Green Tomato Mincemeat

photo from www.pdphoto.org/

I love green tomato mincemeat! Unfortunately, the deer ate all my tomatoes a few weeks ago, so I am tomato-less. I'll be making a trip to the farmer's market tomorrow in hopes of finding enough to make a batch of mincemeat.

Don't like mincemeat? I think you might like this because it does not have the heavy richness of real mincemeat, but it's spicy and flavorful. It makes wonderful pies, but my favorite way to use mincemeat is to make little tarts in cupcake pans. I just cut the pie dough out in small rounds, line the cupcake holes, fill with mincemeat and cover with another round of dough. They're pretty and so tasty, and again not as heavy as a slice of mincemeat pie.

My mother told me how to make this. She always made mincemeat pies at Thanksgiving and Christmas, sometimes as little tarts, sometimes as small pies (think fried apple pies, but not fried--she put tablespoons of dough onto rolled out pie dough, then cut and folded the dough over to make individual pies. Delicious! I used to make apple pies like that when my boys were young). Mom preferred mincemeat with meat, but I like the green tomato version better.

I suppose mincemeat is a British thing, but pioneers and old-time farm people made it too because it kept well and was a sweet treat for winter. I have used honey and sorghum molasses to make mine, but that does change the consistency of the mincemeat, and I found I liked it better with the brown sugar.

The recipe I use:

(You may want to use a food processor to chop the tomatoes and apples--it's tedious to chop them by hand as finely as they should be chopped)

About 20 chopped green tomatoes--sprinkle with a tablespoon of salt and let sit for one hour, then drain the tomatoes,cover with boiling water and let sit for about 5 minutes; drain again.
1 orange--grate the rind and chop the pulp
Mix the tomatoes and the orange in a large saucepan. Then add:
12 apples, chopped fine (peel or not, it's up to you)
1 pound of seedless raisins
1 1/2 cups of chopped suet (I know, I know, sounds weird. I've actually made the mincemeat without it and liked it quite well).
3 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed firmly
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon each ground cloves and nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Cook the mixture until it's boiling hot. Pour into hot sterile jars and seal. Process pints at 10 pounds pressure for 25 minutes. This recipe makes about 10 pints.

You can vary the amounts, add lemon, nuts, golden raisins, etc. It's really up to you; just be sure to keep the proportions of ingredients the same to have great-tasting mincemeat.

Let me know if you try it, and if you like it. And if you have a different recipe for green tomato mincemeat, please share. I'd love to see a different version.

Mincemeat Tarts

Mincemeat is a grown-up taste; few children seem to like its rich sweet-sour combination of ingredients. When I was young, my mother made mincemeat pies and little mincemeat tarts every Christmas. I didn't like the pies because there was just too much mincemeat in one bite, but I remember loving the little tarts.

Mincemeat began as a way of preserving meat with sugars, vinegar and spices, and evolved into a dish that is usually associated with a traditional English Christmas. Cooking in America gives an interesting dateline of the history and folklore of mincemeat.

The tarts are really just miniature pies, and making them is a simple process. What you end up with is pretty, delicious and nowadays unusual addition to the holiday table.

I make my tarts using green tomato mincemeat. If you didn't have a chance to make your own mincemeat, however, there is still a commercial variety available at most supermarkets, usually under the brand name Nonesuch. It comes in either a dry, condensed package or ready-to-use in jars, usually in the pie filling section of the store.

First, make your pie crust. It's easy, really. Here's my recipe:

Gather your tools: favorite mixing bowl, pastry blender, measuring cup, rolling pin, cutter for the circles, pastry board(or table or counter top or wherever you plan to roll out your dough), and muffin or tart pans.

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour (not self-rising)

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup of butter (margarine or shortening can work; I like real butter)

about 6-8 tablespoons cold water (put ice cubes in the water to get it really cold. Really.)

Mix the flour and salt together. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or a fork (but the pastry blender is works best). Add the water, using only a little at a time, until the mixture will hold together. Divide the dough into two parts. Roll out on a floured surface to the desired thickness and size. (you may need to sprinkle a little flour on the dough as you roll it out if it sticks to your rolling pin, and add a little to the floured surface

Now if you were making a pie, you'd lift the pastry into the pie pan at this point for the bottom crust of the pie, then roll out the rest of the dough for the top.

But we're making tarts, so after you've rolled out the dough find something to cut it into circles. I used this one--I suppose it's a cookie cutter, but it was just the right size to cut the dough to fit into my muffin tins.

Line your muffin or tart pans with rounds of cut-out dough; then drop in spoonfuls of prepared mincemeat. (I used the green tomato mincemeat I made a few weeks ago.)

Roll out the rest of the dough and cut out tops for your tarts. (At the holidays I sprinkle the tops with red and green colored sugar. Yesterday I just left them plain.)

Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the top crusts are lightly browned.

Remove the tarts from their pans as soon as they come out of the oven. The juices in the filling usually spill over the sides of the tarts during baking and if you leave them in the pans, the sugars in the juice will harden and you may have a difficult time getting them out in one piece. I use a dinner knife to gently loosen each tart from its pan and lift them out with the knife and one finger.

Then...eat! That's all there is to it.

The taste of these little pies sends me back to the old house in Manassas, the smell of pine and eggnog, the music of Christmas in the air, and everyone laughing and happy. It's a very good memory.

Covid Journal, Day 181: Green Tomato Mincemeat

59 this morning and cloudy with showers threatening although they never materialized. A nice day, highest was about 75. I learned that the haze we've been experiencing is the smoke from the fires on the West Coast. How strange, and how sad. In some way it makes me feel connected to all the people affected by the flames.

It's 8:30 in the evening as I write, and I am finally finished for the day. It was, as always, a busy one: ebay listings in the morning while Larry took care of his morning routine--chickens, dogs, cat, gardens--then we got together to clean out the freezer. It's been a couple years since we tackled it and it was in need of some serious attention. And of course we found a lot of things that needed to be disposed of. I also took some lessons from this cleanout--never again will I freeze peaches or green beans, because I forgot they were up there. 

The beans were freezer burnt and had to be tossed. The peaches I thawed and made into jam this evening. In future all beans and peaches will be canned, because that's what I have always done. I froze the peaches last year when I read about how good frozen peaches are; but one has to remember to use them, right? The green beans, I have no idea, but probably they were the leftovers from batches that were snapped for canning, but weren't enough to bother with. Again, I would have to remember they were in the freezer and use them. 

Another never-freeze-again: pumpkin. I put up a LOT of it two years ago, apparently, and promptly forgot about it. Lesson learned.

The upside is that I now know what's up there, and what space we have. Which isn't a lot, actually, with a hog due for butchering in October or November and deer season coming in November too. So we may be on the lookout for an additional freezer.

After the freezer work, I had another project to do, making mincemeat. It's been 3 or 4 years since I made it and I tossed out the leftover jars in the cellar in the spring. I do love mincemeat, although I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. Homemade is nothing like the storebought, though, and I bet most people who think they don't like it might change their mind if they ever tasted the real thing. I make green tomato mincemeat, which uses green tomatoes, apples, a few lemons and oranges, raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, brown sugar, canola oil and cider vinegar--I think that's all. Last time I made it I also used ground meat, and some people use ground suet. I substituted the canola oil for the meat. Other people also add nuts, sultanas, currants and candied fruit; I added dried cranberries this time. 

Green tomatoes are so pretty, aren't they?

Cut up apples from our tree, raisins, cranberries, oranges, and lemon get added to the tomatoes.

Then it all goes through the food processor.

Spices, brown sugar, cider vinegar and oil are added, then all of it is cooked for an hour and half. It turns a rich brown and gets pretty thick.

My old Tappan stove gets a workout every day this time of year. Every burner in use: water in the kettle back left burner for sterilizing jars, peach jam on the front left, mincemeat front right and jar lids heating up in boiling water back right.

I don't really measure anything for the mincemeat, just make sure that the bulk is apples and green tomatoes. This batch is absolutely delicious and worth all the work. All the fruits and raisins are chopped up in the food processor; I won't lie, it takes a while to make. I started at 3:00pm and the last load just came out of the water bath canner. But I can't explain the sense of accomplishment when it's done. And the house smells heavenly.

I made the peach jam while the mincemeat was cooking, making sure to keep the mincemeat stirred and occasionally feeling like a one-armed sailor, but everything went well, especially after Larry came in and helped with washing jars and stirring. I also had a pork loin roast--a freezer find--in the crockpot, covered with some frozen apple pie filling. Both needed using up, and the roast came out absolutely delicious. A trick to remember for the future.

It is the time of year when almost every day something needs to be put up. Yesterday I processed the sauerkraut, made more pasta sauce and made a small batch of banana peppers in tomato sauce. Tomorrow we have to go to our booth in Ravenswood, but Saturday I'll be making salsa and dehydrating peppers. The harvest season is really upon us.

I listened to the radio while I worked today, and heard an interview with actress Susan Sarandon about her new movie, Blackbird. The movie is about a woman with ALS who decides to end her life on her own terms, with the assistance of her husband. She invites all of her children and their families to come for the weekend, at the end of which she will end her life. I could not help but be horrified by the premise of the movie. What mother would inflict such a weekend on her family? Is it as manipulative as it sounds to me? I understand her decision to end her life, but not having her children there to act like everything is normal, just a family weekend, when they know what her plans are. If you see this movie, I'd really like to know what you think of it.

Mincemeat is an old, old method of food preservation, dating back to the pre-refrigeration days. The earliest recipes seem to be from at least 500 years ago, and are very little like what I make. Shakespeare even referred to it in one of his plays. Mincemeat was literally minced--chopped--meat with spices and a preservative liquid, probably alcohol of some sort, and was a good way to keep meat for long periods. It was probably stored in a crock or stone jar in a cool place. I have read the mixture was allowed to ferment before being consumed. I have to admit, that does not sound good to me. Today's commercially-prepared mincemeat probably contains little, if any meat, and is likely somewhat similar to my homemade version. 

To read more about the history of this ages-old treat, check out these sources:

Smithsonian Magazine

Wikipedia

What's Cooking America

Why Christmas

BBC.com

History.com

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Green Tomato Mincemeat Pie

This. is. so. good.

No kidding. This is the best mincemeat I've ever made.

This is a picture of the pie I made for Thanksgiving. Would you believe we never cut it until this morning? I confess, I had pie for mid-morning snack as I was leaving late for work (this ol' cold is as nasty one).

This pie sat in the fridge, covered with plastic and ignored because we're still trying to finish up that to-die-for hickory nut cake. But this morning I cut a slice, and oh my. It makes the taste buds sing!

If you've never had mincemeat, it's difficult to describe. It's not like sweet-sweet raisin pie; it's sweet, but tart at the same time, with such a complex blend of flavors that you can't tell where one ends and the other begins.

I wrote instructions for making mincemeat tarts and the recipe for making green tomato mincemeat in earlier posts. I was out of raisins when I made my mincemeat so I used dried cranberries and that seems to have been a happy addition.

Cranberries, grated orange and lemon peel, apples, green tomatoes, a little bit of ground chuck, vinegar, brown sugar, spices--you name it, it's in there. All cooked together, canned and processed in the pressure canner. Sounds terrible when I read it, but believe me--it's good!

Garden News

70 this morning and sunny. Expected to be near 90 today.

Still Covid positive, daggone it. 

But other than that, life goes on. I canned salsa,but and dill pickles...again. I swear, everyone will be getting 12 jars of pickles this Christmas! The cucumbers have loved all the rain.

But sad news about the tomatoes. Despite everything we have tried, the deer are still getting in. So Larry picked every tomato in that garden, green or not. He also picked all the butternut squash as the deer got to them too. They were nowhere near ready but oh well. So tomorrow I will be making green tomato mincemeat, and those squash I hope will ripen and just be small. 

Gardening is tough these days, with the deer population expanding by leaps and bounds. It doesn't help that many neighbors feed the deer. They don't grow gardens, you see, and think the deer are pretty. Which they are, but there are far too many of them. West Virginia has the nation's highest rate of vehicle-deer collisions, and this in a state with one of the least populated states! You would think our Department of Natural Resources would see that there is a problem, given the amount of crop damage and accidents involve deer, but they take no action except for incremental increases in the amount allowed during hunting season. 

It's not just deer, either. As the corn approaches picking stage we are watching out for other marauders. Larry has trapped 6 raccoons and 2 possums so far this summer. Sometimes it feels like a battle between us, the wildlife, and the weather.

Still, we certainly won't go hungry. The cellar and the freezers are exploding with good food. But it is disappointing to work so hard on growing a good garden and then see it damaged and not be able to prevent it.

Enough ranting! I know I am blessed with a good life, and surrounded by beauty. I went out in the smaller garden--the one we call "my" garden because I have more to do with this one than with the bigger garden-- for the first time in 2 weeks this morning, and while it was disheartening to see how the weeds have grown, it was also nice to see how many things are thriving. We do have a few tomato plants in this garden so will at least continue to have eating tomatoes.

We came back to the house with cabbage, dill, a few tomatoes cucumbers, squash, and potatoes he missed the other day. He tilled that ground for fall planting and found these taters with the tiller, so they are a bit damaged. I will use them to make potato salad today.

Onward we go. I hope to finally kick this virus soon so I can get back to the gardens, but meanwhile I have at least been able to keep up with canning and freezing. Another blessing.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Holiday Traditions, Recipes, Crafts, and Folklore

I have compiled a list of posts I've written since beginning this blog that have ideas, stories, crafts, folklore, traditions and more about this holiday season.

I hope this post helps you get in the mood.

From Yule and Solstice to Old Christmas to elves and paper stars and simple gifts to make, there is a bit of something for everyone in the list below.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Butter, a quick and easy gift to make

Mincemeat and the mincemeat tarts recipe

Green Tomato Mincemeat

How to Make Eggnog

Wassail! Recipe and Folklore
Date Bars recipe
Buckeye Candies and Peanut Butter Kisses

Mom's Trifle Recipe
Family and Christmas
My Family's Christmas Traditions
Apple Tree Wassailing
Twelfth Night
Making Fruitcake with my Sisters

Appalachian Christmas Traditions

The Recipe

The Christmas Elf
Make a $1.00 Christmas Wreath Natural Decorations

Low-cost Natural Decorations
Christmas Bouquet, quick and easy

Country Christmas Jars

Clove Orange Pomanders--pretty and a natural holiday scent
How to Make Paper Stars

The kissing ball, a good book for winter solstice and folklore
My Kissing Ball and how to make one

My poem about the Kissing Ball

Easy to Make Christmas Gifts-Vanilla and Rosemary Oil

St. Nicholas story and a recipe for a "Black Forest Good Works" cake
The Story of Mistletoe

A Story for the Season

The Coming of Yule
Story with a Simple Cut-and-Tell Pattern for Christmas
Mistletoe Legend and Lore

Christmas Story: The Christmas Spider

My Christmas in Iraq poem

Story of Why the Evergreens Never Lose Their Leaves

Story of the Little Tree Who Longed for other Leaves

Baboushka: A Christmas Story from Russia
Grandfather Frost
Here I Come a-Caroling

Our New Year's Bonfire

Old Christmas

The Passing of Christmas

Hmmm, I'm feeling more in the spirit already! 

Sunday: Apples and Pears

After no rain at all for so long the soft rain on Sunday felt like a blessing on our skin. I can only imagine how the plants and the soil felt.

We had a lot on the to-do list this weekend and surprisingly we got it all done. First was additional cleanup at the cabin which we did on Saturday.

Then it was on to putting up food. While the gardens are pretty much done with the exception of the peppers, the apple tree and pear tree are loaded. So far we've made about 30 gallons of cider and there are still plenty of apples and pears.

So Sunday was designated as Apples and Pears day. While Larry worked outside on cider (and stacking logs, an ongoing project to organize the logs from the cabin), I worked inside on mincemeat, pear conserve and applesauce.

I made green tomato mincemeat, my favorite kind. Instead of suet, I used venison in the mixture, just as I did the last time I made it. The result is tasty and spicy. You can find the recipe I use on this blog post.

The tomatoes were from the farmer's market because mine are long gone. I made one and a half times the recipe, ending up with 15 and a half pints. I loved the bright green of these tomatoes, and they were good and firm, too. 

 This year I added a couple lemons to the mix as well. The color as I chopped was a visual treat; just wish the apples had been red. But in the end, it doesn't make much difference, because once ready for cooking, the mixture looks like this:

But once it's cooked? Ah, rich, spicy brown.

Next was pear conserve. This is a recipe I concocted a couple years ago and it was so good that we hoarded jars of it to use on special occasions. The combination of pears, orange peel and juice, red cherries and spices is a taste treat, especially on a warm biscuit. It's so pretty in the jars, too.

No photos of the cooking process this time, but you can see my recipe with photos by clicking here.



I'm still working on making applesauce for apple butter cooking sometime soon, and I think I've very near my goal of 60 quarts. I cooked another half of a bushel yesterday, and hope to do one more bushel by the end of the week. My only concern is that these are all yellow apples, and I am not sure my apple butter will cook up to the rich brown color it usually does since there are no red skins lending color to the process. I guess we'll find out come cooking time.



After the day's work, it was good to relax with homemade corn bread and vegetable soup in front of our first fire in the fireplace since last April. There is no place in our home as cozy as the log room. I'm wondering if the new room will be as welcoming and if it is, how we will choose between the two in the evenings.

Planning and Sorting

27°f/-2.8°C, overcast. Snow arrived around 3pm and is only now beginning to stick. I really doubt we will get the 3-5" predicted, unless the snow really picks up. 36° as I write this.

This was one of those waiting days, a day when we wait for the predicted weather to arrive. We didnt have any plans because snow was supposed to start around noon, be very heavy, slick roads, yada yada. Well, whatever. It was nice to kind of meander into the day with a good breakfast, lots of coffee and Christmas music.  

I spent some of the morning going through my favorite cookie cookbook and revisiting the old familiar recipes. 

These are two I make every year from this cookbook:

I also like this handy list of substitutions:

Other than these, I will probably make some kind of chocolate chip cookies, lemon bars, mincemeat tarts from my canned green tomato mincemeat, and pecan sandies, all favorites here. Maybe cranberry orange bread too, and then of course pies, and maybe Granny Marigold's fudge. Some of these will go to the several single/widowed men who frequent Shari's,  and a plate or two may go to neighbors. Most of the rest will, I hope, go home with those who will be here for Christmas day.

I had a nice long chat with son #4, Aaron, who was at the Atlanta Airport, waiting for his flight to Lima, Peru. He will fly from Lima to Argentina , where he had worked on a project for his company back in October. It is hard to know where he will be whenever I call.  I the last two weeks he's been in Des Moines, Charlotte, and Montreal (Canada). So when we do get a chance to talk, we take full advantage of it! 

This afternoon I have been sorting that load of glassware we were given yesterday. I have it sorted into what goes on ebay, what goes to booths, and what goes to the thrift store. And there are three little pieces I will keep, a small candy dish (oddly, I don't have any!), a very small rose bowl, and a little divided dish with a handle that glass collectors call a nappy, why I have no idea. 

None of these have any real value, but will be nice to use.

As you can see, this glass has taken over my kitchen! This is not all of it, either---I have already listed some and stored it away. Some just didn't get into the photos.

The black piece is what I used for background for the ebay photos. Not fancy, but effective. 

This is one of two large boxes for the thrift store. None of this glass is chipped or damaged, but would be hard to sell in my booths or online.

Meanwhile, as I have been putting this post together, things are getting pretty white outside.

A good evening to stay inside!

Happily Negative

70 this morning, cloudy and humid. Predicted storms never arrived although we had a shower or two and lots of thunder all day. High of 84.

Guess what, I finally got a negative Covid test! I am so happy to see that, but will continue testing for a few days just to be sure.

I feel much better today. Yesterday I took it pretty easy, just prepared all those veggies he brought in, and no canning. What did I make with them? Well, I made the cabbage-dill-cucumber salad I have been wanting to make. 

Then made potato salad with our own celery and dill pickles, and ground up the squash and zucchini for the freezer, to use later to make lemon squash bread or zucchini bread, and to put into soups stews, etc. 

Then we shucked and boiled tbe corn and sliced a few tomatoes. What a dinner! And we had the same thing again today. I also made a cherry cobbler to have with ice cream.

 That was dessert last night, and lunch today. 

Today I canned tomato juice. 

We got about 28 quarts, a far cry from the 80 I had hoped for. I still have a table full of tomatoes though, so we will make more. Tomorrow I plan to make green tomato mincemeat, and Sunday, if my Covid tests are still negative, I will be back to working at the antique mall.

Larry got out early this morning and tilled the ground where the potatoes were, and sowed some fall crops--turnips, lettuce,  radishes, kale, etc. He had to pull the first planting of cucumbers because blight finally got them, but he planted more so perhaps we will have fall cucumbers. Tbe second planting is hanging on, but also has blight so we may soon be cucumber-less. How sad is that.

I was thinking, as I prepared jars of juice for the canner, what amazing engineering it is to make those jars work as they do. Some of my jars are well over 70 years old yet still sturdy. They survive extremes of temperature and pressure in the canner, over and over again. 

Then there are the lids. They have to be able to seal regardless of the strength, or lack of strength of the person tightening tbe rings. I mean it says "hand-tight". My 30 year old hands were a lot stronger than these 70 year old versions! But the jars still seal. Amazing.

The same thing applies to the many different medications people take. They all have to work together, whatever the combination.  I know doctors are careful not to prescribe pills known to interact, but still there are so many that seem to be okay when taken with others. Right now I only take 3 prescriptions but I also take several vitamins and no problems with interactions. Larry takes many more and still,  no problems. I have to hand it to engineers and scientists,  because to me this is just amazing.

I liked the news today about the unemployment rate and lower gas prices, and hope this means this inflationary period might be slowing down. It certainly put a crimp in our budget and I can only imagine the impact on those with very limited incomes. 

Larry is out in the garden again,  doing some weeding and hoping. Should I go and help? Maybe so. See you tomorrow!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Thanksgiving: Planning and Memories

Three years ago (and my first year of blogging, so first blog about Thanksgiving:

We celebrated at Derek's house, a few days late because he was flying home from Iraq and his flights were a little questionable.

Two years ago: Larry and I, Tommy, Aaron and his family gathered at our house to enjoy dinner in the log room.

Last year: about 24 people gathered around our table! It was a feast, the best Thanksgiving I can ever remember.

This year: It looks like a smaller crowd will gather in the log room, but the food will be plentiful I know good company and good conversation will flow with the cider (and maybe soemthing a little stronger).
I'm planning the menu now, thinking about what is in the cellar, what is in the freezer and what I might have forgotten. Here's the menu so far. For us, this is a celebration of our year of growing our gardens and turkeys, and storing the harvest:
Roast turkey  (thawing as I write) and gravy
mashed potatoes (in the cellar)
green beans with mushrooms and rosemary (garden and cellar, mushrooms from the store)
cranberry and orange relish (both from the store--wish we could grow them!)
yams, cranberries and apple casserole (from the cellar except for the cranberries)
corn (from the freezer--how to fix? looking for something different)
pickled beets (from the cellar)
pear and raisin compote (pears from the cellar, raisins from the store)
salad? will we need it? or just do a veggie tray for snacking?
pumpkin pie (pumpkin from the cellar, I think, although might have to use store-bought since I'm not sure what I have)
green tomato mincemeat pie, or maybe the little tarts everyone likes best (from the cellar)
corn sticks and cornbread wedges (Jackson's Mill cornmeal--yum!)
apple cider (from the cellar)
wine (from the store)

So, what's on your menu?

The Drive Home

Yesterday was not a good day to be on the road. I was almost to Ripley when the slowing traffic warned me of trouble ahead. The car that rolled on the icy road looks nothing like a car--if you click the photo to enlarge, you will see its flattened form against the bank on the right. I offered prayers but like last week, it did not look good for the occupants of that vehicle.

I snapped this photo as I sat in traffic waiting for the wreck to be cleared. We were there for almost an hour, so I took a photo or two to kill time. I liked the monotones of the gate, snow and sky.

Finally on Joe's Run and it wasn't in great shape either, although the sand truck had run so it wasn't as bad as it might have been.

Which way to go at the forks? Either way takes me home. I opted for the right fork, avoiding the hill that can be tricky in weather like this.

A horse ambled up to see where I was going as I passed Dan and Belvie's homeplace. Darkness was falling fast, and I wanted to get home, but I couldn't resist taking his picture.

Belvie's wash house--the root cellar is underneath it. She used to make her apple butter out front of it in her big 30-gallon kettle. She is the one who taught me how to make it, as well as how to make green tomato mincemeat, sausage, lard, and lots of other things. Belvie had all nine of her children at home; that lady was a worker, too, taking care of the farm while Dan worked away "on the roads" for the state roads. Now she lives in a mobile home near one of her sons. I have not seen her in a long time, and when I took this photo I knew I needed to get over to visit her. I have missed having her as a neighbor.

And at last I was on the ridge as the last rays of the sun color the sky. I turned into the driveway thankful that the drive had been a safe one for me, still worried about the people in the wrecked car, and knowing that while the drive is long and often treacherous in winter, I am blessed with beauty everywhere I look.

Garden Walk

70 this morning and cloudy. A few light showers overnight and earlier this morning.

I finally got my blood meal, bone meal and wood ash mixture scattered on the gardens, something I have been trying to get to for a month. While out there I pulled some weeds and will have to do more every day to try to catch up from being away from them the past two weeks. Ah me, how fast the weeds can grow! 

Still, tbe flower beds are holding on, although looking a little heat-worn and bedraggled. I was happy to see that the new perennials I put out are surviving and some are actually thriving. The deer of course have eaten my old hostas to the ground, and I will not plant any more of them, much as I like them. But the deer seem not to bother coreopsis, Victoria Salvia, Astilbe, lavender, wormwood and a few others, which is good to know. I may be planting more of those and giving up on some of the other flowers I like that seem to be deer magnets.

I seriously need to do some stringtrimming, another task that fell to the wayside while I was sick. Thankfully the grass growth has slowed considerably so it's not too bad but looking a little ragged. Maybe tomorrow morning. We shall see.

I snapped a few flower photos yesterday while having a look around at what needs to be done.

These hibiscus are so beautiful.  And the flowers are huge. Next year I will move this one and plant a pink and a red one as this is another plant deer don't seem to bother.

I do like to have pots of begonias around. So easy to care for, and sometimes I can get them to winter over in the house.

You can see how big that hibiscus is, and it's only 3 years old.

Surprise lilies are popping up everywhere. 

The coneflowers are looking a little bedraggled and in sore need of deadheading. Deer often eat these right down to the ground.

I have never grown pots of ivy before but will definitely do it again. Just so sweet. And so easy care.

One of the few lilies to not be eaten by the deer.

More surprise lilies, nestled up with a big pot of coleus, which the deer also have not bothered.

Time to get back in the kitchen. Green tomato mincemeat today!

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