Preserving the Harvest

I am so proud of myself...I made my first actual canned pickles! We've been making refrigerator pickles for a few weeks now, but I was a bit intimidated to try canning. However, between running low on room in the fridge, as well as wanting to have pickles that will last beyond the next few weeks, I finally decided it was time to take the plunge!

Here they are...6 pint jars of home-canned pickles:



I have to give credit where credit is due and tell you that Jordan cut up all those cukes for me. He now considers all cucumber cutting HIS job...just so he can use the sharp knife!

Jordan and Joseph have been doing the harvesting this week. They really enjoy going out there and searching for veggies. And yes, I DO mean searching--the weeds really have about taken over. I'm conceding defeat this season and admitting that I just don't. have. the. time. to keep it weeded. Next year I will be on top of that.

Today's harvest:



We're doing our best, but we just can't eat this stuff fast enough! In addition to making pickles, I've been freezing tons of squash, making dozens of zucchini muffins, and filling bags with tomatoes and tomatillos and sticking them in the fridge. I need to buy some cilantro, then I can make salsa verde and tomato salsa. I'm thinking I'll just freeze the salsa verde in meal-sized quantities, but I'm hoping to be able to make enough regular salsa to be worth canning. The tomatoes are still only trickling in, so I'm peeling, bagging, and freezing them for now:



Same with the peppers:



When I have enough, I'll make stuff with them to can or freeze. With the peppers, I plan on keeping some in the freezer anyway, to pop into chili or spaghetti sauce this winter.

One of the reasons the boys enjoy harvesting is that there's no telling when you'll discover a missed giant:



Jordan is awfully proud of that giant cucumber! It'll probably be inedible at that size, but he has laid claim to it and wants to eat it all himself. Joseph, on the other hand, is just posing with the cool humongous "alien squashes." He thinks they're nasty and says he won't be eating them! :)



Silly boys!

I bought lots of seeds to try for fun this year, but the only unique variety that actually made it into the garden was the purple bush beans. I put some in a pan for dinner and told the boys to watch them...they're magic!!



Of course they got bored long before this happened (a whole 5 minutes later), but here's what they looked like cooked:



There were many oohs and aahs when they peeked back into the pan, and I have to admit that even I was quite impressed with the color change.

Who knew beans could be so fun?!!

Garden Pictures

I'm way overly excited about our garden's first season! Not because it's grand (like my original big intentions)...because it's not--it's basically the first 12 feet of a 100-foot long space. Not because everything is growing fabulously well...I actually planted things much too closely together and too late, and several things seem to be stunted. No, I'm excited because I decided a couple months ago, when I realized that my big intentions just weren't going to happen, that this season was going to be about learning how to garden here. Anything we actually harvested would be a bonus! :) It's definitely been a learning curve, but learn we have! And, in spite of getting the garden started at almost 8 months pregnant, it's been fun as well.


Tomatoes in the foreground, pole beans on the fence behind them

As soon as the fence was up, we had a big load of top soil delivered to make the beds. The older boys got the job of shoveling the dirt into a wheelbarrow and dumping it in beds. I supervised. :) This was a win-win, as the boys are always saving up their money for something or other, and I paid them 50 cents a wheelbarrow load. Altogether I think I coughed up about $60 to get most of 20 yards of dirt moved. I'm just glad I didn't have to do it myself, at 8 months pregnant!


A California Wonder bell pepper

Everything in our garden was started from seeds I ordered last December. This was a first for me, as I had always done transplants from Home Depot or Walmart in our Texas garden. We learned that starting from seed is an effort in patience!


This bed has tomatillos in the front, and Roma tomatoes behind those. Along the fence in an L shape are zucchini, yellow, and scalloped squash.

It has been so rewarding to see the kids get excited about the garden! Everyone down to Josiah enjoys looking for things to harvest, and while I'm not thrilled about them, the boys LOVE all the bugs they can find here!



Beefsteak tomatoes...can't wait for these to ripen!


Roma tomatoes


Purple-podded bush beans (and a LOT of weeds...)

Under the circumstances this season (can we say "busy" LOL) the weeds have gotten a wee bit out of control. I'm hoping the raised beds I'm planning to build for next spring will help us keep the weeds down in the future. Of course, we did put a garden in the middle of what was basically a hay field, so some stray grass, etc. is to be expected.


Yellow squash

We've had a few pests to deal with--squash vine borers attacked our squash plants. We've lost one yellow squash plant and one zucchini plant so far. There is evidence of the little buggers on the others as well, but so far the other plants are hanging in there and producing squashes faster than we can eat/freeze them!


A small cucumber

The cucumbers have been the most fun, so far. They sat in the ground as tiny seedlings doing absolutely nothing for so long, I just about gave up on them. I think the weather was too cool for them in June. But then they took off! Jordan and Joseph wade through them every day looking for "pickles." I keep trying to tell them they're called cucumbers until they are actually pickled, but to no avail!


Tomatillos

I'm super excited about our tomatillos! They aren't ready to harvest yet, but there are literally hundreds of them on the plants. I'm drooling in anticipation of some home-made salsa verde!


Pole beans reaching for the sky


Okay, this photo is mostly weeds, but there are a couple zucchinis hiding in there...consider this one of those hidden picture games, lol!

A couple days ago, I found our first few tomato hornworms. Ewwwwww! I can not STAND those nasty things! Fortunately I have boys! Josh and Jordan were only moderately grossed out (probably only because I was) but it just took a little convincing (and the offer of 10 cents per worm) to get them to pull them off for me. A few minutes (and $1.00) later, Jon showed up. He was very disappointed that he had missed the hornworms, and hunted high and low to find one. He finally found a small one--and promptly popped it into a jar for a pet. The good news is that I no longer have a bunch of worms defoliating my tomato plants. Instead I have a 10-year-old boy defoliating my tomato plants--he has to feed his hornworm-in-a-jar, after all!


The nasty beast, I mean Jon's pet, before it ended up in a jar...*shudder*


Yes, this thing now lives in my HOUSE! Ah, the joys of raising boys!!

Thankfully, this season hasn't JUST been about learning...we ARE getting a harvest as well! And it's been yummy so far!


Bell peppers and 2 varieties of jalapenos, a hot one on the left, and a mild variety on the right.


We're getting LOTS of cukes!


Yellow, zucchini, and scalloped squash. Boy, do we have this stuff coming out our ears.

Of course, I'm still waiting for that first big, red, ripe juicy tomato!!

Pickles!

We are finally getting an abundance of cucumbers from our garden, which means, of course, it's time for pickles! My helper Jordan has been asking if he could be the one to make them, so a few days ago we bought the required spices, gathered up our cukes, and Jordan started slicing away.



Jordan says his favorite part was using a sharp knife for the first time!


He cut up a lot of cukes! He's a diligent little guy (when he wants to be!)


Adding the spices to the jars...


Loading up the slices...


Proud boy (and daddy) with his 4 jars of pickles





These are refrigerator pickles, so they don't require any actual canning skills, lol. We've already made a second batch of 4 jars, though, and my refrigerator will only hold so much. I guess learning to can will be next on our list of skills to conquer!

By the way, the pickles are YUMMY!! :)