Our garden is keeping us very busy. We first made jam, pickles and dilly beans on July 12 this season. Since then, we’ve done that same thing two more times. We’ve also blanched and frozen some of our snap pea harvest, green beans and a ton of zucchini. It is a good feeling to put some of this abundance away for the gray, cloudy days this fall and winter.
Tygh and I have dabbled in canning for probably the last 4-5 years. We have a few favorite things we like to jar up from our garden abundance. Tomatillo salsa, pepper jelly and dill pickles have been our main projects.
This year, we’ve added raspberry jam to the line up. And oh my goodness, is it delicious! I really need to make some buttermilk biscuits. That jam deserves a lovely flaky biscuit. It’s sweet but not too much so. The color is bright and clear and is a perfect bite of summer. I wish my mama was still here so I could show her I’m finally making use of all the raspberries she planted so many years ago.
We’ve noted that we definitely do not need 2 bean teepees. I just can’t keep up with the green bean harvest! I’ll pick on Monday and by Thursday there are more beans ready to can, freeze, stir fry or eat straight off the plant. They truly are the gift that keeps on giving.
Our lemon cucumbers are also doing really well. We also planted too many of those. Since these aren’t typically canned, I have a cucumber salad in my frig on most days that we eat with lunch and dinner. I also keep Jillian supplied with cucumber salad, too! And I’ve given many away on our neighborhood Buy Nothing group. Those little lemon cucumbers are sentimental to me. My mom and gramma always grew them.
Our tomatoes and tomatillo’s will be our big project in August. We have so many of both just beginning to come into their own. I can’t wait to jar them up and line the shelves of my rapidly filling pantry. In fact, my next job today is to organize that pantry. We’ve canned so many things this past month, I can’t fit them all into the pantry!