Saturday, September 7, 2013

The Fruit Of My Labour

Canning
Or: "One Pint At A Time"

It looks like I've finished the self imposed processing list that I've been working on for the past few weeks.

I've made, alphabetically: apple pie filling, apricot jam, apricot syrup, cherry jelly, cherry sauce/syrup, gingered zucchini marmalade, peach-strawberry jam, plum jam, plum pie filling, raspberry jam, and rhubarb pie filling.

As well as a small batch of bread and butter pickles, and (so far) 20 pints of garlic dill pickles.

I was also able to quick-freeze just about 6 pounds of raspberries, which reside loosely in several large freezer bags, ready for muffins or smoothies.

As I picked the last of the carrots, checked the progress on the SO SLOWLY ripening tomatoes and collected the pickle-able cucumbers that have grown since I last picked two days ago, I realized that the season is starting to wind down.

Unless someone gifts me some crab apples for jelly and applesauce, I am probably done for the year.

Except for the salsa and tomato soup that I'm still planning. I have a feeling that the tomatoes are going to have to ripen in my root cellar, but there are a lot of green tomatoes on the vine.


Canning
This is a time of year that I LOVE.

I breathlessly wait for it during the hot, humid days of summer.

I long for the cool, crispness of September as I lay sleepless through sultry July nights.

Just when I think the leaves will be forever green and the mosquitoes forever biting, the weather changes.

Instead of buzzing flies, it's the sound of fleeing Canada geese and swathers in the fields.

Instead of heat and dust, there's a smell of fresh cut grain.

I have been blessed by the unknown person, at an unknown time past who planted Nanking cherries on our yard. Blessed to be in the right place at the right time to catch the apricots when they were in season and reasonably priced. And I have been beyond blessed by friends and neighbours who've given me plums,  apples and vegetables, and who've let me pick their raspberries.

It's been an enjoyable preserving season.

I am well preserved.

*insert the smiley face icon of your choice*


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