Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Bountiful Harvest!

Now that Summer has ended, and Fall is in full swing, I'm sad to see my garden die! We have had a great (well...great for us) year with our garden! This spring, we planted 10 tomato plants, 2 cucumber plants, 4 pepper plants (only 3 survived our kids and the dog), and 6 (three different types) hot pepper plants. Our tomatoes really thrived this year, along with our cucumbers...we only had two plants but had WAY more cukes than we could handle. Our pepper plants didn't do as well as the tomatoes, but there is always next year. We have loved having fresh cucumbers and tomatoes whenever we have needed them and will miss our garden.

Those who know me know I've never canned before. We canned a half batch of salsa last year...which kind of discouraged me because we only got 6 pints of salsa and it took what seemed like FOREVER! So, when we planted our garden this year, we hoped to just be able to can one good batch of salsa and then eat the rest as fresh produce. Well, we actually managed to can 32 pints of salsa and 12 quarts of tomatoes. But, didn't stop there! We froze a box of peaches, had a friend show me how to make/can applesauce and Elderberry jam, froze 10 quart bags of apples, canned 12 little jars of strawberry jam, and now I have some raspberries to make jam with! This might not sound like much to some, but to me it's a huge accomplishment...it's rather satisfying to hear those lids POP as they seal! I think we will be set for the winter and I'm so glad for those who taught me how to do it and helped in the process. I've learned a lot this summer!

Here are some pictures from making applesauce...it was lots of fun and the kids had a good time helping out too!


Some of the salsa. We have hard water so when I boiled the jars to sterilize them they look all funky!


Making Elderberry jam.

10 comments:

dkasay said...

Wow way to go girl. Thats a lot of canning i need to learn how.

Stacey said...

Yum!! You look great!

Middletonfamily said...

Way to go Jill! I'm totally impressed! You will have to teach me all your canning tricks someday when we have a garden!

The Asay's said...

Wow Jill way to go. That is a lot of canning. I need to learn how as well.

Brenda said...

Good job Jill!

Grandma Arlene said...

I'm very impressed. Canning is something I never got into. We have a little garden and we planted the same things as you guys. We had a great tomato season, not so good with any of the peppers. Doug had enough cucumbers (I don't like them), but sometimes we would forget to pick them and they got REALLY big :)

Bob & Dani said...

I'm impressed! It must feel satisfying to prepare and store the food for your family. We had our first tomato plant this year, and I made simple freezer tomato sauce. I was proud of myself, so I'm sure you're extra proud of your efforts!

Phillips Family said...

Super impressed with your domestic side. Adam walked by and asked why the jars were all dusty??

Megan Foulger Evans said...

way to, seester! Way to!!! haha ;)

Unknown said...

Awesome!!! That is hard work...but those little pops are so rewarding!!! Way to Go!!!