The End Of Another Week

The end of another long week of canning and an upcoming holiday weekend. Think I could use a day or two off  : ) The first of the week started with fish from O Wise One's  Sunday fishing excursion. 

We continue to pick and freeze okra. It's a long time till next summer! Right now we are picking daily and getting a bucket a day! With the temperature predicted to go back in the 80's a couple days next week we hope to get as much put up as possible knowing that it will soon slow down drastically. That "make hay when the sun shines" dilemma : )

Remember for weeks how those green tomatoes lingered in the cool summer weather. We were picking tomatoes to quote my mother "like lawyers going to heaven". Translation..far and few between! We are picking some whopper Brandywine and Oxheart tomatoes now though. Those Oxheart are huge paste tomatoes with a great taste. Sure glad I have found and saved those seeds! They were such scrawny and spindly young seedlings that  O Wise One wanted to throw them out at first. I think that maybe that is just the normal growth habit of the plant. ( note to self for next year) 

Tip when you are getting tomatoes just a few at the time freeze them. I throw mine in plastic Walmart shopping bags and put them in the freezer. When I have enough for a roaster full of tomatoes then I run the frozen tomatoes under warm water and that peel just peels right off with your fingers. Core and slice and cook down as usual. Some say this changes the consistency a little in the sauce but I personally think it is so slight that you never notice in the final product.  

And since we have both tomatoes and okra right now why not combine the two for some stewed okra and tomatoes for those gumbos.

And 6 pounds of seeds for next years bean patch. 

And I am still freezing red beans. This Saturday afternoon I have just half a bucket of red beans left to shell and that is the last of the red beans for 2013. I also have half a bucket of horticulture to shell to finish off my Saturday afternoon and then I only have 1 more row of younger horticulture beans in the garden and then they are done. These will be my fall beans and we hope they will turn before frost. I also have a last row of Jade beans hanging on the bushes for seeds. We are waiting for those to fill out and dry before frost.   

And the leftover dry pea seeds will become dried beans. Just enough for a pot for New Years Day : )

I am so thankful to be replenishing my stock of horticulture beans because we got very few last year in that drought and my supply in the pantry was getting really low.  

And we have started saving horticulture bean seeds for next year. This is Lina Siscos Bird Egg heirloom beans.  That makes the corn and bean crops for the year ( other than one row of horticulture beans )  just about finished other than seeds drying on the bushes. Okra is probably half done and we are concentrating on knocking out tomatoes. Corn seeds are drying on the stalks and O Wise One is feeding finished corn stalks to the goats daily.  My compost piles are filling fast. 

Still in the field:
cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumbers, okra, tomatoes, peppers, carrots and potatoes...

Note...We are still picking broccoli from that hybrid Premium Crop planted the first of June..Wow that variety is a workhorse for all of you in my zone ( 5 A ) !!!! 

Fall crops in the field:
green peas, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, turnips, spinach, brussel sprouts 

And I have a patch of the prettiest watermelons you have ever seen. THEY ARE HUGE!!!

They may be ready by Christmas : ( 

This Weeks Canning Tally:

8 quarts frozen fish fillets

6 bags frozen sliced okra

12 quarts canned stewed okra and tomatoes

5 quarts canned stewed tomatoes

2 pints canned stewed tomatoes

2 quarts frozen red beans

7 quarts canned horticulture beans
7 quarts frozen breaded okra

Seeds Saved

3 pounds dried red bean seeds frozen

3 pounds dried purple hull pea seeds frozen 

tomato seeds fermenting

cucumber seeds fermenting
horticulture seeds drying

Produce Sold

14 pounds Jade snap beans sold

60 pounds pickling cucumbers sold

Next Weeks Projects ( God Willing )

Chicken broth and meat canned (roosters)
Tomatoes  ( canned )
onions ( frozen/dehydrated )
Potatoes  ( canned/dehydrated )
Peppers ( frozen/dehydrated/stuffed )
Okra (ongoing) 
carrots (dehydrated )

 So as another Saturday draws to a close I wish you all a peaceful and safe weekend and an enjoyable Labor Day. I will see everyone back on Tuesday morning. I am taking both Sunday and Monday off. Who knows I might go fishing with O Wise One but I think not in this heat : )

O Wise One will be sitting in a field with a shotgun hunting doves. Season opens tomorrow ( Sunday ).  

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter