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It’s Going to be a Busy Saturday

August 28th, 2010

I went to my mom’s yesterday to spend a little time working in the garden. We share a garden at her house since she has great soil and a nice full sun area. This year we doubled the size of it from last year to grow more food. Every time I go, I come home with a carload of fruits and veggies that I have to can, freeze, dry or eat.

This is what I brought home yesterday, along with small bag of seckel pears that didn’t make it into the photo. Mr Chiots picked the pears, which weren’t as abundant as they were 3 years ago, but we still got a decent amount. The peppers were all getting red, which is what I’ve been waiting for to make a batch of fire roasted peppers.

Last night I made 4 loaves of zucchini bread, a batch of squash blossom sauce, and I put three trays of tomatoes in the oven to roast overnight. Since we have today off I’ll be spending my day making: ketchup with the roasted tomatoes, canning crushed tomatoes, fire roasting and canning the red peppers, pickling the Hungarian peppers, making up a batch of pesto, cooking up the green beans and broccoli for lunch and most like getting those pears in the oven to make pearsins. Whew, just thinking about all of that while I type this after midnight at the end of a long day makes me tired. But it’s the season and I know there are tons of you out there just like me spending long hours squirreling away garden goodies in the pantry for the long winter.

What have you been squirreling away lately?

13 Comments to “It’s Going to be a Busy Saturday”
  1. kristin @ going country on August 28, 2010 at 8:05 am

    Everything. All the time. Is it winter yet? I could use a break.

    But in the meantime . . . what in the world is squash blossom sauce? Please share.

    Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

  2. Debbie on August 28, 2010 at 8:07 am

    Wow that’s a lot of produce. I have been busy freezing beans and zucchini. Drying herbs. Pickling beets and bread and butter pickles. The pie pumpkins are maturing on the deck and the tomatoes are still rolling in. I have quite a bunch of cherry tomatoes that I’ve been wondering what to do with but after reading your blog and a couple of others I think that I’ll be roasting them. It sounds sooooo yummy.

    Reply to Debbie's comment

  3. Corrie Carswell on August 28, 2010 at 8:37 am

    My latest venture was grape juice, in addition to all the tomatoes and herbs, etc.

    Reply to Corrie Carswell's comment

  4. carolyn on August 28, 2010 at 8:52 am

    My garden is winding down. Well, I have 3 more rows of green beans that are just now blooming. ( We planted some late beans this year) Tomatoes are still doing great. But, this year we are sharring the bounty with another family member. ( she’s doing some canning too)
    So, Yesturday, A store here, had chickens for $.69 lb. I couldn’t pass that up. Yes, I canned chicken yesturday. With the backs and extra fatty pieces I made chicken stock. got some meat off that for chicken salad ( Put most of it in the freezer) and dryed the bones to make bone meal. A productive day if I say so myself…….

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  5. Sense of Home on August 28, 2010 at 8:59 am

    Your produce looks great, I’m still waiting for my bell peppers to turn red.

    The canner has been steadily going around here. This past week saw tomatoes and plum juice, lots of plum juice canned. I’ve also been freezing green beans and shredded zucchini. Today the canner gets a break, I will be dehydrating tomatoes and packing them in olive oil.

    Have a fun day!

    -Brenda

    Reply to Sense of Home's comment

  6. Jennifer Fisk on August 28, 2010 at 9:10 pm

    I have been freezing green beans, tomatoes, oven roasted tomatoes, corn on the cob, creamed corn, raspberries, blueberries and Patty Pan squash. In the next couple of weeks, I will be putting the excess roosters and some rabbits in the freezer.

    Reply to Jennifer Fisk's comment

  7. nic@nipitinthebud on August 29, 2010 at 2:57 am

    what a heavenly harvest. Squash blossom sauce sounds intriguing. I never have got round to frying up the flowers – always worry that taking them off will stop the squash growing!

    Reply to nic@nipitinthebud's comment

    • Susy on August 29, 2010 at 8:03 am

      They’re so good stuffed with cheese and fried. I don’t pick at my house as my plants never seem to have enough, my mom’s had tons of blossoms when I was over so I ended up picking 20-25. We ate 6 of them fried for lunch and the rest were made into sauce.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  8. kaela on August 29, 2010 at 1:09 pm

    Busy weekend here as well: salsa verde, fire roasted tomatoes canned, kale & green beans blanched & frozen, tomato confit… next up pears! Have already dried some, but I’m thinking pickled pears in red wine, pear jam with vanilla and, if I have the stamina, pear butter. phew!

    Reply to kaela's comment

  9. Marcia on August 30, 2010 at 12:16 am

    We had such a cold June in southern Alberta that my garden was late in yielding but I’m definitly up to my ears in produce now! I’m blanching and freezing green and yellow beans, peas, spinach and rhubard chard. I’m canning banana potatoes and B.C peaches (peaches not from my garden but still pantry bound) and will can pickled beets this week. I’m also shredding up the giant zuchini my sister gave me in 2 cup servings since most recipes ask for that much. I also have 8 bags of cut up rhubard in the freezer. And my garden is still 3/4 full! It’s my first garden and I got a bit carried away so my friends will also benefit from my overzealous sowing.

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  10. Debby M on August 30, 2010 at 1:27 am

    Your busy Saturday sounds very productive! I love the idea of squash blossom sauce. I live in the desert and am getting most of my produce from a food co-op. I have been canning plums and making Asian Plum Sauce…really yummy with egg rolls or rice! Also, have lots of mangoes and have made raspberry mango jam. Turns out the jam is really good on chicken as a barbecue sauce…

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  11. Joshua on August 30, 2010 at 2:56 am

    Drying has been my main method of preservation this year. I’ve got about four quarts of chile peppers, with the plants still going strong, about a quart of oven-dried tomatoes, about a pint of dried jalapenos, and I just cut back the sage plant, and have … well, more sage than I will eat in a year, for sure.

    Reply to Joshua's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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