Preserving

Life has been a bit hectic and we've been doing a lot of take-outs in the last few weeks. Yikes! It's slowly getting back to normal and I managed to can some apple cider and apple sauce this week.




Every year, I tell myself I need an apple peeler, but somehow I've survived without one for years. I don't even have a manual apple coring tool. So I just cut the apples around the cores with the skin on. Put them in a pot with a bit of cider, boil, and put it through a food mill. I do love the color though. Pretty pink from all the skin.

It was a perfect accompaniment to our ham steak dinner.

Here is a picture of the last of the "Spring" carrots.... These were sowed all the way back in March! I have harvested some carrots from the same bed a few months ago, but they were much thinner. We live in the woods and PA is especially famous for its rocky ground. Well, when we decided to dig up a garden earlier this year, it was nothing but frustration! We could not dig 4 inches without hitting a massive rock (not to mention the little rocks) - and this was after running through a heavy duty tiller. This was going to be especially a problem for root veggies. So we decided to remove all the big rocks manually and sift soil to remove little rocks at least 1 foot deep in one of the beds that I was planning for carrots and potatoes. That was HARD work. My husband - after hours of digging, lifting, more digging, and sifting the soil - said "carrots are a dollar a bag at the store. These carrots better be damn straight and best carrots that I'll ever eat!!!"

Well, all that hard work really paid off! He admits, these are the best carrots he ever had. As far as the rotation is concerned, I guess we have no choice but to dig up another bed for next year....


I also harvested all the remaining celery. They did survive the hard freeze with thick blanket of straw, but I decided to take them in. I don't want to risk losing them to these cold nights. I still have several plants in the hoop house though. I will try to keep them as long as they can survive.

They are not very good to eat raw, but wonderful in soups etc. So I chopped them up (leaves and all) and froze in bags. I'll be using them in my stuffing for Thanksgiving!

I love nappa cabbage! They grow so fast. The regular green cabbage was planted at the same times, but they are still very very small.

 This is the first head that I harvested from the fall brassica bed, but it's going to be given away. I have 5 more for ourselves. I can't wait to make Kimchi!