We had a touch of Fall this week in the weather, and I’m just not ready for that kind of chilliness. Where did August go anyway? Don’t get me wrong I love wearing the big comfy sweaters and sweatshirts, warm boots and even a fire in the stove, however I really need a few more weeks with some warmth. Fortunately I wasn’t let down, today summer was back in full force, it wasn’t just warm today, the air was warm. If you don’t live in the Pacific Northwest you might not understand that. Some of the time it might be sunny but the air still has a chill to it.  Not today, the dragonflies were zooming, the cat’s were soaking up the sun, my garden was getting a good dose of Vitamin D and the lawn will need to be mown.

I’m getting ready to make some dill pickles and preserve some more of the garden, packing and getting ready to transplant this five acre homestead onto the 40 acre homestead we are moving too.  This was my last week of work, Wow! I may need to pop in and do some problem solving in the next 10 days or so but for the most part I’m finished.  I’m doing my best to let it sink in, and enjoy the feeling of running the race for the past 20 years and finishing strong.  I’ve wanted to be done for quite a while now and just needed the timing to be right. Well it’s right now, and I’m enjoying some very serene moments and letting it sink in. Someone pinch me and tell me I’m not dreaming. I really hope to catch a few blocks of time this next week and take time to smell the roses, you know, do some of the things that work just got in the way of for so many years.

However the future is on fast forward, we are on a time crunch to get the homestead ranch house ready for living before the cool and even colder weather sets in. There’s new windows to install, flooring to lay, walls to be painted, even a new set of stairs to engineer into the house. The existing stairs are an accident waiting to happen and the list goes on, so Mr. TUH will be a hustling miracle worker before winter hits. I hope to convoy with him in about ten days with all the essentials to get the party started, first though somethings have to be finished up here.

The garden is coming to an end, I’m trying to get everything harvested and preserved in one way or another.  This summer as you well know if you follow me on Instagram I’ve been running my Excalibur Dehydrator almost non stop.  I have not been disappointed with the results either.  If anything I keep asking myself why didn’t I do this much dehydrating in summers past.  Because of our upcoming moving of a household and a lot less of our worldly possessions I wanted to make transferring of our preserved harvest as easy as possible. Lugging jars of canned garden produce didn’t sound very appealing and I was worried about the mess if jars were jostled too much and breakage occurred.  So I decided to put the dehydrator to work that my daughter gifted me with when she moved a year ago.

Dehydrating Blueberries was first on the agenda and let me tell you we will be enjoying them all winter long because this year we were blessed beyond measure with these beautiful and nutrient dense blue balls of sweetness. I plan on adding them to trail mixes, Double Blueberry Muffins and maybe even a new recipe or two. Dehydrating blueberries is super simple. I believe out of the different berries that I’ve grown that blueberries are the simplest, hardy and easiest to preserve. If they are at the perfect ripeness you barely have to pull them off the bush, you just hold your bucket below and thump, thump, thump you will hear as they fall to the bottom. Kind of like in the classic Blueberries for Sal, I love that book. I am so going to miss my 15 blueberry bushes that have grown and matured here, I might just have to pot one up and see if it survives the move. Blueberry bushes are a great investment for the garden and so good for you!

Tags:  blueberries dehydrated dehydrator excalibur meadows end ranch preserving