Today
arvest season is in full swing. The list of things to put up seems to overwhelming if I think about it so I try not to think about it. In no particular order here are some things that need doing today and might get done. In addition to just plain old regular stuff like cooking meals; laundry; dishes, always lots of dish washing; milking; cow moving, and other everyday things.
♥ Roast tomatoes for salsa.
Pantano Romanesco
♥ Chop peppers for freezing.
Red – AceF1, Yellow – FlavorburstF1
♥ Can green beans.
♥ Start bread and butter pickles – might help if I picked the cucumbers ;p
♥ Remove rings, wash, label and put away canned summer squash from yesterday.
♥ Harvest, blanch and freeze broccoli and cauliflower.
Too sleepy to snack
The list doesn’t look so bad now that I have actually set it down to the blog.
What’s needing preserving in your garden right now?
Throwback at Trapper Creek 
What’s not. My boots are getting heavy…
Groan, I know – and the fruit trees are loaded too – I hate to say I am glad to say it rained and ruined the blackberries, now I don’t feel compelled to pick them!
Ha! I think looking at your greenhouse would make me hyperventilate, lol.
It just about does! I have taken out lots of the tomatoes already though, and am getting ready to plant some late stuff, but it will feel good when the season slows down a little. Fingers crossed that my cabbage didn’t split in the rain, or I’ll have to move kraut up on the list!
you’ll be happy when you’re snug & full all winter I suppose. I’m off to pick peppers – I was starting to slide into some wasteful facebooking but you’ve snapped me out of it!
Ours is just about gone. Only have potatoes left to dig and put away. We have a few tomatoes hanging on and have a friend that has an over abundance and I would like to make salsa and barbecue sauce for the season. Collecting seeds at this point and waiting on the apple and venison harvest.
CGLOTF, it sure feels good to be stocking up – no matter how tiring it gets 🙂
Everything has come to a dead stand-still around here… well pump went out so for the last week we have been hauling water, researching DIY pump replacement, not to mention finding our well head, pulling pipe (225 ft.), going to the laundromat and camp ground for showers, more trips to the hardware store, etc. Of course, all the regular stuff like meals and wage hours still needed to go on as well. Homeschool went to the wayside along with canning and the poor garden has gotten parched in the last week of warm weather.
The well job should be completed today! We might still be able to salvage tomatoes for canning – they still look pretty good having just ripened. Beets are still good- love how they will wait it out in the garden. Winter squash is still fine if the parching didn’t ruin them. Peppers might make it.
I’ve been telling myself to start planning the winter garden but …
Mom24boys, that sounds terrible 😦 Water woes are no fun for sure!
Here to lots of good stuff out of the garden, now that the well will be up and going again 😀
Gorgeous looking produce! I’m sitting on large piles of tomatoes, green beans, cabbage apples and raspberries right now, with more corn and red peppers looming on the horizon. Thank god that potatoes, onions and winter squash don’t require much.
So you just chop and freeze your peppers? I’ve been roasting and peeling them before freezing but your method sounds muuuuch simpler. How do you eventually use them?
Sue, wow you got lots of stuff to process – yum!
I used to painstakingly roast and peel and I finally gave up and now just chop and freeze on cookie sheets and then put in double freezer bags, I can pour out what I need and they keep beautifully. I don’t mind the skins at all, compared to the drudgery of roasting, sweating and peeling. With the Anaheim’s I just have them instead of chopping. We end up sautéing most of them. The colors really brighten a winter meal, I’ll tell you 🙂
Sue,
For the last couple years, we’ve been smoking our peppers to preserve them. Simply wash, cut out the stem, slice in half the long way, and set on the rack. We smoke them for 24 hours. If the thick-walled peppers aren’t dry after that time, we can either continue smoking them or finish them off in the dehydrator. In cooking, we grind the smoked peppers up and use them as a spice. They’re amazing!
We also started smoking tomatoes last year. We cut them in 1/4 inch slices. They take almost twice as long to dry, but are totally worth it. They’re great in place of sundried tomatoes in a soup, stew, stir fry, or side salad.
Sounds delicious!
Tomatoes need to be canned and the spuds dug and I’m DONE!!!!
Linda, JEALOUS! I did get my spuds dug before the rain though 😀
Potatoes are already done, the tomatoes are pulled up – blight got them and I have now just got one tray of green ones to deal and hopefully they will just carry on ripening. I have green beans, celery and peas to deal with. Carrots probably next week, along with beetroot. So far the frosts are holding off but the temperatures are getting perilously close and then we will be on a proper countdown to winter. Kraut just moved up my list too, yes some of my cabbages split.
I’ve gotten most of the stuff cleaned out. Lima beans are coming in, I may try to dry a bit more oregano, and some rosemary. I’m hoping for one more round of broccoli. Lots of things did not do well this year: cukes, all squashes, and tomatoes. Neighbor brought in late blight and wiped out the tomatoes. ;( I could make some more basil pesto too.
We did our broilers last weekend, the pig will be done on the 30th, the layers replaced and made into ground chicken on Oct 15th, and the steer done the 1st of November. (We do all our own butchering.)
The neighbor’s pear tree is coming in and I’m hoping to make lots of pear sauce. This is really good for making pulled pork.
Our normal frost is 3rd week of Sept. but the weather’s no longer normal. Last year it came the end of October. No telling for the future…
Bit of a lull in the garden right now. Tomato plants are trying to take over the world since the drought broke but nothing much to harvest. We’re just making mountains and mountains of compost. Not only do I need massive amounts of compost, I need massive amounts of quality compost…no weed seeds. That’s a little bit like work. But with high temps in the 70’s I’m just tired, not hot and tired.
Also trying to get all the salad in the ground I can.
I am dealing with the last of the tomatoes today. Butternut squash, sweet potatoes and pumpkins. Finished watermelon rind pickles yesterday.
I still have lots of tomatoes & peppers to process and freeze, also plenty of french & runner beans to pick though I only freeze the french beans.
Am hoping to try and get my head round pressure canning some veg next year, its not very common in the UK!
Only soft fruit tends to get put into jars.
The calabrese is coming on, so need to get that in the freezer, autumn raspberries are still fruiting like mad.
Was making raspberry jam at 8am today…lol.
Oh and have a bucket of windfall cookers to deal with!
Feeling a bit behind for mid September, but the tomato sauce is done, and it was a relief to cross that off the list. need to put up tomatillo salsa, peach apricot jam, canned tomatoes, more cider, pickles, pickle relish, pickled green beans, and freeze some pesto, and then will heave a sigh of relief … oh, and must retrieve the rest of the tuna from the freezer, and can that. Then it will be time to start thinking about apple butter and quinces, but, thank goodness, not yet! And i’m late getting the winter cole things in; must get to that asap, too. And freeze some peppers. And dry some more herbs, and some prunes … and freeze corn … but after that ! … ; D
Freezing corn, simmering tomatoes, ice cube traying pesto, and salting my first batch of kraut. My tomatoes are back on thankfully, the Indigo Rose have been ripening well but there is a lot of fruit set that I’m crossing my fingers about. We still have some hot temps in the forecast so we’ll see…