I have to say, having a full time job can really get in the way of harvesting and preserving my veggies.
We had a holiday this week and it threw my whole weekend off.
I also got to play with my grand kids over the weekend, so I was a little distracted. I was so busy with them and with harvesting and preserving and picking berries, I completely lost track of my days.
I didn’t even realize Tuesday was Tuesday until about 10 pm Monday night. Oops.
I’ve been canning.
We’ve been harvesting and preserving our garden goodies.
We don’t have a ton of different veggies, but we have enough of the few we grew. I’ve given some to family and now I’m preserving for later.
Of course, we’ve been eating them too….daily.
This weekend, I canned 10 quarts of tomatoes and 3 quarts of chicken broth.
I’ve been saving up tomatoes through the week and froze them. Then I thawed them this weekend. The skins come right off when you thaw them. That was something new I tried and it worked great.
We bought a few chickens from a farm down the road a few weeks ago. I cooked them and used the meat last week.
Then I cooked what all was left from the chicken along with some veggies and some rabbit parts I had saved in the freezer. You can read how how I make broth here.
We’ve found that the rabbit makes the broth a bit darker than usual. I’m guessing that will make it more flavorful too.
I’m dehydrating too.
I dehydrated some of the banana peppers and okra. I’ll be able to add the peppers to meatloaf and maybe some meatball and the okra to soups and gumbos during winter.
I also dehydrated the last of the radishes we had. They were so good roasted, I thought dehydrated, they would be really good in soups and stews. We’ll see how that goes.
Since they lose their bite when they’re roasted, I’m counting on the flavor without the bit in a soup or stew too.
We went berry hunting.
We also went berry hunting Monday morning. I’ll be coming up with some elderberry syrup soon. Stay tuned for that one.
With cold and flu season just a few weeks away, you’ll want to make some of your own elderberry syrup.
I have a few cool things in the works. You’ll see those soon.
I’ll catch you next week with something new.
Until then –
Health, Wealth & Blessing ~ Tracey