Oregon Forest Fires...

After living in the Midwest, you forget about what a "forest fire" really means and how dangerous they truly are.. especially when they are relatively close!

I was heading down to Southern Oregon and you could really see the smoke on the way down.  While in Medford, you could still smell the smoke while indoors.  I headed home that afternoon and the smoke had really increased.... and these photos are from the interstate, not right at the fires!

And here are some actual fire photos...

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Lets keep the firefighters and their families in out prayers. May they stay safe and thank them for the hard work and sacrifices they make.

Food Porn!

Love going to the Farmer's Market and getting fresh veggies and fruits!!!  The colors are amazing and so vibrant!  And the taste!  Oh, nothing like the supermarket!!!

On the top photo, left hand side, those green things.. are just a bit of heaven... they are fresh figs!!!  Oh.My.Goodness!!!!  Wonderful.. so good in fact that I planted a fig tree last week!!!

Tomatoes of every shape and size!  The heirloom tomatoes are not the prettiest, but boy do they taste amazing!  Lots of meat to them and flavor more than you can imagine!  I cannot wait to make some salsa later on!

Salad fixings?  Could you imagine if fast food joints sold salads made from these veggies?  The fryer would be permanently closed!  Almost wants to make you become vegetarian.. oh wait, I do like steak and chops and burger and turkey and and and....

And finally for dessert.. fresh fruit!!!  I did end up buying the golden raspberries.  I am sad to report that they do not keep long..... not because they are fragile or go bad, but because I could not stop eating them.  They did not even make it back to my car!

Do you know where your local farmers market is?  Well here is a great website to help you find it!
USDA Agriculture Marketing Service has a link to local markets, just add in your zip code and how far you are willing to drive and there you go!

Food Preservation.....

Oh how I love this time of year!  The garden is producing and friends are bringing over goodies to share!  But you can only use so much at one time, so what to do?  A family friend has been bringing me onions... and a few months ago he brought over dried onions.  Talk about A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!!  I use them in everything and have even just eaten as a snack!  The best is when I toss on top of home made pizza and they are all toasty.. yum!

So this year I decided to dry my own this year.  Preparation is easy as slicing the onions.... really, that is it!  I then placed in my food dehydrator and then waited

 Wa-la... dried onions!

This is what I ended up with after slicing and dicing about 15 pounds of onions!!!  Way easier to store and keeps a lot longer than fresh onions.  I also found a recipe for grinding up dried onions with dried garlic and peppercorns and may have to try this out!

I also hit the blackberry patch in my back pasture.... nothing like free fruit for the picking!  After eating my weight in blackberries, I even had some left to freeze.  My favorite thing to do is freeze in a large pan, single depth, so they are frozen individually instead of in a clump.

Then I put them in a ziplock bag, and just poor out the amount I need without having to thaw the entire bag!  I use this with all berries,  so much easier to use this way!

And lastly, I worked on the apples!  They may not have looked perfect, but it is easy enough to cut around and get the good parts out!  Since my dehydrator was empty, decided to make some cinnamon sugar apple chips.  I choose to peel my apples, but you don't have to... all depends on what you like!  When peeling and slicing, I put the sliced apples in lemon juice and water.  It helps keep the apples from turning brown.  Next, I put in a colander to drain as much liquid as possible and transfer to another bowl.  Here comes the fun part, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and stir well.  How much you ask?  Well, I am a dump and taste type of girl, so as much as you like or none at all!

Next place on you racks and let her rip!

As far as times, a lot of that depends on your type of dehydrator.  With mine, I start everything at level 10 for 2 hours then turn down to level 7.  The onions took way longer than the apples.... the onions were on level 7 for about 14 hours.  The apples for more like seven (they are not quite done yet.. but have tasted them and they are yummy!)

I have been pinning away ideas on Pinterest, think I may try dried zucchini chips next.  Maybe a great choice instead of potato chips!