Pickled Cabbage

The jar on the left has been processed and has turned a dark red violet color, the jar on the right needs processing still.

Purple cabbage jar on the right has the syrup added and has turned a lovely bright red color.

Purple cabbage ready for the syrup.

It was supposed to be Spiced Red Cabbage but I decided at the last minute I didn't want all of the spices in my cabbage. Dh wanted them but I think we'll be much happier about my choice later on, cloves tend to make me sick and the recipe called for a quarter cups worth, and we didn't have any mace which means the only spice we would have used was Allspice so what's the point.

Spiced Purple Cabbage



I'll post the remaining pics tonight as this batch is STILL in progress. I've rinsed the salted shredded cabbage leaves and spun them in the salad spinner they are now resting on paper towel lined plastic food wrap - so my countertop isn't stained purple for all eternity - and needs to drain/dry for six hours. The pickling portion will happen sometime around nine tonight; the purple looks pretty good against my koi yellow walls! We used a kraut cutter to get the cabbage this uniform.

Family Grain Mills Grain Grinder

There's Hard Winter White Wheat in the bucket waiting to be ground.

Assembly was very simple - I love those kinds of appliances! No more concerns if the power goes out I can still grind wheat to bake bread - yes I know the oven is broken but hopefully that'll be fixed next week.

My dad bought me a Family Grain Mill Grain Grinder for my birthday!!! He's telling me I need the flaker now to which I soooo agree. I've ground my first batch of wheat with it already and have pulled out the bread machine to make some bread tonight - our oven died about a month ago so now I"m using "other" appliances to get the same affect, the stove is only 45+ years old.

Potato Bins

I have twelve pototao bin shelves now, these sit on top of a palett that sits over a gravel filled dirt area in our basement floor. That's Angel our sheltie in front of the bins.

Holes were drilled in the end boards of each bin shelf to aid in air flow, we used 1 x 2 inch fencing for the bin bottoms.

Dh stapled lathe to the bottom of the bins to make them easier to pull out and push back into place much like a dresser drawer.

He used 1 8 foot 2 x 4 to make each bin.

Dyeing With Onion Skins




Fall is an excellent time to dye with onion skins as Onions are being harvested now!

Materials List:
Wool
Onion Skins
Alum
Stainless Steel Pot
Water
Heat Source
You will need to mordant your wool with Alum first to ensure that your color is permanent.


Onion Skin Dye Bath


  • Take onion skins and place in stainless steel pot, make sure this is a studio dedicated pot, and cover with hot or boiling water.
  • Allow to sit overnight.

  • The next day bring dye pot to a simmer and leave for one hour.

  • Remove onion skins if desired - leaving them will create a mottled yarn or fabric.

  • Place wet rinsed mordanted wool into dye bath and simmer for two hours.

  • If using the cold dyeing method leave wool overnight in the dye bath.

  • Remove wool from dye bath, rinse snd dry

  • NOTE: wool may have a slight onion smell this is normal with natural dyed goods.

Your wool is now ready to use!




Penny Pinching Dinners




Tonights dinner special was ramen noodles with chicken and mixed vegetables, total cost $2.81 for two people! Not bad. Now had we chosen to not add the canned chicken and the veggies and eaten just the noodles total cost would have been $0.36 I used two noodle packets but used only one of the seasoning packs - saved the other for some other day. I rinsed the vegetables three times to get rid of that salty canned flavor they always have the end result was quite tasty.