Flying apples and preserving things

I recently posted about my little apple trees and was very happy to report that they were producing 3 yummy looking apples. Well during the big wind storm we had last Wednesday where the gusts were 90-100km/hour the apples got wings and flew away. I miss them already..lol When the hubby and I went out in the afternoon that day we noticed that the one tree was almost touching the ground. He went and staked it. So the tree lives on, but the apples are gone. Well I am assuming it was the wind someone could have snuck into the yard and picked them. They could have just fallen off, but there were no apples on the ground so I figure mother nature just stopped by for a little snack...damn her...lol

On to happier things. I was able to get 6 jars of Saskatoon berries canned in syrup. 5 x 500ml and 1 x 250ml. I think I may have been a little to rough with the berries when I was heating them, but I think everything still turned out pretty good.

Thanks to Ginny over at gingerbreadshouse7 I was able to blanch,shock and freeze some of my cabbage leaves. Next time I think I will keep a few more! I am still not entirely sure what I will do with them, but at least I have the option to use them.

I also made beef jerky yesterday using our own hand fed, hormone free beef. In addition to my usual marinade I added in some crushed Saskatoon berries and the left over syrup from the canning mentioned above. I had never tried it this way before and it didn't quite work out the way I wanted it to. Every time I filled up my jerky gun and pressed it juice just shot out all over the kitchen..lol Looks like I had a knife fight with a Saskatoon berry in here! However, after a bit of swearing I eventually got my trays filled.  I used 3lbs ground beef this time. It is super duper extra lean and is great for jerky. After drying I ended up with 1 lbs of jerky. I think I left it on a bit too long though cause it was near impossible to get it off the trays. So I ended up with a bag of pieces which is okay since it is just for the 2 of us. It tastes as good and I had hoped for!

 

 

Saskatoon Berry Beef Jerky

 We got a wee bit of rain last night. Enough to keep the garden and the gardener happy. Right now we are in the middle of a severe thunderstorm watch so there is likely more rain on the way. As long as the hail stays away everything will be good.