Little Hungerford Homestead

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Murrieta, CA
Little Hungerford Homestead

I love gardening for the beauty, the food, and the way it nourishes our body, mind and soul

01/29/2024

Stocking the freezer with premade meals! Our first pod comes this Friday and I need to pack the remainder of our kitchen. So I spent the day making freezer meals in individual pans that can go right in the oven. I’m trying to avoid eating out a lot during the move.

Prep breakdown:
-4 chicken sausage Mac n cheese
-4 Pasta with chicken sausage tomato 🍅 sauce
-4 chicken enchiladas
-4 Buffalo Chili
-6 Chorizo, Egg n cheese burritos
-2Chorizo, Egg n cheese bagel sandwiches
-6 Bacon, egg n cheese bagel sandwiches

01/22/2024

Moving as a homesteader sure puts a different spin on things! We are currently in full packing mode to move from California to Texas! We have moved a lot being a military family but this is the first move we have ever decided to make ourselves and after diving into homesteading.

Packing my kitchen has been one of the largest packing jobs. We had new things to pack like a pressure canner, dehydrator and spice grinders. I have a collection of cast iron to deal with. But I will say the most eye opening to the changes we
have made has been cleaning out the pantry and fridge.

In the pantry I pulled out all of my full canning jars. 🫙 it was amazing to see all the work I had done and this was after we just finished eating all of the canned tomato 🍅 and tomato sauce from this summer. I’ve been tweaking menus to use up staples I have in canisters to empty them to be packed.

The fridge I had to go through my fermented pickles and open jars of odds and ends to clean all of the jars to pack. My collection of mason jars has grown so much (I’m not done yet lol).

The freezer still had some cherry tomatoes, broth, berries and pumpkin purée. Last week used tomatoes and broth to make soup and pumpkin to make pumpkin cookies. This week made berry oatmeal breakfast bars.

The garden 🥲 I didn’t plant anything new besides some carrots and beets for fall with all the changes. I’ve been using some of the stranglers left after fall clean out as long as I can. I know it will be some time to get reestablished at the new house. I’m going to miss going out the door to the garden to go shopping. Tonight I’m making Chili to use a few of the peppers. I wanted the bell peppers originally to can but they are so slow to grow. They are just now turning yellow. This will have to be on the list for the future.

12/09/2023

Things have been a little crazy around the homestead. More to come on that soon. But I was finally able to dig in and harvest my sweet potatoes. I have been excited to see what has been hiding under under the ground.

I had an impressive harvest. It is really amazing to see how many sweet potatoes can come from one raised bed and the slips from one sweet potato. The sweet potatoes are now curing to sweeten them up. What’s your favorite recipe for sweet potatoes? Around here sweet potato fries are on the menu at least once a week!

10/04/2023

Tried homemade corn tortillas for dinner tonight. I’ve been wanting to try these for a few reasons. I like having corn tortillas on hand but quality ones are both expensive and go bad quickly. I wanted to be able to keep masa harina on hand to make the tortillas when I wanted them. I don’t own a tortilla press so had to improvise but wanted to try them before getting a press. After trying them a press is now on my list. The press should also make them prettier.

Overall they are simple and easy to make. The ingredients are just masa harina, salt and hot water. You mix the ingredients hydrate for 15 minutes. Then you press them and cook for a few minutes in a hot pan.

Masa Harina is made with dry corn that has been cooked and soaked in limewater then ground. You can find it at the store or I ordered mine in my thrive market order.

I made the tacos with insta pot refried beans, salsa, sour cream, tomatoes, lettuce and my cowboy 🤠 candy. Yummy.

What is something new you want to try?? Let me know in the comments.

09/25/2023

Love the wonderful color of bone broth. It is so simple to make at home. This batch I started yesterday and left for 24 hours in my slow cooker. It will be used in recipes this week.

Simple bone broth:

-Chicken bones or even a whole chicken (if using a whole chicken you can shred the meat and use for other recipes
- Onions and garlic 🧄 you can save the scraps on the freezer of garlic and onions to save money
- other vegetables as desired I like celery, carrots and leeks. Great for when you use celery for a recipe and have leftovers.
- Herbs. I like to use fresh herbs 🌿 including parsley, and thyme.
-salt and peppercorns

To make just place your chosen ingredients in slow cooker, cover with water and cook for 12 to 24 hours. Note the amount of water you add will be close to the amount of broth you get at the end.

I normally freeze my broth for longer storage unless you are going to use in a few days the. You can leave in the fridge.

09/24/2023

Was out of town for a few days for work so it was nice to spend the day in the garden and kitchen.

Started the day off at the farmers market where I grabbed some meat and veggies for the week. Was able to get pickling cucumbers and made a batch of pickles. Purchased two whole chickens that I broke down. I smoked the thighs and wings along with the tritip i grabbed. Makes for a yummy dinner. I used the chicken bones to start bone broth in the slow cooker and froze the chicken breast for later in the week.

Started on the fall garden cleanup. Removing the first cherry tomato plant. This one had fallen over and was blocking the main garden path. Also, harvested tomatoes, cucumbers, tomatillo and corn as I went.

Last but not least I got a loaf of gluten free bread proofed and cooked for the week. Nothing compares to homemade bread and this gluten free loaf is surprisingly easy.

Now to relax and enjoy the evening.

09/11/2023

The passion fruit has been in bloom. I have had butterflies 🦋 and bees 🐝 playing around the bush all day.

🐝

09/10/2023

My corn 🌽 I planted late in the season is ready! This is the first year my corn was not eaten by rodents. I moved it to a different part of the garden which I think helped. So excited to enjoy this harvest. I didn’t grow a lot but I’m still happy.

Did you know that each hair on the husk is directly connected to a kernel and each one has to be individually pollinated to grow the corn.

08/27/2023

BBQ Sauce! Canning BBQ sauce was another canning item on my list of wanting to try. This is the first year I have had enough tomatoes that I was able to branch out past tomato sauce and canned tomatoes.

The sauce was pretty easy to make but did take a lot longer to cook down then the receipt stated. The recipe said the blended tomato, onion, celery, pepper, and jalapeños mixture should cook down in half in 45 minutes. It took mine over 3 hours to go from 20 cups to about 11.

All in all I got 7 pints of BBQ sauce and got to use one of my favorite items in the kitchen the immersion blender! I love being able to blend right in the hot pot and not have to ladle into a blender or food processor. If you don’t have one I highly recommend.

What is your favorite recipe for canning tomatoes? The season isn’t over yet…

08/21/2023

Fig tree did not survive the storm. The hubby went to leave for CrossFit but comes back in to tell me we aren’t going anywhere soon! Fig tree fell on our driveway luckily not damaging anything!!

We got to work and used clippers and the chain saw to break the tree down into piles. I was able to get a junk haul away company to come and take it away today so we didn’t get rodents or bugs from all the figs. I said I wanted to get the tree professionally trimmed this winter. Mother Nature had other plans. The space looks so empty now.

08/19/2023

Storm prep going on in the house! Cleaning up the yard and pulling all tomatoes any shade of red in addition to figs. Trying to prevent loss as much as possible. We normally get almost no rain this time of year so hoping for no major flooding. Now off to dehydrate and get the canner going.

08/05/2023

Tomato sauce using a food mill. There are a number of methods to remove the skins of tomatoes for making sauce. I got a food mill for Christmas and had yet to use it so tried it with this batch of sauce. I think this is my favorite so far! It is easier and a little less messy then boiling the whole tomato to remove the skins.

Simple steps:
1. Cut tomato in quarter and remove the hard center.
2. Add tomatoes to a pot as you chop with medium heat. Smash the tomatoes as they start to boil.
3. Once you have filled your pot or chopped all tomatoes. Let them boil for five minutes.
4. Place food mill over a large pot or bowl. Place the heated tomatoes into food mill.
5. Process the tomatoes by Turin if the k**b in both directions. One way will press the tomatoes pushing the juice into the pan. The other directions cleans the blades. Keep going until you are just left with skins.
6. Continue this process until all tomatoes are in your sauce.
7. Cook down the sauce to desired consistency then can according to approved recipes.

Address

Murrieta, CA
92563

Website

https://littlehungerfordhomestead.com/

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