Preserving

The garden has been a little disappointing for me this year. The cucumbers were wimpy and have only given us about five. They were planted on the side of the garden where there is a little more shade and I am sure that has affected things a little. Something again is eating them. Probably rabbits (at least the droppings would give us that clue).

The beans didn't come up at all so that was a big disappointment. We have melons, okra and tomatoes in relative abundance and some peppers. We harvested a few more beets than last year but I think I am going to try to plant more of those. Carrots came up well and were very yummy for about two meals.

This week has been spent in the kitchen keeping up with tomatoes. Dad informed me last weekend that he wasn't going to be canning at all this summer so he was letting us take what we want. I tried a batch of spaghetti sauce over the weekend and after feeding the family Saturday night with much of the batch (boy do these people EAT!) I was able to can five quarts for the pantry. They told me after supper that it was the best spaghetti they had ever tasted!

Along with the five quarts I put up two quarts of regular tomatoes that were left over after I ran out of stuff for the spaghetti sauce.

Thursday I had a huge load from Dad along with my own so I put up another huge batch of spaghetti sauce. I got ten more quarts to add to the pantry. I hope I will be able to make at least one more large batch before we are done.

Let me tell you about the okra! Last summer we were able to save two stalks and were amazed by how much okra came from those two plants. This year was a totally different story! We have two rows of okra and it is in full production! Last week David cut up two gallon bag full for the freezer to use in gumbo and Thursday I tried a couple of small batches breaded for frying. They are now tucked away in the freezer for our frying pleasure!

I still have some empty jars in my cupboard so I hope there will be a few more things to can before the season is over. The potatoes came up pretty thin this year so we will see how the harvest is soon when it is time to dig them up. I won't lie...I am looking forward to a couple down days before the next harvest comes in! These are busy days in the kitchen!