All in a Day's Work

 

So yesterday was a very busy and pretty productive day. I didn't have to be anywhere else so I was able to stay home and focus on things I needed to get done. There is still a huge long list of things to do but I was able to cross some off yesterday.

I made goat milk soap and lotion. I gave the prickly pear juice a final straining and made some prickly pear lemonade. I set a pot of cheese and just before bed got the curds salted, drained and put into the molds and the press. Oh yea and I fixed the mineral feeder that the triplets broke a couple days ago.

I love the color of fresh prickly pear fruit, although it does fade under light and heat. Here I've cheated and bought a natural brand of lemonade, basically like what I would make from scratch, lemon juice, water, sugar and mixed it 50-50 with the prickly pear juice. Totally delicious.

Prickly pear is supposed to have healing properties similar to aloe vera so I used it to make Goat Milk Soap, Lotion and Sugar Scrub.

Farmer Friday

Picking tunas; aka prickly pear fruit

This week I realized that the prickly pear near my house were ripe so I picked about 10-12 pounds one day and about that much another day. The second batch is in the freezer waiting to be processed and there are more getting ripe.

processing prickly pear fruit

Since I'm not saving the skins or pulp (just don't have time to deal with extra projects!) I freeze them whole, then let them thaw and mash with a potatoe masher. I strain the juice through layers of cheese cloth at least three times, to get all the little glochids, the tiny hair like thorns, out of the juice.

New Goat Milk Products, lotion and sugar scrub with prickly pear

My research says that prickly pear has healing properties similar to aloe vera

different kinds of eggplant

This week's tomato harvest was negligible but the eggplants are coming on strong.

That is the 4th diamondback this summer

Watch this video and see what Freya Cat does to that snake!

Double rainbow Friday evening

Haven't gotten a lot of rain lately but the sunsets and rainbows have been beautiful

There's more from the week in this video.

Have a great weekend and stay tuned for a Harvest Monday post!!