Route 44, What a Ride

 

 

I was happy to see the original iron porch rail left on the porch.  The satellite dish not
so much.

Coming back from Maryland last Saturday we got off RT 15 and on to RT 44 towards Jersey Shore.  This was to avoid Williamsport since the Little League World Series was in full swing...a little play on words!  There were electronic signs starting in Shamokin Dam warning of high traffic and traffic delays because of the games.  We love baseball and have been many times to watch the LL World Series but this day we opted not since the temperature was way to hot for us.  We enjoyed RT 44 so much we will be taking another ride on it once the leaves change.  There is one mountain that is very high and has many switch back turns, sharp turns that you really have to pay attention on.  Once on top the view is amazing, the valley is wide and long with the ridge of the mountains running straight on both sides of the valley.  The valley is full of large farms that have been there since early times.  The barns and farm houses are huge and all of field stone.  Some barns only the face and foundation are stone and the sides with long boards.  About every other board is on a hinge at the top.  They had the boards open which looked odd until we looked in the barn.  Row after row of long tobacco leaves hanging to dry.  I never knew tobacco could grow that far north.  The farms that were drying tobacco were Amish farms.  So if you want a day trip with interesting views this is it. You can start in Shinglehouse on RT 44 south to Jersey Shore and follow signs to continue on 44 south to Allenwood, PA that brings you to RT 15.  Take 15 north and enjoy another beautiful ride home...you might say you have gone "full circle".   Since I was driving I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked.  When I saw this old mill and the house being refurbished across the road from it I had to stop.  The stone work is beautiful and amazing how the men so long ago could build them without modern day equipment. 


Of course there is the phrase, "those were the days".  There have been many days like this in the past, present and hopefully the future.  These are the days spent in the kitchen from daylight to 7 pm.  I try to get finished up with what ever is being canned or ready for the freezer in time to set on the back deck with a Jamaican Me Crazy, a glass or wine or a gin and tonic.  Depending on what my mind leads me to.  Between the prep I clean up and get ready for the next load of jars to go in the pressure canner (thankful for the invention) or I just set and run through a few blogs of mine, or read other bloggers I follow or practice my water coloring techniques (practice is key).  I have to stay within viewing distance of the canner to make sure it stays at 11 pounds of pressure for the canning I am doing today.  Once it hits a steady 11 pounds then it is 15 minutes and done!  On to the next load.  If using the water bath canner it has to simmer for 40 minutes!  See what I mean about thankful for a pressure canner.  It would take way longer without it. 

11 pounds of pressure right on the mark!
 

I buy Roma Tomatoes for everything I can from spaghetti sauce, Chipotle Chile Sauce or just plan canned tomatoes for soups and stews.  Roma tomatoes have more meat, less seeds and liquid as other tomatoes.  Canning tomatoes are so juicy the end product for sauces is much less considering you have to let them cook down for so long and lose content in the process.  We bought our tomatoes from the Amish stand down on Rt. 15 just north of Harrisburg on our way home from Maryland.  Canning tomatoes were $15 a bushel and Roma $18.  Well worth the extra $3.  Remember end product is more with the Roma variety.

It looks like the spaghetti sauce will be  canned by 10 am, then it is Chipotle Chile Sauce time at Cook'n by the Creek.  Another beautiful fall smell.  The Chipotle Peppers are roasted over an open fire to give that smoky flavor to the sauce. It's near quitting time, 13 quarts of spaghetti sauce, 15 pints of Chipotle Sauce and 15 pints of tomatoes, done for another year.  All of this from a bushel of tomatoes.

I don't want to see another tomato for a very long time!

There are many smells of fall around here.  From fall leaves burning, boiled dinner cooking or other fall harvest meals and then there is the smell of Hickory Nuts.  I have no idea what the smell really is it is just a name I came up with years ago.  I only smell the Hickory Nut smell on our fall woods walks.  In my teen years it was during small game season when I would go home from school, grab my 410 to go hunting squirrel and grouse with my friend.  That friend became my husband.  Hunting has went by the wayside for me. Until a few years ago I still did hunt turkey during Spring Gobble Season.  It is my favorite time to hunt the wild bird.  Then of course along came coyotes and bobcats that scared me off.  I know, I had a gun but it still scared me.  I had read an article with pictures of a man spring gobbler hunting.  He was setting down behind a tree running his call when he heard leaves rustling behind him.  Of course he thought a gobbler was coming in.  Instead a bobcat had pounced on his head.  He had no idea what it was until he pulled it off and it ran away.  The wounds on his face and head were many and deep requiring stitches.  No thank you, I will just remember the good memories and not take a chance on a predator thinking I'm easy food.

Speaking of food.......we still have to eat even if it's canning day.  Tonight is what I call a farm supper.  Whipped potatoes, fried pork chops and corn on the cob.  Then it is hello deck and fix me a cold one.........it's  a Jamaican Me Crazy kinda night at Cook'n by the Creek.