What are you working on right now, and how can I help?
A bit later on this month, I’m hoping to put out a guide to making grape wine and all-grain beer, just special for y’all. If you have any homebrewing or winemaking questions, this would be the perfect time to ask, so I can make sure I cover them in the article.
But really, ask anything.
How can I help you this month? What are you harvesting? What are you working on? How are you preparing for winter? What are you learning, doing, and otherwise playing with in your own corner of the world?
Until Next Time,
-Ashley at Practical Self Reliance
Whenever I need a recipe or process, I search your sites first! They are always spot on! Thank you for your hard work ☺️
I just finished putting up about 40# of the best pears I've ever had the pleasure to find - froze some in a spiced honey syrup, canned some halves in a similar syrup (recipe inspiration thanks to you, Ashley! ), dried a whole excaliber-style10 trays full, ate my fill of fresh - so did hubby, and made a pear cake. Now, I'm taking a break for a few days (I'm disabled, and this project really took a lot of of me), before moving on to the two cases of concord grapes that should be in, any day, now, then to the longneck squash. I'm so glad you're doing a post on grape wine - something I've not tried doing, yet!
My question is on how to get this all done with the least wear & tear on our bodies. When I was younger, I could work on projects like these 'til the cows came home, get up the next day, and do it all again, all through the fall harvest season. Not so much, these days, and I'm only 58. There are only the 2 of us, and hubby usually makes the fermented beverages (except kefir - I do those), the cheeses, saurkraut, kim chi, and yogurt - I do the rest of the putting by. We get snowed in & rained in, sometimes for 2 or 3 weeks at a time, so stocking up MUST happen, and buying it all is just too expensive - not to mention... yuck. So, I'm trying to find ways to do it all, that don't leave me bedridden for days at a time. The dehydrator has been a Godsend, and I've begun doing things in stages, e.i. prepping some of the produce one day, then sticking it in the fridge, to put it up, the next, then the 3rd day prepping another batch, etc. But, it still seems like there should be other tips, too?