Beautiful harvest days

 Guess what Gary found 

He is quite proud of his puffball. He also got one for Stephanie and Kevin next door. I don't want to cook it but I hope he does.  We cut some off for Bob and Grace McCordy and my mom to eat.

Today I am pressure canning. I cooked up fresh tomatoes for an hour. I ran the tomatoes through the food mill. I canned 5 jars of tomatoes.  It looked like tomato juice.  I also soaked white navy beans overnight and I put 1/2 a cup in a hot pint jar. Added boiling water to 1 inch head space. 

I am pressure cooking in my backyard in my trailer.  The propane stove top works better with my pressure canner since my stove top is glass and it could suction  to it and shatter the glass. Plus it keeps the heat outside. 

The garden is over grown with weeds but still bursting with cucumbers and tomatoes.  I still have a few peppers, onions and beets and jalapeños. Zucchini and celery are still producing.  Still growing is Butternut squash potatoes and apples.  I planted a few bean seeds in July in the front raised garden. They look great now. I hope they grown big before it gets cold. They are a dried beans. So that is a new plant for me.

Sept 1 2026 making Salsa

 

Making Salsa with Jane was a big success. One triple batch medium spicy and second (double) batch very spicy.  

Jane got making veggies from her work at Hagemans Farm stand. I still have tomatoes and hot peppers,  cucumbers and zucchini coming out of the garden. 

This year with all the rain we have had it's been a very prolific garden.  I have been canning like crazy.  

Also I tried making marinara tomato sauce. I water bath canned 10 jars but 5 jars didn't seal. With my my veggies and unsealed tomatoes sauce i made a delicious sausage,  vegetables tomato soup that i took to the Hough's.  I freezer bagged a chili with unsealed tomato sauce and cooked ground beef and veggies. 

I also tried a freezer meal of chopped chicken and butter chicken sauce recipe with homemade crushed tomatoes.  It is so nice to make meals for the future now while all the veggies are being harvested. 

Marinara sauce above 

Things I canned.  I bought cucumbers from Garys sister Lori, I made 20 plus bread and butter pickles and 8 big jars of dill pickles.  Then later I picked 7 more jars of dill pickles with my own cucumbers.  Also 2 jars of dill beans. 

I made salsa with Nicole one day and I kept 4 jars. She brought me tons of jalapeños. 

I pickled 8 jars of pickled Beets with my own beets and a few of Karolina's beets. She also gave me a Butternut squash.