Hello and welcome to my channel! My name is Karen and my husband and I live on a small farm in the Midwest. I recently retired from teaching elementary school and am now able to enjoy doing the things I love everyday. Whether it's cooking, gardening, quilting, canning, home remodeling, I love to keep busy and constantly learn new things. I also love to teach others about these things. I began my youTube channel to share our family's favorite recipes with my family and friends who would ask for my recipes. As I become more confident in making videos, I'm sure the videos will extend to my other interests, as well. Thanks for watching my videos! Don't forget to subscribe if you like what you see!
That is beautiful! Well done! You are such a good teacher. I am really looking forward to trying this for the first time and your teaching skills give me the confidence to give it a go. Thank you!
Thank you! I'm a retired elementary teacher so I find that I sometimes can be too explicit in my directions when teaching adults...I hope I don't sound like I'm teaching an elementary student 🤣. Good luck in your first quilt, I know you will do fine!😊
Thank you for sharing and the lesson. Earlier this week my SIL asked for a leaf themed table runner - I'm so happy I found your video. I'm going to put them side-by-side to make long versus square one.
Thank you for the quilting lesson. I will definitely be following along with this pattern. I have never quilted before but I do sew. I may have enough scraps to practice with this one to use as a mat in my kitchen for hot canning jars. Looking forward to part 2. Sewing videos would be great as January, February and March are the times I really devote to house projects and sewing.
You are welcome! I hope you get a chance to make it. The leaf block is easy to make and you can easily turn it into a potholder, too. I appreciate your comment and thanks so much for watching!😊
How shelf stable is that? Since this is your first time making it i know you'll have to do a follow up video when you know. Ive also heard the oil separates from the ground peanuts so it would be interesting to know how often you have to restir it to keep it spreadable.
Just like the all natural store bought peanut butter, you should refrigerate this peanut butter. Nut oils tend to go rancid quicker than other oils and this peanut butter doesn't have any preservatives in it. You won't have to worry about separation if it is refrigerated...it will stay blended. Thanks for watching and commenting!😊
How do you like your new mixer? Is it as powerful as the old model without the lift? That cake looks delicious! I would love to stock my pantry as you do but have very limited space.
I really like it, especially since I use it with several of the attachments during the canning season...it gets a real workout. I had a lift on my last mixer, too. But this one has higher Watts so it is more powerful. I use my mixer so much...this is my third one in about 25 years. The last one still worked and I handed it down to my son. I did wear out the nylon gear twice on my last one but I watched a RU-vid video and ordered the part and fixed it myself. (less than $10 to fix) Do you have a kitchenaid? Thanks for the comments and watching my videos!😊
@@BlueRoosterFarm Yes I have a kitchen aid and enjoy using it although I tend to use my new portable mixer that my kids bought me more often because it’s almost as powerful.
You know, I'm not really sure. I just mix it until it is a rich tan color. Depending on your taste you can make it lighter or darker. Also, different types of molasses will vary in flavor and potency. I'd guess between a quarter and a third cup of the regular molasses into a mixer bowl filled with 3-4 quarts of sugar. I know that is vague but I always just go by taste and color. Thanks for the question, I hope my answer helped. I appreciate you watching my video!😊
It takes about 3/4 pounds of beans to make one quart of canned beans. So I usually figure out how may jars I want to can and multiply that by .75. I believe pints will need about 1/3 pound per jar. Thanks for asking and watching my video!😊
Good idea!!😁 I've found that as I'm getting older, I'm getting a lot more forgetful.🥴 I noticed, when editing, that I did leave the salt out of one jar!😂 Thanks for the suggestion and watching my video!😊
Thank you so much for this garden tour. That is a huge garden for 2 people to tend but it sounds like you've really made it doable with your sheep waste and deep mulching. It is gorgeous. Top Tip: I know you don't spray anything but I had terrible pest pressure on my squash and sprayed it with castille soap and water in a gallon sprayer and they were dead within the hour. I could only find the lavender scented castille soap but it worked great! I look forward to following along so I can learn to preserve our food for the winter.
This is very interesting since 2025 will be my 3rd year in my new garden. I've been looking for a new paste tomato variety since the San Marzano has been difficult this year. I think we just got too much rain. We had either a drought or a deluge (ie. 9 inches In one day). I only have space for 7 plants but last year (2023) the harvest was amazing! Gardeners live in hope as there is always next year.
Yes, every year can be so different in the garden. We did have a really good year even though toward the end of summer it was getting very dry. Our plants weren't phased by it and we never had to water. Now, next year may be a totally different story. 🙃Thanks for commenting and watching!😊
I have checked out Azure Standard and I am able to purchase the bulk items that we buy, cheaper at our Mennonite Bulk stores. We have several stores within an hour of us and some are more expensive than others. But so far, buying locally is more economical. Thanks for watching and I appreciate all your comments!😊
We eat lots of oats so we do purchase those in bulk and keep them in plastic food storage containers. It is cheaper and we always have them on hand. We don't eat as much rice, but I do have large packages that I store and keep on hand. We just rotate through our pantry so that we are always eating the older stock.Thanks for watching and I appreciate all your comments!😊
The mower doesn’t bother me a bit. I’m envious of your beautiful farm and live vicariously through your videos. Raised as an Arkansas farm girl but live in the suburbs. I don’t know how you taught school and did all the work to preserve the harvest and raised two sons. I’m sure it’s much better now that you’re retired.
I feel so blessed to live in the country. I was raised in Springfield, Mo so frequently visiting my grandparents' farms gave me a love for the country. I enjoy being able to grow and preserve our food, it gives me a real sense of pride that I can take a tiny seed and turn it into something our family enjoys eating. I was very fortunate to be able to stay home for about 9 years to raise my boys. That was when I really started getting into food preservation...I felt like it was something I could do to offset the cost of me not working outside the home. It also taught our sons, from a very young age, about gardening, food preservation, and hard work. Once I went back to teaching, we continued gardening and preserving our food. One thing nice about being a teacher is that I had my summers off so it was no big deal. During the school year, we all worked together as a family to prioritize and get things done. We are lucky gardening and preserving our food isn't something we have to do financially... we do it because we enjoy this lifestyle and it keeps us young and active. I couldn't do it without having such a supportive and hard-working husband and two sons who were (and are) always up for helping out. Arkansas is a beautiful area. In my twenties, I spent a lot of time visiting the state parks and hiking in the hills. Do you do much gardening and preserving? Thanks for watching and I always enjoy your comments!😊
Thank you for another informative video! I froze my pumpkin from last year in 2 cup pyrex and made pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin cookies last weekend to make room for this years crop. My cookies were flat, and thanks to you, I know my baking soda and baking powder need to be replaced. I love your kitchen mats. Maybe this winter you can take us into the sewing room and teach us how to make them. My granite countertops are really loud so those mats would really come in handy! Love the toile and ticking stripe jar cover too! I have seen your video on how to make those and look forward to the quiet winter so I can get some sewing done.
Thanks, so much for your kind words! Doing a video on making kitchen mats, potholders, and towels is on my to-do-list for this fall/winter! I enjoy sewing things that are useable in my kitchen. It also helps me add a little seasonal decor. I appreciate you letting me know what you would like to see on my channel. It helps me to put things out that are of interest to my subscribers! Thanks for watching!!😊
I rarely need buttermilk, so I don’t buy it, I use the milk + lemon juice + sour cream combo substitute, which works very well. While that “culture it yourself” method will doubtlessly work, I feel that with a rarely as I need buttermilk, I would be wasting a LOT of milk by making up a new jarful from time to time, and not needing to ever use most of it. I always have milk and sour cream, lemon juice and/or white vinegar on hand, so it’s much easier and far cheaper to just mix up only how much I need, just when I need it.
I agree, if you rarely use buttermilk, lemon juice in milk works just fine. As a person who does a lot of baking, it is wonderful to have cultured buttermilk always on hand. Thanks for watching! I appreciate you taking the time to comment!😊
They are really good! Yes, you're right, they are boopie glasses! I started collecting vintage and depression glassware in my 20's. For this design, I have pretty much a complete set of 12 for all sizes ranging from juice size to large iced-tea size. I don't see them as much in the antique stores in Missouri as I used to. I love the simple design and that they match anything. Thanks for watching!😊
Do you know here I can find a safe canning recipe for strawberry pie filling? I have a bunch frozen but not sure where to find a recipe or if I could substitute strawberries in a blueberries or peach pie filling recipe. Any suggestions? 😊
Yes, I haven’t tried this recipe but I checked my resources for tested safe recipe and found one on Healthycanning.com. This site shares tested recipes from Ball, Bernardin, University Extension Sites, and the National Center for Home Food Preservation…all great resources for safe canning. It looks like the recipe is for a single quart so you will just multiply all the ingredients by 7 to get a canner full. I don’t know if I can put the link in these comments but I will try. Thanks so much for supporting my channel!😊. www.healthycanning.com/strawberry-pie-filling
The cake mix and cobbler look delicious! As a content creator I am wondering if you could tell me where the play all button went? I used to click a channel > go the the home page > scroll down to videos > click play all. I use my iPad in my kitchen to watch channels like this and once your fingers are all dirty or wet, you don't want to stop and click around for another video. I really miss that feature. I checked on my computer and it's gone too. Do you turn it off and on or does RU-vid do it? Some channels, like yours, used to have it and now it's gone. ps. I know I've watched most all of your videos like that in one day and now it's gone so I thought I would just ask you. Maybe you all could make a playlist of all videos for viewers like me if you want to override RU-vid?
I have never used the "play all button" so I had to look into it. When I googled it, I found several posts about the button not showing up. I don't have any way of turning it on or off so it must be something RU-vid has changed. I do notice it is available for each playlist. That is a good idea that you shared, to make a playlist and place all videos in it. I will do that! Thank you for the comment and sharing a great idea! I really appreciate that you are watching my videos and supporting my channel! Thanks!!😊
@@BlueRoosterFarm Thank you for keeping me company in the kitchen! Those long days of chopping and canning and cooking can be so boring so it's nice to listen and learn while doing tedious things. We don't have TV so RU-vid is great for us!
That soup looks great! I appreciate the lesson. I've used my pressure canner 3 times for green beans. Today is a big kitchen work day so I may try to can the chili I'll be making without the meat. I usually make freezer ready meals and store them in stackable pyrex in single servings. Canning would save me so much freezer space. My tomatoes didn't do so well this year but I did make your pico de Gallo recipe and may get enough to make some other things. Mine are rotting from the inside. I slice them open only to find black stuff. Last year was great and hopefully next year will be better. We can't control the weather and we got torrential rains which I think contributed to a bad harvest this year.
The soup is really good! My husband takes it in his lunch and adds whatever leftover meat we had from the night before, he comes home and just raves about how good it was. I'm thinking I'm going to need to make some more pints.😄. When my boys were young we froze a lot, too. We soon realized we didn't have the freezer space and I started doing more pressure canning. It's nice to be able to pull a jar off the shelf and use it without defrosting. You're right about the weather, we have had a good garden this year because we got rains just at the right time. Best of luck and thanks for watching!😊
It should be refrigerated like the store bought all-natural peanut butter. It doesn’t have any preservatives and will stay fresher longer in the fridge…nut oils tend to go rancid quicker than other oils. Thanks for watching!😊
@@kathleenworkman3884 Yesterday I made another one but baked it in a 9x13 pan and iced with a brown sugar frosting. It is such a moist , delicious cake. Hope you get to try it! Thanks so much for watching!😊
Pepper skins can be fairly tough when canned and that is why a lot of recipes call for peeled peppers. I cut mine in very small pieces like you do for salsas so that you don't even notice the peeling. If you want bigger chunks of pepper in your sauce you might prefer them peeled. I always peel my peppers when I pressure can my plain peppers in liquid. I don't care for them with peelings on. Hope this helps! Thanks for asking and watching my video!😊
Thank you! I'm glad you like this project! It is really easy and addicting. I'm making some mixes in jars for holiday gifts and I'm making the bonnets in holiday fabrics. They are so cute! Enjoy!!😊
I’m very interested in this recipe because I grow banana peppers and have been looking for a good sandwich pepper! I love the mild peppers you find on Italian sub sandwiches. Hopefully this will work!
I usually wait for about 4-6 weeks before I open a jar of something I've pickled, so I haven't tried mine yet. I hope they work out for you! Someone suggested using fruit crisp in each jar to help with the crispiness. I may have to try that, too...I've got more to work up. Thanks for being such a wonderful subscriber to my channel!😊
This is suppose to be an easy, beginner-friendly sewing project. I like to make jar toppers quickly and not stress out about perfection. I find that leaving the circles open is a hassle and the stitching when closing them up doesn't look as nice. If the opening bothers you, like I said in the video you can alway do two or three whip stitches to close it up. If you have an easy, beginner-friendly way that you make yours, I'd love to see your tutorial on your channel. 😊 Thanks.
I just started watching you about a month ago, I love your attitude and how precise you are in your directions. Your recipes are very good too. Just got done watching the chilli sauce recipe, I have everything here to can it and also the pico know what I’m doing tomorrow!
