Summer Bounty

Did somebody say canning?  yes, this year, the staples are back.  Canned tomatoes, pickled okra, pickled green beans, and roasted peach salsa are back on the list.  It started with the fruit.  peach, nectarines, apricots, and cherries!  Oh my!

starting with the fruit booty of the farmer's market, i wasn't sure if i was going to make more preserves.  i did with some strawberry and rhubarb, but that didn't really work out....again.  it's more like sauce than thick preserves.  oh well, then i rediscovered our food dehydrator.  i decided i was going to dry stone fruits this year.  a couple of farmer's market sessions of raking up the end-of-market booty....

slices of white nectarines on the drying rack

and that was good.  the peaches and apricots were already super sweet (given that they were the bruised ones).  once dried, it was like eating candy!  nature's candy!  now i just have to figure out a way to make it last for the rest of the year.....hmmm....gotta hide it from ed.

next came the early season tomatoes.....as of now, it hasn't started going off.  like seriously going off.  i'll have to wait a couple of weeks for that to happen.  perfect timing too.  we're out of two for the next two weekends.  but i couldn't resist starting up.  this time i used the heirloom variety of shady lady, the early birds of tomatoes.

tomatoes (shady ladys) getting ready for the jar

of course, one must take a break from standing in the kitchen and take a look around (not that the view from my kitchen suck)...

almost the view from the kitchen....more like the deck

the tree that was struck by lighten at the top of our hill behind the house