Redbud Syrup

In planting zones 4-9 you can find redbud trees. In the very early spring the redbud springs forth first with a vibrant splash of beautiful pink flowers in the under story edges of the wood line. They are the first herald of springs impending arrival. They start uplifting spirits from the long dreary winter droll.
This spring I discovered that these gems are edible! In our quest to forage more and buy less these little flowers offer a splash of exciting color to our plates. And as the earliest spring edible it's great fun to start foraging again with this one.  The redbud blossoms themselves taste exactly like snow pea  pods very crisp and sweet with ever the faintest hint of what I can only describe as a 'green' flavor. I decided that since I made violet syrup I would attempt the same with the redbud blossoms except I would make more of a pancake syrup instead of a beverage flavoring. I started the same as for violet syrup by starting with clean blossoms only and pouring an equal amount of boiling water over the blossoms and allowing them to steep overnight. Then straining the blossoms and removing as much liquid as possible from them I measured the remaining liquid and added to it a only slightly larger measure of white sugar (1 cup liquid would get 1 slightly mounded cup sugar) this I brought to the boil and boiled over medium heat for about 20 minutes and the resulting syrup was a beautiful gem-like magenta and the flavor was that sweet pea flavor only lighter, less green, and sweeter. And because I am so terribly impatient I had it still warm over buttered toast and delightfully cold Greek yogurt. Yummy.

Redbud syrup

1 c packed blossoms
1 cup boiling water
1 mounded cup sugar
A splash of lemon juice (optional)

In a quart jar place clean blossoms and carefully pour the boiling water over them.
Let steep overnight up to 24 hours
Strain and press all moisture out of the blossoms
Place in a saucepan and add the sugar
Bring to a boil and boil for about 20 minutes over medium heat
If the color seems to turn greenish rather than pink add lemon juice. This will correct the ph and return the pink color.
Pour into sterilized jars to prevent premature spoilage
Syrup will keep in the fridge for up to 6 weeks

From the Sunset Homesteaders to you, God bless!

It's Morel Season!! 🍄

The mountain man found morels yesterday!!! One of my favorite wild mushrooms. It's great sautéed in butter with some sliced onions spooned over a nice perfectly cooked steak with a hearty baked potato beside and a freshly picked garden salad also. YUM!!! That's what's for dinner tonight just by the way.
It great in a mushroom frittata or mushroom ragu. Morels do well when dried and reconstituted and if you can find enough you might just be able to have these earthy little gems all year long unless you happen to be like me and must eat mushrooms with every meal. I have no shame.
A word of caution however. False morels can make you very extremely sick.  When looking for morels a hollow stem is safe a solid stem is not. You should be able to see to the top of the cap from the bottom of the stem (as long as the mushroom grew straight that is) if you aren't sure err on the side of caution and don't eat it!

Forage frequently my friends!
From the sunset homesteaders to you, God bless!

Our new bee houses! 🐝

         The mountain man made a bee house for non-stinging bees for me! We discovered the idea while at the store one day and rather than buy it he made one with some of our scrap wood and odd bits of thin bamboo. It's aesthetically pleasing and looks rather folk artsy. I'm very excited to see how well it works for us! My research shows that non-stinging bees are a vigorous pollinator and since we have gardens here there and everywhere we need all the pollinators that we can entice to our property 😁
        So far we have seen some teensy weensy little bees flitting around the house 💕   Does anyone know how to entice them further? I'll be working on a bee waterer this weekend also if I can find a suitable dish and some odd marbles and rocks.

Have a blessed  Saturday!

Making lilac jelly (for the first time)

I will be completely honest. Before today I had never tasted lilac jelly and I was not sure what I had in store for me. In my best guess I assumed that lilac jelly would be potently floral and in your face tangy. I was in for a giant surprise when I tasted lilac jelly for the first time today when testing the set of the gel. Lilac jelly smells like a lilac bush but tastes nothing like lilacs at all! It is instead more like a sweet citrus cocktail! Sure there was a faint floral hint but the in your face flavor is citrus.
Lilac jelly is just as time consuming as violet syrup and is just as worth it. I started by plucking about 900million blossoms from their stems. Enough to fill a pint jar fairly packed in (I put the blossoms in a quart jar to steep in) Then I boiled 2 1/2 cups of water and poured it over the blossoms stirring them in so they released their air pockets. I allowed these to steep for 24 hours (only because I had to work 😋) then I strained the flowers and pressed all the moisture out. The liquid measured about 2 1/3 cups to this I added 1/3 cup lemon juice and 3 tablespoons of ball brand classic powdered pectin. I brought this to a full rolling boil for 1 min then added 3 1/3 cups of sugar. I returned this to a full rolling boil for 1 minute. Then I placed in jars to give away. As long as it takes to prep the liquid the jelly itself whips up almost effortlessly. I did not process this for shelf stability as I intend to gift it over the weekend however if one would like to can it up instructions for Kelly's can be found on the pectin container and in the ball blue book.

Lilac jelly
1 pint packed lilac blossoms
2 1/2 c boiling water
1/3 c lemon juice
3 1/3 sugar
3 tbsp ball classic pectin

Pour boiling water over blossoms and steep up to 24 hours
Strain blossoms and press as much liquid as possible from them
Add lemon juice and pectin stir over heat bringing to a full rolling boil
Boil 1 minute
Add sugar
Return to full rolling boil for 1 minute
Pour into clean sterilized jars

Lilac jelly will lady up to 3 weeks in the refrigerator. Enjoy!!!
From the sunset homesteaders to you, God bless!

Our hens are aging 😞

 I'm struck with the realization today that our girls are nearly to the end of their egg laying career. For the last several months their production has declined, where once we were getting a steady 7-8 eggs every day and even the occasional 9-10 egg day from our 8 girls we are now down to 1-2 eggs a day with the occasional 3-4 egg day. We knew it would happen yet still it takes us by surprise. Soon our girls will be replaced with young hens, ones who still lay vigorously, and due to the confines of our very limited space (presently we are urban homesteaders) our hens are rapidly approaching the day that they fill our bellies in soup rather than with eggs. 😞
I started this small flock knowing that I should not get attached because that was the eventual outcome for them, their purpose is to feed us, yet attached have I become. Now I find myself wishing that we had already found our forever homestead so we could simply add to our flock rather than replace our aging girls who have served us so well for so long.
If you have never been around a flock of chickens for an extended length of time my premature epitaph may seem ridiculous, but those who raise chickens know. Chickens are a kwerky little creature, each with its own distinct personality. A flock offers a million reasons to laugh daily, they give eggs, compaionship, and they even keep the bug population lower.
I love my chickens. How about you? Is anyone as attached to their girls as I am?

From the sunset homesteaders to you, God bless!

Blackberry rhubarb filling and cobbler

Here at the sunset homestead we have a few perennial crops. Two of these are a hefty sized (and spreading) blackberry bush and 5 vigorously producing rhubarb plants.

Last year our blackberry bush produced some 15 gallons of berries that we were able to harvest and freeze and a couple more that we ate fresh or used in recipes. So much did it produce that we still have several gallons of blackberries in the freezer. So when our rhubarb came up over a month ago I decided that I would be making ready to use blackberry rhubarb pie filling (sans seeds to please the mountain man) with the frozen berries and the abundant crop of rhubarb. Yum!

To start with I took a gallon of blackberries and cooked them down with a little water until they were completely soft and removing the pulp from the seeds would be easier. Once they were ready I strained the seeds out with a standard mesh sieve using a silicon spatula to help the pulp through the mesh. This process takes a little bit but if you don't like the hard little seeds from blackberries it is an important step.

Then to the blackberry pulp I added about 12 cups of rhubarb cut into 1 inch chunks heating till just steaming. To that I added a whopping 8 cups of sugar (this is totally dependent on personal taste you can use as much or as little sugar as you want) and stirred over gentle heat until the sugar was totally dissolved and the mixture was nice and hot. The color was ruby red. The smell was sweet and tart and everything that's good about summer. Already. In April.

Then I packed the mixture into hot sterilized jars and processed it in a boiling water bather for 10 minutes. They came out a rich and deep garnet red. Oh be still my heart, I've jarred happiness.

Blackberry rhubarb filling:

1 gallon blackberries cooked and seeded
12 cups rhubarb cut into 1" chunks
8(+/-) cups white sugar

Mix blackberry pulp with rhubarb and sugar cooking till sugar is dissolved.
Pour hot liquid into hot sterilized pint jars leaving 1" headspace.
Wipe rims with a clean damp cloth
Adjust 2-piece caps and process 10 minutes at a full rolling boil in a boiling water bather.

This recipe yields 9 pints of a dense but still fluid filling. Yes it's another step when you open the jar to add a thickener however I never have good luck processing thicker products. I'm greedy and don't like having to toss products. Ever.

To use this product warm it up in a saucepan till just bubbling then add a slurry of 2 tsp cornstarch and a tablespoon of water. Heat till thickened, about 3 minutes. It is ready to use in your favorite pie, crisp, or cobbler. Did I mention that this is happiness in a jar? And it's there all year long? The taste is literally summer.

Red checker cake

1 jar blackberry rhubarb filling
1Tbsp butter diced
1cup flour
1tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 tbsp sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Pour prepared filling into a prepared 9x9 pan.
Dot with butter.
Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Cut in butter till consistency of wet sand.
Beat egg and milk together and add to flour mixture till just moistened.
Drop by spoonful on top of the filling in a basic checkerboard pattern.
Sprinkle top with sugar.
Bake at 350F for 20 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

When this gem comes out of the oven it's golden and garnet and steaming. It will fill your house with the smell of tart sweetness that's sure to make your mouth water. Serve it hot with a generous scoop of a good vanilla ice cream or cold with a good cup of floral tea.

There you go! From the sunset homestead to your table! My favorite rhubarb recipe. God bless.

Three years

Today is three years! Mountain man and I exchanged our vows three years ago today! In three years much has happened, from first moment of our marriage ours has been rife with huge events. From the early delivery of our daughter tiger (2) on Christmas Eve later that same year to the mountain man adopting cricket in January of 2016 and then finding out days later that we were expecting our little bear (7mo)

With each passing day I find more and more reasons to love him. When tiger asks him if she can brush his hair (all 2mm of it) he agrees without hesitation. When little bear just won't calm for me to feed him and I'm clearly on the verge of mental breakdown because I feel worthless, my mountain man steps in with a kind word of encouragement and will take over for a few minutes to calm little bear down until he can eat without fits (he's breastfeeding so daddy can't take over the feeding). And my heart melts when mountain man takes cricket outside and teaches him real survival skills like hunting, fishing, gardening, construction, and caring for our few farm animals.

This morning I awoke at 5am as I do every day. I made coffee for my mountain man and I and I sat with him on the couch to watch the morning news report. We talk for awhile about what we are doing today including the bittersweet goodbyes we will have to say tonight to one of our fellow parishioners. When we gather up tiger and little bear for him to take to our sitters house he bids me to come outside (barefoot of course) and there he shows to me 4 rose bushes that he's procured for me. Rosa rugosa. Nearly wild roses.

It's all the little things that the mountain man does that make me so very glad that he is mine and makes me love him so much more. Happy anniversary mountain man. Here's to many more.

The many uses of violets

Yesterday I posted about how to make violet syrup, but I didn't go into detail on why or to what benefit. Firstly let me start by saying why wild violets are so good! 

Wild violets are loaded with vitamins A and C, even better than oranges by weight, and salicilic acid which acts as a mild keratolytic (this helps you shed dead skin cells when used topically). Violets can soothe a sore throats, help you sleep, stimulate lymphatic glands to strengthen the immune system and reduce inflammation by aiding in the elimination of toxins from the body (read helps you go #2) hello miracle weed!

You can harvest the blossoms and leaves and dry them to make a tea blend for all year long. You can make a jelly with them, candy the blossoms, eat the leaves in a salad, freeze blossoms in ice cubes for wow factor, make violet vinegar, or make violet syrup.

To use violet syrup mix 1-2 tablespoons in your morning tea or coffee or try one of the mixed drinks detailed in this website https://makemeacocktail.com/recipes/violet-syrup_cocktails/?ing=4069. Or shake some with ice and clear liquor and pour over seltzer water.

Violet syrup will give clear liquid a beautiful blue-violet hue and lends a mild floral flavor to any drink. Enjoy your wild flowers! Pick some today

Violet syrup

 This spring our yard is inundated with violets and dandelions. Being the foraging enthusiasts that the mountain man and I are, we've decided to capitalize on our good fortune and make up a batch of violet syrup to flavor drinks with.
We started by filling an old ice cream tub (the gallon sized one) with what felt like a million violet blossoms. Then we pulled the petal off each bloom saving the petals for the syrup and tossing the rest to the compost. Each batch of syrup requires a cup and a half of packed violet petals. This process requires a fair amount of time but it's worth it! Now that you have spent several hours gathering and separating the petals bring a cup and a half of water to a rolling boil and pour over the violet petals. Now make sure that you use a heat proof container for this - preferably one with a lid. Once you have gotten the violets submerged let those puppies steep for 18-24 hours at room temperature. Strain out the petals and press as much liquid from them as you can.  Place the beautiful deep violet liquid into a small pot and add one and a half to two cups of white sugar heat over gentle heat until the sugar fully dissolves. Place in jars and store in the fridge for 4-6 months.

 

Violet syrup
1.5 cups violet petals (packed)
1.5 cups boiling water
1.5-2cups sugar (white suggested)

Pour boiling water over petals and steep for 18-24 hours
Strain petals removing as much liquid as possible
In a pan mix the sugar and violet water over gentle heat until sugar is dissolved
Store in fridge for up to 6 months.

There you go! Gorgeous violet syrup to add to your favorite drink or have on your pancakes! It tastes just like spring! Enjoy!


From the sunset homesteaders to you God bless!

rabbit stew

My son cricket (7) and I love cooking and baking. Today's project is rabbit stew. In the early winter my husband the mountain man takes our beagle Lola out a few times for the rabbit season usually they bring home a pair of wild rabbits for our dinner table. We prepare our rabbits in a myriad of ways. Boned, breaded and fried, grilled, barbecued, stuffed in a pot pie, cubed in a shepherds pie- but our favorite way is to have rabbit stew. A hearty, heavy soup, studded with an abundance of garden vegetables and flavorful dense liquid. Please pardon my drool. 
The perfect rabbit stew starts with a whole skinned rabbit placed in a large pot and covered with water by a generous couple inches of water. It is then boiled rapidly for about an hour and allowed to cool until able to handle. 

While the rabbit is cooling I prepare a heap of green beans, peas, carrots, onions, celery, and potatoes.  I boil all of these in a few cups of the broth made from boiling off the rabbit. Once the meat is cool enough to handle I debone as much of the meat as I can, dropping it into the pot of vegetables as I go.  Once the meat is returned to the pan I season the stew with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. If I'm feeling spicy I'll toss in a pinch of cayenne pepper to spice it up. To thicken the soup I use a couple tablespoons of cornstarch (if you really want a banging flavor use a packet of brown gravy mix,  yeah yeah I know it is cheating but it's delicious so I don't care). 


The sunset homesteaders rabbit stew 

1 skinned rabbit 
1c. Peas
1c. Green beans 
1c. Cubed potatoes 
1c. Corn 
1 medium onion diced
1-2 large carrots peeled and sliced in 1/3 inch disks 
Salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, cayenne pepper to taste
2tbsp cornstarch 
Button mushrooms optional 

Boil rabbit off bones reserve liquid 
Place all prepared vegetables in a large pot 
Use 3c reserve liquid to cook vegetables seasoning to taste. 
Return meat to pot with vegetables 
Make a slurry with the cornstarch and some water or reserve liquid and combine with the soup allow to thicken for a couple minutes serve with fresh bread. 

Introducing the Sunset Homesteaders

Hello! I'm glad to meet you! My name is Jasmine. I am a 30 year old wife and mother of three wonderful children. I work full time in a day hab for adults with developmental disabilities Monday through Friday. My husband works 45+ hours Monday through Friday at a local landscaping company. Together after work every day we operate a small urban homestead, hence our name the sunset homesteaders. We work right up to sunset and beyond every day. Planting, watering, picking, feeding the chickens and dog and children, canning or freezing or dehydrating. We manage somehow to fit 80 hours of work into 20 hours every week. We love our little homestead however we want to get more land out of town where we can cultivate more of the food our family needs and grow more of the meat animals, milk animals,  and wool bearing animals we want. This is our journey as it happens. Every triumph and tribulation. Every humorous moment and every heartbreaking hurdle. Welcome to our home.