Cranberry Harvest Video

I wanted to share with you a video that was recently filmed at my brother Larry and Paul's cranberry bog on Rte. 58, Plympton, MA. The video ( by Skimmer Videos, Plymouth, MA) was taken with a camera that was mounted to a remote control helicopter.
video taken at my brothers bog of the cranberry harvest  

Our cranberry harvest continues, and so far this harvest season which started mid September, the weather has been gorgeous with the exception of a couple of rainy days.

Elaine

Good smells coming from the kitchen

Chocolate cupcakes with Tip Top Filling
I don't bake like I use to, because it is torture when you are dieting. So, when I do bake I bring what I have made to family members. I use to make chocolate cupcakes filled with Tip Top filling for my sons all the time when they were growing up, as they loved them.  ( If I made yellow cupcakes, I would fill them with Lemon pie filling that I would cook up, let cool and fill the center of the cupcakes, as my son's loved both kinds)
Today, I was lazy and used a box of chocolate cake mix instead of making my cupcakes from scratch. After the 24 cupcakes were cooled, I made the Tip Top filling which is light, fluffy and not really sweet, but very good.
There use to be a Tip Top Bakery that sold bread and pastries in the stores. I think someone must have made a knock of version of the Tip Top filling that was in their cupcakes. I know my mom made this filling when we were growing up, and I have for years.

Tip Top Filling
2  1/2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 cup of milk
Cook the flour and milk in a small saucepan until it thickens like a pudding. Cool completely.
When the flour/milk mixture is cool-add in a bowl with 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, dash of salt and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat well.
Then add 1/2 cup solid white shortening
1/2 cup margarine=1 stick
Beat ingredients with mixer until mixture is fluffy.

I usually cut a circle into the top of each cupcake, then remove the circle and add Tip Top filling with a teaspoon to each cupcake and then replace the circle of cake on top of the filling.
Today, I did something different, I put a number 12 Wilton cake decorating tip into a disposable cake decorating bag, and pushed the tip as far as it would go into the bag near the point of the bag. I then cut off the tip of the bag. I filled the bag with the Tip Top filling and pushed the tip part way into the cupcakes and squeezed until I could see the filling at the top of the cupcake. Don't squeeze to hard or the cupcake will split. I know, because that is what happened to the first cupcake that I filled.  After filling the cupcake, squeeze a bit more filling on the top of the cupcake to cover the hole.
I also use the Tip Top filling  when I make a chocolate roll... see my blog post December 11, 2011. Chocolate Roll with Tip Top filling

I've been craving chicken and dumplings, so this morning I decided to make it for our supper tonight. I made enough for not only our supper, but also for my parents, my aunt and my son/daughter in law and Bella.
for my parents

My recipe for chicken and dumplings is very easy, and the chicken mixture is the same as what I use when I make chicken pot pies or chicken soup.
I start with a large dutch oven...1 large box of lower sodium chicken broth, cut up 2 medium onions, 4 stalks celery, 3  carrots, several potatoes, a little ground pepper, 1 quart cooked cut up chicken. ( I often use the precooked chicken that you can buy at the market, as it saves a lot of time)  You can add a little sage or thyme if you like, but I don't. Cook the vegetable/chicken/broth mixture until the vegetables are soft.  The broth will thicken I will add more broth or some water, because the dumplings will soak up a lot of the soups liquid.
For dumpling I  use the dumpling recipe that is on side of the Bisquick baking mix box.

Dumplings
Stir 2 cups Bisquick baking mix and 2/3 cup of milk until a soft dough forms. Drop by the spoonful onto boiling stew or soup. Reduce heat and cook uncovered for 10 minutes. Cover the pot of dumplings/stew and cook for 10 minutes longer.
Enjoy!

If you make one of these recipes let me know how you liked it.
Elaine

Yard sale and thrift store recent finds

2 vintage but rusty sad irons that I found in an antique/thrift store, in nearby Buzzard's Bay.The sad irons need to be sanded and then blackened. I love old sad irons and they make for wonderful door stops.
 my newly purchased sad irons resting on top of a lovely crocheted scarf that are on my Princess sewing machine cover. I paid 50 cents for the scarf and $5.00 each for the sad irons. The irons had been marked $10, so I was very happy with my finds.

Have you ever stopped when out driving when you saw items at the curb with a free sign? Most times I just slow down and look, but if something catches my eye, then I will stop and get out to take a look.
Earlier this fall, a neighbor up the street had a huge pile of items by the curb with a free sign and I stopped to check out some chairs that were there. The chairs weren't any good, but poking thru the boxes I found a cute chicken cookie jar, a wire chicken container (I picked those up for Steven and Robin) and a bag of aluminum cookie cutter (which I kept for myself). I love the old aluminum cookie cutters and in the bag I found that all but 2 of the cookie cutters were one's I didn't already have.I already had some of the diamond and club shapes. Yeah!!!
  In the bag were...4 rabbits, lion, Scottie dog, camel, 2 horses, club and diamond shape, and what I thought was a baker. I posted pictures on Facebook and a friend wrote to tell me it was a troll and not a baker, and she had never seen another one before I posted mine. She had only seen the one that her mother passed along to her.  I had never seen the troll and when I did a Google search I couldn't believe what people were asking for this cookie cutter.
 click on website...aluminum troll cookie cutter set
decorating booklet that was part of the set.
 
I found it interesting that the Wrigley's chewing gum company offered this cookie cutter decorating set.
In the bag with the cookie cutters I found the troll cookie cutter and the aluminum decorating tube and tips that had been part of the kit, but no booklet.
 my aluminum cookie cutters, biscuit cutter and old aluminum decorating tube. Some have wooden knobs for handles.

On the way home from Buzzard's Bay, on route 28, I decided to stop at the Salvation Army store. I don't usually find anything there, but what the heck, I was going right by. I had been looking for a few months to find 4 used maple kitchen chairs, in good condition that could be used with a drop leaf table that I gave my son. The table is 60 inches round when both drop leaves are up, and with the extra leaf in,  it becomes a 72 inch table. The chairs that came with the set were big captain chairs and took up too much space. I poked around in the store and I came across the chairs in the photo below for $14.99 each. I inspected the 4 chairs and all of them were solid and in good shape and better still..I liked them. I took the price tags from the chairs and headed to the register to check out. I was so glad that I decided to stop.
  
On the way home I stopped at Steven and Robin's to see if she liked/wanted the chairs..she loved them. The chairs just need a good cleaning and polishing. The chairs look good in the old farmhouse where my dad was born.

When out and about last week, I stopped at a local charity thrift shop and when I was in one of the dark trailer storage bodies I found an old Domestic treadle sewing machine that had a $100 price tag on it. I had to move some things around  and take items off of the machine to get a better look at the machine. Wish I had been able to get a better look to find the serial number of this machine to find out when it was made.
While I was looking at the machine one of the workers came over and told me he could give me a very good price..so I asked what that would be...$40.oo. This machine had a fiddle base, coffin top, and is a vibrating shuttle Domestic. I didn't buy it..no room for another treadle. Below are a few photos that I took with my phone..sorry they are dark, but the lighting in the trailer wasn't good. The wheel turned, it needed a new belt and the table needed lots of TLC.
coffin top Domestic vibrating shuttle treadle sewing machine

attachments in one of the drawers with a few long bobbins
lovely legs and treadle , 4 drawers
Fiddle base machine with long bobbin on bobbin winder. Click on the photos to enlarge them for a closer look.

Below are some random photos that I've taken recently.

I saw several noisy crows the other day in a grass median strip near Michael's craft store. The crows were busy pecking and tossing hunks of grass. The crows would cock their heads to the side, listening. I guess they were looking for grubs to eat. The crows were moving and tossing the dried grass pieces so fast I was lucky to get a photo, which by the way I took thru the windshield of my car while I watching them.
.

Sassafras tree fall foliage near the cranberry bogs.


Oh, and if I didn't already have enough cats...here are 2 photos of a most lovable, stray, male that I have been feeding outside for months. I've named him Smokey. This afternoon I put a dose of Frontline on him. I am seriously thinking about taking him to be neutered at the vets and keep him. I feel bad as he cries to come inside the house. I believe at one time he belonged to someone and he was dropped off somewhere nearby.  Smokey is around the yard most of the day and then heads towards the wood at dusk. I'd love to find a nice home for this good boy, but in the long run...what's one more cat. (LOL)



4 of my 6 rescued kitties
bird watching looking out through the screen window in the bedroom. As I was leaving the house I saw the kitties looking out. I stopped the car, rolled down my window, and took a photo. Aren't they cute? They love bird watching.
Elaine

Strange Hen eggs

My youngest son, Steven has about 30 chickens. A few young roosters that were given to him, but the majority are hens. The chickens are mostly young birds that are just starting to lay eggs. My son recently moved to my grandfather's house, and so the chickens also made the move. The chickens are free range during the day. One young bird, he doesn't know which one has  laid a couple of very large, more duck sized eggs. The shells are heavily wrinkled and bumpy. When the egg is cracked open, he has found an egg within an egg. I had never seen anything like that before, have you? So weird.
first time it happened...when the outer shell was cracked open it not only a egg and white, but another perfectly formed egg inside the big eggshell.
   egg within an egg that also had a yolk and white

A few weeks back while I was visiting Steven he found another big egg in one of the nest boxes in the hen house. (photo is below)

When Steven cracked open this egg, he found another egg within an egg, only the outer shell was empty this time...no yolk or white, but the egg inside was normal.
      Some interesting web sites dealing with egg problems , egg oddities
Just thought I would share this, because I found it strange but fascinating.

When I go to Steven's several of the chickens come running over to the car cackling to greet me and will follow me to the kitchen steps. Here are just a few of Steven's chickens. Steven has several different breeds of chickens. I love going into the hen house to gather eggs. I had to laugh when he first told me he was going to get chickens because he doesn't eat eggs.

below..is an old out building at my grandfather's house and in the back of the building what was the wood shed, Steven has made into a chicken coop. The coops white door is open.

Elaine

Recipe: Cranberry Cardamom Cake..updated 10.1.13

  

         Last week I took my dad to the bog to look at the berries. I brought along an old snap machine and cranberry measure and filled a old cranberry measure (6 quart) with cranberries.

I have been wanting to try a cranberry cardamom cake recipe that was given to me from a Finnish woman that I met this summer at the Lutheran Church in Barnstable.

I heavily greased a 12 cup Teflon Bundt pan with unsalted butter.

 after greasing the pan I sprinkled the pan with flour and discarded the extra flour. I didn't want my cake to stick to the pan.

The recipe didn't specify..so I sliced my cranberries instead of using whole cranberries. I wanted more cranberry to be distributed in the batter. Next time, I would add more cranberry to my batter.
flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom, and 3 eggs, milk and melted unsalted butter. ( I used farm fresh eggs that my son gave me from his chickens) I didn't use my big mixer, I just beat the batter by hand.
batter mixed, with added cranberries, ready to put in the Bundt pan
ready for the oven,,350 degree's for 50-60 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
crushed cardamom seeds that I bought in a Finnish store when I was in Florida in March. You can buy cardamom whole or ground  in the spice aisle in the supermarket.
my cake is done and out of the oven, let cool for 10 minutes and remove from pan.
out of the pan and cooling on rack. Looks great, the cake didn't stick to the pan.
cake has cooled and then dusted with confectioner's sugar.  
slice of cooled cake. Yum, this cake is delicious, and I will definitely be making this cake again, and soon.

Ingredients

• 3  cups all-purpose flour
• 2  cups granulated sugar
• 1  tablespoon crushed cardamom seeds or 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 1/2  teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2  teaspoon baking soda
• 1  cup milk
• 3/4  cup (1 1/2 sticks) margarine or butter, melted
• 3  eggs
• 1  cup fresh or frozen cranberries
• Powdered Sugar

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350º. Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt cake pan or Kugelhopf pan. Mix flour, granulated sugar, cardamom, baking powder and baking soda in large bowl. Add milk, margarine and eggs; beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in cranberries. Spoon into pan. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Updated....10.1.2013

Decided to make this recipe again, as I read the recipe wrong. I only used a teaspoon of cardamon instead of a tablespoon. I didn't have ground cardamon, I had crushed. I also used more cranberries and added chopped pecans. Today, instead of a bundt pan I used a cupcake tin and a medium loaf pan. They both came out great.

While I had the oven going I decided to make homemade pizza...onion, red and green peppers, mushrooms, garlic, italian spices, italian sausage and pepperoni, and cheese. It was so good and the kitchen smelled so good.

Enjoy!
Elaine

Cranberry Harvest 2013

flooded cranberry bog with the picked berries floating and ready to be suctioned off of the bog into the waiting trucks to bring the berries to Ocean Spray.
ripe cranberries on the vine ready to be harvested

Fall has arrived. Nights have turned cool and the leaves on the trees are starting to turn brillant colors. Some trees are already losing their leaves. Apples are ready to be picked, along with pumpkins. The cranberries have turned a beautiful dark red.. That means it is cranberry harvest time for my family and other cranberry grower's.
empty vintage 6 quart cranberry measure and vintage hand snap machine ready for me to start picking some cranberries.  It takes 5 1/2 measures to fill a large cranberry box.  16 1/2 measure to fill a barrel that holds a 100 pounds. Years ago cranberries were hand picked off of the bogs. Can you imagine how long that must have taken and how back breaking that was.

Later..  the above 2 pieces of equipment were used to harvest the cranberry crop. Rows of pickers went in a horizontal line across the bog until the cranberries were all harvested from a bog.  Harvesting  the crop was work when you had several acres of bog to pick.
hand snapped measure of cranberries
metal rod/teeth of the hand snap machine. The berries are stripped off the vine with the metal teeth into the scoop.
    

Then came the larger hand scoop
large vintage wooden hand scoop and large box of berries. This larger scoop was used to harvest the berries from the bog. Still very tiring after a day of picking.
After the scoops, came machines where all the berries were picked on dry bogs.
Darlington picker held a box on the back that the berries that were beat off the bog went up the conveyor belt and dropped into the box. The boxes were then taken off of the bog in a wheeling off rig. The box were then trucked to the plant for processing.

The bigger and heavier Western Picker. The teeth were different, and this machine the berries were stripped from the vines, went up a little elevator and dropped into bags in the back of the machine. The berries were then taken off the bog, sifted to remove vines and then boxed and put on a truck to take them to the Ocean Spray plant.

Picking Machines used on dry cranberry bogs to harvest the crop.
Western Pickers


Now we mostly flood the bogs and use a riding machine that reels on the front beat the berries off of the vine. The bog is flooded and you don't have to worry about cold, frosty nights, as the bog is covered in water. The berries have 4 hollow chambers inside and float to the top of the surface of the water. The cranberries are then corralled with booms and then suctioned off the bog into a truck to be taken to the plant.
machine that is now used to wet harvest the cranberries. The reel on the front of the machine beats the berries off of the vine
my brother, Richard running a wet picking machine

The inside of a cranberry has 4 hollow chambers with tiny seeds, because the berries are hollow they float to the surface of the water after they are knocked off of the vine.
close up of inside of a cranberry and it's tiny seeds


corralled berries
 
suctioning the berries off of the bog into the truck
Cranberry harvest has come a long way. It is still hard work with long days, 7 days a week until all the bogs are picked, but so much easier than 100 years ago.
Bella patting Cocoa's tail. Cocoa is Kelly's dog.
Bella was afraid of Cocoa until and then she loved him and was petting and hugging him all afternoon.
    Saturday 9/28/13 was a beautiful, warm and sunny day. My niece, Kelly and granddaughter, Bella sitting on a large rock watching the cranberry harvest.
corralled berries and cloud reflection on the water of the bog
frog in the bog ditch 

These are just a few of my harvest photos. I hope you enjoyed them. I will most likely share more photos as the cranberry harvest continues. I have more cranberry photos with info on my picture trail site.cranberry bog album
also another website for you to view
history of cranberries and how they grown

Elaine