Make Your Own Homemade Vanilla Extract?

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Many years ago, when our children were very young, we had the privilege of travelling to Haiti.  I had relatives there who were missionaries to Haiti.  I won't go into the spiritual awakening that happens when seeing poverty face to face like you never dreamed possible, that would be for another post.  But, while there, we were directed to the most flavorful vanilla extract I ever sampled.  I have longed for that vanilla over the years, and wondered why we couldn't have something of that quality and flavor here in the States.  Well, as I've mentioned before, I do love Pinterest, and found that I can have that quality of vanilla extract if I want to make it myself.  I then began a search for quality vanilla beans, and found some at Vanilla Products USA.  Not only do they have excellent beans that are packaged to stay fresh with good pricing, but along with the beans they send instructions on how to make your own vanilla extract.  And, I just noticed that they have the instructions directly on their site.  So, here is a picture of the vanilla I was able to make with their 30 bean Assortment of ten of each, Madagascar Gourmet, Madagascar Extract, and Tahitian Grade A vanilla beans. It's extremely fragrant, quite dark in color, and the flavor is fantastic!  Why not try it?

Carpe diem! Lil and Bill

My First Homemade Grape Jam!

Homemade Grape Jam

This is the first year that we've had a nice harvest from our grapevines.  Last night Bill rescued them from the bees and earwigs!  He washed them all for me this morning, de-stemmed them, and got them ready for me to process.  We had about 23 cups of cleaned, ready to process grapes.  I placed them into a large pot and turned up the heat.  When almost all of the skins split or came off (about ten minutes), I then processed them in a food mill to remove all the skin and seeds.  I put the juice and pulp back into the pot, added sugar to our taste (about 8 cups), and brought it all back up to a rolling boil.  I then added the pectin according to the instructions on the package, brought it back up to a boil, then funneled it into freshly washed jars that I had placed in the oven at 225 degrees to sterilize and keep hot.   After all jars were filled, I wiped clean the rims, topped with the lids that had been soaking in hot water on the stove on low heat, and closed up with the rings tightened finger tight.  Time to place all the jars into the canner with boiling water for ten minutes.  That's it, I'm done!  Finished up with nine pints of wonderful homemade fresh grape jam!

Carpe diem! Lil and Bill

Night Falling On The Farm

Evening Sky On The Farm

Thought you might enjoy this photo.  I love this time of day when the sun is setting and the earth settles down to recharge for another day.  Bill and I almost always sit on our porch and watch as the sun sets, as God does His artwork in the sky.  It's a beautiful time being alone with each other while listening to the crickets chirping, the cows mooing, the chickens clucking and crowing, and  the dogs barking to ward off any predators as they prepare to settle in for the night.  It was different tonight, no color, just the brightness of the sun's rays reflecting against the clouds.  They're always different no matter how many we see.  Isn't God just awesome?

Carpe diem! Lil and Bill

The Keets Are Growing!

The Keets at 3 weeks old

The keets are growing!  They are so cute, they are flying now, roosting on the highest perch in the coop with only a couple flight feathers on each wing!  At least that's all I can see.  They are skeetery little guys, I'm probably not handling them enough...so much to do and such little time in which to do it!  They're three weeks old in this photo, five more weeks and they're supposed to be ready to turn loose outside.  It doesn't seem possible, but we'll see.  I'll keep you posted on their progress.  I'm hoping Kheli and Kahn will have learned to leave them alone by then.  I believe they're good flyers, hoping that little fact will save them!

Carpe diem! Lil and Bill

My Wildflower Garden!

My Wildflower Garden

I have never been good at planning and growing  flower gardens, but I do love them dearly.  Then when we moved here to an entirely different climate and soil structure, I was really lost.  We came from Florida, tropical and sandy, to North Carolina, seasonal and hard clay, so landscaping has been a challenge for us.  One day when we were in a home improvement center, I saw this package of wildflower seeds for a reasonable price.  Against my husbands advice, I bought it.  I thought that surely these would grow and look pretty, and they shouldn't require any maintenance on my part.  I am here to tell you that I just adore my wildflower garden.  It reminds me of an English garden, lacy, frilly, and a little messy!  It sets off the chicken coop rather nicely, and I'm guessing when the chickens can begin to free roam they will enjoy this little garden as well.

Carpe diem! Lil and Bill

What's That In The Chicken Yard!

Kheli and Kahn - day one at the farm!

This run was built for the chickens, but, another pressing purpose took priority.  Kahn and Kheli, our Anatolian Shepherds from Clear Creek Kennel in Mt. Vernon, KY will be sharing this space until the property fence can get done.  We ran into a few snags with the fencing project, but think we're on track to get it done now.  Not planning on Kahn and Kheli sharing these digs for too long, they need to begin doing their jobs as our livestock guard dogs, and the chickens need their yard back!

Carpe diem! Lil and Bill