But I'm catching up! So far, I've gotten only seven quarts of dill pickles made, but that's primarily because my pickling cukes are so s-l-o-w in coming this year.
Lots of haskap berries, blueberries and strawberries waiting in the freezer to be made into jam. I got the one batch of strawberry jam made so Papa Pea is happy for the time being.
We've had almost steady rain for the last two days and nights. This morning we had heavy fog and everything outside is drenched with moisture. We've needed the rain, though, so no one is complaining about that.
I sloshed my way out to check on the garden a short while ago and found several branches broken on the green pepper plants. I neglected to stake up the plants well enough so the heavy fruit apparently was too much on the outside branches during the rains. I had to bring in this big bunch of lovely peppers. Fortunately, I know someone who will take all sixteen of them. I hope. (That's a huge, old colander I inherited from my mother-in-law and I'm glad I have it as I use it a lot.)
Eureka! We have pears on our pear tree for the first time ever. We'd about given up on it. There are a whopping total of five of them!
Two of the three shelves of onions curing are shown here. I'm very pleased with the size of both the red and yellow ones this year.
Our garlic harvest is looking good. This shows a portion of them hanging to dry. There are 96 bulbs total. More than we will use over the year, but after they're done curing I'll save the biggest cloves from the biggest bulbs to plant for next year's crop.
All in all, everything is going well as we move into our fall season. The forecast for the next week is temps back up into the 70s so the growing season isn't quite over yet.
7 comments:
No, the season isn't over yet...We had an 'almost down to frost' night last week, followed by a pretty cold night. Now we are back up to overnights in the mid to high 50'sF. Those are some beautiful peppers. I picked the rest of mine before the cold nights, but the silly plants are blooming again! What gorgeous pears. Great pic with the raindrops on them. Glad you are getting rain. We have had a good summer for rain, but strangely, the pond is very low. That is a good stash of onions and garlic. Your good luck growing and KEEPING the red guys makes me want to give them a go again.
Rosalea - I know most folks have trouble keeping the red onions (as opposed to the yellow ones that seem to keep much better) but I've never had trouble with the storage life of the red ones. They last just as long as the yellow ones. Just lucky, I guess. But don't ask me about growing tomatoes or corn to maturity!! :o)
Congratulations on the pears! They're beautiful. Actually, everything looks good and I'm really admiring the peppers. I'd love to get 16 big beautiful peppers like that! (Not complaining about the few I get. I'm grateful for every one. :)
And here we are still waiting on our first rain since June, and my ONE bell pepper is turning red. 🤪 But I did make 16 quarts of dill pickles thanks to a friend's cukes! Opened the first jar last week after finishing the open jar of commercial dills, and they are GREAT.
Leigh - With your heat (too much?) I'm surprised you can't grow as many peppers as you want. Yes, sometimes when our harvests aren't bountiful, it makes us more appreciative of what we do get!
Michelle - Your canning of 16 quarts of dill pickles tops my harvest of 14 quarts. Our weather has now turned cool enough, especially at night, that I don't think I'll manage to get enough of the cukes at one time to make processing another batch worthwhile. Oh, well. I'm grateful for what I've managed to get for the pantry.
Mama Pea, the benefit of the recipe for countertop fermented dills is that you can do as few or as many jars as you want; no filling of canners needed! And they're supposedly better for you!
Michelle - I would be very interested in getting your recipe for the countertop fermented dills! I am aware that the "canning" of pickles definitely reduces their nutritional value and any fermented foods I can learn to make is a plus in my book! Would you be willing to share your recipe??
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