Aloe Vera Cream

This is the mamma that started it all. Years ago, my friend Gwen gave me a tiny Aloe Vera plant from her gigantic one. This grand lady is prolific and so are her offspring. I've sold literally hundreds of babies at the markets and this winter, as usual, I've got a farm in my window waiting for the spring markets to start.

Today, as I was tending to my little Aloe farm, I pruned several leaves. I've been wanting to make some moisturizing cream forever now, so I decided this would be the day.

I looked up several sites about how to make your own creams and lotions and set to work. I was a little skeptical about how it would turn out, but I persevered! 

The first step was to harvest the Aloe gel. To do this you first cut along the side of the leaf with a sharpe knife. 

Then open the leaf to expose the soft jelly inside.

Use the back side of the knife to scrape the jelly-like substance off the green part of the leaf.

Once I had this egg white consistancy substance gathered into a container, I tried to pick out most of the green leaf that was left. It's about as easy as getting broken egg shell out of an egg white. I gave up at one point and decided just to forge ahead. It was an experiment after all!

Then I made a double broiler of sorts with an old pan and a jar. I didn't want to use anything good because I was a little afraid of the wax I'd be adding to it, but it turned out not to be a problem.

I added an equal amount of coconut oil and a little bit of shaved beeswax and boiled it all until it was all liquid. 

Once everything was melted, I removed the jar from the boiling water and used my stick wand on it as it cooled. I was a little afraid of adding to much beeswax, so I had only added a small amount. It didn't set up very well, so I added more and returned it to the boiling water. I probably ended up using a 2 or 3 tablespoons full of shaved wax by the time I was done, but I didn't measure cause that's how I roll. 

I couldn't be more pleased with the result of this "experiment". I wound up with a beautifully creamy substance that feels just awesome! It's probably a little to greasy feeling for Grampa Tom, but I love it!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue  

Dired Apples And Apple Peel Jelly

Got up at 6am on Saturday morning and started working on apples. I made applesauce, dried apples and apple peel juice for apple peel jelly. I wanted to do this on Friday because I generally need 2 days in a row to finish applesauce, but Grampa Tom got all excited because I told him I was going to get rid of the ancient desk top computer when the copier from my assessing job went bye-bye.

He asked what I was going to do with the computer desk it was on. He wanted it for his TV in the man cave. This sent me on a major excavation detour. First, I had to gather up and transport all the assessing files, equipment and supplies. Next, I had to unload the computer desk and clear out the corner in the TV room where the computer table would be going to. Then I had to clear out the hall where my grandfather's desk had been stuck years ago in order to get it out to the living room to replace the computer table ... My whole house wound up looking like this:

I left the picture blurry on purpose. It depicts my feelings about the entire mess and the clear picture would be just too scary! But I did wind up with a nice functional workspace that even has a home for my sewing machine that has been homeless for more than a year!

To bad there are still 3 big piles of stuff I need to go through! My goals for next week? Find the futon, the couch and my kitchen table and finish the apples ... Oh, apples ... that's where I was going with this wasn't it?

See how badly I can get distracted? It's all Grampa Tom's fault.

So I got my applesauce in the roaster and 3 dryers full of apple slices done. Yes, the little dryer does have duct tape on it :)

I also fixed lunch and put 6 butternut squashes in the freezer. Grampa Tom came in from his early winter nap at about 3 pm and claimed to have done the dishes that morning ... Hmft! No trace of evidence that any such thing had happened in my kitchen!

It's 9pm on Sunday as I write this. The apples have dried. The applesauce is still in the fridge waiting to be smushed. The apple peels are also there, draining their juice into a pan for jelly. There is still about a bushel of apples left to go. 

I've never heard of apple peel jelly before, but I've been running across posts about it lately, so I thought I'd try it. I'll do a post later to let you know how it turned out. I did a post on making applesauce a couple of years ago. You can check it out here: Making Applesauce

Until I can sneak in another post in the midst of this chaos! 

God Bless You All!

Grama Sue

Hanging It Up For The Season

Good morning everyone :)  I was going to keep going at Lomax until just before Christmas, but ... Grampa Tom tells me it's time to hang it up for the season :(  So, this will be my last day in Lomax until spring.

I'm having so much fun there, but I'm only making enough to cover my expenses and there is so much that needs to be done at home. I've got 4-5 months to butcher chickens, write about chickens, herbs, cooking, eggs, Mary Lou's shop in town, proof-read and edit 3 books, over see some building projects, babysit the grandkids and maybe even clean my house.

I'll be there today from 9am-3pm. I have pies, cookies, fudge, candies, pumpkin bread, squash, potatoes, gourds, dried herbs, onions, turnips, radishes and more up there. I'll be serving soup made from our potatoes and tomatoes and real turkey and roast beef sandwiches from 11-2.

Come see me if you can!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Deep Freeze Survivors

They made it! 

I have another bed of kale and a bed of spinach that are under plastic. I wasn't to concerned about them, but I didn't have enough plastic to cover these beds. The blankets and sheets on these didn't quite cover them so I wasn't so sure. 

I'm a happy camper!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

12 Degrees????

Saturday evening, when I looked at the forecast, I was surprised to see 2 nights of 20 degree lows. Sunday and yesterday I worked furiously to get the garden ready for it. I would just let it go, but it's going to warm right back up. A lot of times, kale spinach and lettuce will survive fine for a couple of cold nights if they are covered. But 12 degrees this morning? Really? 12 degrees??? We'll see.

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Freeze Dip

It's gonna be a crazy day! For the next 2 nights, it's supposed to get down to 20 degrees. That means I have to get out as soon as the sun comes up and start working! I have to get the rest of the squash, gourds, radishes and turnips picked over at our remote garden. At home, I need to mulch and cover, mulch and cover ... Then, I need to go up to Lomax, pack up everything I have in the garage and put it inside. Grampa Tom is in the fields, but I'll have my 3 y/o grandson who is a big helper and my heart son Karson there to give me a hand at least part of the day :)  So glad I got to sleep early last night!

Here comes the sun! Gotta go!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Lunch is Served!

So the markets were all done, but I've got quite a bit of squash left, whole patches of radishes, lettuce, chard, kale and herbs, lots of potatoes, gourds and pumpkins, a few watermelon ... What am I going to do with all this? I decided to ask Dave (the owner of the Painted Corners) if I could sit there for a couple of weeks and try to sell some. He suggested that I make some pies and cookies. I reluctantly agreed. I tend to eat way to much sweets when I do that, but I couldn't talk Kay into supplying them, so what do you do?

Then you know how things kinda evolve ... I thought, "We've got a whole lot of potatoes yet. Why don't I just see if I can sell soup and sandwiches for lunch on Friday and Saturday." Put out my shingle today thinking if I got 2 customers over the 2 days, it would be worth persuing until Christmas.

I had 8 customers! Woohoo!

Six of them were a group of bicyclists who were biking from Wisconsin down to the Gulf Coast. They were pretty impressed that the potatoes, lettuce and apples were all grown by us :) They wolfed down 2 whole pies after they ate their lunches. They also got a really big kick out of my grandson who very stealthly snuck up to their table and stole a cookie. They were laughing so hard, I couldn't even dicipline him :)

Tomorrow, I'll have:

     Potato Soup                          $1.50

     Sandwiches                          $2.00

          Ham

          Turkey

          PB & J

     Pie Slice                                $2.00

     Home Made Ice Cream         $1.00/scoop

     Pop, Water, Lemonade         $1.00

           or Green Tea   

    Cookies                                  50 cents each

Whole pies and plates of cookies and fresh veggies will also be available!

Come see me! Lunch wil be served from 11 am - 2 pm . Baked goods and produce will be available from 10 am to 5 pm at The Painted Corners in Lomax, IL!