Applesauce and our little walker!

First and most notably, Terah is perfecting her walking skills! She is working on speed walking, pivots and quietly slipping away to some spot to conduct mischief before we can miss her. One of her favorite things is walking into the arms of someone who loves her!



A food processing season would not feel right without an applesauce making day. We weren't sure if it was going to happen this year - in part because of the huge supply we made last year and the fact that my mom had graciously made some to share with us as well. But when I visited our neighbor last week and on our walk we saw their liberty apples starting to fall from the tree, I acted quickly to make sure the deer didn't get all of them. The next day the girls (all three of them!) and Jason went and picked as much as they could while I was at work, and a few days later the older girls accompanied Jason to pick up the rest of the drops. The pigs are enjoying most of those and, in thanks for us picking the apples, we were gifted a bin of apples for sauce. So our Sabbath activity this week was a family applesauce making day and it was fun!

We get our system down more and more each year, and this year had the twist of a curious, mischievous, mobile baby to contend with! Leave it to Jason to figure out the perfect answer to averting disaster. He rigged a baby gate on our front porch and we put all the "baby safe" things on the porch and the propane burner on the front walk. Terah was very intrigued by it and while she made it clear she was interested in getting to the other side, she never really got upset about being hemmed in. I think she liked that the door to the outside was open more than usual and she could go in and out freely.

Alida was our master cranker. She did a superb job at that for a good part of the morning while Kali was out taking care of her ducks. When Kali (finally) joined us, she dove into chopping and got in on a little cranking and cleanup as well. Terah really enjoyed sampling the apples. She was thrilled to find the bin on the kitchen floor and she would pick one out, take a bite, and drop it on the floor (for those familiar with the Ramona stories, we deemed it a "Ramona moment" for Terah). She also was into taste testing the applesauce and did remarkably well carting around with me. She took a super short morning nap but it worked out well so that she got in on more of the fun action and then was ready for a good nap once we were wrapping up.

The day before had been the girls first day of soccer and we celebrated by redeeming one of Kali's bday coupons. We did a few town errands, including a stop for library books, and most importantly went to the Farmer's Market for Kali to spend her $13 on eggplant and other things of her choosing. We also got some additional items and had a picnic before heading home. The eggplant was destined to be breaded and fried so on top of making applesauce all day, we made fried eggplant for our lunch.  It's always worth it, but it does feel like a production. We are thrilled to finally have a homemade crumb recipe we are very fond of (blend together: rolled oats, flax, nutritional yeast, salt and oregano). They are scrumptious fried in coconut oil.

While it was a full day, Jason still took time for his after lunch stretch. This is now a tradition not to be tampered with. When he is done eating, he stretches out on the living room floor. This is Terah's signal to start begging to get down from her high chair. I clean her up (at least moderately) and put her on the floor. She toddles or crawls over and attacks. If she happens to lose interest, Alida is always happy to fill in.

So I have to finish by telling a story on Jason. Last evening I was cleaning the applesauce jars, labeling them and tucking them away in the root cellar. I was admiring the full and colorful shelves, which makes me feel ready for frost and the fall and winter seasons. Jason came in with Terah to admire with me, though not a relaxed admiring since Terah is VERY interested in all the things in the root cellar (in glass jars). We went back out and continued our chicken conversation. I should have known that Jason would not be thinking about much else if the subject of our conversation was chickens. After a moment I noticed that he had followed me to the kitchen without Terah. I glanced towards the stairwell and noticed the door open. I urgently reminded him that she climbs the stairs now. He nonchalantly assured me she wasn't on the steps by saying, "no, she's in the root cellar." I bolted! What part of his brain told him that the root cellar was a better place for this little gal to be solo? Disaster had not struck but she was looked kind of pleased and surprised that she had been left in "the china shop" unsupervised. Gotta watch that back door! We shared a good laugh.

I'll end with a picture of the beautiful shelves. It was hard to get it all in. All but the top shelf is full. The bottom is leftovers from last year and the rest is this year's labor/play. There is one smaller shelf at the back of the root cellar with jams from last year - which we are grateful for as this hasn't been as good a berry year. We feel thankful, as well as rich, when we step into the room. We look forward to sharing many feasts together and with others from these shelves...