Grape Jelly, Protecting Apples From Pests.

I must say that I am enjoying the jelly made from our California Rodger's Red grapes. This wild grape is a royal pain when it comes to juicing, as I mentioned in past posts. The juice is sweet and so is the sugar free jelly. This time, I tried to add a little Stevia to the jelly. There are some Stevia sweeteners that I avoid. I found that some had GMO's (genetically modified organisms) added to the sweetener. I use one that is just that-"pure Stevia," without any added ingredients. The jelly tastes like I added sugar.

I also made some batches with just the juice and pectin. Both are equally delicious, since the grapes are sweet just the way they are.

Now, my husband isn't one for eating jelly, but once he had some the homemade jelly, he is hooked.
  Here is just a portion of last year's crop

Then, there is the Cody Moth

 



The Cody moth. Here are some tips. This Cody Moth destroyed a large apple.

Yesterday, I harvested this year's apple crop. The crop this year is much smaller. If the apples didn't get eaten by the squirrels, the cody moth destroyed the others. We put up traps for the Cody moth, so there were fewer apples that were destroyed.

I also harvested our pears. As with the apples, the pears were a delight to the local squirrels. Now, that we have a beehive next to the pear tree, we once again have pears that we can actually eat. Before, I would notice that the pears were disappearing one by one. I learned about the paper bag trick,which prevented the squirrels from taking my precious pears. I had no issues with using the paper bags over the apples. We choose to be organic. Here is another useful technique for protecting those precious apples.

Dog Neck Coolers

I have been asked for some time about making neck coolers for dogs. It has been so hot and I decided to make a version of our neck coolers. I made this sample for our dog, who is finding that the heat this summer is just......too hot. Eventually, I will make them for our on line store, but I am thinking of what to call them.

Here he is modeling his new neck cooler. 

These neck coolers are basically similar to the ones that we made for soldiers, having several pockets with the cooling crystals. What do you think?

On Line Fabric Store at www.countrynmore.com

Many of you may not know it, but Country N' More has a large selection of high quality cotton quilt fabrics. They are perfect for your next sewing project. Customers have made lovely curtains, quilts, and other sewing projects using our fine fabrics. The below Minnie Mouse fabrics are adorable, and they are the latest fabrics that have been added to our on line store. There are hundreds of fabrics to choose from. It is a quilter, crafter and sewer's paradise.

Re-posting a Post- What I Learned After Taking a Homeless Mother Grocery Shopping

I don't know how else to do this, but I wanted to share this with others. This story touched me very deeply and I wanted to pass it along to others. A woman writes about taking a homeless woman shopping.

It is a must read.

Sharon

Grape Harvesting Time-Time For Some Jelly

The grapes are ripe for the picking and we sure have a large crop again this year. As of today, I have plucked over 40 lbs. of grapes and there are still plenty more.

These grapes are the size of blueberries and if you didn't know that they were grapes, you would think that they were blueberries. These grapes are picked at their peak and they are so sweet. After doing this for years, I have found that the best way to juice them, is to use our juicer. I have used other methods, which I have mentioned in the past, but I found that using our juicer is a huge time saver. Some of the grapes will be for juice for drinking, while others will be used to make jelly.

I decided to back to using our juice extractor for juicing these small seeded grapes. It worked well, but I needed to run it through a second time. That did the trick. Today, I am going to make grape jelly.  This will be the first time that I am going to make sugar free. The grapes are very sweet on their own, so this should be very tasty.


Here is my first posting about another process that I tried.

Cool Vintage VW A Must See

This was posted on Twitter and I thought that it was so cool. My grandma used to have one, which was passed on to my step brother. If the VW is un-fixable, why not try this?

Canning Apron Sale

Canning aprons are on sale for only 2 weeks.  So many gorgeous aprons to choose from.  Customers find these aprons to be very comfortable. Here are some of the gorgeous aprons available.  We have Fall and some Christmas aprons. A good time to think ahead.

Our New Canning Aprons

We just added some more gorgeous vintage canning aprons in sizes medium and large. Customers love the style and the comfort of their new canning aprons.

 The tropical parrot print is beautiful and stunning in the canning apron style.

 The Mountain Bluebird canning apron is available in medium and large.

I really like this print and it looks fabulous on the canning apron.  The apron features the recipe for a good old fashioned apple pie.

Etsy Shop Featured In A Blog

Just a quick note:

I was so surprised this morning to discover that my Etsy shop is featured on a blog.  Etsy has so many lovely shops and so many nice cool items that are sold by other members. Please stop by and check out her blog.

Oven Door Towel Sale

We have added a lot of new oven door towels.  These oven door towels are very popular and make great gifts.  It is also rare that we have sales on the oven door towels, so you might want to pick some up while they are on sale.
Here is one of our new towels:

It is so gorgeous.

Cool down with our neck coolers

  The summer months are hot and relief is very much needed.

We yellow softball neck coolers for teams to wear during tournaments, etc.  These neck coolers are also sold separately.

There are also neck coolershttp://www.countrynmore.com/neck-coolers-68/ for wearing during the day, sporting events, etc.Currently, we are having a sale on the neck coolers, which are very reasonably priced. This sale is for a limited time only. Now, is the perfect time to pick up one, two, or more neck coolers.

We just added these cute neck coolers:

So cute, so cool.

Custom Canning Aprons at Country N' More

I am posting this because for some reason, it isn't letting me reply to comments. We have some aprons in the different sizes on our website, which are already to be shipped out to you or to that special person. A person wearing a size 12, would most likely wear a size medium. There are several aprons, which have the vintage look and some have been trimmed with vintage lace. We do make custom canning aprons in small, medium, and large. We have a large selection of prints to choose from.  If you don't see anything you like, then please feel free to contact us.  You will find the contact information at Country N' More  

Here are some custom canning aprons that I made for a customer in Florida.  She likes retro and tropical.

This is just one of those fun days, where things just don't want to work.  I was going to add another apron image, but it just will not let me.  Sigh.....

We will be adding some new canning aprons to the website soon.

Custom Apron For Customer

I have made three of these so far.  The last one for was for a show up in Northern California.  This one is for a customer who can't fasten the ties on the sides of the apron. This apron was designed to fasten in the front. 

I really liked the way that it turned out.

Embroidery Work for a play

I was asked by a fellow friend if I could do the embroidery work for the show.  Below is the before and images of the embroidery Dollar Store and the finished embroidery for the doctor role in the show.

I had a chance to get reacquainted with my embroidery software.  I don't get a chance to embroider like I would like, so this was a nice change.

25% Off Vintage Aprons

Country N' More is having its biggest discount on vintage aprons.  Yep, you heard me right.  We have a 25% discount on our vintage aprons.

Check them out

Custom Vintage Aprons

I was fortunate to receive a call from a place that I have done business with.  This led to a custom vintage apron using two of my favorite food prints.  The main apron and pockets were made using an apple pie recipe print.  For the straps, I chose to use an apple print.  I really like the way that this apron turned out.  I am always happy to make a special apron whenever possible for my customers.

The colors are rich and if you lose your recipe, it is easy to find a good one on this apron. 

A special and dear friend of mine also wanted this same apron, but in a gorgeous floral teapot print fabric.  After deliberating about the color for the seam binding, I chose a blue shade.The blue shade is darker than that depicted in the images.