Farm Fresh Update

  Since I can't be with the Tuesday Weavers in person, I will give you all an update of what's going on down on the farm, as well as around Chez Kittywompuss.
  This is the guests' entrance to the Larder.  My side is on the left and Cheese Guy is on the right.  Sausage Guy is downstairs in the basement where he belongs.  When he comes upstairs, he leaves a messy trail.
  It was rainy at the beginning of the week, and though this picture was not the best moment of the clouds drifting across the mountain next door, it was the one I had time to take.  My view from my kitchen is ever-changing and always beautiful.
  This week it will be even more so, with the leaves changing more every day.  I will take a lot more this week and post them next Monday.
  Everything green and berry-like is done for the year; all the stone fruits have gone away.  The apple butter is done already, and how that flew by! I pickled 5 bushels of green tomatoes and had one left over, so I had to get resourceful:

  Green Tomato Chutney!  One bushel, minus the tomatoes that had the audacity to turn red (they became tomato sandwiches on fresh bread), made 63 8 ounce jars.  Not a lot, but enough to pay the light bill for a day!  And it smelled good.  I tweaked the pear chutney recipe, changing the spices and adding dried apricots.
  Last week, I found out that the humungous order for okra and pickled beets & strawberries was moved up to December 1st.  Shaking my boss by the arms (I can't reach his shoulders) didn't change anything, only to make him more resolute.  The good news is that the Mennonite men who are making everything else for the order have asked to make the 5 1/2 tons of granola, but the pickled beets and strawberries, both woefully out of season by now, must be made by me and my staff.  We are making the strawberry consomme this week, stocking up and freezing as much as we can, so that pickling can commence next week.  6900 jars...  sigh...
  But, Maggie, what have you been weaving?  Ummmm, well, it's like this:  I've been thinking a lot about weaving.  I vacuumed the loominaria yesterday and thought, huh, there's that warp that needs fixing.  I need to wind my warps for next weekend's dying meeting, and I really meant to do that this weekend, but I worked in the yard instead.  It was just too beautiful and too much needed done.
  I know what I want to wind, though!  I'll be dying a couple of bamboo shawl warps and maybe a scarf or two, and the contrast for the baby blankets that I'm going to make for my co-workers' babies.  The thought process has occurred, at least, which for me is half the battle.  I'll wind the warps in odd moments this week, and of course, blog about it next week.
  Until then, happy weaving!
Maggie