Not as Productive as I Should Be...

S & E trying to catch swimmy things at a local park. Not foraging. :)

Small batch of Dilly Beans. We looove Dilly Beans.

My favorite local farm stand is open for business and they're oh-so-affordable! A couple weekends ago the kids were with my MIL. G and I took the time to see the new Harry Potter movie, and the documentary Food, Inc (which was great, btw), and to buy two heaping bushels of green beans. We spent 3+ hours on the deck, kid-free and chatty as we snapped beans. How romantic! We ended up blanching and freezing most of them, and only doing a small batch of Dilly Beans. All in all, I estimated around 26 pounds of beans, once they were all processed.

Two thick batches of Yarrow bundled and ready to be hung to dry. Every year my sweet neighbor gives me what she cuts back. Dried Yarrow is amazing in a post partum herbal bath. Yarrow helps staunch bleeding and also helps to heal any tissue trauma or damage. It's hung up downstairs next to two fat bundles of Comfrey (which is also amazing on healing tissues).

This time last year I was the canning queen well into the season. This year, well...
there's a lot going on, mainly growing this baby and trying to take care of myself while working and being a mom and wife. It's been a stressful year financially. G works within the auto industry as I've said before. He had 5 straight weeks without work, which has rendered us without health insurance for 6 weeks. He started back on a 3 day work week last month, which will put us back with health insurance in a few days. He's always been the bread winner, with my income being necessary although supplemental. Ack. I hate being stressed about money. I can still count my blessings though as I know things could be far worse and we have a lot growing (and laying!) around us.
When I think about not preserving as much food as we have in the past, I try not to feel too bad about it. Normally we'd be strawberry picking, raspberry and blueberry picking, etc. I just couldn't make that a priority this year. Fruit seems so non-essential and dessert-like right now compared to food that plays a more major part in meals.
Ha! I must admit to buying two pounds of blueberries while the kids were away and eating all of them in less than 48 hours! Clearly worked out as a meal during that time... :)

Other Ways of Preserving...
In a fit of pregnancy nesting, I inventoried the kid's clothes to see the state of back-to-school possibilities and how many pairs of decent pants they each had. I was able to make a list of what they actually needed for the fall and winter and from there, landed at our local Once Upon a Child store. I love this store. Their by-line is something like, Clothing With Previous Experience. I like that. Everything is gently-used (or sometimes even new), good quality clothing at a decent price. I ended up buying E 2 pairs of pants, a new pair of cool European shoes, and a long-sleeved tee; S got 4 pairs of pants (two of them brand new), and 3 shirts...all for $44.
It feels good to not only save loads of money, but also to buy very decent used stuff and giving it all a longer life.
I'm not a Never-New saint though. We ended up at Target getting S a pair of much-wanted Chuck Taylors and getting Little E some new socks and underwear. This Mama also splurged and got herself a packet of lovely soft cotton underwear too. Nothing like the 3rd trimester to make you ditch your by-now dingy pre-pregnancy underpants in favor of something a little bigger and softer. Ahhh.

So there ya go. Not as many food updates as I'd like to give. My garden/food work list for the weekend goes as follows:
cilantro ice cubes
basil pesto
zucchini bread
shred and freeze extra zucchini
harvest and preserve turnips
freeze small tomatoes
make loaf of regular sandwich bread

We'll see what time, my kids, and pending babies have in store for me though.