Putting Food Up

I have been quite busy harvesting lots from the garden. I find the lengthening of seasons a challenge in some ways but as far as the garden goes I guess it is a good thing. I am getting greens galore now. Spinach, lettuce, kale, and chard. I still have tomatoes and some peppers too. Turnips are still coming as are the late radishes I planted. The only thing missing for a salad is a cucumber. Mine didn’t do well and usually by mid-September they are on their way out anyway.

Right now I have lots of tomatoes and green and wax beans. Still harvesting every other, if not every day. I harvested some beets as well. I did buy a bag at the farmer’s market too. My late beets are not quite ready yet. We will look forward to them when the weather gets cooler.

Dilly beans and pickled beets were cooling on the counter recently.  My husband was busy a couple of nights last week with his salsa.  He made two batches. It has been a great tomato year.

He cans some that are a ‘mild’ and then some that are ‘hot’. He cans the mild first then adds the hot peppers for the hot batch.

There are enough dilly beans now so I froze the rest of the beans. From here on out I will freeze them in bags that have just enough for a meal. I trim the ends, blanch in boiling water for 3 minutes and immediately place in ice water. Then I let the beans drain and dry a bit then bag up. Perfect for a quick veggie. I do the same thing with broccoli. Hopefully I end up with enough to freeze. I also freeze tomato sauce. I broil tomatoes, garlic cloves, onions, and basil together on a baking sheet. When the garlic is soft I take the sheet out and transfer all to a bowl. I stir and then spoon into mason jars. Then I cool them and place in the freezer. Just remember to not fill all the way and also when the jars are in the freezer keep the caps off. I have broke jars by filling, and covering. Everything expands when frozen.

Canning and freezing are definitely a process, no pun intended, but it is so worth it to not waste all those healthy, fresh veggies out of the garden. You don’t even have to have your own garden. Just visit a local farmers market and buy more than you need and can or freeze it for the winter. It feels so good to eat fresh, farm or garden veggies in the middle of the winter.

Enjoy your day!