Rolling in Pickles!

I was so excited to get out of the house last night and head to the Produce Auction.  Prices were really decent, so I came home with almost 100 lbs of produce.

One box of cukes and also the zucchini was for a friend of mine who couldn't make it.  The tomatoes will ripen and then I want to make a batch of homemade Rotel with the jalapenos that have started coming in from the garden.  I tackled my box of cucumbers today and ended up with 6 quarts of Kosher Dills and 6 more quarts of Bread and Butter pickles.  I still have some more left, so they may be turned into refrigerator pickles.

The figs will be turned into strawberry fig jam, and the kids polished off the Watermelon this afternoon. 

School starts on Tuesday, so I am looking forward to having some uninterrupted processing time.  And gardening time, since fall gardening is ever so much more pleasant that summer gardening!

I am also super excited about the upcoming Harvest Heritage Festival at Monticello.  Hubby is staying home with the kids and I am heading up with a friend of mine.  Three hours of adult conversation to get there, a whole day of learning (including a tour of Jefferson's garden by Peter Hatch, himself), a night away, hopefully a visit to a local orchard to stock up on apples, and more conversation on the way home.  HEAVEN!

Where has summer gone?

This month has been a whirlwind.  I've been up to my ears in produce... most recently, apples.  I made apple sauce and apple pie filling (still have apple butter from last fall!) and an apple crisp... and I still have more apples needing to be processed.  I only started with 30lbs worth!

Other projects:

The Honeybee Festival at the Norfolk Botanical Garden.  The girls got to uncap the honeycomb and then spin the frames in the extractor to see honey flowing.  I told them they better pay attention, because next year we'll be needing all the help we can get!

The best discovery so far this summer has been the VA Beach Farmer's Market Produce Auction.  The photo below was my haul from my first night attending (they are held every Wednesday through the end of Sept, I believe).  I forgot what I spent, but I think it was like $63 for everything.  And I had a blast.

The second time I went, I had a smaller haul but I was so pleased to finally score some pickling cukes.  I made a batch of bread and butter pickles using my Aunt Audrey's recipe.  These are the pickles I grew up on and I was tickled pink when I tasted them... exactly how I remember them!

I wasn't planning on buying zucchini, but they were selling two boxes and I bid $4 thinking it would get things moving.  No one bid against me!  Luckily, my neighbor took one box.  I *ONLY* got 12 quarts of shredded zucchini out of what you see there!

There were 6 ears of field corn in the box I purchased at the first auction, so I dried them and ground them into cornmeal.  Works like a charm on the pizza stone!

I made this lunch bag from a pattern I got online... it's designed to hold two pint jars for those looking to eliminate plastics.  I was so thrilled with the way it came out, I bought a few more patterns and will be sewing some more bags this winter!

 My basil was wanting to flower, so I 'trimmed' it and had to make several batches of pesto.  Gotta love herbs!

This is what my canning shelf looks like (mind you, the jelly cupboard has been full for awhile!)  I am officially out of room.  But the vineyard opens 9/1 and I WILL be picking grapes for juice and jelly!

I didn't take any pictures, but this afternoon I finally got around to making mozzarella with the kit from New England Cheesemaking.  It really wasn't hard at all and I can't wait to have fresh cheese for our pizza nights!

This week I hope to stock the freezer with items for the kids' snacks and lunches so that once school starts next week, it won't be such a chore packing them.  Stay tuned!

Oh, Goodness!

It's been entirely too long since I've posted.  The days have flown by with family visiting and canning, canning, canning.

A couple weeks ago, my neighbors got together and we had a salsa canning party.  We prepped the veggies in the afternoon and canned in the evening.

And drank Margaritas while the salsa was in the canner.  Three of the five were canning newbies.  It was so much fun it is now going to be an annual event.  And they want to do applesauce in the fall and strawberry jam in the spring.

44 pints of salsa in one night!

Another really fun evening was last Wednesday when I was finally able to go to the Virginia Beach Farmer's Market Auction.  I met some new friends and had an absolute blast.

And I scored all these goodies for $63.  The corn was canned, the pears are ripening, the greenbeans were for my neighbor, and the potatoes and onions will eventually be dehydrated.  I used the peppers in This Yummy Recipe for Spicy Pepper Mustard and had enough to freeze and use in a second batch of salsa.  The figs were dehydrated and also made into a batch of jam.

In addition to peaches (more on them later), I also have been processing grapes.  The local orchard doesn't open for picking until September first, but the supermarket had some on sale for .99/lb and I decided to experiment with making juice to see if we liked it.  If so, I'll make a bunch with the local grape varieties like Muscadine and Scuppernong.

I used This Recipe which couldn't be any easier, assuming you have a pressure canner.

What's New?

My clothesline is back!  I'd had it on the deck in the middle of our table... until the winds knocked it over.  Hubby cemented it in the ground and with the recent rains letting up, I was finally able to hang out the laundry. YAY!

The Crepe Myrtles are in full bloom.  They are beautiful, but they are not lilacs.

The compost pile is heating up!  I've been adding about 2 grocery bags a day of stuff to it, and Stephen turned it over the other day, so the temp is really climbing.  I am hoping to get it into the 'hot' range to kill all the weed seeds.

This pretty little plant is a marshmallow!

I just harvested the Stevia the other day and already it is growing quite quickly.

I had to trim this Roma quite a bit... blighted leaves, but I'm hoping that the green tomatoes will ripen.  I'm hoping to try making homemade ketchup if I can get enough of them.

The Valencia Oranges are coming along nicely, but it'll be winter before I can harvest them.

The mathematician in me loves the Fibonacci patterning in sunflowers.  These seeds will be harvested and saved for next year.

Marigold seeds drying.  They aren't my most favorite flowers, but they attract beneficial insects to the garden, so I'll plant them again next year.

These peaches are 'seconds' from the farm down the road.  Normally, a peck sells for $18 but these seconds for canning are $10.  As soon as these get canned up, I'll be going back for more.  They are really good peaches!

Feeling Better

Temps have been outrageous since I got back, so any time spent in the garden is before breakfast or after dinner.  I am feeling less stressed about the garden now that I've had time to yank the bolted parsley, broccoli and lettuce, pull the weeds, and trellis the vines.

See, it looks much less overgrown!

The empty spot is where the garlic and onions were.  I'll be starting my seeds soon for the fall/winter garden and it's nice to have a spot to transplant them.

I still have some cabbages I need to pick, but this bed looks so much better without the broccoli!

Once the weeds were gone, it was easier to see what needed harvesting.  Several types of tomatoes, including a Black Krim, Romas, Arkansas Traveler, and the cherries... carrots, green beens, pepperoncini, jalapenos, and some herbs for dehydrating, including stevia, lemon verbena, and lemon balm.  Not a bad day's haul!

I'm Baaaaack!

We returned today after a 3-week visit home in Massachusetts and a few days in DC.  For most of that time, hubby was here holding down the fort.  He did a great job picking Calendula flowers and air drying them for me.  He even picked cherry tomatoes.  I did not ask him to weed.  If you've seen how he weed-whacks, you will understand why.  I'm kind of partial to our marriage and wanted to keep it in tact.  As such, I came home to an overgrown mess.  Bolted broccoli, lettuce...

 cilantro, parsley...  yes.  This huge overgrown monster is all parsley!

 dried popcorn...

and drooping mammoth sunflowers!

Notice there's no more beautiful melon plant in the compost.  In a matter of days, I am told, the whole thing died.

The Butterfly Garden was even worse for wear!

The wormwood and fennel are taller than I am and the anise-hyssop and Dr. Seuss Plant aren't far behind!

I can hardly see the Homestead Verbena now that the weeds and stupid Bartlett Pear shoots have taken over.  At least the Bachelor's Buttons are thriving:

But the news isn't all bad.  I had a few happy surprises...

The ginger is finally doing something:

And the marigolds are apparently very happy.  Somewhere, there's a tomato plant in there:

The cherry tomatoes are doing great.  If only someone would eat them:

The Roma is producing, in spite of blight:

One of the watermelon plants has a fruit.  The other just dried up and died.  Can't for the life of me figure out why:

And yet another melon of some sort (I forgot to label them):

The lemon balm just took off.  Which is good, because I want to make teas!

As I finished weeding most of it this evening, I was feeling a little discouraged by all the work that needs to be done.  But then I saw a hummingbird taking a nice long drink from my bee balm, and all was right with the world.  I wish I had my camera, but here's the flower:

We did get to harvest a few things.  First up were the potatoes from the two containers that I planted.  I'm guessing around 4 pounds or so.  Nothing earth shattering, but they were potatoes from the pantry so I can't complain.

We also got 3 Poona Kheera cucumbers which are AMAZING!  I thought my family would balk about the yellow/brown color, but I had to peel them, anyway (the skin was chewy)... turns out, we all loved the taste.

And finally, the Tom Thumb popcorn.  Not going to be enough for much, but I'm planning to plant more now that I know it will grow and pollinate!

Lots more work that needs to be done.  Stay tuned as I try to play catch up.

Crazy Busy!

Wanted to take a few seconds out of my day to post a bit about what's going on at the Homestead (besides the end of the school year hectic schedules...)

 Teacher, librarian, and bus driver gifts are made and wrapped.  Teachers are getting two different types of Strawberry Jelly (the kids got to pick from the Jelly Cupboard), some dishtowels with Strawberry fabric added by me, and some homemade cards that say "Thanks Berry Much".  I'm glad I started these early.  It was nice not to have to stress too much about getting it all together.  Curling all the pretty ribbon on the giftbags, however... not so nice.

Peaches have arrived!  There is a new peach farm right down the road from me.  Definitely excited about getting a bushel or two when I have more time to process them.  These went into the freezer.  I flash froze them in the cupcake pan and then bagged them up after they were frozen solid (they were soft and juicy to begin with!)  Some others became peach butter.

You're looking at 15 pounds of Vidalia onions, dehydrated.  Do yourself a favor and put the dehydrator outside if you attempt this!  Now I'll be able to enjoy my favorite onions all year round.  Due to their high sugar content, they don't store well, but they dehydrate beautifully and are super in soups and casseroles, etc.

The blackberries are also here!  Most of these went in the freezer, for when I have more time.  But some went in THIS RECIPE for Spiced Blackberry Preserves.  The strawberries went straight into the dehydrator.  I am almost positive they are the last of the season for us.

This is my new shelf for storing jars.  Well, the shelf isn't new... it's been in the laundry room holding excess kitchen items which have been moved out to the garage (lots of room out there now after our yardsale junk is gone!)  Hubby added the wire to prevent the jars from falling off accidentally.  And since there are no windows in there, I think it's a good spot to store them.  From left to right, Peach Jalapeno, Pineapple Coconut Jalapeno, Spiced Blackberry Preserves, and Strawberry Anise Hyssop.

More projects in the work.  Stay tuned after I take a brief summer hiatus!