds on the soil below.

I'll be putting compost over them soon and then they can 

snuggle in for the winter and hopefully grow in the spring.

This week I made some jam out of the sea buckthorn berries 

from our local community centre. 

I for the first time added apple to the jam to use as the pectin.

It turned out perfect and it will be a nice

treat to add to baking or what not at the community centre.

Thanks for dropping by! 

I hope you have a beautiful day

keeping your home! 

Love and Prayers,

Jennifer