Well, I fully intended to start posting weekly over the summer, but as you can tell, the summer has gotten away from me. We've been busy here on the farm! Our garden has entered full-on mode and I can barely keep up. Our main fenced garden is about 50' x 100'. On one end of the garden, we also planted corn (which the crows promptly plucked out of the dirt!) and sweet potatoes. On the back side of the garden, we have okra, watermelons and melons planted. Those two outside sections are fenced in with electric wire. (Did you know that coyotes will take your watermelons and roll them across the field and eat them?) I have worked harder this summer than any summer ever before. BUT...all of that hard work is worth it. When your plate is full of the fruits of your labor, you're nothing but thankful.
Aside from picking the harvest and hauling it up the hill to the house, there's "putting it up" or preserving it left to do. Yesterday, I spent about three hours picking green beans and purple hull peas. I finally quit when my sciatica threatened to force me to quit. I ended up with two Wal-Mart bags full of snapped green beans and a wheelbarrow full of purple hull peas to deal with! We were all shelling peas yesterday. The girls and their little cousin, Keith and his nephew and I shelled peas. Today, it was time to blanch, can and/or put in freezer bags. I have never been more tired, but I love doing this.
So far this summer, we have canned 19 quarts of green beans, 4 quarts of dill pickles, 7 quarts of bread & butter pickles and have 3.5 gallons purple hull peas and 8 quarts of squash in the freezer. Since it's usually just me and Keith eating the peas, I separated them into sandwich size zip top bags and then put four of those into a gallon size freezer bag.
WHEW! It makes me tired just listing all of that! :) But wait...there's more! The tomatoes are starting to come in. We have about fifty tomato plants and almost as many pepper plants. What was I thinking!?! We are going to put up more stewed tomatoes and spaghetti sauce (that is a go-to meal when I can't figure out what to cook for dinner!). A couple of years ago, Keith canned some homemade spicy tomato juice (like V-8) and it was delicious. We definitely want more of that. It makes a terrific base for soup.
So, for now...my days are full and soon school will be starting. I won't make promises to update more frequently, because I just have to take advantage of the free minutes when I find them...like right now. While typing this, I've been waiting for the canner to run its course (25 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure! HA!) and so when it's done, I'm going to kick back in the recliner, watch a little "Mountain Men" with the family and probably fall asleep. That's how I roll. :D
Aside from picking the harvest and hauling it up the hill to the house, there's "putting it up" or preserving it left to do. Yesterday, I spent about three hours picking green beans and purple hull peas. I finally quit when my sciatica threatened to force me to quit. I ended up with two Wal-Mart bags full of snapped green beans and a wheelbarrow full of purple hull peas to deal with! We were all shelling peas yesterday. The girls and their little cousin, Keith and his nephew and I shelled peas. Today, it was time to blanch, can and/or put in freezer bags. I have never been more tired, but I love doing this.
So far this summer, we have canned 19 quarts of green beans, 4 quarts of dill pickles, 7 quarts of bread & butter pickles and have 3.5 gallons purple hull peas and 8 quarts of squash in the freezer. Since it's usually just me and Keith eating the peas, I separated them into sandwich size zip top bags and then put four of those into a gallon size freezer bag.
WHEW! It makes me tired just listing all of that! :) But wait...there's more! The tomatoes are starting to come in. We have about fifty tomato plants and almost as many pepper plants. What was I thinking!?! We are going to put up more stewed tomatoes and spaghetti sauce (that is a go-to meal when I can't figure out what to cook for dinner!). A couple of years ago, Keith canned some homemade spicy tomato juice (like V-8) and it was delicious. We definitely want more of that. It makes a terrific base for soup.
So, for now...my days are full and soon school will be starting. I won't make promises to update more frequently, because I just have to take advantage of the free minutes when I find them...like right now. While typing this, I've been waiting for the canner to run its course (25 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure! HA!) and so when it's done, I'm going to kick back in the recliner, watch a little "Mountain Men" with the family and probably fall asleep. That's how I roll. :D