Who knew there'd be so much joy in canning?!

Those scrappy little carrots are cute, no? Clearly I didn't thin them enough, as you can tell by their twisted state, but I'm proud of them. They're also kind of small, but I needed carrots for the relish recipe we canned. Which by the way, is quite tasty. Carrots amaze me for their ability to grow in the dark like a little cave animal that evolves to have no sight, but still gets around amazingly well. You'd expect them to come out of the ground pale and white like parsnips, but then there's this brilliant orange sunshine as you shake the dirt off. Makes me smile every time. It doesn't take much to amuse me, I admit.

And the eggs! Since we're up to our eyeballs in eggs,Greg thought it'd be a great idea to pickle them. He found a recipe in our new pickling book that uses turmeric, shallots (we used those little red onion/shallots that we grew in the garden last month), vinegar and maybe curry powder? At any rate, in a week or so, they'll be ready for eating. I don't think I can get myself to try them, lovely as they look.

And the canning is coming along nicely. Who knew that canning could bring a husband and wife closer? Really, we've had quite the buddy system and shared enthusiasm as we clean hot jars and chop ingredients side by side. I'm loving it.

The storage shelf is just beginning to fill out with the fruits of our labor. More salsa verde, a dozen jars of the finally ripe peaches, and last night, a beautiful tasting batch of herb jelly. Again, something that would never occur to me to make or use, but the recipe looked good nonetheless. You can use any fresh herbs you have on hand. In our case, we used Genovese Basil, Thai Basil, Oregano and Thyme. (Or, BOT jelly, as I've labeled the jars.)You bring the herbs to a boil in a water, white wine, and vinegar base and then let it steep for 15 minutes. Then you remove the herbs and squeeze out all liquid from them. Add a packet of pectin and too much sugar and create your jelly, pack and process for 10 minutes. It's lovely. This batch is a pretty pink tint due to the Thai Basil. I have a little left over that I'm going to use on chicken breasts tonight. We'll see how it tastes.

I think I'll spend the day baking some things since it's only going to be in the mid-70s. I hope to update soon with pictures of more jars with questionable contents soon!