Another produce post

So, I didn't get all my produce and products in that one HUGELY long post so thought I'd give it another try....

Zuchinni, shredded, measured, bagged and frozen. Fourty something cups worth...



(My freezer is full of produce- zuchinni, squash, red orach, swiss chard)







Grape juice from my own grapes!

And Chokecherry syrup from my own cherries.

Was NOT a good year for melons -so tiny.

So my roommate was awesome about asking our new acros the street neighbors if we could have their leaves. They said yes (I know not suprising) and then they showed us their chickens. I noticed they had grapes on their fence and so asked if I could come pick them later (it was dark by that time) and they said yes. So I was brave and the next weekend got some more leaves and picked a ton of dark purple grapes. I was even braver and asked the other neighbors if I could pick on their side of the fence. They were shocked as they didn't know people could just pick and eat food from outside, but said yes.

I got too bags FULL. And now have all this lovely free dark grape juice bottled downstairs. YUM

Its amazing how those vines probably haven't been cared for in over 15 years. I can't imagine the haul if they had been tended. The trucks are big around as a tree. Unfortunately they might get pulled out next year as the neighbor said its hard to keep the weeds down along the fence with them in the way :(

Used the last of my hot peppers from the garden and a bucket or so of tomatillos (they are all volunteers in the garden now) to make delicious green sauce. I bought a pH meter because I wanted to be able to make and can my own recipes without buying an expensive pressure canner. Turns out that botulism can't grow below 4.7 pH, so I canned my tomato sauce, salsa, and chili sauce worry free!

This picture shows my counter after a busy day of canning. I did a few of my tomatoes batches by color for fun. I also tried to make some green tomato ketchup after the frost and that didn't turn out so good. It tastes like chili sauce which I've never cared for. I think it was the pickling spice that I don't like. Too much cloves...

I bought some second hand apples pretty cheap this year. I didn't can any (I still have quite a bit from last year left) but made great dried apples and many apple crisps. Just used the last in a skillet apple crisp (the iron skillet I got for Xmas) that was very tasty.

ok this one has nothing to do with produce. Its melanie doing her mini tri. But when she came to visit I made her help me can some things so I guess in a way it does. Alec wanted this gorgeous Brandy Boy type tomatoe and carefully put it in his hat to take home. The hat got sat on (by me) and this is the result.

This is what I did with the sorghum. I cut it into lengths, smashed those with a hammer, and put through the steamer. Boiled that down till I got a sweet juice. Needed to boil that down further to get a syrup but it got lost in the back of the fridge and I just threw it out cause it was growing something I didn't want to taste :( but next year I'm sure I'll do better (especially if I can use that empty lot and put a whole stand in!!!

These beans were from last year. This year I didn't get as many brown ones...

The end till next garden season!