Farm Fresh: Canning, Cantaloupes, Cocoons, and Caterpillars

I spent the time while the kids and hubby were in Idaho doing a lot of harvesting and canning.  I planned a bit better than last year and most everything I needed was available from the garden at the right time or I had set aside so that it would be ready (like onions). Here are this year's tallies so far: 

1. Spaghetti Sauce- 57 quarts (5 lbs tomatoes/quart; that means I harvested about 300 lbs of tomatoes just for this!)
2. Salsa (Zesty, Fiesta, and Spicy Tomato from Ball canning book) - 28 quarts; I made so much tomatillo salsa last year that I still have about 30 quarts of salsas left and I think these 28 will be enough for this year. 
3. Soups (French onion, loaded potato, minestrone, lentil soup, navy bean with ham) - 37 quarts; I plan to do another 20 + jars of soup. It is so nice to have meals ready to serve.  We have been eating the last of various batches for dinner and the loaded potato and minestrone are reigning favorites. 
4. Odds and ends - baked beans, sweet pickle spears, jams - 34 quarts

Minestrone is such a beautiful blend of veggies. I planted Top Crop green beans late in the season and they have been stellar producers... minus the mexican bean beetles that I keep picking off.

 My few last minute cantaloupe plantings are yielding lovely fruits -- 5 so far and more on the way.

We are also harvesting elder berries by the gallon -- 5 gallons in the freezer so far.  I will make jam and syrup when I have a lull in the tomatoes and beans.  And also I froze a couple batches of basil pesto and a batch of papalo pesto.  I am going to try making some stewed tomatoes with basil and a batch with papalo as well.
I am starting to get the hang of drying herbs. It is too humid here to hang dry in bunches (they mold). And most herbalists discourage the use of dehydrators as too hot.   My screens in the attic are working pretty well. It just takes awhile, about a week per batch. This batch of tulsi (holy basil) is done and ready for storage.

 I dried my feverfew and then tinctured it -- supposed to make a stronger batch. I harvested my small crop of echinacea and some horehound, and infused them in honey for adding to teas.  It is pretty bitter, probably should not have made it so concentrated.

  I am harvesting cayenne and drying it for medicinal use as well. The dehydrator works great for peppers. 
While I was harvesting elder berries I found a cecropia caterpillar.  They look so colorful -- like a circus clown.   We put it in a terrarium with a bunch of elder branches.  He grew to be as large as my thumb and after a couple weeks he has finally made his cocoon.

His cocoon is the hairy golden mass hidden among the leaves in the center. 

While I was harvesting papalo yesterday I found another little cocoon attached to one of the stalks.

It hatched in the night!  The kids were thrilled.

Farm Schooling: Hatching

 Remember that cecropia caterpillar that we found last summer? It finally emerged from its cocoon. We put it out on the elderberry bushes where we originally found him. Hopefully he can find a mate and have many babies. They only live about 2 weeks from coming out of their cocoon and their sole mission is mating and egg laying.

 Many more robotics designs and programmings are happening with M's Ev3 set.

 New baby A continues to delight us all.

 Time for haircuts

The guineas hatched in tandem with baby A's birth. Seven of ten eggs hatched. 

 Hubby and kids know the routine and got them all set up in the basement brooder while I was at the hospital with baby A.

 Everyone helps around this farm. Today is a good example: Brother M is in charge of bringing in and washing the duck eggs. He also picked the strawberries (no hardship there!) and watered the corn. Brother S and Miss L chopped the bananas to load the dehydrator up.  (Hubby brought home another bushel from Hornings.)  Big sis A held the baby while we spread DE. She and L picked the lettuce and sorrel for our salad. Brother M and Miss L helped me put DE all over and around the tomatoes (combatting aphids). All livestock were fed by the kiddos and hubby evaluated the latest rat trapping/killing formation.  We are so lucky to have great helpers.