Theft, September Is Preparedness Month/ Covid Style, Harvest/ Food Preservation Time! Extra Office Heat Solution

Theft- 

Just when you think life is going pretty smooth you see something and her left scratching your head thinking is that really what happened? I was going into my home office/bedroom yesterday.  When I looked out through the window I saw four people that looked familiar. One of the adults was carrying five or six pears in their arms. I did a double-take because they walked right by our pear tree and those look like our pears-

It took me a minute or two to register that they probably took them. There is an easement between our lot and the duplexes next to us. They look like they were out for a walk, walking slow and just decided to take some. I was so shocked it took a few minutes for me to register what probably happened. I went out a few minutes later and they were gone. I don't know that I would have asked them or confronted them since I don't really know them. I went out on my lunch break and picked as many pears as I could reach and brought them inside. I mentioned this to Dave when he got home and he said "oh that's odd, the next door neighbor yesterday said "you guys have a lot of nice pears". " Dave harvested the rest of the pears last night and brought them in-

I kept thinking about how to deal with this without getting into a hostile engagement with a neighbor. Finally late in the evening I came up with the idea to put the sign out on the fence facing their property. I basically put it on the other side of the pear tree where they would see it walking by. I was surprised by all this, even though I have read on some Permaculture Facebook groups, about people having their produce stolen out of their yards. There is a chance that they simply picked up some pears that were on the ground in the easement. The karma for them is they were still pretty green, so probably not that great tasting. These pears are ripe when they turn yellow/blush. I was going to process them this weekend anyway and they're ripening inside a little bit faster. What can you do and the sad thing they had two young children with them so how is that modeling integrity, making the right choice when no one is looking? If they would have asked I'd have given them some... I'll be canning these for the winter, should be great!

September Is Preparedness Month/ Covid Style-

Yes it's that time of year! National Preparedness Month. With all of the weather disasters, fires, snow, hurricanes, electrical outages now there's also Covid. Another reason to think about being prepared. When Covid first hit I brought in my emergency medical kit. I had bought a cheap plastic tool box and filled it with of different kinds of bandages, OTC meds, including surgical masks. Those masks were really cheap when I bought them, not so much now. I've always told myself as a reminder-  we're one highway away from empty grocery stores. In other words there's only one main highway in or out of Boise. If there is a major snow problem, summer fires, etc it would be pretty scary with stores emptying. Good time to remind yourself to have extra foods that don't require any preparation (bonus) as well as lots of water on hand. I bought some extra batteries recently and realized that most of my oil lamps were pretty low. I brought my bottles of oil in and will refill. I'd rather have those kinds of things done and not need them than the opposite. And it's so easy to do a little at a time! There's tons of resources online so feel free to check all that out or you can search this blog for my previous posts under the topic preparedness. You can store all kinds of things easliy, in closets, under your beds, garages. Lots of info here Ready.gov  And don't forget your pets! 

Harvest/ Food Preservation Time!
We've been having a really great harvest the last week or so of tomatoes, lemon cucumbers and several peppers-

We bought some peaches from a local orchard and I processed all of those this last weekend. I froze a small amount to keep through the winter. The rest I froze until this coming Labor Day weekend. I have 5 days off!!! They will be thawed and I will be making jams and chutneys. It was pretty tough in Boise to find any low sugar pectin, anywhere! I finally decided to try the local natural grocery store and found lots of Pomona's pectin, talk about happy! I bought five boxes and that should be plenty-

This weekend I also cleaned out our freezer and found some of last Summer's peaches buried. I thawed those and made a really big peach and blueberry cobbler, wow was it good! Here it is going in-

Yummy!

I like to use this recipe for the topping- Topping For Crisp

My fermented pickles are coming along great after one week. I decided they weren't quite sour enough, so I'm giving them another week. They'll store for months in the fridge. I'm using my Vegetable Master fermenting jar with an airlock for one recipe and 2 Masontops for another recipe. 

Making lots of salsa with are dead ripe tomatoes, peppers from the garden and lots of fresh cilantro and purple onion. I just a little bit of red wine vinegar and salt and it's good to go. I make this tonight to use up some tomatoes, it's Fried Catfish BLTS, it's delish!!! I used Tilapia since I couldn't find any catfish.  

For other foods-

I have a couple gallon bags of Rhubarb in the freezer, will make Rhubarb sauce and a new recipe I saw recently Newfoundland Rhubarb Relish. I found another one that's a bit different. I think I'll make a couple of small batches and I will report back! 

I have a gallon of corn to make Corn Relish, will can this time. 

Will be canning pears too. 

I may thaw some frozen apples, since we're about out of Apple Butter. Homemade is so GOOD!!! With 5 days off I will be focusing on food storage/processing as you can see!

Extra Office Heat Solution-
With Autumn-like weather starting in a bit (50 this morning) winter is around the corner. Last month I decided to buy a heater for my home office. Instead of running the furnace all day while I'm working I thought about buying this heater, closing the door and saving some $$$- 

We had similar ones before and they worked great! Very safe. I got it from Ace, since I like to support local stores! It's on wheels, is oil-filled for radiant heat, 3 settings and a thermostat. Warms up gradually and Anya loves it! Should easily pay for itself, only $65.00.