Road trip

Yes, it was time for another trip to the apple orchard!  

The Arkansas Blacks are here!  If you have never eaten this variety of apple, I highly recommend them--great eating apple, excellent for cooking and they make delicious applesauce. The Arkansas Blacks are AppleJacks favorite variety of apple.

With a name like Granny Smith what's not to love?  We purchased more than a bushel and a peck--we have apples for eating, cooking and the freezer.  There are apples to share with friends and school children, to make salads and desserts and cider--endless possibilities.

Rowell's is a wonderful orchard (and operated by the nicest people).  If you are driving on I-40 take a side trip to the orchard and get your apple fix--your tastebuds will thank you later.  For the record, the wonderful people at Rowell's Orchard don't know me from Adam's house cat!

Canning Tomato Juice

One of my fondest memories of Grandmother Bessie was canning in the summer time.  Grandmother had a h u g e vegetable garden.  Planting the vegetable garden began in early spring with the peas, onions and potatoes.  Tending the garden was done in the early morning hours.  As a child, I never understood why Grandmother wanted to get out of bed at the crack of dawn with the chickens and pull weeds!  Now that I am older and wiser, I understand pulling weeds in the early morning while it is still cool is much easier than pulling weeds in the hot baking sun.  Grandmother was a wonderful gardener and her vegetable garden yielded many bushels and pounds of produce.  The old blue Ball jars were used many, many years.

AppleJack went to Farmers Market this morning and brought home tomatoes.  We spent part of our day canning tomato juice.  Summers bounty from the vegetable gardens is on its way.  Green beans, corn, peaches, apple butter, okra are all on their way from the farmers gardens to our freezer and pantry!