Spring Has Sprung! Food Storage Re-Do, Preserving Meyer Lemons In Brine

Spring Has Sprung!

Things have really taken off here! Apples, pears, and nectarine blossoms, berry bushes, perennials, herbs and flowers are all coming up-

Apple blossoms

Apple tree 

Pears

Lilacs

Our new berry row has really taken off, Raspberries and Marionberries

girls loved finding worms after the rain!

  

lemon balm

Vinca

Dave did a huge amount of yard work (again!) yesterday while I was laid up with a painful lower back. After resting it was much better last night and today. While I was looking at all the fruit tree blossoms this week I thought one things- canning!!! I really missed having zero apples last year, no pies, no applesauce, etc. Our little pear tree has really done well. Last year, it's first full season, we had about 8 or 10 pears. Dave's Mom canned tons of pears when he was a kid, so I look forward to do that too. And pear crisps, and pear butter, and... :) Tons of nectarines too, again. The blackberries need a good pruning next weekend, lots of dead branches as usual. We woke up to a drenched yard and wet fences, got some much-needed rain last night. All day today was sunny, rainy and cold. More on the way, yeah!!! It was odd to see most of the foothills covered in snow today, a welcome sight. More on the way, snow/rain tomorrow morning and the next day. In the next week or 2 I will start some seeds, depending on the weather-

New seed starting shelves ready to fill, bolted to fence

My only hope with this early spring has been I hope the fruit tree ripen BEFORE I go back to school. Every year a week or 2 AFTER school starts canning starts. I hope this time it'd a bit earlier by a few weeks...

The new!

Food Storage Re-Do-
I had an area in our spare bedroom for canned food storage, canning supplies and odd kitchen appliances. We used these, both thrifted-

the old

After doing a lot of research from Craigslist, to thrifted, to new wood hutches we finally came up with this, a chrome shelving unit from Homedepot for $99.00 -

Dave and I put it together pretty easily, and he secured it to the wall. It's nice that the shelves are adjustable, so if needs change it can change too. It's 48" wide, 72" high and 18" deep. Lots of room! I will play with adding some more baskets maybe, but the main things is for a lot of canned goods. I dumped a lot of the old jams we never used, etc. The dresser was demo'd as it was broken, and the smaller cart will go to one of our girls or donation.

Anya got exhausted watching and had to take a break :)

Preserving Meyer Lemons In Brine-

After seeing some organic Meyer lemons in the store today I bought five. I had seen some recipes for preserving them ranging from salty to salt w/oil. I wanted some with a sugar/salt type brine and found this recipe- Preserved Lemons It was pretty simple, I followed the brine recipe, but skipped the turmeric and coriander seeds and did 3 cloves, and added a bit of allspice. I was looking for something more tangy, less Mediterranean or Middle Eastern. The kitchen smells divine! BE WARNED- when you slice into hot lemons hold them over the pot, or keep them in the pot, as they will expel lots of boiling juice! Don't burn yourself.

lemons simmering

Ready for the fridge, after I topped off the brine