Sunday Quotes...partly cloudy...70's

"Preserve your memories

Keep them well, what you forget

You can never retell"      -   Louisa May Alcott

 "As long as we have Memories, Yesterday remains

As long as we have Hope, Tomorrow waits

As long as we have Love, Today is beautiful."    Unknown

 

Remember these are your children's and grandchildren's

"Good Old Days"

Make them memorable...................

 

Scrumptious Strawberry Cream Roll....cloudy with showers later....70's

 Let your fresh strawberries shine in this wonderful recipe, that is worth the bit of extra work it takes!

 

Scrumptious Strawberry Cream Roll   

 7/8 cup eggs (about 4)

1 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup sifted cake flour (make your own by taking out 1 tab. flour and

adding 1 tab. cornstarch)

1 tsp. vanilla

 2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

 2 cups sliced strawberries, sweetened with 1/4 cup sugar

 

Preheat oven to 375, grease a 10x15x1" pan, line with waxed paper and grease paper. Place eggs in 2 quart mixing bowl; set over slightly smaller bowl of hot water. Add baking powder and beat until foamy with electric mixer. While beating rapidly, slowly add sugar by the tablespoonful. Continue beating unti tripled in volume. Remove bowl from hot water and quickly fold in flour and vanilla. Pour into pan, spreading evenly. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cake should be Light brown. Turn out on dish cloth which has been laid on cooling rack and dusted with powdered sugar. Quickly peel off waxed paper and cover with towel until cool. When cake is cool, whip cream, adding sugar & vanilla. Spread on cake and sprinkle with strawberries. Carefully roll up cake from narrow side, trying not to squeeze out filling. Chill in refrigerator at least 2 hours. Dust with confectioners sugar.

Featured....partly sunny and 70's........

We are very honored to have our little business featured in the "Feature Friends Friday" on High Plains Knot Work's Facebook page today. We want to share the interview  with you here, but we encourage you to stop by their pages for a look around too! https://www.facebook.com/jbhighplainsknotwork?fref=nf
https://www.etsy.com/shop/highplainsknotwork?ref=si_shop


*****Feature Friends Friday Interview******
We asked Joanne from Jonquil Junction to tell us a bit about her shop and her products ... Here's what she had to say!
HPKW: How did Jonquil Junction begin?
JJ: It began as an idea to connect crafters and customers .
My husband and I have both tried various crafting projects and venues over our 30+ years of living
here , but the remoteness of our location prevented us from having our items seen by many potential customers' . Even though we love the simpler life we live here in the remote Ozark mountains, we needed a way to show our handcrafted items to a wider range of people so we are thankful (sometimes) that the invasion of the internet has allowed us to share our products with folks far and wide .
HPKW: Tell us a little bit about your products:
JJ: Our products are as varied as the weather in these hills:
My husband makes the Hand-hammered copper jewelry
After years of experience with precise woodworking and working with the springs, gears, and metals in his clock-making business, When a customer asked him to make a copper chain for a pocket watch, he used his knowledge of "work hardening" metal to design and craft a chain for the watch. That experience soon led to a line of copper jewelry, with a focus on earrings. He designs each piece in his head first then makes an individual ‘jig’ to bend and hammer the piece into the shape he desires. This time consuming process results in a unique and beautiful piece that you will never see in a mass-produced jewelry store.
All parts of his earrings, except the ear-wire, are handmade and hammered, from the hammered body of the earring right down to each individual , intricate and tiny piece .
Our daughter helps us with the internet side of the business as well as making all the hand-sewn items we offer- from the Handmade biscuit and rag baby quilts, denim rag purses, aprons, notebook covers, embroidered tea towels and more, she’s always trying something new.
I write for the blog , and capture photos featuring our menagerie of four footed and feathered friends as well as our beautiful country landscape, there will soon be a combination of these writing and photos available in book format as well as downloadable prints and other items as well.
HPKW: Do you have a favorite or best selling item?
JJ: Our favorite is our photography because is captures the essence of
our locality and our lifestyle (for better or for worse)
Very soon you’ll be seeing much more of this genre on our pages
HPKW: What do you like most and least about having a small business?
JJ: Most: The interaction and personal touch with people near and far.
Least: Time spent promoting--we’d rather be producing!
HPKW: How can people purchase from JJ?
JJ: Directly from our Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jonquiljunction?ref=hdr_shop_menu
Through Facebook: www.facebook.com/jonquiljunction
Follow our blog for special offers and updates too: http://jonquiljunction.blogspot.com/

Exciting news from JonquilJunction, cloudy and warm 70's

                         Photography Collections
                           From JonquilJunction

As I've mentioned before we live in one of the prettiest places in the Ozark mountains,  & living on a farm with many feathered and furry (both domesticated and not) occupants, there always an opportunity to capture a priceless photograph, now whether I have the time (or the camera with me at the right time!) is another story!
I've always taken pictures, but when I began photographing seriously for this Blog and our FB page, I was pleasantly surprised with the images I was able to capture, and then when our photographs were so well received on FB and on the blog, I thought why not offer a bit of "JonquilJunction" to you? So we are happy to now offer them on Etsy as digital downloads!! For a low price and NO SHIPPING, you can instantly enjoy the pictures you've loved on our page  in your own home or office, on your desktop or printed and framed ect, ect, ect..... print as many times as you like for personal use!
We have several categories that we hope you'll enjoy. "Cat" collection, "Caprine" collection, "Country Nostalgia" collection, "Canine" collection , & "Chicken" collection for starters with  more collections coming along soon!
We hope you'll check out our ETSY page to see all the choices we have available now and follow us so you can keep up to date as we add new photographs.

Cherry pickin' time ...partly cloudy, showers later,,,,70*

Fresh Cherry Cobbler

 

1 quart fresh Tart Cherries

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 Tablespoons Cornstarch (adjust as needed, our cherries tend to be quite juicy)

2 tsp. Almond flavoring

1 box yellow cake mix

2 Tablespoons melted butter

 

Wash and pit cherries. In sauce pan combine cherries and sugar heat just till juice starts to come out of them and get half a cup of juice and set aside, continue heating for five minutes till nice and juicy. Add cornstarch to cool juice you removed, stir well. Add to cherries and  cook ,stirring, for 1 minute or till starts to thicken. Remove from heat, stir in almond flavoring, pour into a 1.5 quart Pyrex bowl. Sprinkle top with HALF (see note) of the dry cake mix and drizzle with butter. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes till bubbly and slightly browned on top.

ENJOY alone or with Vanilla ice cream on top

 

**Note**

I usually double the recipe and  make two of these at once that way I can use my whole box of cake mix. Enjoy one for supper and share the other one with friends or family

 

Farm Adventures.Cloudy and wet, windy and 60*

Remember those tiny ducklings?

Well here they are at 4 weeks.
Do you think all this rain has accelerated their growth?

Butterscotch...cloudy and wet.. 60's

" Private baths"        ------------$0.25
"Semi-private baths''------------$0.10

"In this house, before taking a bath, ALWAYS check behind you first!"

Sunday quotes....partly cloudy, warmer

No white nor red was ever seen

So amorous as this lovely green
Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less
Withdraws into its happiness -
Annihilating all that's made
To a green Thought in a green Shade
                           a poem in "The Garden" by Andrew Marvell

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler....partly cloudy....

Strawberry Rhubarb Crunch

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups rolled oats
10 T.melted margarine
2 tsp. cinnamon
3 cups raw rhubarb, diced
2 cups strawberries, cut in half
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla

 Mix first 5 ingredients until crumbly. Press 1/2 into greased 9x13 pan. Cook sugar, cornstarch and water until thick and clear, add vanilla, strawberries and rhubarb, pour over crust in pan. Sprinkle rest of crumb mixture over all and pat lightly. Bake 350 for 35-40 minutes, till bubbly and lightly browned. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream!

 

Rhubarb....love it or hate it?....47* and partly cloudy

Rhubarb ...either you love it or hate it, there just doesn't seem to be much in between on this subject, I've seen many on-line debates about this!

First the technical bits:
The word "rhubarb" takes its name from the Latin rha barbarum. Rhubarb grew along the banks of the river Rha,  Back then, the region was considered foreign, or barbarian territory.
So,rhubarb literally means "from the barbarian, Rha."
The leaves are considered poisonous since they contain high levels of oxalic acid, the stalks contain it too but in much smaller quantities.
Classified as a Zone 2-9 plant, rhubarb prefers a cool, damp climate, and it struggles in a dry or hot one.
(((We are in zone 6 here so should be right in the middle of it's happy place , but we have good years and bad, this year it is producing fairly well, must be all the cool and damp we've been having! )))

according to Wikipedia ----
"Rhubarb is usually considered a vegetable . In the United States, however, a New York court decided in 1947 that since it was used in the United States as a fruit, it counted as a fruit for the purposes of regulations and duties. A side effect was a reduction on imported rhubarb tariffs, as tariffs were higher for vegetables than fruits." 

Have you ever heard it called "Pieplant"??  This depends greatly on where you live, I think. but it is in Mariam Websters online dictionary -Definition of PIEPLANT :  garden rhubarb, first known use 1838
It is thought to have made it's way to the US in 1820 or there about coming first to the east coast and moving west with the pioneers.
Laura Ingalls Wilder refers to rhubarb as "pie plant" in  her book The First Four Years.

Even if you love rhubarb you have to admit it is sour at best.........requiring plenty of sugar and or combination with a sweeter fruit such as strawberries. In fact it seems you almost always see rhubarb and strawberries combined, this could be because they ripen at the same time in most places or because the sweetness of the strawberries help balance the tartness of  the rhubarb.............. some would say it's a shame to 'waste' good strawberries by combining it with rhubarb, while others can't wait to for spring to have the wonderful 'sweet-tart' combination of strawberry-rhubarb pie, muffins, cobbler or jam.
Where do you stand??   Rhubarb delicious pie plant or Rhubarb-keep it out of my kitchen
we'd love to hear your comments below and join us tomorrow for a delicious (we think) recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

Spring offerings...48* cloudy...windy

In spite of the cold, rainy weather, the strawberries continue to produce , they aren't as plentiful as they might be if the near constant rain wasn't causing some of them to rot before they ripen, and they aren't as sweet as they might be if they were receiving the sunshine they (and all of us) crave. But we've still managed a good harvest so far this year, with more to come hopefully.

Try this easiest of ways to serve Strawberries! I was served this in a restaurant in Portsmouth N.H. many years ago and liked it so much I still do it at home.  Wash strawberries and leave stem on. On individual plates place several berries, dollop of sour cream, and small pile of brown sugar.  The lucky eater dips berry first in sour cream, then sugar. The blend of flavors is superb.

Strawberries as big as golf balls

Someone's at the door..........RAIN AGAIN! 50's

From our archives again today, this poem we wrote back during the winter, but find it's just as applicable in this rainy weather!!!

Someone’s at the door

 

In again, out again

someone is at the

door again--

if they are in

they want out (they think)

if they are out

they want in ( Quick as a wink)

in again, out again

can’t make up 

their minds again

 

Every time I sit down again

someone is at the 

door again --

If they are out

they want in  (where they just were)

if they are in

the want out (missing something for sure)

in again, out again

can’t make up

their minds again

 

In again, out again

someone is at the

door again--

this time the cat

next time the dog

at this rate I’m sure to loose track

gonna have to make a log

who’s in again, out again

at the door again...............

 

 

Homemade yogurt....partly sunny....59*

Thankful for 'archives' this morning :) sharing this post from last year about how I make our homemade yogurt from our goats milk. See the original post HERE and here http://jonquiljunction.blogspot.com/search/label/yogurt for several of our recipes using yogurt!


There's nothing like fresh yogurt, just like anything fresh from the garden or homemade it just tastes better! We eat ours plain or topped with fresh fruit or honey.

 

 Here's how I make mine. This recipe and procedure never let me down, and I have tried many other ways . I have a Salton Yogurt Maker, that has five 6 ounce cups, so these quantities are for it.

 I start by plugging it in to preheat.

Then I pasteurize 30 ounces of milk by placing it in a stainless steel bowl in a pan of hot water .Heat until thermometer reads 160 degrees. Remove bowl from hot water and let cool until temp. reaches 110.

Then beat in with whisk 1/3 cup of NON- INSTANT dry milk. Whisk thoroughly until completely dissolved, then whisk in one at a time, 4 rounded tablespoons of plain  Yogurt with ACTIVE cultures,. ( Subsequently you can use your own Yogurt as the starter. When the homemade starts to  seem less firm, buy another quart for your starter)

Next rinse your cups with hot water and pour in your Yogurt mixture.

Place in Yogurt Maker, put on cover and wrap with heavy towels or blanket.

Let sit undisturbed for 8 - 10 hours.

 Remove cups of Yogurt and immediately place in refrigerator .

Watch for  some recipes using your homemade yogurt coming soon!

Rainy days and Mondays....cloudy...showers soon!

"When it rains it pours", "A pour man gets his ice in the wintertime", A "dirt poor farmer" is someone who is 'land rich' but money poor, .......and I'm coining a new one
a  "rain poor farmer" gets a half a years worth of rain in two weeks~~ right when they need to be planting the garden, making hay, mowing the (knee high) grass, harvesting the strawberries.............................................

                                  The Rain Poor Farmer
So as we deal with the almost constant and 'Quantitive' amounts of rain
and workin'  amidst the rain and showers,
we find every chore takes twice the time--hours and hours!
The strawberries won't ripen,
More and More we find ourselves gripen'
Can't find a dry day
to cut the hay,
Plants need pottin,'
and the half the garden is rottin,'
While we're out in the muck sloggin'~~~
we might just have to take a break from bloggin' !!!!

We might be spotty as the showers this week in and out here as we find a minute!
Please bear with us and we'll be sure to share as often as we can and definitely be by Saturday with your next Strawberry recipe (assuming they don't all rot and we don't all float away!)

Sunday Quotes....partly cloudy with more rain likely

"As long as we have Memories, Yesterday remains.

As long as we have Hope, Tomorrow waits.

As long as we have Love, Today is beautiful."

~ Author Unknown ~

 

                                                    Hope you have a beautiful Sunday!

 

 

 

Strawberry Pie...Cloudy & Drizzle...60's

If you missed our "snippet" yesterday about the history of Strawberries in our area you can read it HERE................then come back and try this scrumptious recipe!

 

 

 

A few years ago you could find some version of this pie in almost ever small town café in our neck of the woods, this time of the year. It doesn't seem as likely now-a-days as most restaurants --even the small ones-- buy their pies ready made from some big supplier and you see the same kinds in every café, Buttermilk and Strawberry pies seem to faded into a thing of the past........................

Strawberry Pie

Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 T. sugar

5 T. melted butter

 

1  8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

 

 

1 quart sliced strawberries

1/2-1 cup sugar*** See Note

1 cup water

3 T. cornstarch

2 T. strawberry Jello

1 tsp. Almond flavoring

 

Mix crumbs and sugar together, add melted butter, stir well then

press firmly into a 10” pie plate.

 

In medium bowl beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with handheld mixer for

2 minutes or till light and fluffy.

Carefully spread into piecrust, place in fridge.

 

In medium saucepan whisk together sugar and cornstarch, add water and cook over medium heat until thick and clear about 2 minutes, add Jello and stir well, remove from heat and add flavoring and gently stir in berries. Spoon into crust and chill at least 4 hours before serving.

Can be served with or without sweetened whipped cream on top!

 

 

**The amount of sugar you need totally depends on how sweet your fruit is!

Taste  your strawberries first and adjust as needed

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Join us next Saturday for another delicious Strawberry Recipe!

 

 

Snippets & Snatches...cloudy...drizzle...66*

 STRAWBERRIES, STRAWBERRIES, STRAWBERRIES

 

Who doesn't love Strawberries? We love them so much we are going to share Strawberry recipes with you every Saturday for the next few weeks.

We know ours are fairly early and some of you will be getting yours' in the weeks to come.

When I worked in an office as a teenager, one of the older typists told me a real treat of the beginning of summer was if the peas, new potatoes, and strawberries would all be ripe by 4th of July! She grew up in Maine.

 Here in our part of  Arkansas they are often ready by Mother's Day!

' Back in the day' this county (Searcy) was the Strawberry capital of the world.

 The Flintrock Strawberry Growers Association of Searcy County reported sales of 19,500 crates in 1948.

Back then a crate held 24 quarts! The county paper reported 1956 as the peak year with 1,800 acres in production. In those days the school year was coordinated to allow children out of school (sometime in May) in order to pick. A large truck would be sent to town to pick up the children and take them to the fields, which were usually on the slope of a hill. (Remember this is the Ozarks!) They would climb the hill bent over picking their way up. One person I know said, in the late 1960's he was paid .06 cents a quart to pick!

This past week at the farmer's market in Little Rock a quart cost $7.00!

I recommend checking out Wikipedia, which had so many interesting facts about the Strawberry, going all the way back to King Charles V of France in the 1300's who had 1200 plants in his garden.

See you tomorrow with our first  scrumptious strawberry recipe!

 

Farm adventures...cloudy(AGAIN) ..windy...62*

SOPHIE

Sophie, where are you?

Somewhere on top, no doubt
Never down low, where you ought to go....
That's where you won't be about
Always suspecting some foe............
You have us trained,

When we call your name

To raise our eyes and search up high!

 

 

 

Farm Adventures....sunny.... 50's

In between rain storms I finally got all the kids out together for the first time. Some actually posed for their picture!

Snippets & Snatches....50's windy and chilly

                                                             Snippets and Snatches

 When we were having a deluge the other day, I thought, my Mom would have said "when it rains, it pours". Spring rains are welcome and needed, for gardens and pastures and hay fields, but torrents that flood everything make country life unpleasant!! 

Then I began thinking of all the sayings that come from agricultural settings, and wonder how many folks today see the applications.

Yesterday while checking for newly hatched chicks I thought of the age old "don't count your chicks before they hatch". Here you see what we got after expecting ten new chicks. Yup,  TWO!!!

The hen hasn't given up, dutiful mama that she is, but I know too much time has gone by.

Do you remember I mentioned Blackberry Winter last week?

Well today started out in the 40's with a strong cold wind to assist us through our chores............................

 

Rain & Roses.............cloudy and very wet 60's

Rain, Rain go away, come again another day!
With 4-10 inches of rain here over the weekend ~~
(amounts varying depending on who's rain gauge you looked at
and which side of the mountain you were on!)
We are busy 'mucking' out here today with chicken pens
and goat stalls in standing water!
So thankful for our 'archives' !
This post is from last year,
our Cherokee roses are already blooming this year,
a couple of weeks earlier than last year!

Follow link below!

http://jonquiljunction.blogspot.com/2014/05/old-roses.html

 

Sunday Quotes......partly cloudy...storms later

" There is no such thing as away,
 When we throw anything away, it must go somewhere"
                                                                                      Anne Leonard

I ponder this quote as I am still sorting through 30+ years of stored and accumulated items, in my attic, do I give it away, rearrange and pack it away, throw it away???????????????? Spring cleaning continues, here at the farm.

Lemon Poundcake.........storms overnight, sunny and 60*

A great spring recipe, this is a Pound cake that won't pack on the pounds! Made with fat free 'yogurt cheese' instead of the traditional sour cream, and only a quarter of a cup of butter, it is still delicious and rich. Serve iced, dusted with powdered sugar or for a really decadent treat, serve with fresh fruit and sweetened whipped cream!

Lemon Pound Cake

1/4 cup  butter, melted
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup Fat free yogurt cheese (see how easy it is to make HERE )
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel (optional)
1/2 teaspoon Almond extract
1  teaspoon lemon extract
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
ICING:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions
In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add butter and yogurt beat well, add lemon peel and extracts. then add the flour, baking powder and  baking soda, stir gently just until all ingredients are combined. Bake in two  greased loaf pans at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
 Cool 10 minutes remove from pans, then cool completely before icing.
For icing combined sifted powdered sugar and just enough lemon juice to make a thick glaze.

Enjoy!

 

 

Farm adventures.....cloudy and warm

Momma ( A.WYSE) told us,
 "one of your first lessons is to find ways under, over, or through --  fences or gates! 

 "Don't forget this!,  and your opportunities will be endless."

Farm Adventures.cloudy....70*

"Mom can eat clover if she wants to. I see a possibility here."

 

"What do you mean, I shouldn't try that yet?"

Spring............partly cloudy....60's

What a busy time of year!
Everyone who puts out a garden has been scrambling to take advantage of a few dry days in a row, to plant their rows (pun intended)!!!! Especially if they listen to the weather forecast which for our local is rain and/or thunderstorms for the next six days. 
Well that will help with the watering chores, but only if things don't get washed away!!.
1-3 inches is what is forecast. The wild blackberries are in full bloom, as seen here.

That reminded me BLACKBERRY WINTER. A phenomenon that often happens in these Ozark hills. It's a very cold spell that occurs when the blossoms are on the blackberries.
Since no two years are alike here in any season we just have to wait and see what occurs this year.
We talked about it HERE last year on May first, we haven't been particularly cold this week but just as they started opening last week we were having mornings in the 40's. As we are planting our tomatoes and other warm loving crops this week, we hope that's all of our Blackberry winter for this year!
Happy gardening!!!!!!!

Farm Adventures......sunny..........60's

Making acquaintances.................Meeting those in the neighborhood, or trying to!

Farm Adventures..Sunny..........60's

This is Donna our determined  bantam hen. 
After sitting for weeks on unfertile eggs, I went to the feed store and bought  2 ducklings.
That night after dark I removed the eggs and put the ducklings under her. She said "cluck, cluck, I knew if I kept at it they would hatch!"









Now at 2 weeks old they have already outgrown her and can't get under her wings. But she still mothers them.  

AHHHHHHHHHHHH   SPRING, when all things seem possible!

Sunday Quotes....sunny...warm

SPRING..................

 Spring comes but once a year

Pushing out winter

Ushering in Summer

Oh, these interim days

Enjoy them in some way!

                                                  Bonney Bresko

 

 

Black & White pudding Cake.....sunny....50's......

Black and White Pudding Cake

 

Here's a way to make a cake mix extra special. We like it cold best!

 

1 - 18 oz. white cake mix

1    Tab. vanilla OR coffee brandy

1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

1/2  cup unsweetened cocoa

2 1/2 cups hot strong coffee

 

Make cake mix according to pkg. directions, adding in flavoring. Spread in greased 9 x 13" pan. Mix sugar and cocoa together and sprinkle evenly over cake batter. Pour coffee very slowly and carefully over cake mixture. Bake at 350* for 40 minutes.

Let cool before serving. Try unsweetened whipped cream as a topping for a nice contrast to the sweet pudding mixture. This is one I developed for a contest, some years back.

 

Snippets & Snatches...sunny... 50's

                                                                  Days Gone By

 

                               The lonely, silent cabin

                                Sat empty for 30 years

                                Those who had lived in it

                                Couldn't wait to disappear

 

                                Now looking at it

                                In its' demise

                                They realize it had held treasures

                               Grander than its' small size.................................