Cynthia R.'s Blog (5)

This week the weather has been so gorgeous: mild, cool, (60-70 degree) and crisp nights (50ish). I'm trying to enjoy it the best that I can, autumn is a very short season in SoCal, its likely to jump back to 90 degree temps to get cold and drizzly and rather depressing on natures whim. I've heard and read that autumn in SoCal is the equivalent of spring back east; we're finally wandering outside again after the brutal summer sun and heat, and the ground is warm enough… Continue

What I started with: 50 pounds of 'O Henry' peaches and 56 pounds of 'Friar Plums'







Heres just some of what I've made so far: (In this photo) 9 1/2 pints of plum jam, 3 quarts of brandied peaches, 4 pints of peaches in light syrup, 9 quarts of plums in cinnimon syrup…



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I had chicken stock simmering all night, and today needed to get it strained, chilled (to remove the fat) and canned. My mind must have been somewhere else entirely, I had turned the stove on to heat up the water in the pressure canner while I filled jars with cold stock...then when I added the first jar in- CRACK!



I freaked out and checked to see what cracked before it hit me that the water was hot, the glass jar was cold, bad combo. I've never had a jar crack on me. So I carefully… Continue

My summer Balcony Garden ( and eager 2 year old looking for ripe tomatoes)











Yum, nothing beats a sun warmed ripe tomato fresh from outside with a bit of salt and pepper. I didnt even bother with basil this time,… Continue

I have been meaning to post about how I make kefir from the grains I got from my pal Theresa. Its only taken 6 months to pull this post out of my draft folder and finally finish it! Kefir grains are interesting in that they cannot be made in a lab persay as a culture, the only way to get more kefir grains is to keep some happy until they grow (propogate) and you have so many grains you end up having to give half of them away unless you're making huge qualities of kefir daily. My grains came… Continue