Around the homestead- reflecting back on a good year and new year goals.

It's so hard to believe that it is 2016. The older i get the quicker time seems to move.  We are now almost 3 years post fire, and life is pretty much back on track. We have found our new normal, and are slowly turning this house into a home.

For Thanksgiving this year, almost everything came from the garden. i did purchase a Tofurky roast, which is more of a novelty than anything. It wasn't necessary for our meal, but we enjoy them and like the idea of a very 'traditional' thanksgiving meal even though we are vegetarian. Our meal included roasted roast vegetables, butternut squash soup, Acorn squash stuffed with apples, pecans and honey. Fresh salad, garlicy greens and pumpkin pie. 

My hens took a little time off to molt and rest over the winter, but now that the sun is returning they have begun to lay again. i'm really thrilled with the variety i'm getting now. Still just missing the blue. i took this photo in the snow and the colors really just popped.  i don't think i'll ever get tired of taking egg pictures. 

Just like every year, i had a lot of issues in the garden. We had a really wet  rainy summer, and it caused the diseases like Septoria leaf spot, early blight and powder mildew to spread like crazy. i harvest quite a bit, but it felt like i lost a lot as well.  Even though i was canning all summer, the canned goods were just stored in boxes and hidden away in the basement, so i really didn't know what all i had.  It kind of left me feeling like i had wasted the whole summer for nothing.

Then Kenan put in these shelves in the cold storage area downstairs and we pulled out all the canned goods and set them up on the shelves.  This is the first time ever i've had a pantry to store all of my canned goods. The shelves are  24" deep, so i can store a ton of food.  i also have my potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash, onions and garlic in the baskets.  Below the shelves are storage bins with holiday decorations and craft supplies.  It's a pretty amazing feeling to see it all laid out like this and to really recognize all of the hard work i did over the summer. 

This spring we are planning to get a real greenhouse, fence the garden and really try to improve the soils in our gardens. We are also going to work on improving the goats area, and setting up our cistern to be solar powered. Kenan is also talking about getting an overflow tank for cistern.  That way we would have an almost unlimited supply of water for garden irrigation.

 We had also originally talked about putting in a second well, since ours is low flow and really doesn't produce enough water for our household, especially as the kids get older and want to shower more often. However after doing a bit of research, we are instead going to try to tap into two artisan spring heads that are behind the house.  The goal is to set up a 1500 gallon potable water tank using solar powered water pumps.

So yeah, we have a lot of plans for the year.  i will try to document our progress, but it seems more and more difficult to find the time to put together these posts. Even now in the winter when i have more time, i spend it working on dolls, jewelry or in the glass shop.  i'll be posting about that eventually as well. i'm really excited about the work i am doing this year, and look forward to share

Canning Burn Update.

A few weeks ago you might remember, i sustained a pretty good burn while canning apple sauce in a water bath.  i accidently poured scalding water down my arm.  i was wearing a tight fitting sweater, and literally dumped the water down my sleeve.  So the boiling water pooled right above my elbow, and it took a few extra second to get the sweater off which was sticking to me, and get my arm under cold water. 

 

Originally, the burn appeared to be mostly first degree, with obvious second degree at the bottom where the water had pooled.  i took this picture immediately after getting burned and within an hour, the blister had doubled in size and  was at least 1" thick.

 

 Within a couple of days the burn really began to present itself.  What i had thought was a very minor first degree burn, turned into a second degree burn.  The upper part of the skin that was a light pink, i was expecting to just fade.  Instead it began to darken eventually blistering and seeping like the lower part of my arm :(   This is when i actually began to feel pain from the burn. Rather than feeling a pain on the burned skin, i felt a deep throbbing ache similar to tendentious. i kept the burn covered with sterile pads and loose gauze, but as the blisters popped and the burn seeped it constantly stuck to the bandages. My skin was literally falling off where the worst of the burn had been.  Although it didn't appear infected, i was feeling a little depressed about the severity of it.  i've never really had a serious injury of any kind and i definitely didn't expect it to get worse before it got better. 

i had several folks recommend Silvadene (Silver sulfadiazine) but i could only find it as a prescription drug, and being that we are uninsured, i did not want to go to the doctor unless it was totally necessary.  My friend Kathy had recommend gel cooling pads, and so i headed over to CVS to see if they had any in stock. i was able to find anti-microbial Silver gel and Moist hydrogel pads.

Oh my goodness, what a difference that made!!  Within days i could see/feel a difference on my arm.

 

Less than 3 weeks after getting burned, my arm is almost back to normal and there is very little scarring.  The majority of my arm looks good as new. At the base of the burn, where it was the worst is just slightly pink. It's barely noticeable enough to even consider it a scar, and i wouldn't be surprised if it fades even more!  So we will definitely be keeping both the silver gel and the cooling gel pads in our first aid kit!  The difference they made within just a day of using them was incredible!  i am really glad that my burn healed as well as it did and i didn't have any complications. i'm really amazed that the scarring isn't worse and i definitely learned that i need to be more careful when canning!


 

Battle Scars of a Homesteader.

Over the years, i've gotten some pretty good scars from everyday activities around the homestead.  In the spring my arms and legs are always covered in scratches from raspberry and blackberry picking. Year round, i have little cuts and scraps from chicken wire, barbed wire, and goat fencing.  My hands are usually blistered and callused from shoveling compost/manure and working in the garden.

Casper my wethered male goat has caused many bruises to my calves and thighs. This is usually caused by a quick flick of his head when i'm giving him hay, not a malicious attack. Those darn horns inflict a pretty nasty bruise without him even trying.  If i had known how dangerous they were i would probably have de-horned him.  He's has gotten me a couple times pretty good. 

  

Yep, this one is definitely going to leave a mark. :(
This week i've been working on processing apples. i've been canning apple sauce and pie filling using my water bath canner.  i always boil the jars in the water bath canner before filling them.  In the past i've sustained some pretty nasty burns from the apple sauce itself. When it starts boiling, it will often erupt randomly similar to a volcano and spew hot out apple sauce everywhere. i have a decent sized scar on my inner wrist from making aple sauce last year. i lifted the lid to stir it, and a large bubble of apple sauce explodes and landed on my arm. 
   Having learned my lesson last year, i made sure my arms were covered this year.  i wore long sleeves and because it was a bit chilly that morning i also had on a sweater that fits snuggly on my arms.  i wasn't too worried about getting burned again.

However, it wasn't the apple sauce that got me this time, it was the boiling water.  i typically do most of my canning in pint jars, because i was gifted about 100 of them a few years back.  They are the perfect size for applesauce. This time i was also making pie filling, and my recipe called for quart jars.  So i used my big canner and had it full of quart jars and boiling water.

  When i went to take a jar out of the canner, i didn't consider the extra weight it would take to lift it out and dump it. So as i attempted to empty the boiling water from the jar it splashed up into my face, immediately burning me and causing me to lose my grip on the jar.  The jar fell forward, and all that boiling water came rushing out onto my arm, and  literally down my sleeve. It took my brain a couple seconds to really register what had just happened, and then it took another few seconds to remove the tight fitting sweater which was scalding hot and stuck to my arm.

Once i got the sweater off, i immediately put my arm under cold water and tried to 'wash' away the scalding water. The top layer of my skin was literally rubbing off, i knew then that it was going to be pretty bad. :(

i took this picture a few minutes after i was burned.  The blister is now doubled in size, and the light pink area is now a dark red. Thankfully, it is mostly a 1st degree burn with second degree in the area where the scalding water pooled inside my sweater.  i  also had some minor blistering near my wrist, but the worst of it is at the bottom.  It could have been a lot worse!

Despite the nasty burn, i still finished my canning that day and am getting ready to start another batch of apple sauce today.  i am however, taking extra precautions and wishing i had some protective gear to wear.
  

Pickled Red Peppers

We are starting to harvest peppers!! Lots of big beautiful red sweet bell peppers.
i wanted to preserve some, and wasn't sure the best way to do it. i ended up roasting a few and freezing them. i wanted to can some as well, with the recent power outages we had this sping i don't want to get too depend on the freezer.

My pressuring canning guide didn't have any recipes for canning peppers. So i started asking around. A friend passed along this recipe for pickled peppers. It originally came from a canning book, but i don't have the name of it to give credit.

Pickled Bell Peppers

7 lbs firm bell peppers
3-1/2 cups sugar
3 cups vinegar (5 percent)
3 cups water
9 cloves garlic
4-1/2 tsp canning or pickling salt
Yield: About 9 pints

Prepare jars and lids according to manufacturers instructions.

Procedure: Wash peppers, cut into quarters, remove cores and seeds, and cut away any blemishes. Slice peppers in strips. Boil sugar, vinegar, and water for 1 minute. Add peppers and bring to a boil. Place 1/2 clove of garlic and 1/4 teaspoon salt in each sterile half-pint jar; double the amounts for pint jars. Add pepper strips and cover with hot vinegar mixture, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.

Adjust lids and process , packed hot, half pints or pints 5 min.in a water bath canner.

easy peasy and delicious!!

Harvesting, Foraging and Preserving.

The garden is still producing well, i'm just starting to get peppers but several of my plants are loaded with big red peppers! The purple pole beans are still producing!!! i have a second planting of them that is just starting to bloom, so i'm going to be harvesting beans up until it snows! i'm a bit disappointed with the second and third plantings of squash and cucumbers that i put in. The humidity and cool wet weather just made the conditions too perfect for downy mildew and it has wiped out all my new plants before they really started producing. i should be getting tons of squash and cucumbers again, but instead i'm getting one or two every couple of days that are small and a bit deformed. i'm still getting a tomato here and there from the few plants i didn't pull. The Black Krim and the Amish paste both appear to be somewhat blight resistant. Although they both have a few obvious blight spots on their leaves, the fruit itself isn't showing signs of blight. So it's nice to still get a random tomato to enjoy fresh or on a sandwich.



Some of the wild apple trees around us are ready and my husband went out the other night and picked around 60lbs! These are totally organic and free! This area is blessed with wild apples, blackberries, raspberries etc. i love to be able to forage for foods that we do not grow.



These are the tomatoes that were gifted by some incredibly generous neighbors that live down the road from us. Over 30lbs of really beautiful tomatoes to can!!


So this is what i have been doing this week and why i am behind on posting and crafting! Apple sauce, and pasta sauce!! i told my husband he really needs to build me some food storage shelves in the basement. i'm running out room to store all of my canned goods. i don't have a pantry, and have limited cupboard space. i cleaned out the kids craft supply closet and took over two of the shelves. i have boxes of canned goods just sitting in the basement, and right now they have taken over my all my counter space and kitchen table. :)

i'm hoping to get more apples this week to do a batch of apple butter, and i still have enough tomatoes for one more batch of sauce! It's really exciting to put up so much food that you've grown or gathered yourself. Although we are not yet growing enough food to support ourselves entirely, we are still preserving a lot of food. i haven't purchased store bought tomatoes, pasta sauce or pizza sauce in almost two year. i will not have to buy any blueberries, apple sauce, green beans, sweet potatoes or white potatoes this year either. i have enough onions and garlic to last a few months, although my onions are pretty small so i'm not sure they'll last the entire winter. We are just starting to harvest corn. i didn't plant very much though, so i'm not sure if i'll have enough for freezing or canning. We've been enjoying it every night for dinner though. i have my fall garden in now, so we'll be harvesting lettuces, spinach, leafy greens and broccoli again soon. Hopefully my husband will get some shelves built and i'll be able to get a picture of all my canned/stored food very soon.

Pressure Canning Beans.

Beans, beans and more beans!! i planted a lot of snap beans this year. My goal is to have enough for two meals a week for the entire year. This year, i planted Royalty Bush beans, Blue Lake and Purple Pole beans.



My favorite of these have definitely been the purple pole beans. The plants climb vigorously to 6'+ and are extremely productive. The beans are dark purple, string-less and flat. They have beautiful purple flowers, dark green foliage and the beans start purple, but turn green when you cook them.

For some reason, these beans seem to be somewhat resistant to the Mexican bean beetles, or perhaps they just preferred the other beans better. Both of the bush bean varieties ended up totally infested in bean beetles, and had to be pulled...but the pole beans are still going strong.



In past years, i freeze my beans. This year i decided to be brave and finally try the pressure canner. It's kind of a big intimidating thing. i read the manual from top to bottom, then watched several online tutorials and finally felt confident enough to try it.

It really isn't as scary at it looks. i use a water bath canner to prepare all my jars, lids and rings.

i place 1 1/2" of water in the pressure canner (yep, that's all) and get it heating. i like it to be boiling when i add my jars.

i make sure all my beans have been washed and cut, then i blanch them for 5 min. (hot pack) Fill jars with hot beans, and some of the hot cooking liquid leaving a 1/2" head space. Wipe rims with a clean cloth, place lids and rings on jars, and tighten. Then place them in your pressure canner.

Once your canner is full secure the lid, and tighten the wingnuts. Turn up the heat and let steam escape from the vent pipe for 10 min. Then place the pressure regulator weight over the vent.

i'm at over 2000 feet elevation, so i have to process everything at 15lbs of pressure according to my guide. When the pressure in the canner reaches 15psi the regulator weight begins to jiggle,rock and hiss. At this point i turn the heat down until it is jiggling only 1-4 times per minute. This part is a little tricky, but i just turn the heat down a little at a time until i get it.

Once you've got the correct pressure, set your kitchen timer. i process my beans for 20 min. at 15psi.

When the timer goes off i turn off the heat. i leave the canner completely alone until the pressure inside registers zero. Only when i am sure the pressure is at zero do i open the canner and remove the jars.



This was first batch! It was exciting and a little scary! i used pint jars because i have a ton of them, but quart jars typically work better for beans if you have 4 or more people in your family.



So far i've canned about 50 pints of green beans so far. i still have a fridge full of blue lake green beans, Purple pole beans that need picked, and more of both planted and beginning to flower. So i'll be doing more batches of soon.

i'm terrible about keeping track of food totals, but here is a photo of some of the food i have canned so far this year. Jams, beans and pickles. No tomatoes this year, as i've had to freeze all of them of blight. i've frozen about 18 quarts so far, which is much more than i thought i'd be getting. i'd like to try canning a few other things like potatoes, dry beans and soups.

The pressure canner really wasn't as scary as i thought it would be! Just make sure and follow the manufacturers instructions. They are all different, and processing times and pressures vary depending on altitude.

Wordless Wednesday- Around the Homestead

or not so wordless....


Canning season is officially here!


i have two broody hens, so hoping for new peeps in about two weeks. So far we've had zero luck hatching peeps this summer, my rooster may be getting a bit to old to get the job done.



Our new hens have started to lay so we are finally seeing a bit of variety in our eggs.

My girl loves to help shell October beans,


Still picking and freezing lots of beans. Hoping to can some, but am still a bit afraid of my pressure canner.:)

Casper and Delilah just doing what they do. :)

Still have lots of sunflowers blooming.

Peach season starts now...

Cherry Season.

Normally this time of year, i would be raving about berry season. Don't worry, i will be very soon. Right now though, i'm a bit consumed with cherries. In my last post i mentioned that we picked around 30 lbs of cherries from my neighbor's tree. Well after two days of pitting/freezing/ canning cherries, Kenan went back and picked us another 15lbs!
So yesterday and today, i've been working through the last of the cherries.

So, what does one do with (around) 45 lbs of cherries?


i freeze most of them. i remove the pits and then freeze them individually on cookie sheets or in pans. Once they are frozen i can move them into a freezer storage container. This makes them much easier to measure out for recipes, and the kids snack on them year round. We add them to smoothies, they can be baked into pies, tarts and any other cherry desserts.


We also made cheery sorbet. Our cherries have a pale flesh, so they don't make the beautiful bright red sorbet that some cherries make. My boy said that ours was the color of vomit, but it still tasted great!

Easy cherry sorbet recipe

3 cups frozen pitted tart cherries
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup white grape juice or apple juice
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp salt

Place cherries in a food processor/blender. Add all ingredients, cover and process until smooth. Pour into a freezer container and freeze until firm.


We also made whole fruit pops. i didn't use an exact recipe for these, just took about a cup or so of frozen cherries and blended them with some juice. You can really use any juice to create unique flavors. i used apple juice. Pour them in your popsicle molds and freeze until firm.


i was planning to can pie filling so that i had it already made and could just pop open a can when i wanted to use some. However, all the pie filling recipes i found called for Clearjel, which i don't have. i thought i'd be able to use cornstarch, but i get a bit weirded out with canning and botulism contamination and i read that cornstarch isn't safe to use in canning. So i decided to just can the cherries in a syrup, and when i need them for a pie i'll have to add the cornstarch then to thicken it.

i also made a few quarts of cherry juice concentrate. i used the technique that i'd used to make grape juice last year. The neighbors we got the cherries from made a few batches too. They just toss the cherries right into the jar with the sugar and add water, but i removed all the cherry pits. The whole arsenic in cherry pits makes me a bit a nervous even if it's just a tiny amount. :)

i'm wishing i had a food dehydrator right now, because i would love to dehydrate the remaining cherries. i need to get in and clean out my freezer, i know i still have lots of blackberries from last year, and we will be picking fresh blackberries very soon.

Tart cherries can be enjoyed so many way. They can be dried, frozen and turned into juice. They are said to have among the highest levels of disease-fighting antioxidants, when compared to other fruits. They also contain other important nutrients such as beta carotene, vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, iron, fiber and folate. Making them a great snack, no matter how you chose to enjoy them!

Happy Cherry Season!!

Our week in review.

i really can not believe it is already September. The summer always goes by way too quickly, and i look back on it and think what did we even do? In past summers we've done a lot more hiking, and weekend traveling. This year we really haven't gone anywhere or done much of anything and yet, we are always busy and rarely bored.

In just this past week, we've released 8 monarch butterflies. We've had two more emerge this morning, and still have two munchy crunchy caterpillars and one more chrysalis. We also found a praying mantis with a swollen belly right outside our door. So we are expecting we'll be finding an egg case in the flower bed soon.

We spend a lot of time outside chasing butterflies, and peeps, blowing giant bubbles, weeding the garden and feeding garden scraps to the goats.

i finally tackled the tomatoes that have been sitting on my counter. In fact, i've done a ton of canning this week; applesauce, pasta sauce, tomatoes and pears. This isn't everything, just what has been sitting on my table from yesterday and the day before. Kenan has been moving it all down to the basement. i don't have shelves down there yet for storage, but am hoping too soon. i've run out of space on my table and counters. i am feeling extremely fortunate this year to be blessed with such an amazing harvest, and generous neighbors...but i'm really lacking on storage space.


This week, i have been focused on my pears. They have begun to ripen enough for canning. i've canned a ton so far...well, maybe not a ton, but well over a bushel. i still have around 25 lbs to finish up today. Then i get to start in on apples...again. Kenan went back and picked more apples the day after i finished up the first bushel. So, i have over 100 lbs of apples to peel, core and cook down into apple sauce and freeze/can. i asked Kenan for an apple peeler for my birthday. :) i've been doing all of these by hand with a paring knife.


So i've been feeling quite food obsessed lately. While i work on canning, Sage plays with her kitchen and playfoods. She pretends to cook and can. It is so cute it absolutely melts my heart. So while my jars are processing, and i give my hands a rest from peeling...i've been sewing felt playfood. This week, i made her a fried egg and an veggie omelet. The omelet has removable cheese, onions, peppers and mushrooms for decorating. i need to pick up some velcro next time i'm at the store, to put on the end so she can fold over the omelet.


i pinned it closed to show how it will look with the velcro. She is loving it! i also made a stack of blueberry pancakes with syrup and melty butter. tee hee.


She also requested her favorite meal, which is tofu and veggies over udon noodles. The noodles i had made before as fettuccine for a different meal. This week, i made tofu triangles, snow pea pods, baby carrots, broccoli florets and red peppers. She also wanted purple beans, like the ones we grow in our garden. i sewed these all by hand, using the blanket stitch. i use free patterns, make up many of my own patterns, and get a lot of inspiration from the web to make felt foods. All very easy to make. This link has a really good list of free felt food patterns available on the web, and also a good list of places to purchase patterns.

So that about wraps up my week. Somewhere in between the canning, butterfly chasing and felt food making... i've also managed to keep up on the dishes and laundry and even feed the family and critters. :) Sequoia and i also finished up the third book in the Lemony Snippets series earlier this week and have begun reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians. We also did several science projects from the Science in a bag book, including removing an eggs shell without breaking it and then shrinking the shelless egg through the process of osmosis. Fun stuff.
Looking forward to a weekend of sleeping in and finally getting to the end of the pears.

Canning Grape Juice and Jelly.

So once again we have been blessed with free food from our extremely generous neighbors. They called a few days ago asking if we had any interest in grapes. Their grape vines were overflowing and they had already shared with friends and family and still had buckets of grapes to give away. Like the other fruits we have received from them, these have never been sprayed or treated and are totally organic.

Our neighbors had explained the way they can their grape juice, but i couldn't remember the exact recipe. So i started looking online for instructions and was thrilled to find the same recipe on The Backwoods Home site. This really is an extremely easy way to make grape juice for canning. Keep in mind, it makes a grape juice concentrate, with sugar added so it's not 100% juice. The recipe calls for 1 cup grapes, 1 cup sugar and enough boiling water to fill your quart jar.

First, make sure you wash and sterilize your quart jars in a water bath canner for 10 min. Then add 1 cup grapes( washed and stems removed), and 1 cup sugar. Fill the jars with boiling water, leaving 1/2" headspace. Wipe jar tops with a clean damp cloth, apply clean lids and rings, and screw on fairly tightly.


The original instructions say not to bother mixing, as they will mix while processing. i found from my first batch that they didn't really mix, and there was a layer of undissolved sugar on the bottom of the jars. So with the rest of my batches, i screwed the lids on and then mix them up by turning the jars upside down a few times to make sure all the sugar dissolves before processing.

Process for 25 minutes, a bit more if your in a high elevation. That's it! Super quick and easy.


Here is an example of the finished product ( on the right) that's grape jelly on the left. The longer you let it sit, the stronger the concentrate becomes. You dilute it with water to serve, 1/2 to 1 jar water depending on taste. This same method can be done to make cherry juice, though i am not sure about other fruits.

i also made a batch of grape jelly, although i don't have a tutorial for it. i just used the directions that came with the fruit pectin. i didn't even squeeze the grapes by hand...i used my juicer. So it was very, very simple, boil the juice and add a crap load of sugar and pectin, boil again and fill jars. Easy peasy. :) i plan to make another batch today, after i start in on these pears.

It is going to be another busy week here as i work on canning and freezing apples, pears, peaches, tomatoes and grapes. i feel like a little squirrel gathering nuts for the winter. It's a pretty good feeling though, looking around at my packed deep freezer, and shelves of home canned goods and knowing where it all came from.

Once the cold weather moves in and the garden begins to die back i promise to get back to crafting. i have so many ideas floating around in my head, just need the time to do them. My focus for the Autumn is dolls, mainly waldorf style, felt and crocheted play foods and new bead work.
Anything else you'd like to see again?

End of summer busy.

It's that time of year where we are super busy. School is starting this week, and my garden is producing more food than i can keep up with. i have already started pulling many old plants, and prepping the space for a fall garden. Peaches are just starting to ripen, they are small this year...but we are going to have a bunch. The red raspberries, which are ever bearing are producing again.

i really spaced out my planting this year, so as i'm pulling old squash and zucchini plants, i have new ones just beginning to bloom. i am just finally getting ripe tomatoes, and i'll be working on canning pasta sauce, and salsa later this week. i have green peppers ready, but i'm still waiting for the others.

i made a batch of refrigerator pickles using Danielle's recipe, again this year. Both my girl and husband love these. My boy won't eat pickles of any kind. These are really spicy and crisp and make a great refrigerator pickles. .Definitely check out Danielle's recipe and blog!


i finally got around to making blackberry jam, which is a family favorite. i made just one batch this year from the berries at the edge of our yard. We hiked up as a family and picked berries at the top of the hill once this summer, but never made it back up there. Too much poison ivy, and a lot of bear scat around the berry bushes. i still ended up with several bags of frozen berries, and just one batch of jam.


i also canned a batch of dill spears and am planning to do at least one more. Some of my cucumber plants came down with sudden wilt again this year (dang cucumber beetles), and i'll be pulling them this week. i really hate to pull plants even when it's obvious they are not ever going to recover. i have a new planting climbing my pea fence that are about 10-12 inches high, so it'll be another couple weeks before i have enough pickling cucumbers.

We spend the past weekend, trying to get in as much summer fun as possible before school starts this week. Hiking, swimming, digging in the dirt, exploring and blowing lots of bubbles. Over the weekend we enjoyed a trip to FairyStone and hiking on the New River trail, i'll be posting pictures in a day or two.
i am truly not ready for the summer to end, although i do look forward to slightly cooler temps and planting cold crops...and baking.