More Canning
The garden continues to amaze me with the amount of veggies it is providing. I spend many hours each week harvesting and canning as I ignore housecleaning. The garden offers the perfect excuse!
Thankfully, we were able to purchase the high-efficiency small freezer I wanted and it’s now over 1/2 full of various fresh peas. I’ve put up 30 quarts of snow peas, purple hulls and cream peas and the cream peas plants continue to produce. I’ve saved room for late-producing okra and for corn I hope to purchase at the farmers’ market.
After putting up 12 quarts of dill pickles, 12 pints of sugar-free bread and butter pickles and 10 pints of sugar-free sweet relish, I’ve decided to concentrate my energies on canning the bumper crop of tomatoes the garden is providing.
Our windowsills and tables are filled with ripening tomatoes and thus far, I’ve canned 40 quarts. It appears I will meet and exceed my goal of canning 52 quarts of tomatoes this season. If we continue experiencing occasional rains as we did today, the plants will produce enough tomatoes I might be able to put up some chunky green tomato relish too. I’m also hoping to pressure can some tomato gumbo (whole tomatoes with okra, bell peppers and onions). Tomato gumbo heated with a few shrimp served over jasmine rice is an easy family favorite.
Shirl