What a beautiful summer’s day we are having today! The morning started out cool (15C), perfect for a vigorous morning walk. On return coffee and a muffin were enjoyed on the porch. We returned to kitchen table to enjoy a fresh grapefruit.
It was a busy day. Attila harvested cabbages from the garden, and carrots, and onions. He chopped vegetables while I readied the canner, the jars, the equipment, and made the brine for Coleslaw. Our efforts yielded eight lovely jars, all of them sealed.
Next, we pickled peppers. Last week we bought a 1/4 bushel of green peppers for $9.99. Half of them yielded eight jars of Pickled Peppers, all of them sealed. To half of those jars one green cayenne pepper was added, to each, these are for Attila.
Our next project was to prepare six jars of Dilly Beans, and two jars of Dill Pickles using our garden cucumbers.
That took up much of the day.
This evening Attila continues to harvest from the garden. He has brought in a zucchini, a big bowl of dill sprigs, anise seeds, and beans, lots of beans. Tomorrow we will be canning more Dilly Beans and Pickled Peppers. I don’t push myself to continue canning for more than about eight hours, as I tend to become less focused after that point, and mistakes can be made. So the additional canning will take place tomorrow, along with bread baking, muffin baking, and preparing and preserving a good quantity of pesto with garden basil. It will be another full day in the kitchen.
And oh, Attila just brought in about four quarts of garden spanish type onions, I think we will do Dilly Onions for our winter pizzas.
Right now I am sitting in my easy chair with my feet up. The windows have been open all day, the breeze has been lovely and cool. Even with all the canning, the house has not become uncomfortably hot. The sound of children playing at their Grandparent’s home, down the street, has been refreshing. Now, as evening is beginning to fall, they are being bundled into their parent’s car for the trip home.
Worldly
Weather
Updated on Sat, Aug 19 at 8:15 PM
20 °C
FEELS LIKE 22
Partly cloudy
Wind 11 W km/h
Humidity 68 %
Visibility 20 km
Sunrise 6:16 AM
Wind gust 17 km/h
Pressure 101.3 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 8:05 PM
Quote
“Good habits, which bring our lower passions and appetites under automatic control, leave our natures free to explore the larger experiences of life.”
Ralph W. Sockman
1889 – 1970
Sounds like a pleasant day!
It’s good to hear summer has turned into a pleasant time for you Maggie…also for Attila as he’s reaping the rewards of his ongoing work in the veggie garden. You are truly blessed to have a man who loves digging in the dirt.
Lol sometimes when I read your posts, a tv advertisement goes through my mind…..but wait, there’s more.
I know you appreciate (and need) all the produce from the garden…but (when the back door opens and another bunch of whatever appears) do you ever think ‘oh dear not more’.
It’s a busy time of year for you and Attila. It’s a good thing you two love it.
We’ve been getting some things done, too. DH and I put up the pergola. I just helped brace pieces when they needed to be lifted into place and then attached to other pieces. Most of my help is more from designing where everything will go and ordering the items we need. Just ordered a new fence for a “dog run” that will include the patio. It’s supposed to be here in less than two weeks. Thank goodness, because the dogs got away through the open deck gate last week. Fortunately, they came back once they’d run down the backyards.
DH baked a dirty chai cheesecake for dessert the other day. He has a talent for cheesecakes.
Thanks Joan, we are grateful for these days!
It is busy here Teri. I think if we weren’t enjoying what we do, we would do it a bit differently. With my severe allergy though, our food supply has to be thought out carefully, and prepared carefully, so necessity plays a part and we would maintain that vigilance.
The pergola is lovely! It will be perfect with a dog run, happy dogs, happy life.
A talent for cheesecakes, now that is a fortunate habit!
Cathy, I do feel blessed to be partnered with someone for whom gardening feeds his soul! It keeps life very interesting, as one never knows what will grow and what will not, and each year is different. To me the garden looks totally chaotic, and beautiful in that way, so that I am always shocked at how much food comes out of the chaos.
Hmm… well yes, by October my energy is beginning to flag, and that is when the quantity of produce is at its peak, I do admit to the occasional sinking feeling as heaps of vegetables appear like magic. But it sure seems worth all the effort when we enjoy a jar of coleslaw in February in the dead of winter, and we feel a lot of gratitude for our preserved food as we watch food prices skyrocket at the grocery store, most things have at least doubled in price since the pandemic began, and still the packaging gets smaller and the prices tags get larger.
I do notice that a lot more people are canning, and preserving food. Not in our neighbourhood, the economic conditions haven’t touched the people who live here yet, but I see the local supply of canning jars, lids, vinegar, pickling salt, sugar, all those things, disappear from the shelves quickly. And the grocery store sells quarter and half bushels of locally grown produce for a short period of time when they are in season, that is how we found pickling cucumbers and green peppers.