Thank You, God!

by Lynette Robinson

Fall Leaves by Alicia Blickfeldt

This year has gone so very quickly and it's difficult for me to believe that fall is securely upon us.  The daily temps this week hasn't risen above 48 degrees and the gardens are beginning to look fallish.  Speaking of gardens, ours was somewhat of a disappointment and it's odd but some people report that theirs is a lot like mine and others are having an abundance of produce.  Fortunately, I've been the recipient of many bags of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, greens and such.  Our green beans did grow and the kale is small but looks to be happy but not much else.

I had abandoned the idea of adding much to my food storage this year until I was mentioning to Jenifer, my niece, that I would like to find some red beets to put up. Most people I talk to make pickled red beets but we just love red beets as a vegetable, shredded and cooked in a little butter in a fry pan beside a piece of meat and a potato.  Not to mention that red beets are so very highly beneficial to our liver and provide incredible nutrition.

Jenifer said that they had some in their garden that I was welcome to and since I had hemmed a couple of skirts for her and refused payment, she was looking for a way to pay me back.

She asked me every couple of days when we were going to come and get them because she was anxious to square with me.

David, Singer and I trekked up the two blocks to Shane and Jenifer's house and was astounded at their beautiful garden.  Now, I really think that Shane was the chief gardener in heaven because of his love for caring for the out of doors but this garden was insanely beautiful.  The rainbow chard looked to be nearly a yard tall, the carrots looked like little orange footballs and everything was green and beautiful.  We were gifted several veggie treats.

The red beets were HUGE and I didn't need very many to fill a couple dozen pints of beautiful red yumminess for the winter.

Four years ago, at the end of our first year as camp host Service Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we found some choke cherries.  I knew that my grandma put up choke cherries and several people that do now but I had never done any.  We picked quite a few and I juiced them out and made jam.  During the last three years since we really haven't seen that many but this year a couple of trees at camp were loaded so we used the bucket on the tractor to get David up to pick them.

A week later Shane told us that there were some really nice ones on the edge of their hay field so we went and got them too.  I noticed another kind of bush loaded with bluish purple berries and posted a pic on facebook asking what they were and I got every answer from good to poison plants.  I finally found out that they are elderberries so we went back and got them.  By that time I had found a few more bushes and we had a nice batch of juice and jam.

During one of my morning walks I found a grove of trees loaded with beautiful blue plums.  We picked a couple of pans of plums and I discovered that the juice is just as delicious as choke cherry or elderberry.  In fact, mixing them produces an even better result.

Next came the apples and I juiced them and am still have 2 five gallon buckets to do as well as the ones still on my tree that will be dried into crispy apple treats.  When I mix the apple juice with the purple juices I get a sweet full juice that needs no sugar.

I love to go to my fruit room and lovingly admire the fruit of my labors and the generosity of God for the peace and comfort of knowing that I did this with my own hands.

Thrive Life Strawberries and Apple Syrup

This morning I made waffles and had some crumbs of Thrive Life freeze dried strawberries in the bottom of a can as well as some fresh apple juice in the frig.  I made some very delicious syrup and the left overs will gel into a beautiful jelly as it cools.

Apple Strawberry Syrup  #ThriveLife  
Thrive Daily

2 C. Apple Juice (or any juice)
1/4 C fresh or Thrive Life FD Strawberries
2 C. Organic Sugar  (or substitute white sugar)
2 TBS Regular Pectin  This is what I use
2 TBS Lemon Juice

Bring to a boil and let simmer in a sauce pan while you make your pancakes or waffles.  It will be the perfect consistency for syrup.  Store the left overs in the frig and you will have a lovely jelly for toast or sandwiches.  Reheat to use as syrup.

Wheat Bouquet

Singer and I go for a walk a few times a week.  I would like to go more and he certainly would like to go more often but life is busy even when you work at home so it is what it is.

Sometimes we walk the perimeter of a field that was planted with wheat this spring.  Over the summer have watched the drilled furrows turn into little green grass like shoots.  We have seen those shoots stand tall and develop beautiful heads of wheat.

After harvest I picked some of the stalks of wheat as well as some other dried plants for an arrangement on my dining room table.  Each time I look at it I am reminded of my pioneer ancestors who walked across the plains and immediately planted crops, including wheat, even before they began building homes.  I am reminded of pulling weeds in my grandpa's wheat field to help raise the price of his harvest as clean grain is more valuable.  I am reminded of how each loaf of bread started at the grinder to crush and powder wheat kernels into flour.  We really don't know how good we have it now.

David was reading from the newspaper earlier this week and said that this has been the driest summer on record since the beginning of precipitation record keeping and yet Mother Earth has seen fit to produce and gift us so very much.  Food directly from the earth is so much more nutritious and pure than what passes through the hands of conspiring men and laboratories.  We are so blessed!

I guess what I really want to say is Thank You, God! for the abundance you have given me.  I have been so blessed to come from a heritage that has taught me how to recognize food in it's raw state and how to make it into eatible and nutritious meals.