The Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway Winner is...

I used Random.org to select a winner. There were 62 entries and the winner was....

# 57 Cherilyn!

I've contacted her via email and her owls will be shipping out on Tuesday.

Thank you all for entering!

Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway Day - Handmade Baby & Kid Items - Counting Owls - now closed

Once again I'm participating in Sew, Mama, Sew!'s Giveaway Day. This time I'm giving away a set of five wool felt counting owls. These lovely little owls can be used as toys or math manipulatives for a special little one in your life.

To enter the giveaway just leave me a comment on this post telling me who you'll be giving the owls to and why you think that child will like the owls.  And you don't have to say, but I'd also be curious to know if the child homeschools or not. :)

For a second entry into the giveaway leave a comment letting me know you follow Moo Said the Mama.

I'll be accepting entry comments until May 25th and will be selecting the winner the following day. The owls will be shipped by June 1st. Unfortunately I am unable to ship internationally at this time and the giveaway is open to US mailing addresses only.

ETA - The giveaway is closed and the winner was #57 Cherilyn!

Independence Days Challenge - Week of May 13-19

Plant Something:  We direct seeded fennel, eggplant, acorn squash, green onions, zucchini squash, and cucumbers into raised beds.  We planted three horseradish roots.   Readers can view an online version of our garden plan and journal at Smart Gardener.


Harvest Something: Again, no harvests.  We do have rosemary, marjoram, oregano, sage, and rhubarb ready, though.


Preserve Something: Nothing preserved this week.

Waste Not:  Started consuming more of the stored fruits.  We finished using up all of the frozen raspberries from last season.  I opened two jars of applesauce and one is all finished.

Want Not:  Didn't add anything to food storage this week; just did our regular weekly shopping.

Eat the Food:  Did better at cooking at home this week.  We do need to infuse some excitement into the menus, though.

Build community food systems:  Nothing here this week.

Skill up:  Nothing here either.

This post is part of Sharon Astyk's Independence Days Challenge.

fabric destash sale at Country Kids Boutique

My friend, Lisa, is having a fabric de-stash sale over at her etsy shop, Country Kids Boutique. If you're looking for fabrics for diaper making or if you happen to want to put my cloth menstrual pad tutorials into practice and make your own pads, definitely go take a look! She has PUL remnants, fleece, flannel, and just about any fabric you'd need available now in her shop. She also has plans to put up some vintage fabrics!

So go check out her shop, fav it, and keep checking back to see what she's added. :)

Independence Days Challenge - Week of May 6 thru 12

Plant Something:  On Friday I direct seeded beets, turnips, leeks, snap peas, basil, cilantro, parsley, and thyme. The herbs were planted in pots and the rest were planted in raised beds. I've declared the plastic tote box "greenhouses" a roaring success for our broccoli and cauliflower seedlings. The jury is still out on whether or not they work well for tomatoes and peppers.  Readers can view an online version of our garden plan and journal at Smart Gardener.


Harvest Something: Again, no harvests.  We do have rosemary, marjoram, oregano, sage, and rhubarb ready, though.


Preserve Something: The Hubster and I made 16 pounds of fresh pork breakfast sausage. We enjoyed some for dinner on Thursday and then I cooked up 30 or so patties and froze them. I also froze 6 quart bags full of uncooked sausage for later use.

Waste Not:  We're continuing to focus on using all leftovers. I've made a great deal of progress on cooking amounts we'll eat at meals in order to reduce leftovers, too.


Want Not:  We added some homemade fresh pork breakfast sausage to our freezer stash.

Eat the Food:  This was a less than stellar week. We ate at restaurants three times.

Build community food systems:  I dug up more raspberry plants and a rhubarb plant and gave them to a friend from church. We have another friend who has expressed interest in a rhubarb plant as well.

Skill up:  I'm continuing to read about cheesemaking and watched videos of various cheesemaking processes. I took a more active role in the sausage making than I have in the past. I still don't really enjoy working with raw meat, though. The odor is overwhelming in a less-than-pleasant way for me.

This post is part of Sharon Astyk's Independence Days Challenge.

Independence Days Challenge - May 4th update

Plant Something:  I had plans to finish our cold weather crop planting, but then the rains came and I never got to it.  It looks like Saturday  might be dry here, though. I did notice when I was checking on the garden that we have spinach, carrots, and cabbage sprouting in the raised beds and we have tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, and cauliflower sprouting in the plastic tote box greenhouses. So far it looks like the plastic tote greenhouse method might just be a success. The Hubster and I were a little worried because of all the rain the holes in the top were letting in quite a bit of water. We thought the poor seeds might get too wet, but probably because we've been having cooler temps they held up okay. We might need to consider more drain holes for next year, though.


Harvest Something: Again, no harvests.  We do have rosemary, marjoram, oregano, sage, and rhubarb ready, though.


Preserve Something:  Nothing happened here this week, either.


Waste Not:  Continuing to do well on composting.  The Hubster also commented on trash day that we're sending less off to the landfills.  Our Paleo/Primal diet transition results in less waste as well!


Want Not:  I added three jars of coconut oil to the food storage shelves this week.


Eat the Food:  We tried beef liver for the first time this week in an attempt to increase our nutrition and get it out of the freezer.  The verdict is we don't like it.  I think I'll try a tip from another blogger and grind a bit and include it when I make meatloaf.


Build community food systems:  We dug up some raspberry canes and rhubarb plants and brought them over to a friend's house.  I have another friend wanting a rhubarb plant and yet another requested some raspberry canes and a rhubarb plant.


Skill up:  I did manage to successfully complete a batch of Queso Blanco cheese.  I didn't try any because I'm not eating dairy right now, but the verdict from friends is that it was tasty.  The Hubster would like me to add more salt next time.  I have the supplies on hand to try my hand at Cheddar cheese making now.  The Hubster and I need to build a cheese press and we also need an open day to make the cheese.  It's about a 6 hour process based upon my reading of the recipe.


This post is part of Sharon Astyk's Independence Days Challenge.

my cheesemaking supplies arrived!

I'm so excited!

I ordered a few cheesemaking supplies from New England Cheesemaking Company and they've arrived.

The service was very fast - I just placed the order on Monday.

In my package today were two packets of vegetable rennet tablets (20 total), cheese salt, red cheese wax, and mesophilic starter (to make cheddar and colby cheeses).

This weekend the Hubster and I have plans to build a cheese press and after that I'm going to try my hand at making a hard cheese. Wish me luck!

Tomato Sauce - a canning tutorial

This post is ancient. I just found it in my drafts folder and the photos date back to 2010, so it's long past time for finishing it and getting it up for you guys!

So, without further delay is my version of a tutorial for canning up tomato sauce.

For me the first step is to harvest fresh tomatoes from our garden beds.



After that I rinse them and roughly chop the tomatoes



Next I assemble my favorite kitchen canning tool that our family jokingly refers to as the Saucemaster 3000. It's actually called a Sauce Master Food Strainer and we love it. There are some design modifications that I'd make but this tool makes short work of pureeing fruits and vegetables for canning.





After it is assembled I simply feed the chopped tomatoes into the hopper on the top and turn the handle.
 



The Sauce Master squishes them and waste goes out one side into a waste bowl (later to be added to the compost pile) and sauce runs out another part.





Depending upon the harvest, I may fill that stainless steel bowl several times over before the grinding is done. When the bowl reaches about 2/3 full I empty it into the pot for reducing.



The next part is really the hardest part for me, the waiting. I have to heat the tomato puree slowly and stir often. It's a day-long process beginning with harvesting and pureeing the tomatoes in the morning and often the canning won't occur until after dark.



After a long day of simmering on the stovetop the sauce is thickened and ready to be canned.



Then I'll get my jars out and fill them with warm water and place them in the pressure canner. The canner is filled with about an inch or so of warm water. I put the lid on and turn up the heat on the burner to warm the jars. This step helps prevent jars from breaking when I later ladle the hot tomato sauce into them. When pressure canning you want your jars to be clean, but it's not necessary to boil them to sterilize them prior to filling the jars.



Next I'll fill a small saucepan with warm water and put in the lids. This process helps to soften the rubbery material on the lids to help them seal better on the jars. You just want to warm them, so keep the heat on your burner low during this step.



And then I'll lay out the tools I need for filling the jars - a clean cloth for wiping jars, jar lifting tongs, magnetic lid lifter, ladle, canning jar funnel, and jar rings.



In my house I don't have any countertops near the stove, so I roll over our portable dishwasher to create a workspace. I have a nice arrangement with my stove, the workspace, and the sink all in a line. It's convenient to have the sink so close to empty the water out of the jars. If you don't have that option, you could always set up a large bowl or pot to pour the water out of the warmed jars into.

The next step is filling the jars. Using your jar lifting tongs, take a clean warmed jar out of the pressure canner and empty the water into the sink. Then put a canning jar funnel into the jar. Ladle the hot tomato sauce into the jar and I like to stop filling as the sauce reaches the bottom of the funnel in my jars. That leaves about an inch of headspace. The headspace is needed space that allows the sauce to bubble up in the canning process and prevents it from spilling out of the jar. Spillage can result in seal failures, so you want to avoid it.



After the jar is filled, remove the funnel and use your clean cloth to wipe off any sauce that might be on top of the jar or around the sides of the jar. Then, using your magnetic lid lifter, remove a lid from the warm water and center it on top of your jar. Place a ring over it and tighten it over the lid.



After a jar is filled and the lid put on, it's placed in the pressure canner. 



When all of the jars are filled the top is placed back on the pressure canner and the lid is tightened. For my particular model of pressure canner I then make sure the burner is on high and I watch the vent pipe for steam. When a steady stream of steam is coming out of the vent pipe I set a timer for eight minutes and let the canner vent. This is an important safety step, so you'll want to refer to the manual for your pressure canner for specific venting instructions.



After the venting is completed I place the weight over the vent. To pressure can tomato sauce I set the weight at 10 pounds of pressure. Then I watch the gauge and when it reaches 10 pounds of pressure I set the timer for 15 minutes. At my altitude I need to pressure can pints or quarts of tomato sauce at 10 pounds of pressure for 15 minutes. Again, check your manual if you're at high altitude for specific instructions.

Next, I turned the heat off on the burner and waited for the pressure to return to zero. I then waited about another five minutes as a safety precaution before I removed the lid. Then I used the canning jar tongs to carefully remove the jars from the canner. I cooled them on my hoosier top.



When the jars cooled completely I removed the rings and washed down the jars. I labeled them with the contents and date and stored them in a cool, dry place until we needed to use some tomato sauce.

I just wanted to make a note of sorts here at the end of the post.  We don't season our tomato sauce at all when making it for canning.  For us it's better to have it unseasoned during the canning process and later season it when we cook with it.  Some herbs become very bitter when pressure canned and it's not a risk we want to take.  Also, we use the tomato sauce in a variety of recipes and want to customize the seasonings for various dishes.