Wildlife Visitors

We have had several visitors this summer, in fact, one of them stayed for over a month.  We had a marmot who took up residence until an old outbuilding in the chicken yard.

It dug a burrow under the building and came out to visit the weed pile that was right outside its door.  I keep the weed pile there so the chickens can scratch and eat at their leisure. 

The marmot usually stayed close to its burrow but did occasionally venture out into the chicken yard.

A couple of times I saw the marmot out where I throw the chickens their lettuce and such grabbing a tomato and running for cover.

If it saw me, it would give a high-pitched squeak and head back under the building.

I was going to borrow my neighbour's live trap so I could catch it and release it out in the country but it seems to have disappeared on its own.  

Our second visitor took me by surprise one day.  I was weeding under one of the grape arbors where we have bark as a ground cover.  The weeding is minimal so a quick trip every so often keeps everything under control.  Can you see the visitor?

Can you see it now?  I didn't see the toad until it hopped when I almost stepped on it.

It was quite large - almost the size of two of my fists.

Once it moved off to the side, the toad just sat there.  Its colouring was very close to the colour of the bark chunks.

It didn't move nor make a sound.  The toad probably likes it under the arbor because it is cool and shady and a multitude of bugs hide in the bark.

That was the only time I saw the toad but haven't gone looking for him either.  I figured, the arbor was a great place for it to live and eat all the bugs it wants.  I have no reason to go there until grape harvest time.

 

Fast Fixin' Cake

I got this recipe from my dear late aunt.  She shared a number of wonderful recipes with me and I am happy to pass this one on.

Ingredients
1 cake mix (I usually use white, yellow or french vanilla)
1/4 c oil
2 eggs
1/2 c water
1 can pie filling (strawberry-rhubarb on one of our favorites as is blueberry, peach or cherry)

Variations - I also like spice cake mix with apple pie filling, or chocolate cake mix with cherry pie filling.

Pour oil into a 9x13 pan.  Tilt pan to cover bottom.  I usually dip my finger in the oil and spread it up the sides as well.  Pour in dry cake mix.

Add eggs and water.

Stir until blended.

Scrape sides and spread batter in pan.

Spoon pie filling onto batter.

Fold in with fork.

Bake at 350F for 35-45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool before slicing.

Enjoy! ;)

This is a quick, easy, delicious dessert that can be different each time you make it depending on the flavour of cake mix and pie filling you use.

Drying Herbs

Last year I dried most of my herbs in my dehydrator but found some of them did not work as well.  Sage takes much too long to dry so I dried it by our wood stove instead.

This year I decided to try drying some of the herbs by hanging them in bunches in the greenhouse.  You are supposed to cut your herbs in the morning before the sun dries out their scented oils.

Last year I dried lots of chocolate mint for tea.  Everyone who tried it loved it.  This year my chocolate mint is not growing very tall so I won't have as much to dry.

I decided to try drying my spearmint and peppermint to see if I like the tea from them.  I have heard from some people that they don't make very nice tea.  I dried a small bunch of each and tried the tea when my sister-in-law was visiting.  Neither of us liked the tea.  I put it down to the weather as this year has been wetter than usual and not as warm. 

Since then I was reading a thread in The Easy Garden http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=290791#p290791 about someone else whose mint wasn't very minty.  They were told that if they started the plants from seed they may not come true to the original.  It is best to start mint from a slip from a plant you like instead of seeds.  I may get rid of those mints and expand my chocolate mint.

I also decided to dry some oregano by hanging since it has long stems and small leaves.  I read you are supposed to harvest herbs before they bloom for the best results but I was late with the oregano.  I cut off the flowers and hung it to dry.

Once the bunches were dry, I brought them in to remove the leaves from the stems.

Here you can see a close-up of the dried oregano plants.

The leaves were placed in a bowl and then were crushed into smaller pieces.  The oregano did not smell as strong as they have previously but that could be because they were blooming.

I also cut some sage to dry.  Last year I had tried to dry it in a dehydrator but the leaves are too thick and took too long.



I used young branches as I had previously trimmed back the old woody branches after they bloomed.

I tied the sage in small bunches to hang in the green house.

I also picked stems of lavender to dry.

The little bunches of lavender are so pretty and nicely scented.

I hang the herbs from cup hooks I screwed into the cross beams.  I space the bunches out so they are well ventilated and have room to dry.

Apple Pie Filling

Since my apple trees seem to have gone into apple overload this year, I decided to try canning some homemade apple pie filling from my early tree.  I found this recipe looked interesting and easy and decided to give it a try.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/canned-apple-pie-filling/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cornstarch
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

3 Tbsp lemon juice
5 1/2 to 6 pounds tart apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

10 cups water

Wash, peel and core apples.

Place in a container of water with a couple of spoons of lemon juice added to keep the apples from browning until you slice them into the jars.

Mix sugar, cornstarch and spices in a large pot and add water and lemon juice.  Bring to a boil then cook until thick.  Remove from heat.

Sterilize jars and fill with sliced apples leaving about 1/2" headspace.  Fill jars with hot syrup. Use a knife or spatula to gently remove air bubbles around the apples.

Wipe off top of jar and add sterilized lid.

Process in hot water bath for 20 minutes.  Makes 7 quarts.



I haven't tried the pie filling yet so I'm unsure if I would keep the same amounts of spices or not.  It looks very nice and the syrup smelled yummy when cooking.

UPDATE - Tried the pie filling and it was tasty - not too sweet, just enough spice, made a lovely pie.  Also used same recipe with apricots and made apricot pie filling.

UPDATE - Forgot to add how to make a pie with the filling.  Pour pie filling into unbaked 8 or 9" pie crust.  Wet rim and cover with top pie crust.  Crimp edges and cut several vents into the top.  Bake at 400F for 30 minutes or until filling is bubbly.  Also could use your favorite streusel topping for variety.

Quilt Show

This year was Lillooet's 4th Annual Apricot Tsaqwen Festival.  During the three days many different activities take place.  The Quilter's Guild holds their annual quilt show for two of those days.  There were so many gorgeous quilts in various styles and colours.  Such talent!  Much skill! and What imagination!  I was not able to include all the quilts below but sit back and enjoy the ones I did.