Zuke It Out

Right before the zukes started to die off, we were pulling in extra-large fruit. We prefer to pick it smaller, but it was growing so fast that this is what we would find on the vine. The harvest we pulled in with this zuke provided enough for me to bake, pickle and share with our entire street.

Well, I can tell that these photos are from a few weeks ago when we had an abundance of zuchinni & cucumbers. In about a week, we would lose our first zuke plant and begin our battle with the squash (& other) bugs. Though, as a gardener, you never want to lose your plants; really, we have been blessed with a lot of crop so far this year. We have been able to do everything that we would have wanted as far as cooking, canning & sharing. This weekend, I processed the last of our major zucchini harvest and will use the "last" two zukes to make chocolate zuchinni bread. Darren has already planted new seedlings & seeds for a second harvest- this is the first year we have done that.

This is what the kitchen looks like when I can. I would probably be considered a fairly messy cook as you can see an abundance of utensils, spices and produce lining the countertop. On the stove are my canning pot (the big mama) and my cooking pot. Hot water bath canning is all about heat, and when I am doing a batch, I will have some sort of boiling liquid going for several hours. Thankfully, our new pocket door was just installed (not in this picture) to help keep the heat from spreading throughout the house.

It was just 2 years ago that I did my first ever canning with an apple harvest (not from our property). Looking back it seemed like such a production...and it really is...but now it is no big deal for me to head to the kitchen 2-3 times a week to do a batch of canning. This was my first year to do pickling, and I have made several different versions of bread & butter pickles, dill pickles, relish and squash salads. In the past two weeks, we started to harvest our larger tomatoes & peppers and, yesterday, I did my first batches of salsa & tomatoes. I find myself amazed at the relative simplicity of the process and exhausted by the chore of it all at once. Mostly, I just love to see all those brightly colored jars lined up on the counters with the cheerful ping of their lids punctuating my sense of satisfaction at a job well done.

My pickles!