Day at the Fair

Ah the Minnesota State Fair! We start out every year with the Tejas breakfast burrito.


so yummy and amazing!

Then it's off to the animal barns.

Sheeps cuddling

Massive bunnies

Uh oh! Some one accidentally entered a puppy into the rabbit competition.... or wait....

Mini cart pull

Blog-On-a-Stick

It's that time of year again, time for the Great Minnesota Get Together!

Where Butter Princesses rule, food is served on-a-stick, and animals wear pajamas. Can't wait!

We decided to start a new game this year.... The Giant Pumpkin Challenge. We each get to guess the weight of the giant pumpkin, price-is-right style (closest without going over). The winner gets to tell the loser to eat any food item that the fair might have. Anything from a Deep Fried Snickers bar, to Ghost Wings. I think I have this one won, hope to post pictures after the weekend...

Update: We both lost! The giant pumpkin was 1,036 lbs this year!

Ant Work

This weekend was scheduled for canning.

Every year we take a weekend (or multiple) and can tomatoes for the winter months. We visit the Farmers Market / CSA stands and stock up on peppers, basil, onions, and tomatoes. It takes a full weekend to processes everything using my pressure canner, but it's so worth it!

Two full boxes of fresh tomatoes

Assorted left overs from our plant and the CSA

Roast them in olive oil, salt, and pepper

Wonderful with peppers and garlic

Blanching station for de-skining

The final products: Roasted Pepper Sauce, Stewed Tomatoes, Tomato Basil Soup, Tomato Sauce

Fresh from the Vine

Back in May when we went on our Greece trip, we had dolomades (stuffed grape leaves).
They were so amazing! we decided to try out some of our own from my mom's vines on the Wisconsin farm.

Here's the arbor view of them growing.

I read that the best time for grape leave picking is early spring (May - July) when the leaves a smaller, green, and fresh. So I went for those even though it was late summer....

We washed them, blanched them in hot water, wrapped them into packets of 25-30 (for one pound of meat), filled them in a acid (4 c water, 1/4 c kosher salt, 3 tsp citric acid) bath and then hot water canned them using a large pot (not pressure cooking) for 20 minutes at a boil.

They sure looked nice and I can't wait to use them!!!!

Rare sighting

Back on the farm we saw a really great sight. Two Luna moths were found by my dad on the light pole by our house.

Luna moths are very rare to be seen since they only are in their final moth stage for 7 days to breed.

See more on Luna moths here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actias_luna

My Grandpa O, a farmer of many years, said that he heard most people are lucky to see one moth their entire life. We got to see two!

I remember when I was younger I collected moths that were around our house in Northern Wisconsin. I had one Luna, a couple Emperor, and some other smaller Hawk moths.

I didn't realize how little time they had.... I feel bad for collecting that one now. Hahaha, at least we didn't take these ones.... although my Grandpa really wanted to!

...and we're back!

Yay! The internet is back up, the sun is beating down on my garden, the CSA veggie shares are filling up my fridge, and we've so many wonderful weddings to attend that the summer is just flying by!

The beautiful foxgolves that I got from my mom are doing wonderful. I am just obessed with foxglove. Even the name is awesome. Foxy foxglove.

The rock path going back into the mulch area is made from flat rocks pulled out of Long Lake, Wisconsin. We're hoping to get back up there before the trees start to turn. Until then I'll just have to enjoy the weather here while it lasts.

Internet Signing off

...well the router at our house decided to shut off permanently after 3 years of good service. Which means no more uploads until we get it fixed.

We had a wonderful 4th of July (insert pictures here)
*** Finally got some pictures up.

*** Here's the Red Velvet Cake I made and Grandpa O. with his festive 4th of July cape!

Are having a busy busy summer filled with delish CSA veggie and cheese shares (insert pictures here)

Warm wishes to everyone out there!