Going out to let the hens out this morning, I spotted a couple of red tomatoes. Just before starting dinner prep, I took a basket out to gather them. Well it was more than a couple, and the one cucumber I saw yesterday must have multiplied overnight, some of the tomatillos were showing drying husks, so I checked them out too. Well, the couple of tomatoes, ended up this:
Since there were already 3 cucumbers in the house, I decided that yet another half gallon of pickles were started to ferment.
Earlier today we went in to make a bank deposit and take a walk on the old railgrade, these signs were spaced down the sidewalk in town.
We were hoping they also had them on the Huckleberry Trail, but nope. With the students back in town, there were too many people, too few masks.
Face to face classes began today at the University and our county began face to face school also today. We fear the increase in cases that our region has seen lately will mushroom and our social isolation will again become more total again, eliminating drive through food, only groceries from curbside delivery, walks on our road only.
In the still cool morning, fog lingering in the hollows, I headed to the garden with a basket. I had been watching a couple of tomatoes for a few days and could see the beans needed harvesting again. The cucumbers are still blooming though the harvest of them has slowed. The dill that I planted quite a while ago did not show in the garden. While weeding, I found two young dill plants. If they mature enough, I will dry it for later use. The two large baskets of basil gathered early in the week are drying nicely. The corn was a complete bust and there are no pumpkins this year. The tomatillos are full of blooms, the Thai peppers are beginning to turn red. There are three Ground Cherry plants, there may be some fruit from them before frost.
I realized that I had duplicates of some herbs and spices because the rack I built almost two decades ago, just isn’t large enough for all of them.
The overflow was in a deep disorganized drawer, so yesterday, the drawers were cleaned out, wiped down and reorganized to use a shallower drawer with the bottles labelled. A friend posted on Instagram, Everything but a bagel seasoning she had purchased and upon my comment on it, she bought me a bottle. The ingredients were straight forward and easy to obtain, so I made up a batch to refill the shaker bottle and a small jar. I also gave the friend a bag of it and she asked for the recipe.
The garden provided a basket of tomatoes, a cucumber, a dozen jalapenos, enough basil for pesto, and lots of beans. So many that they overflowed the basket so I used my head, err hat to provide more space to gather produce.
One of the pepper plants was adorned with a colorful ladybug, and the basil with a little emerald green beetle about the same size.
Two quarter pints made without cheese to freeze, two with cheese so I could share with daughter along with a bag of beans. As her kids weren’t home at the time we went by, I got to see granddaughter’s garden that I helped plan last spring. I took enough bean seed for them to do a fall planting, we should still have enough days for them to get a harvest. Daughter showed me the plan they have to double it’s size this fall. I love that grand daughter, her Mom, and brother are having success and enjoying growing and preserving their own food.
The bag of beans I kept will be blanched for the freezer and some for dinner tonight. The jalapenos were quick brined and added to the other 3 quarts that had already been done; the fresh basil washed and made into pesto with some of garlic I grew, some pine nuts that I toasted in a skillet; the tomatoes will become pizza sauce soon. As the Thai peppers continue to ripen red, they will be strung to dry for cooking and for crushed red peppers.
The reuseable canning lids are not a quick ship, but hopefully will arrive before I need them. I did find 8 regular mouth lids that are new, so enough to can a batch of pizza sauce. Tomatillos will be gathered and frozen until there are enough to make more salsa, simmer sauce, or tomatillo jalapeno jam. And I am still watching the grapes, hoping for enough to make a batch of grape jelly. I never picked enough wild berries to make jam. The hay guys don’t get as close to the patches as I do when I am bush hogging, so getting to the patches required going through waist high weeds and I didn’t want to deal with the ticks.
The shelves and freezer are filling, the fall peas are sprouted and will soon need trellises, still no carrots up, the spinach is sprouting and will be transplanted when they are larger. The garden has been successful and easier to care for this year, but I am still dealing with weeds in the paths, probably because of the old hay as mulch, but fairly easy to pull. The citric acid weed killer is worthless and smells bad, so I just spend some time each time I go out pulling them and adding them to the compost pile.
The flowers are faded, the season of daylilies, iris, and coreopsis over. There are still zinneas and calendula. The deck pots were not good flower choices this year and have never looked good. The trees are not changing colors yet, except for Tree of Heaven, the invasive weed tree, but the leaves are getting dull and faded. I don’t know if all the rain will make for a colorful Autumn or not.
Day before yesterday, after dinner, the tomatillos were finely chopped, onion, garlic, jalapenos, lime juice, salt, chili flakes added to a pot to make the simmer sauce. The recipe says it makes 2 half pint jars and I was doubling it, but it looked to me like it was going to make at least 5 or 6 half pint jars after it cooked down. Because it was a small quantity canning, instead of the big canner, I just pulled out the largest stockpot that had one of the deep strainer inserts and started heating up the jars and water. Grabbed the box of lids and a hand full of rings and started setting up. When I opened the box of lids, there were only 4 left, scrabbling through the basket, there were wide mouth ones still boxed, but no more regular mouthed ones. We turned everything off and drove down to the village store, they always have canning supplies. Well, they didn’t and said they can’t get them. Generally when I can, I write in marker on the lid, the contents and date made after they have cooled, and I save a few used lids to use on jars of leftovers or ones going in the freezer as they don’t have to seal. The drawer of used lids had three that weren’t written on, maybe I hadn’t canned with them. I marked those three lids and used them, the recipe had made 6 half pints and 1 quarter pint jar. I figured if for some reason they didn’t seal, I would know which three jars they were and just stick them in the freezer.
All 7 jars firmly sealed, but I was left with the issue of not being able to get lids. The grocer in town doesn’t have any, the village store doesn’t have any, I won’t go to a big box store in these times. About a decade ago, I bought reusable canning lids and wasn’t very happy with them so I sold them, but hoping they have improved, a went online and purchased a few dozen to have on hand. I still have wide mouth lids, but don’t can much with them.
Late yesterday afternoon as I was making dinner plans, I realized that the window sill full of tomatoes either needed to be frozen or used, so I scored the blossom ends and poured boiling water over them and set about to make pasta sauce. There was an eggplant in the refrigerator and an 8 oz container of fresh mozzarella, so eggplant Parmesan seemed like a good dinner option. The tomatoes were peeled and chopped, the oregano I picked a couple of days ago, a handful of drying basil leaves, a bit of fresh Thyme and Rosemary, some onion and garlic and all set to simmer while I prepared the eggplant for the oven. A slightly drained ladle of the chunky sauce was put in the bottom of the baking pan and while the sauce continued to simmer down, the eggplant baked and a pot of water boiled for Cappelini, a salad made, vinaigrette mixed and dinner was ready. The extra sauce was put in widemouth pint jars with plenty of headroom to expand, lidded and put in the refrigerator overnight to cool down. This morning, they were added to the supply of pasta sauce already in the freezer. I would prefer to make enough to can at one time, but the tomatoes aren’t coming in fast enough for that and there are no lids. With the chest freezer in the basement and the refrigerator freezer, I will just freeze jars this year.
When the reuseable lids arrive in the mail, I will can more pizza sauce with the next batch of tomatoes and have lids for Asian pear marmalade later in the fall, more tomatillo sauce, and applesauce if the deer don’t get all the apples. They have eaten the lower branch tips and all of the apples they can reach. They don’t mess with the Asian pears though.
The garden is providing fresh beans again, a bag shared with daughter who couldn’t find seed for a second planting. I will pick them again today or tomorrow and blanch another batch for the freezer. I am always thankful for whatever the garden gives. The more I freeze and can, the fewer groceries I need to buy shipped in from parts unknown during the off season. I started a dozen spinach plants indoors since it is slow to germinate and the weeds are quick to germinate in the heat and rain, I want to be able to find it when it is planted outside. If we don’t have an early frost, we should have beans, peas, carrots, spinach, maybe a few kale plants to carry us into the cooler weather. There are a few more ears of corn forming, I hope they are more developed than the 4 that were from the first two surviving plants. I don’t think planting sweet corn is worth my time when we don’t care for it frozen and I can purchase it 2 for $1 or $1.50 during the season. Maybe I will return to planting popcorn next year. We will have to purchase our pumpkin for pies this year, every time I planted seed this spring, something ate the small plants before they were more than 4 or 5 leaves in size. Last year, the 3 plants nearly overtook the garden.
