Day To Night At The Farmhouse...

Liljegren's Hickory Hill Farm

It was a perfectly wonderful weekend, and the leaves are beginning to turn. As I was coming home from an errand, I had to stop on the road and take a photograph of our farmhouse from a distance. You can see the compass barn to the left, with the woodshed in shadow behind it. Seeing it from this vantage point always makes me smile. I know I'm almost home.

Canned Pineapple

It was also a perfect weekend for canning. I saw a sale on butter at our local store (Pick n Save), for two dollars off per pound - as long as you purchased at least three pounds - with no limit. No worry there. I bought a thirty pound case of sweet butter and a thirty pound case of unsalted for my baking needs.  (NOTE: If you have a Pick n Save local to you, the sale is on until November 5th, in case you're interested in getting some.)

On my way to the checkout, I stopped in the produce section to see if there were sales on anything in that department, to find that pineapples were indeed at a reduced price. Although not the $.88 they were last time, I purchased four anyway.

When I cut them to can, there was some damage on one, and overripe spots on another, so I didn't get the yield I originally anticipated, but seven pints isn't bad. These will be added to what I canned earlier this summer, and we'll still have lovely pineapple (pressure canned in spring water so it has no added sugar).

Canned Sloppy Joes

I also came across a pressure canning recipe for barbeque ground beef (sloppy joes, or as a friend calls them, "tamales"). I'd purchased four pounds of ground beef from our local butcher shop last week, and had set aside two pounds to try this out before committing to a larger batch. I'll reheat one of the jars some time this week and we can decide whether or not I should do a larger batch to add more to our winter stores in the pantry.

You can see the pineapple photograph was taken during the day. The sloppy joes were finished after six pm, and it was already dark. ugh 

Handsome said that after a day in the kitchen, he was treating me to a meal out of the house. Our favorite drive-in was closing for the end of the season, so that's where we went to enjoy tasty food without the cleanup. When we got back home, I removed the rings from the jars to find that only one jar of pineapple hadn't sealed. That one went into the fridge to eat this week. The rest of the jars were cleaned and labeled and placed in the pantry cupboard. The perfect end to a perfect and productive weekend.

I did stitch on my bluebird babies, too. I'll share a progress photograph with you tomorrow. 

Pineapples For The Birthday Girl...

You've seen these before. Now, I've created a Birthday gift with them!

I had six finished pineapple blocks and decided that four should become a table

runner for someone special. I completed the runner last night and will mail it today.

I decided against sashing, and chose blue border fabric to bring out the yellow.
The blocks are Pineapple blocks, so I'm glad I chose the yellow to reinforce
the design of the block. (Did I tell you that pineapple fruit has been a favorite
since I was a child? Yup. I know I'll do this block again for something for me!)

 This is the runner before quilting and binding, and...

Here's the finished table runner!
 Beautiful blue Bali™ batiks and little Florida sunshine accents.
(The back is the same yellow fabric with one blue fabric strip.)
A gift of love from me to the Birthday girl.

Pineapples from Pineapples...

Living in subtropical southern Florida makes it possible to watch things grow that you never thought of before. You can practically toss a rock into the soil and it will root! No green thumb here, as you well know, but I even surprised myself with this one.

I had purchased a pineapple at the grocery store. It was one of those with a green, leafy top. I've loved pineapples since I was little, so they're real treats for me! Well, I cut the top off and, on a lark, stuck in in a bowl of water. (I was treating it like a potato that we got to root when I was a kid.) It didn't grow roots as I expected. It kind of rotted sitting in the water. (yuk!)

I didn't toss it, but I did try something different. I pulled all the rotten pulp off the leafy part, which was still green and viable, pressed the core into some root powder and placed the whole thing into some nice potting soil in a favorite pot. It worked! The core formed roots and the leafy part started to grow...and grow...and grow!

I finally planted it in the ground outside our front door. It actually got huge! I was so excited that my plant was growing that really, that was enough for me. Then, one day about two years later, I walked out the front door to find a tiny growth in the center. Weeks went by and I realized that my pineapple plant was actually growing a pineapple! The fruit only grew to be about eight inches tall, but when it became obvious that it wasn't going to get any larger, I cut the fruit away from the plant and cut it open to taste the sweetest little pineapple you could imagine. Two years later, it flowered and produced fruit again and then the plant died.

The photo above is one of our actual little pineapples. I'm thinking it's time to head to Publix and get another pineapple (or two) with the leaves attached. It would be fun to watch the tops grow into plants and then produce fruit again. I love that even a brown thumb can do this in Florida!

Have a great day wherever you are. Try something new this week. Your results may just produce something thoroughly unexpected.