We're in ever-increasing food-preservation mode. I love it. It's working quite well with my pace, both mentally and physically. Since July was unexpectedly light from everyone having their babies early, I tried hard to live with intention~ intentionally slowing down, allowing myself to sleep in, being really chill and enjoying the kids on their time, making lots of pancakes, going to the pool, and drinking a beer now and then. I had intended on making some time to paint crappy, not-very-artisitc watercolors as well, but that hasn't happened yet.
August is a busier month. 5 Mamas due in a short period of time. More prenatals, and soon enough, more home visits after the babies come. It's also prime CANNING TIME!
Over the weekend, G and I finally dug out our boxes of dusty, cob-webby mason jars to wash them and take stock of what we had. Saturday I bought a bushel basket of peaches at the Farmer's Market for $20. They're lovely. And as I found out when we set up to can them, not quite ripe. So our peach halves are more like peach slivers. We took the ripest from the bushel basket and were able to can 3 pint jars of spiced peaches (in sliver form, but they're delicious). I think they'll be really tasty added to oatmeal in the winter, or yogurt, etc. We'll probably get to canning the rest, in proper halve form tonight or tomorrow, now that they're squishy-ripe.
We also made a batch of salsa verde using green tomatoes instead of tomatillos. It's really tasty! I would have never thought of putting any use to green tomatoes. I don't like them breaded and fried, but put them with loads of garlic, onions and cilantro and it rocks.
We've also got a brine full of various garden veg sitting on the counter to make a pickled relish recipe. We'll see how that tastes. I've never caught myself eating a meal and thinking to myself, "My, a salty, crunchy relish would make this meal complete!" But the Ball Book of Home Preserving seems to think the world isn't complete without relish, judging by the numerous recipes for the stuff.
My pal Amy came over last night and helped me do more freezer bags of corn with the freaky kernel-removal tool as she told me about her very recent, not kid-friendly family vacation. The toll is a circular sharpened knife type thing, attached to two hand grips, so that you run the circular knife down the shaft, removing all the kernels. I believe she found it remarkably therapeutic in some strange way.
Oh, and my much anticipated pressure canner came yesterday. Sadly, it is not what I thought it was. That's what I get for online shopping late at night when I'm really tired and my contacts are hazy. So it's going back. It's only a pressure cooker with extra canning utensils. It only works as a hot water bath type canner, and not the high pressure canner with a pressure gauge that I need and thought that I was buying. So it will be another week or so before I get the right product. Heavy sigh. I did that little happy dance for the UPS man for no good reason.
2 comments:
Yay to you for all the canning fun times! I know how overwhelming it can get so thank the baby-making powers that be that your July was a light-ish one. But I will tell you canned peaches are dangerous. Yes. I have been known to eat whole pints by myself. I don't think that is a good habit to start. Yet, every year, I put away more...they do make delightful, well-appreciated gifts to visitors!
I hear ya about the peaches. I feel so inclined to really pack them in the "ultra-light" syrup....but I loooove honey, and we always have a lot of it.
We'll see if we have any left to give as gifts come holiday time!
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