living in the woods and making stuff

I usually don’t like to buy things, with the exception of vegetables. I love to fill my shelves with bottles and jars full of preserved things. Right now tomatoes are particularly abundant, and I have been making lots of sauce. And peppers. My favorite is hot pepper jelly. I found a good recipe and have made a whole bunch. If you keep the seeds in I think that the jelly ends up with a bit more of a kick.

The jalapenos (green) are from the farmer’s market, and the red ones are from my friend Bob Keefer, in East Pleasant Plane. He has the most magical garden, built of raised bed(113 total). The beds have everything in them, and are surrounded by a beautiful lawn. Easy to plant, weed, and harvest.

Heli, Skye, Mom and I built and planted 3 beds this spring. It took us a while to get everything in order but once we did, there wasn’t much for us to do other than weed a little and pick vegetables.

The garden is currently winding down, except for our arugula, basil, thyme, rosemary, kale and beets. And marigolds… The marigolds were amazing for protecting the garden from rabbits and deer (mostly the rabbits though). They grew a lot more than we expected and they are now dwarfing the raised bed. But we were able to grow beans, peas, and lettuce!

Here is my canning setup. The kitchen alternates from being clean and pretty to massively messy… Right now it is somewhere in between. But it is definitely easier to can with a clean kitchen!

Tomorrow will be a pear gathering/processing day. My friend has a tree, and I am really excited. I spent a good portion of the afternoon looking at cookbooks for pear recipes. Poached pears, pear butter, pears in vanilla syrup, etc, etc.. It is also the perfect time of year to make pear and raspberry desserts. (Both are ripe) I have a recipe for a pear and raspberry cobbler. Or pear tart with raspberry sauce.

Also I have heard that dehydrated pears are yummy, so I am going to try those too! Hopefully a good report on pears to come! (I have definetaly counted my pears before they hatched.)