The End Of Another Week

It's been another long summer week here on the farm. Lots of canning going on. Batch by batch the freezers and pantry are filling. 

Like the old tortoise .......... persistence is the key!

My counters are filled daily with one crop or another. My nights are filled with plans of what will ripen tomorrow and what I need for the next day. 

I'm serenaded regularly by the ping of canning jars as they seal.

The okra is coming in daily now and we are again stocking up for not only that oven fried okra but also just plain sliced okra for those delicious hot gumbos through the winter. Heat was the key and this crop languishes no more!

The tomatoes also begin to ripen  again in the sunshine as they enjoy these 90 degree days of late.

I also replenish my stocks of sliced squash for those winter casseroles and zucchini for soups.

We've blanched corn on the cob and lots of small niblet ears just the right size for the grand babies.

And a few pints of jarred corn for taco and vegetable soups and just so I always have some corn on hand. 

And those extra 3 roosters from the neighbor are now freezing in my freezer. When the garden slows down I will pull them out and cook them down into broth and canned chicken meat. We know they will be tougher than a boot and pressure cooking them is one way to tenderize that meat. 

This Weeks Tally

2 bags frozen sliced zucchini

4 bags frozen sliced yellow squash

6 bags frozen breaded sliced okra

4 bags frozen broccoli florets

4 bags frozen blackberries

6 gallons frozen corn on the cob

5 quarts frozen bass fillets

1 crock sauerkraut fermenting

16 pints canned whole kernel corn

2 quarts frozen whole kernel corn

 8 quarts frozen chopped cabbage

3 roosters butchered and frozen for making broth and canned chicken later

4 LARGE bags frozen tomatoes for cooking down later into sauce
 ? quart bags of frozen sliced okra

Still Left

Still left to pick or process horticulture beans, red beans, okra, squash, tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe,  watermelon, sweet potatoes, carrots, potatoes, onions, apples, grapes, pecans, walnuts, more peaches, chickens, turkeys, turtles. (God willing)

Fall crops of lettuce, turnips, green peas, spinach, broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts are coming along nicely. 

We continue to pick both green beans and pickling cucumbers and sell them to the produce man when he comes by looking for them to take to the city. Yesterday O Wise One sold him two 5 gallon buckets of pickle cucumbers. Once we can all the okra we want then we will probably let him buy what is left of that also.   

Seeds

We have already saved 2 trays of dried Louisiana Red beans and 2 trays of dried Purple Hull peas as seeds for the upcoming years.

Half a row of Golden Bantam corn has been left in the garden to dry as well as half a row of Jade beans and Lina Sisco Bird Egg horticulture beans. Once good and mature they will be brought in and dried and stored stored.

We have a container of Straight Eight cucumber seeds sitting in water fermenting to separate the seeds for drying. 

We have already collected dried and stored green onion and chive seeds. We still need tomato, cantaloupe, squash, zucchini, okra and watermelon seeds.  

It's late Saturday as I post this and I am waiting for the last of the sliced okra to freeze so that I can bag it.

I am putting supper on now and I have one last towel of red beans to shell then I will be done till Monday morning.

 I look forward to my Sunday afternoon off as O Wise One anticipates his Sunday fishing trip. He already has his bait and rods ready. 

We hope each and every one of you reading this has a safe and happy weekend. 

Until Monday morning........

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter