Today I made...

a lot of food.

*17.25 cups of pumpkin puree

*1 gal of pickle slices

*3 qts of sauerkraut

*pumpkin seeds from 4 small pumpkins are soaking

*5 pounds of nuts (pecans and almond) were soaked last night and dehydrated today

*peel from 1 lemon was dehydrated to make lemon pepper

*1.5 qts of kefir was made and is in it's second ferment in my cool new bottles

*a double batch of filling for coconut balls was made and is waiting to be shaped and dipped in chocolate

We are going out of town on Monday, so this seemed like the perfect time to get a boat-load of produce. And Dewey came over to work on some plumbing with Charlie. And the kids were invited to a birthday party.

Charlie and the kids like pumpkin and fall spices (allspice, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon). I do not like any of that except cinnamon. Last weekend, Charlie made some pumpkin pancakes for them to eat. Also last week, I saw a recipe to cook pumpkins in the crock-pot. Charlie, J, L, and H hacked apart the pumpkins. They went into my big roaster on the back porch. The dehydrator was already running, and I didn't want to add anymore heat to the kitchen. When the pumpkin was done we just peeled it off the skin and mashed it. I divided it into 1.5 cup portions and put it in jars for the freezer.

Getting the seeds is gross, but we like them. Some of us like them. I just want the "free" food that comes from something normally thrown away. I'll season them and add them to different recipes.

The nuts are to make almond bars, granola, and just for eating straight. L helped make the filling for the coconut balls. She will help me finish them up tomorrow. It will be good to have snacks while we are out of town.

We are also taking our fermented pickles and sauerkraut. We all love those things! I hope to get some carrots going tomorrow as well. They are probiotic, nutritious, and delicious. They will likely be done when we get to Charlie's parents' house. The kids and I can't wait to see how all of our strange food goes over with them. We will also have our raw milk.