Flowering Quince Jam

Today I made Flowering Quince (Chaenomeles) Jam.  I discovered that we had flowering quince on our new property a while ago and saw that some of the bushes had fruit on them.  The first time I picked one of the fruits, I cut it in half, which was very hard to do because they are so hard.  I wasn't sure what it was at that point.  I tasted a little of it, but didn't like it.  It was really bitter.  Then I did some googling and found out that it was the fruit of a flowering quince bush.  It's not exactly like a regular quince I guess, but I did find a recipe for using it to make jam. 

http://straightfromthefarm.net/2009/12/05/quince-jam/

It's so pretty and tastes good too.  It has a bright citrusy flavor and is almost like a marmalade. 

Here is a picture of all the fruit I picked.  They are small, about the size of a golf ball and I had to core them.  Even though I didn't have that many, I did have enough to make half a batch of the jam.

Here is a picture of the minced quince, (ooh, that's fun to say, Minced Quince) simmering to soften the fruit.

Mmm, it's getting prettier.  Now there is sugar mixed in with the minced quince.  :)  It's boiling and thickening.

I had to get a closeup of the pretty minced quince glistening.  :)   Aaah, there's just nothing like pretty glistening minced quince.  :)

Here's the jam in pretty jars.  Pretty Glistening Minced Quince Jam.  (I do so like it Sam I Am)

I know you must be tired of listening
      to me go on about the glistening
But don't you agree that the minced quince is pretty
      glistening on the knife?  (I know I'm so witty)  :)

Clara's First Deer

Clara got her first deer tonight!  She shot it with a crossbow.  It's a button buck.  It wasn't the biggest deer around, but it will make some real good dinners!  We are really proud of our newest hunter!  Way to go Clara!

Allison

Allison just had her birthday recently!  I can't believe that she's 15 years old now!  Here is a picture of her all ready for the Homecoming Dance last weekend.  She sure is growing up!  :)

Emily's Red Coat

We found this really cute coat on Amazon.com for $20!  Emily just loves it and wanted me to take some pictures of her wearing it.  She is a little cutie!  :)

Spider Webs

Here are some pictures I recently took of some spider webs in our backyard.  I think they are really pretty!  :)

Open House Party

We are having an Open House party this weekend so our friends and family can visit us and see our new house.  It's not really to show off the house itself since we aren't the ones who made it as lovely as it is.  We haven't really made any changes yet other than building rooms for Allison and Clara.  The party is more for us a time to enjoy the company of many friends since we now have the room for company!  :)  It is just wonderful to have so much space now and know that lots of people can gather here and be comfortable.  Also the party is just a small way for us to thank everyone for being there for us the past couple of years when things weren't always going so well.  We just want to treat everyone to a nice day.

I was going to cook a big meal for the party, but decided that might get costly.  I decided instead that since we have at least a million apples on our property that I would just make a bunch of apple pies; so that's what I'm doing.  I got started today.  I've made 5 pies so far and I'm hoping to make 15 to 20 of them.  I'm hoping for a good turnout of hungry friends this weekend.  I'm also planning a couple of fun things to do that day.  I want to have a scavenger hunt for the kids.  I'm going to fill some big container with apples and have everyone guess how many apples there are.  There will be prizes for the winners.  :)  I'm also hoping to have a campfire going with the fixin's for s'mores.  I'm really excited about sharing the day with our special friends and family!  :)

Here are a couple of pictures of the apples I picked today and the pies I made today.

New Home

Wow!  I haven't updated this blog for quite a while and there is so much in our life that has been updated recently! 

We just bought a new house!  We love it!  It's so much bigger than our old house and there is so much storage and land.  We have 30 acres of property now.  There are lots of fruit trees and plants that the previous owner planted.  We have apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, and grapes!  There are also a lot of different flowering trees, bushes, and flowers growing all over.  It's really beautiful!

In our old house, the 3 youngest kids were sharing a room.  Now everyone has their own room, except for Tim and I, we're still sharing.  ;)

Here are some pictures of our new house from the outside.  I'll try to take some of the inside to post soon.