the blessings of harvest and friends

this years harvest has brought us many blessings and the most blessed part of it all, is that we don't even have a garden. the Lord has blessed me with the most generous loving and wonderful friends and they have given us apples,Korean pears, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, corn and one friend even threw in a nice heft bag of freshly ground whole wheat flour, 1/2 gallon of fresh REAL buttermilk and a quart of homemade vinegar/pepper cheese (mmmmmmm!). another wonderful friend loaned me her apple corer AND she even brought it over as i am currently without transportation.

only God can make friends like these and i feel so blessed to have them.

we have wild grapes in the backyard from which i was able to make and can jelly last week (without pectin! - how cool is that?). today we cored, peeled and cut apples to freeze for pies and we made some pear/apple butter (it's been cooking for like 9 hours and it's still going - LOL). last week we shredded and froze zucchini and made zucchini bread and zucchini salsa (WOW! was that ever good). we helped a friend shuck, cut and freeze corn and made jelly at her house too (that's where i learned how!). we also were able to get some greatly discounted items at the farmers market (peppers, tomatoes, more zucchini and lots o'cucumbers). we made kimchi from the cuc's and more salsa from the maters and the peppers. we have really got it made in the harvest department this year and i still have about 40 lbs of lard to render. whooppeeee!

i feel so self-sufficient. now i just need to learn how to shoot and dress a deer and i will be set.