Living the Dream

Hot! Humid! This is not a day where I spend time on the back porch!

It is comfortable here inside, thanks to the ground source heat pump.

Most of our vegetable scraps are saved for making Vegetable Broth. Peels, cores, seeds, stems, all kinds of vegetative bits, that we don’t eat in our food, are placed in plastic bags in the freezer. When about 10 plastic bags of vegetable scraps have accumulated, it is time to make Vegetable Broth. With the garden going great guns, we have lots of scraps, and yesterday they were processed into broth in the Steam Juicer. But the freezer is still stuffed to the point where things fall out the door when it is opened. There were quite a few containers of Vegetable Broth frozen in there, time to do something about the overcrowding.

I fetched the 16 quart stock pot from the basement (yes, I could find it!), as it was needed to hold all the new broth, and all of the frozen broth. Every bit of broth was put in the pot and brought to a boil for 10 minutes, then canned in 1 litre jars.

Six litres of Vegetable Broth, fresh out of the pressure canner. Lots of goodness, all from scraps that would have gone into the compost, or, gasp, might have gone into the trash! As it was, the vegetable scraps were composted after this delicious broth was extracted.

Already there is one new bag of vegetable scraps in the freezer, it didn’t even take a whole day to collect.

This morning the four and a half jars of Zucchini-Pineapple, that was canned yesterday, were washed, dried, labeled, and stored in the basement. Attila says that by Wednesday there will be enough Zucchini ready for another batch of Zucchini-Pineapple, and enough Cucumbers ready for another batch of Dill Slices.

Since July 22 I have canned 87 jars of:
– Dill Slices using Cucumbers and Garlic from our garden;
– Zucchini-Pineapple using Zucchini from our garden, and purchased Pineapple and Lemon Juice;
– Coleslaw, using Cabbage, Carrots, and Garlic from our garden, and purchased Onions and Red Peppers; and
– Vegetable Broth, using vegetable scraps from our garden and purchased vegetables.

Also, enough Pesto for a dozen meals of Tortellini and Pesto has been frozen, using the Basil and Garlic from our garden. Tortellini and Pesto is our main “junk food”, as we purchase ready made Tortellini, rather than make it ourselves. If and when Attila retires, we might just make our own Tortellini, I can dream.

There is ONE jar left of the tomatoes I canned the summer/fall of 2019. I have my fingers crossed that we get a good tomato crop this year in the garden, as I think I need to can a lot more tomatoes this year. There is a possibility that a bushel or two of tomatoes will need to be purchased. Time will tell.

The Ground Cherries are beginning to ripen. I had about a dozen of them, so I cut them in half yesterday and placed them in the dehydrator for about 8 hours. They were still too moist after that time. If adequately dehydrated they might be a substitute for raisins. I used the ones that were still too moist for trail mix, my afternoon snack, and they were quite nice. I have a lot to learn about dehydrating Ground Cherries.

Early this morning, before the heat of the day set in, I wandered around the garden a bit, and picked myself some Swiss Chard for my lunch. Everything is growing profusely, although we had a few surprise failures. Our Hubbard Squash plant turned yellow and died, the reason is unknown. The Butternut Squash plant is doing well, with three large squash growing, and two smaller ones coming on. The Scarlet Runner Beans are coming on too, we had some for supper tonight, they were lovely.

A Rosehip on Granny’s Rose bush. There are quite a few, so I am hoping to harvest enough to make Rosehip Jelly.

Worldly

Weather

27°C
Date: 5:00 PM EDT Monday 10 August 2020
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.4 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 26.6°C
Dew point: 23.4°C
Humidity: 82%
Wind: S 17 km/h
Humidex: 40
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“Seek freedom and become captive of your desires, seek discipline and find your liberty.”
Frank Herbert
1920 – 1986

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Margarett

Hi Maggie: What has changed? I cannot read any of the comments!! I simply get a notification of how many comments. Please let me know. I will update you soon on my improving misery. xxoo m