The littles and I went for a fall walk the other day and I have to laugh at just how little I knew before moving to the country.  Take Buckeyes for example...To me they were a wonderful peanut butter and chocolate candy but it was rare to see a real buckeye, and I had no earthly idea how or where one found buckeyes.  All that has changed since we moved out to the country.  

The boys and I went for a ride on our Gator (by far my favorite farm toy) and we decided to go for a walk near the creek bed on our property.  As we were talking about the changing leaves I began seeing them, the buckeyes.  I knew they were out there because the older kids had brought almost 2 gallons of them in the house to make crafts with.  They were all scattered among the leaves and if you looked closely you could just see slight shiny brown spots under the fallen leaves.

Once we started finding them the little boys got so excited that they filled their pockets full of buckeyes.  We even found twins in one of the dried out pods.

All in all it was like a treasure hunt and it kept the boys busy for over an hour so it was pretty fun too.  And my boys now know another place to look for buckeyes besides the refrigerator at Christmas time.

When you have a large family any reduction in the food bill is welcome.  I have a garden that helps tremendously (though this year it really didn't do much compared to previous years). Another way is to farm forage.  No, I don't mean digging through peoples garbage or anything weird like that, but if you live in a city, take a drive, get off the smart phone if you are in the passenger seat and pay attention.  Often you will notice trees loaded with fruit (apples, pears, etc) that are going to waste and dropping to the ground.  

The first time I noticed this was when we still lived smack dab in the center of town.  I walked outside with my children often and in the fall I noticed that a vacant house down the road had a pear tree in the front yard and it was loaded with pears, but no one was picking them!  The house had been vacant for almost a year and no one had been caring for or spraying the tree so I knew it was good clean, pesticide free fruit.  I did a bit of research and found out who owned the property so I just picked up the phone and called the owner.  He gave me full permission to pick away, and so I did.  I canned about 24 quarts of pear sauce that year and my love of ugly trees began.  (I call them ugly because the fruit is often mottled, can be spotted, etc as the tree is not treated with chemicals to keep the pests away).

I moved to the country and planted my own trees a few years ago, however, if any of you have fruit trees you know that it can take up to 5 years to produce fruit from a new sapling tree.  So, what is a girl to do?  I posted on a local facebook swap site asking if anyone had "ugly farm apples" they wanted to get rid of.  I got a hit right away from a woman who just bought her farm and it had a number of pear trees completely loaded with HUGE pears, she said she could never use all of them and didn't want to see them go to waste.  My kids and I loaded up with 3 bushels of pears, completely free.

This year was no different, my trees still aren't yielding me anything and I actually lost one of my miniature apple trees to a late frost.  So, I kept my eyes peeled and asked around. Sure enough there were two elderly widows who lived across the road from one and other and each had an apple tree that was more of a nuisance than anything else to them because they were not using the fruit and the fruit was dropping all over the yard causing issues when mowing.  Both ladies were more than happy to see the fruit go to good use as we picked and they shared memories of their childhood with us too.  The funny thing is that they both said, "Oh you may not want those apples, they haven't been sprayed..."  ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? That is what I do want, that is an organic apple at its base!!!

And bonus, one of the ladies had a peach tree too, she didn't even know it had fruit until we went out to it and she was glad to see the fruit gone! 

So this is about where my hubby says that "nothing is free" because there is a lot of work involved in putting up apples.  But, when I stand back and look at all this, I just see possibilities!!!

Let me warn you, if you are used to nothing but perfect apples in a shiny bag from Walmart, this is a bit different.  You have to wash (I use vinegar water) and sort and chop off bad spots. Sometimes I have to throw out a whole apple after cutting it to check for worms because it is too far gone.  But, when I can put up applesauce, apple cider, apple butter, pears, pie filling, etc for nothing more than a labor of love, I'm totally in!

I have done the apples two ways.  First is the rinse and scrub method, I do this for fresh eating for sure but it takes LOTS of elbow grease.  I rinse in vinegar water and use a scrub brush.  I also always cut my ugly farm apples because sometimes they have guests inside and let's face it, now one wants to bite into a juicy apple that is inhabited.

The other thing I have done is just a good rinse and wash and cut them cook down for my apple butters and sauces, ciders and juices.

Here is the warning, this (and sometimes worse) is what the inside of some of these completely free from spray and chemical apples look like.

But, I'm willing to take the good with the ugly for an abundance of free food for my large family.

Look around, you may be surprised at what you find near you just going to waste!

P.S. as a note of kindness it is always good to either follow up with a note or a fresh jar of some food you have made with your bounty to the person who allowed you to pick!

,I have been neglectful in getting this post up as it is from several weeks ago.  While grandma was here for a visit the concrete truck arrived before sunrise to begin some of the work on our barn (is this project ever going to end???)  We were quite amazed that by truck headlights the men began to work.  I think poor grandma got an early wakeup call as there were headlights aimed in her sleeping room because of this!  

I was concerned that my 3 year old (who is kind of obsessed by concrete trucks) was going to miss all the fun as he was peacefully asleep that morning, however, the work continued and he did get to see how a concrete truck worked.  

We did not concrete the whole barn floor ($$$~!) but did do a small pad off the back of the barn and at the entryway.  Also, something that I remember from my childhood is the memory stamp when you have your own concrete poured.  So, true to fashion, we put our mark in ours as well.  I don't know if we will live here forever but we have the memory of what the children's hands were like the year we put up this barn.  Making memories...

The neat thing is that I have caught the children checking out the fit a few times since the concrete dried, seeing how much they have to go before they are the same size as the next sibling up.

When we began trying to eat healthier and less processed foods most convenience foods went out the window because of all the extra added junk that is in them.  Honestly we feel better and I can tell a BIG difference when I eat some of the common things (maltodextrin, added corn syrup, certain preservatives) that are in most processed foods because my stomach gets upset since we no longer eat these things.

Unfortunately, I do miss some of the easy to whip up convenience foods, pudding being one of them.  There is nothing like a chilled pudding dessert, its just...well delicious!  I was recently asked to make some pudding for a ladies' meeting at our church so I began the search for a good recipe.  After a few fails, this one came through but it does not taste like the Jello box you may be used to.  This is a rich, creamy, custard-like pudding.  It was delicious, the kids enjoyed the leftovers, and I know exactly what is in the recipe so I think it a win-win!

We also made the chocolate but since I was a bit heavy-handed on the cocoa powder it was more like chocolate fudge pudding...not that this is a bad thing!

• 3cups milk
• 1cup sugar
• 3tablespoons butter
• 3tablespoons cornstarch(massive tablespoons)
• 4egg yolks
• 1 1⁄2teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1pinch salt
• 1 -6tablespoon sifted cocoa powder (ONLY if you are making chocolate pudding)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a pot get all 3 cups of milk scalding.
2. While the milk boils; separate the eggs and discard the whites (if desired, you can set aside for an omlette or a meringue)and beat the cornstarch and sugar in the bowl with the egg yolks. It will have a hard time coming together at first; but keep whisking, it'll get there.
3. Keep milk very hot. Pour all of the egg yolk mixture into the scalding milk and beat vigorously until the mixture seems completely liquified. Add the salt, vanilla extract, and butter. Keep whisking until butter is well incorporated.
4. Keep warm and continuosly stir until the pudding thickens. Once thick (if making chocolate) add the sifted cocoa powder and stir until well incorporated.
5. Serve warm or refrigerate for 2 hrs (preferred) and serve with or without garnish.

After having my first child I became a connoisseur of children's picture books.  My first child consumed picture book literature like most consume gummies.  I have a handful of favorites from my childhood as well but one of the books I don't remember discovering until I had children is called "Blueberries for Sal" by Robert McClosky.  This book always captivated me.  Maybe it was because I thought it would be so neat to be able to go and forage for wild blueberries, maybe it was because my daughter loved the book so much that she would eagerly sit quietly and listen, or maybe it was the pictures.  Whichever the reason it was a treasured classic in our home that has been passed through each of the children.

I was picking what was sure to be some of the last raspberries of the season last evening with my youngest son who is now just 5 months shy of his 2nd birthday.  We went out with some little cups in hand as I know from experience that very few, if any, raspberries make it into my house when he visits the raspberry patch.  We started out across the yard and his excitement was almost contagious.  As he marched towards the bushes I decided to head round the back side to try to get some into my cup before he discovered that I had raspberries to spare.  It wasn't much use, just as fast as I could pick them, he gobbled them up. It is actually quite amusing to watch as he doesn't just pick one berry at a time from my cup or my palm, he grabs fat fistfuls and forcefully shoves them into his mouth as though he were experiencing his last supper.  It is actually quite amusing.

I was left thinking about that book again, if you haven't read it, please do, or read it to a child in your life.  I completely understand how the mother must have felt as she tried to get just a little distance ahead of Sal to try to have just a few berries to spare, meanwhile being pursued by a little one who knows you have something good!