Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

 

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia.  How you doing this 31st week of 2023?  Whew, it's been hot.  I was on vacation leave most of the week.  We went camping along the creek where it was a little cooler & did some fishing.  Kevin made some axe throwing targets & listed them for sale on the local swaps. I went to a book signing.  We cooked up lots of good grub from the garden.  I got Grand's cheer & football schedules, I'm looking forward to going to watch some of their games this fall.  Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & we'll talk more, come walk with me..

I got to meet Tipper Pressley, coauthor of the
book Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food:
Recipes & Stories from Mountain Kitchens. 

* I went to the book signing of the Pressley family at a local historical museum.  I found out about the book when one of the daughters came in the office & mailed out quite a few of the books.  I asked about the book & she gave me information about their youtube channel, blog & where to get the book.  I ordered 3 books.  One for myself & 2 to give as Christmas in July gifts.  When I discovered there was going to be a book signing, of course I had to have my books signed before I mailed them to their recipients.  The 1st youtube video I watched included daughter Corie helping in the garden.  I was certain that she was the one I had talked to in the office.  Then I watched the video of Tipper & Matt telling about the birth of their twins.  Twins?  I hadn't known there was 2 of the girls.  At that point I didn't know which of the daughters & had talked to.  Their appearance & voice are very similar.  At the book signing, Corie told me she was the one that I had talked to that day in the office or was it Katie?

Kevin's hand crafted
axe throwing targets.

*  It seems there is such a thing these days as axe throwing therapy.  It's about having fun & relieving stress.  Throwing an axe is supposed to be all about the form of throwing, not about how strong you are.  I've practiced throwing a few times.  Sometimes the axe bounces off & sometimes it hits perfect.  There are mobile axe throwing trailers that cater to events such as family reunions, bachelor parties or whatever.  We were at an event at the town square several weeks ago with Grand.  There was an axe throwing booth & trailer set up there.  It was $10 per person for a period of time.  I don't remember how much time, maybe 15 minutes.  Anyways, none of us did it because I'd already spent my cash on a funnel cake.  When Kevin got the load of wood a couple weeks ago, he came up with the idea to make an axe throwing target.  Someone driving by saw it, stopped & wanted one, so then Kevin made some more to see if he could sell them too.  A target along with an axe would make an awesome unique Christmas gift.

Stringing & breaking beans out
on the porch in the morning
before it got too hot.

*  We got several pods of okra out of the garden along with the other vegetables that have been coming in.  We cooked up a garden produce feast.  I don't know if I will ever make regular cornbread again after getting the idea from Tipper to make hushpuppy cornbread.

Green beans, okra, green tomatoes, onions,
banana peppers, yellow squash & a red ripe
 tomato came out of the garden.  Kevin
had cucumbers too.  Kevin had picked up a
little bag of new red potatoes at the grocery
store along with the country style ribs that
had been marked down.

Tomatoes patiently waiting
to be made into soup.

1 bird was left in the nest in the garden
then it was gone.

The everbearing strawberry
plants produced another round
of berries. Blueberries were on
sale at the grocery store.

The tomato plants still have lots of
nice looking tomatoes but the plants
are not looking good at all.  

Cook, mash & use hand
mixer to puree. 

*  Kevin & me worked together to make mator soup.  I used this easy pesy recipe.  Our soup had quite a few seeds so Kevin used a hand crank strainer to pulverize the remaining tomato pieces that didn't puree up & separated out as many of the seeds as possible.

Strained to remove seeds & put into
 containers to freeze. Mmmm Mmmm
delicious, the best we've made so far.

After the soup freezes, it's dumped out
 of the containers & vacuum sealed, then
it goes back in the freezer.  This batch
made 6 packs.  Most of it will be used
 in different recipes.

I can't hardly wait to use the
soup as a starter to one of these
recipes I found in the cabinet
that came with the house.

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been?