October 2025 – Deep Fried Kudzu

A friend and I did a demo on pumpkin floral arrangements for our nighttime garden club — I showed four pumpkin ideas and the first was just the easiest ever — the mini pumpkin towers are super cute with some spanish moss between:

My friend showed her arrangements with succulents and a little moss, tucked in with Aleene’s glue:

This pumpkin is hollowed out and had a vase inside with a fresh flower arrangement:

This is how great the pumpkins look with dried flowers:

Because these succulents still have thier roots, after one is done with the arrangement, they can be put back in growing medium:

The favorite one I demo’d was this one for kitchen or dining table for placecards — it has a dried blood orange atop with cinnamon stick, rosemary, parsley, nutmeg, and a kale base:

We took all those apples we picked at Steele Orchard, and after giving some to the chickens (Zelda, Ruth, Reba, Dolly, and Loretta) and one or two to Cornpone (our guinea pig), we took as many as would fit in the slow cooker to make apple butter. They cooked all day — overnight too — so that sounds like a lot of work but the active part was minimal.

Though I’ve made jam/jelly/preserves and pickles, this was my first time to make apple butter. Not really sure where to start with a recipe, I used this one (she had me at no peeling) except I cooked the apples another 12 or so hours on low,.