Harvest Canning

The Farmhouse is taken over once again by the harvest season! As soon as one crop is finished and put away for the winter, there are three more crops to take the place. The living room, dining room, tables, benches chairs are covered in canned goods ready to be marked and placed on the shelves. The piano bench is holding more. The front room is being used to hold the over flow of produce as it is the coolest place in the house directly under the ceiling fan as our days continue into the 90's. It is a busy, busy time of year. There is always time to stop and look at the giant sunflowers and then gather more from the garden. Plum syrup, canned pears, spiced peaches, garden salsa, ruby red corn relish, green beans, apple pie filling and spaghetti sauce to name a few of the recent preserves. The dehydrator is running constantly and the cutting boards are never empty and there are plenty of zucchini waiting to be shredded! So much abundance that will see us through the late fall, winter and spring and we feel the blessings with each ripening cucumber! What is happening with your harvest canning?

Dehydrating Eggplant

The eggplant has ripened with abundance. After enjoying it piece by piece for dinners, we harvested most of it. It seems a little later this year, but that was the way the summer weather worked.

Each eggplant weighed a little over a pound and there was about 20 pounds in this basket. Eggplant is always best used as quickly as possible after picking.

It is great preserved in the dehydrator. Most of the eggplant harvest yesterday was dehydrated. There will be plenty of eggplant for soups and casseroles this winter and it stores so well. These were cut in half and then in quarters and sliced about 1/4 inch thick. They dried in about 8 hours.

Of course there was plenty of left over eggplant for dinner and with some fresh tomatoes we had the makings of Eggplant Parmesan for dinner.

Happy September

Autumn is getting closer and in the garden there are literally bushels of apples and pears and plums to pick. There are gallons of ripe tomatoes and peppers and beets and cabbage and cucumbers and zucchini and eggplant to harvest. The pumpkins are turning orange with each passing day. Right now there is only time for tender little pickings for daily eating and preparing for the end of the summer rafting picnics. In just a few short days there will be more hustle and bustle as we pick, pluck, and preserve the summer bounty! Can we be thankful enough? ~