Bacon

Jed ended up brineing some bacon last Saturday so we were to leave it in the fridge until today and then bake it. He made four different batches with a total of about 32 lbs of bacon in all. Today I pre-heated the oven to 200 degrees and then put two batches of bacon in with a sheet at the bottom to catch all the drippings. It took about 2 hours for the center to be at 150 degrees and I was able to take out the bacon and let it cool down to room temp. I then sliced it and cooked up a couple of pieces to try. The first to be prepared was recipe #2 and it turned out well. The bacon was a little salty for me but Jed liked it. I think next time we'll rinse it out a bit more, place it in cold water with potatoes to take some of the brine out, or just alter the recipe to use less salt.

Corn harvest

We were able to harvest our late corn. I planted the corn really late in the season so I wasn't even sure if we would get any. Well bloody butcher turned out the be a fabulous type and we'll be sure to plant some of these next year. I also just picked up a grain mill so we're drying the corn to grind up for tortillas, cornbread, and anything else we might think of.

Veggies and fruit

So far in the front we have:

Grapes (The grapist is going to grape me in the mouth)
Herbs - rue, roman chamomile, spearmint, thyme, marjoram, black sage, sage (vulgaris) , lavender
Loganberries (one berry cluster), blackberries, raspberries - in pots in the ground so that their roots don't extend too quickly.
Blueberries
Strawberries (a couple of blooms)
Almond tree (with almonds)
Apple tree (had blooms but they froze)
I just planted 3 types of pole beans and 4 types of yard-longs

For the future:
Corn, melons, watermelon, potatoes, carrots, onions, squash, and tomatoes.

I have the one bed on the far left, but I'll be adding more on the right of the tree as I would like to have an open area under the tree so that it can get as much nutrients as possible w/o me harming the roots.