1) Picked a 5 - gallon bucket-o-stuff from the garden. Tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, beets. I ate the raspberries I picked.
2) Bottled Dill Pickles. I haven't put up pickles in a long time because I was introduced to Mt. Olive brand pickles and figured it doesn't get any better than those. But I had a lot of cucumbers from my two hills of vines, so I started to pick them very small and had enough for 5 quarts of dill pickles.
3) Made a batch of salsa and bottled 9 pints of that. One pint didn't fit into the hot water bath canner, so it's in the fridge.
4) Washed and sorted all the tomatoes.
5) Filled 2 pans with quarted tomatoes and they are drying/roasting in the oven.
6) Grated up most of my thigh-sized zucchini and put it in 4 quart-sized freezer bags.
7) Picked about 3/4 of a big bucket of pears from the neighbor's tree (from my side of the wall.)
8) Cooked up the green beans that were tiny and had been in my fridge for a while. Now I can have those for lunches next week at work.
9) Went to WalMart. On a Saturday. Got a wedding gift for a couple whose reception is this evening before I go to usher at USF.
10) Cleaned 2 toilets, 2 sinks and one floor in a bathroom. I kind of ran out of steam by that point.
11) Went to MIL house to gather up more empty bottles.
I feel kind of . . .um. . .not really pressured, but definitely driven to do my best to take care of our abundant produce from our yards this year. Our income has changed since Mike retired in May, so perhaps that's part of it. Will be be living off this stuff? We really do need to spend less at the store. Says me who went to buy the rest of the wedding gift (I gave the cute kids a chip and dip platter, some [homemade] salsa and some chips), but came home with donuts to eat for dinner. Hey, it's been a long day and I have not had donuts for a LONG time!!
Pears I picked this morning
Tomatoes I picked. Most are from this morning.
Salsa simmering in the pot, waiting to go in the bottles.
Roasting tomatoes. Once "dried" in the oven, they are so yummy! I just pop them in a baggie and freeze. Or, i can puree them and use as a sauce when they're re-constituted with water. The flavors (I add sea salt and olive oil and garlic while they roast) are so intensified!
Five quartes of dill pickles. I forgot to use the lime and soak them before hand, so they'll probably be soggy.
Some of the many bottles I picked up over at Berenice's house.
Eric mowed our lawns this morning, so his day was a bit productive, too! Mike drove his Mom to a wedding in Salt Lake (and back), and I did usher at Shakespeare. Plus blogged. Gee, no wonder I'm pooped out! ha.
