Harvest Time!

[Yooper]

I forgot to take pictures, but I've turned into "Suzy Homemaker" this week.

I am currently canning 7 quarts of marinara sauce. I started this morning with a big box of tomatoes from our garden, and grabbed only things from our garden (except for garlic and Italian seasoning) to make sauce. Tomatoes, a few carrots, some zucchini, basil, parsley, onion, green pepper, and a couple of bright red cayennes. I cooked that down, and used my magic immersion blender to blend together (didn't even peel the tomatoes!) and then cooked it some more. It's now in the pressure canner, and I can't wait to put the jars on the pantry shelves!

I made a batch of soap two days ago, and need to bottle 12 gallons of wine and keg 10 gallons of rye pale ale.

Sometimes I LOVE "housework"!

 

[bob1852]

Thought this was gonna be a hops harvest post.

 

[Yooper]

Thought this was gonna be a hops harvest post.

Don't rush me!!!!! The hops aren't quite ready yet. I have cascade, chinook, and centennial that look wonderful and should be harvested in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, there is also wild rice to harvest in a week or so, plus whatever wild fruits we can find for wine. There are NO chokecherries this year, or apples, due to the incredibly warm spring followed by a frost.

 

[jsguitar]

I was going to the same but had trouble with my tomatoes with the crazy heat this year. Still got some good ones though and just made a couple of quarts of hot sauce from my garden peppers. Pretty satisfying after all of that constant watering.

 

[Homercidal]

I was thinking hops too. Mine are still soft and green, so another week or two at least.

Nice about the housework! I am also looking forward to making more soap. I liked your recipe better than the one I tried, which is serviceable, but not great. I might make a 1/2 batch this time since it makes so much!

I wish I had more time for hobby stuff like this. I hope next year to put in some raised beds and have an actual garden. Our soil is awful.

 

[Yooper]

I was thinking hops too. Mine are still soft and green, so another week or two at least.

Nice about the housework! I am also looking forward to making more soap. I liked your recipe better than the one I tried, which is serviceable, but not great. I might make a 1/2 batch this time since it makes so much!

I wish I had more time for hobby stuff like this. I hope next year to put in some raised beds and have an actual garden. Our soil is awful.

I've been doing smaller batches, and trying more things. I have a great recipe for coconut milk soap- you know, the canned stuff for my Thai curries. I need to find a cheaper supply of coconut oil, but I am really into the organic stuff so it's just going to be more expensive.

Last night, I mixed up some whipped shea body butter for a friend. I've made lip balms and salves and lotions. I'm having a good time with it!

 

[duboman]

This is the best (and busiest time of the year)! 2 weeks ago we made 150 jars of hot and spicy garlic pickles, my Cascade and Centennial hops are a couple weeks out as well, tomatoes are being eaten as fast as they ripen, my daughter just loves them and eats them right off the vine! Can't comment on the body butters, balms or salves though, or maybe I could but just does't seem right...............LOL!

 

[Homercidal]

I've been doing smaller batches, and trying more things. I have a great recipe for coconut milk soap- you know, the canned stuff for my Thai curries. I need to find a cheaper supply of coconut oil, but I am really into the organic stuff so it's just going to be more expensive.

Last night, I mixed up some whipped shea body butter for a friend. I've made lip balms and salves and lotions. I'm having a good time with it!

Aw, man do I have a craving for some body butter! It's especially good on breast and thigh pieces!

Feel free to send me a recipe for your soap! I'll gladly toss out my bars and start over again with a better bar. Maybe I'll grate these and try some hand milled, or remelted bars just to see how they come out. Maybe add some fragrance.

 

[Yooper]

Aw, man do I have a craving for some body butter! It's especially good on breast and thigh pieces!

Feel free to send me a recipe for your soap! I'll gladly toss out my bars and start over again with a better bar. Maybe I'll grate these and try some hand milled, or remelted bars just to see how they come out. Maybe add some fragrance.

I will try to remember to send you my favorites! The chocolate/peppermint bars were my favorite so far, but I have high hopes for the newest batch.

We have a friend giving us ALL of their grapes this year- we just have to go harvest them tomorrow. So in thanks, I made her a gift package:


I forgot to include a photo of the tin of body butter, though. The soaps aren't ready yet, as they still need more curing time to be perfect, but I think they'll be good!

 

[thepartsmancometh]

I've been doing smaller batches, and trying more things. I have a great recipe for coconut milk soap- you know, the canned stuff for my Thai curries. I need to find a cheaper supply of coconut oil, but I am really into the organic stuff so it's just going to be more expensive.

My wife makes all of our soap, and I buy olive oil, coconut oil and lye in bulk from a place called "AAA chemicals"

http://www.aaa-chemicals.com/otchboac.html

 

[Yooper]

My wife makes all of our soap, and I buy olive oil, coconut oil and lye in bulk from a place called "AAA chemicals"

http://www.aaa-chemicals.com/otchboac.html

Thanks for the link! I've been getting mine from essentialoilsdepot.com. I'll check out your link now.

 

[Yooper]

Oh, and Bob did harvest the chinook hops while I was at work on Friday!

The cascades aren't quite ripe enough yet, and neither are the centennials.

I'm not harvesting the hallertauer at all, and I didn't get any willamette this year. The northern brewer and EKGs are first year plants, so I didn't even look at them yet.

 

[Yooper]

I actually have more harvest photos, well sort of!

I went to my friend's house, and Bob and I picked a TON of these:





The garlic was from her garden.

Now, I have to admit we didn't "harvest" the little steer. but he will be butchered in about 6 weeks and we're taking 1/2. It's Scottish Highland, all grass fed (except for the apples she and Bob are giving them!).

We checked the wild rice in the river, and it's not ready yet.

 

[lgilmore]

My tomatoes here in the NW (at least the west side of the mountain range) haven done much, not enough to worry about canning. Did 19 quarts of spicy pickeld green beans last night, to go with the asparagus I did earlier. I am waiting for my first year hops just yet, sould get a couple ounces of Willamette, Glacier, centennial and golden.

 

[pabloj13]

I actually have more harvest photos, well sort of!

I went to my friend's house, and Bob and I picked a TON of these:
View attachment 73200

View attachment 73201

View attachment 73202
The garlic was from her garden.

Now, I have to admit we didn't "harvest" the little steer. but he will be butchered in about 6 weeks and we're taking 1/2. It's Scottish Highland, all grass fed (except for the apples she and Bob are giving them!).

We checked the wild rice in the river, and it's not ready yet.

You guys are my heroes. All the way around. Holy wow.

 

[Yooper]

Today I'm making soap with the tallow she gave me. I'm making a beer soap! I'll post pictures later on.

 

[thepartsmancometh]

Today I'm making soap with the tallow she gave me. I'm making a beer soap! I'll post pictures later on.

Sweet! Look forward to hearing about it. We have tried beer soaps once or twice with good luck. The best was the (non beer) soap she made with hops though, it had several ounces of saaz and smelled amazing!

 

[Yooper]

Well, it's hard to take pictures while making soap, but I took a few!

I can do a little soap tutorial someplace else if anybody is interested. But here are some starting photos:











You can see that the soap looks orange in the picture, as the beer mixed in and it darkened but it's not really orange- it's more of a tan.

The fat was rendered, but it still needed to be strained. I strained it though cheesecloth after melting, and then weighed it.

There are some things to note- safety is important! Googles, gloves, etc, are imperative when working with lye. Chemical burns are no joke!

I didn't get to take any pictures of the beer soap tracing and getting poured into the mold. But the last picture is the second batch, which is a tallow/coconut oil/olive oil soap, with a little chocolate added in a swirl. My chocolate soaps have been a bit hit with my women friends!

 

[Yooper]

A few more photos:




I use silicone loaf pans, so the soap pops out easily.

The soaps are insulated in a box, wrapped in a towel so they hit a "gel" stage. Tomorrow they will come out of the mold and be cut, then put in a dry place to cure for about 8 weeks.

 

[Kittyfeet]

I can do a little soap tutorial someplace else if anybody is interested.

Yes please to the soap tutorial! Very interested!

 

[Yooper]

Yes please to the soap tutorial! Very interested!

Ok, I will! I don't have a ton of photos, as it's hard to do it, and photograph it at the same time. But I think I could write up something soon.

Today, I did the soap and some marinara sauce while Bob went out to the river with a friend. I picked up him just a bit ago, and here's what he had to show for his effort:


While I was waiting for him, I went over to lschiavo's camp, and we killed a growler of my rye pale ale while waiting. I think I had more fun drinking with him than Bob did on the river!

 

[Yooper]

We went out to harvest wild rice today. It's very labor intensive, and the hard part comes later with the processing- this was the easy part.

One person "poles" the canoe through the wild rice bed. It's hard to do, as you have to stand and push the canoe through grass (wild rice is a grass). One person uses the "knocker sticks" and pulls the rice over the canoe and taps it with the other stick to get most of the rice that falls off in the bottom of the canoe.

Wild rice grows in muck bottoms, so it's a tough job to pole the canoe as well as getting the canoe in and out of the river. We spent about 4 hours today, and got 45 pounds of rice. When processed, it'll be about half that amount due to removing the husks.

The wild rice has little barbs on it, so you need to protect your head/eyes/body but it's really hot too so I usually wear a T-shirt and just put up with tons of microscopic cuts on my arms and legs while Bob covers himself fully.

Here are a few pictures of us today:










Tomorrow, I'm harvesting cascade hops. The chinook are already in the freezer. The centennial hops aren't ready yet.

 

[Homercidal]

I'd LOVE to do that some day. I don't think we have any rice around here.

it's abotu time to harvest our Cascade. Just need to find time. I was surprised to find the Chinook crowns that I did not get up in the air (1st year) had grown up on a step ladder on the back of the garage and had HUGE cones! They are not ready yet, but I think if I had actually got them on a string I could have gotten a nice amount of them!

 

[mtyquinn]

I did my harvest this past weekend. I did a little blog post on it too with plenty of pictures.
/http://blog.thestudiopub.com/bens-journal/homegrown-hop-harvest/