Monday, July 24, 2006

Brining Zucchini Pickles

On Friday I started some brined zucchini pickles. I happened to stop at a local discount store and saw a lovely, large glass vase. Clear glass, with a sort of swirled pattern, about 18-20 inches tall, lovely shape, narrowing down to an opening still large enough for me to put my hand in. Hmmm, looked perfect for pickles! And only $5.00. Home it came. I cleaned it, then tried to decide how to use all the lovely zucchini.

I decided on spears, since the zucchini's were pretty good sized (say mostly 3-day zuke's). We chunked them into spears about 3.5 to 4 inches long, either quartering each section, or cutting it into 8ths, depending on how big they were. As I layered the spears into the jar I added a pickling mix that we had purchased. I'd just found out the day before that pickling mixes were initialy intended for brined pickles, and this was my chance to try this one out.

Mixed up brine and put it over the full jar. I then used some of the remainder in a sandwich baggie, double bagged, which I put on top to keep the new pickles under the brine. It started bubbling by the next day. The spears are reducing in size, I presume as the salt pulls the water out of the spears. They sure look good. They should be ready in about 2 weeks.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Domes and Clips

I was looking for some replacement clips for one that had broken and happened across this site. Since I live in a Geodesic dome, I really liked seeing some more. Putting our firewood inside a shelter like this might be nice, too.

The clips look good, too, and I'll probably get some in various sizes at some point.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Historic Fort Boonesborough and Boone's Station

I always have a good time when I go to Boonesborough, and now living history opportunities are opening up at Boone's Station as well. Here is a link to current happenings at Boonesborough and Boone's Station.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

New Frontier Resources blog

Frontier Resources now has it's own blog. I will continue to post some things here, but most Frontier Resources specific information will now be posted on that blog.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Wine Making Class at Listermann's in Cincinnati

Last night was my final wine making class. The class is held at Listermann's in Cincinnati, taught by Walt Huber. Walt has been making wine since 1974, and I sure learned a lot. I highly recommend this class.

There are 5 classes over 3 months. The first 2 classes are a week apart, the rest a month apart. Each student makes a batch of wine as part of the class. After the final class is a tasting of each students wine. It was fun tasting all the different wines. Some were from kits, some from concentrates, some from fresh fruits.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Zucchini makes great pickles

Busy weekend pickling again. Last summer was the first I had made pickles, thanks to "The Joy of Pickling" by Linda Ziedrich. The Zucchini Bread & Butter recipe I liked even better than either of the other two Bread & Butter recipes, so this year we didn't plant cucumbers, instead planting lots and lots of zucchini and summer squash.

Well, those of you familiar with growing squash will know, when one has zucchini, one has lots of zucchini! We started picking the first of them this weekend. Sunday I canned 9 pints and 12 jelly jars (1/2 pints) of Zucchini Bread & Butter pickles. I used hot water bath canning as it's faster than the pressure canner for these high-acid foods.

I also tried another of the recipes that I'd enjoyed last year, an Asian type pickle. I don't have my book in front of me to verify the name of the recipe, but I think it was Sesame Pickle. This is a fresh pickle, which is ready to eat in just a few hours. One of my kids and I had enjoyed them very much last summer when made with Asian cucumbers.

This time I tried it with zucchini. We made a triple batch from two rather huge zucchini's, cutting out the seed area, and chunking the rest. I was thrilled with the results and will be eating a lot of this kind of pickle. I think I'll go through the book some more and see what else I can convert to use zucchini and summer squash!

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Hands On History - Spring 2006 - Town Meeting


Here I am holding our Town Meeting, where students re-enact a Town Meeting in early America, learning about democracy and voting rights.

Hands On History - Spring 2006 - Woodworking

Mike Thompson teaches about woodworking. Here we see a student learning to use a draw knife.

Hands On History - Spring 2006 - Oxen and Wagon

Wilmington Meeting members took some photos at Quaker Knoll Campground during the Spring session of the Hands On History program.

Here we have a group of students attending the Oxen/Freight station. Below is Gerry Barker teaching about early Freight.