It Was a Productive Weekend

This morning is a bit cooler than it has been.  Without looking at a weather report, I'd say it's in the seventies.  When a person is use to the nineties, they need a sweatshirt to keep warm.

I went out to the garden to pick what is left over from the few plants I have planted.  To my surprise there were more beans.  Quite a few of them.  I picked the ones that were ready and left a few on the vines to turn to seed.  I have been missing some and they have gotten too big to be sweet.  So they will provide nourishment next year.

I found 4 cucumbers.  Two of them were rather large.  How did I miss those while picking this past few days?  Oh well, they're good eating.  I'll save them for my grandson who would be a cucumber if he didn't eat other foods, too.  The sparkle in his eye when I give him fresh cucumbers is enlightening and satisfying.

The basil plant is again going wild.  So I'll be dehydrating a bunch of that today.  Just a few hours in the dehydrator and our family has an organic spice to enjoy all winter long.  I have parsley planted in a pot, but that herb is slow growing.  Parsley is the herb I use the most.  This fall I plan on planting it in the garden rather than a pot.  Lots of it.

I'm saving seeds from the heirloom tomatoes my daughter harvested.  Saving tomato seeds is a bit more time consuming than drying other seeds.  Most seeds need to only be harvested from the veggie and laid out to dry.  There's a link below to demonstrate the process. I have parsley, cucumbers, peppers and tomato seeds drying for next year.  I have a small pot to plant a couple seeds of each in so I can see if they are producers.  I'll do that as soon as the seeds dry well enough to plant.

Also when I couldn't sleep the night before I made some peach freezer jam.  I made three batches in less than half an hour.  The batches are much smaller than the canned jam so I got four and a half pints from them.  I used 14 peaches.

Freezer Jam (One Batch)

2 2/3 Cups of chopped peaches
2 T of freezer pectin
1 T lemon juice
2/3 C sugar

Mix the sugar and pectin in a bowl.  Add the lemon juice to the peaches.  Add the peach mixture to the pectin and sugar.  Stir for 3 minutes.  Put in clean jars.  Let set for 30 minutes on the counter.  Freeze or enjoy right out of the jar.

I canned this peach jam on Saturday.  I used the regular method and did it in a water bath.

 

 

 

 

 

I had five peaches left over so I couldn't resist making peach cobbler.  Needless to say I was a naughty girl and had this for breakfast and lunch the next day.  Since the peaches were the free ones my daughter and her boys picked, I felt compelled to share most of it with her.

 

 

This morning's and yesterday's harvest.  The tomatoes are from my daughter's garden.  I threw them in the picture for color.

 

Pictured are the pepper seeds and tomato seeds I'm saving.  The pepper seeds were taken from one heirloom pepper.


Here's a link to my favorite gardening guy on yootoob showing how to save tomato seeds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9hS2lystOE