Saturday was the day I had signed up for 36 pounds of peaches from Rama farm and while I was at the market I thought it would be a good idea to pick up peppers to pickle. A peck of course. Then when I got home I realized we still had rat issues and I would have to pick as many tomatoes as possible which meant processing them. Boy did I bite off a bit too much this week!
You are just seeing the top layer of peaches, in the top box. We ate as many as possible, I dried slices, made fruit leather, peach jam, froze several gallons and canned them. I meant to make peach chutney but the peaches were heading south by the time my counter freed up so I had to can the last of them pronto. I have another round coming in a few weeks so I’ll get my chance then. Of course Chicken Little has already eaten all the fruit leather so I’ll be making lots of that and hiding it this time.
The two stainless steel salad bowls you see full of tomatoes are but two of four I had to process over the weekend. I’m down to one but the vines are full of tomatoes for me to pick yet again tomorrow. They seem to be exhibiting signs of blight so maybe this will be the end of tomatoes. Like the zucchini, I think I’ll be ready to be done with them before they are done with me.
On either side of the peaches you can see jars of hot sauces I made up. One was like a tapatio and the other was supposed to be like a tobasco that I made using cayenne peppers only I seeded them so it turned out no hotter then the jalapeno/tomato based sauce. They both came out great and we’ve been eating them all week on cheese quesadillas made with Wardeh’s spelt tortillas that I had in the freezer. It’s been great not cooking while I’m busy cooking!
Then I had a brilliant stroke. I’ve been working on taking things out in the garden to make room for the fall crops that have been sadly neglected and are woefully behind schedule. I pulled out the last of the carrots and beets and remaining Swiss Chard that there wasn’t room for in the whisky barrel that had recently housed several bags worth of yukon gold potatoes over the spring and summer, picked some celery, parsley, basil, kale leaves a few shakes of crushed red pepper, salt and worscestershire sauce and used a few cloves of my garlic. I had to use a purchased onion for this since I didn’t plant enough last spring to even make it through summer. Then I rounded up a few gallons of tomatoes sitting on my kitchen counter evading the rat.
I simmered them all for about 40 minutes then ran it through my roma mill. It was delicious. I drank a glass around 11 p.m. when it finished and then had so much energy I buzzed about the kitchen, finally realizing it was 1:30 and headed to bed. Drat!
In the morning I gave some to Chicken Little who loves virgin bloody marys so much we call them bloody Max’s in our household. He gulped it down and asked for more. I made a few more gallons the next day then canned it all in the pressure canner which sadly turned it from beautiful ruby red to dull orange, just like V-8. But it’s safe in the cupboard waiting for winter. It will make fabulous soup or stew base should we not drink it all.
Ever curious I made a small batch of 1948 Tomato Preserves which I promptly tried over homemade vanilla bean ice cream. It was really interesting and I liked it a lot but it was something you only wanted a small portion of – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Did I mention I just canned pickled jalapenos and pepperocini, corn relish and salsa? In fact I’m so giddy from canning that I had to look at this picture to remember everything I had done after putting the kids to bed.
Tonight’s dinner was rat-nibbled eggplant parmeson from housemade tomato sauce, Rubiano parmeson from California and housemade queso fresco.
And lastly, while the water bath was processing I whipped up a batch of my granola with one of my favorite non-local must have items – coconut oil and coconut flakes. This will go fabulous with house made yogurt and dried sour cherries, peaches, blueberries or strawberries that we have in jars filling the breadbox along with a cup of coffee from Small COG Coffee.
Now, time to start dehydrating another round of zucchini…
What a super productive day! Love the pic of the produce spread out in the kitchen waiting to be processed. I am weird, but I think fresh produce is beautiful to look at.
How’s the rat battle going?
I WISH that was one day but it was more like 3. I must have worded that deceptively in my blog post. No signs of rat family #1 but we seem to have another rat family. Or it could be that the new rat nest has been vacated and they moved back into the old one under the front porch across the garden. So many nests with garden views, so little time. I moved the trap so we’ll see if that is what did it but it didn’t look like anyone had gnawed on the blue block ‘o poison.
Now that I’ve taken out most of their lounging canopy where the cauliflower was there aren’t so many spots for them to chill in the sun.
I spoke too soon – someone has stolen the first green zebra of the season that I’ve been eyeing all week. I thought it was just out of a rat’s reach but boy was I wrong! Sadly, all the fruits on the green zebra are low enough so I guess I’ll be picking them just blushed and letting them ripen in the house as well. Dangnabbit!
Wow!! Where do you get all that energy? Can you share some of your energy with me?
Your blog is always inspirational to me.
Can you share your fruit leather recipe?
Hi Gabriella,
It’s all the veggies & coffee :p
The fruit leather is so simple – it’s 70% fruit puree (I removed the peach skins & pits then put in the food processer with a squeeze of lemon to keep it from getting too dark) and 30% applesauce from my freezer. Apples and currents have lots of pectin which makes for a softer, more supple fruit leather and you can’t taste them in the finished leather. Other fruits don’t have as much pectin so the leather will be crisp and brittle if you use them 100% but the flavor will be more intense. I do strawberries w/o applesauce for that reason, then we break the leather up and eat as chips instead because it’s just so yummy.
I’ll be making applesauce and apple fruit leather this weekend and not so many other things so I’ll hopefully be posting in more detail then.
Right now everything is happening fast & furious as I try to beat the rat and rot to harvest.
Thanks for commenting!
This all sounds wonderful, I can’t wait until our kitchen remodel is over so we (or more like my fabulous chef husband) can start preserving!! Thanks for sharing!
What variety are your short stubby carrots? They are adorable!
Hi Danisse,
I actually have no idea – they are old Ed Hume seeds I’ve had for years and they didn’t taste very good. I have some nice nantaise, Autumn king, dragon and merida started right now for fall, winter and spring. I’m hoping they taste better since I planted a ton of them! I’m taking Kitsap FG’s lead from her modern victory garden which is my inspiration.
Justine, let me know when your appliances are back out of your yard (or sooner if the garden will be done first) so I can come take pictures for my blog! And of course come meet you and the bees…
Bummer about the taste of your mystery carrots. My favorites last year were New Kuroda and Scarlet Nantes. I’m sure your next harvest will have some winners.
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I think you are a great person for doing all of that. I just learned how and it still feels over the top for me. Great page, I enjoyed it very much.
Hi Ira, congrats on your new found skills! Canning is so much easier if you have a buddy to do it with. I’ve been doing it for longer then I care to admit so it seems much easier to me now. I’m glad it’s over for the most part though!