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View Full Version : Spring garden winding down



phylm
06-22-2009, 08:47 PM
:l0 (23):We called a young mother in a family we Home/Visit teach, and who is also a member of my preparation class, to come pick green beans today. She did, with 3 youngsters. Tomorrow is our temple day, so I'll go to her home Wednesday, with my pressure canner, to help her put them up. She was a bit surprised that they would keep for 2 days in the refrigerator.

We have been canning non-stop for weeks now, and are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. :tongue_smilie: 90 pints of green beans, 50 quarts of green peas, about the same amount of sweet corn (some frozen), 60 quarts of frozen broccoli, 30 quarts of snow peas, several quarts of spinach, one gallon and 2 #10 cans full of dried minced onions, plus a couple of bushels in storage, bushels of dehydrated zucchini, summer squash, cukes, and peppers for stir fry, and a lot of dried winter squash, more than 100 quarts of wild blackberries picked...with 50 quarts frozen, 40 pints of jelly, and a lot of pies and cobblers eaten and shared, 60 quarts of tomato sauce, 40 quarts of strawberries, 25 quarts of strawberry jam, 20 quarts of beef stew, 40 pints of hamburg, 40 quarts of chicken, and 50 pints of pork. We've given away a lot of produce, too. I want to can another 10 pounds of hamburg and 40 pounds of chicken, and we'll have (with what is left over from last year and our freeze-dried meat) our year's supply plus, if we live the Word of Wisdom.

I'm happy to report that my husband thinks he'll just pick the rest of the green tomatoes, and pull the plants the end of this week. (!) I think I'll pick the broccoli florets just one more time, and throw the plants to the chickens. Only one more meal or two of corn on the cob, and that will be done. We have been picking handsful of blueberries from the 8 plants we set out last fall. They should produce quite a bit next year, as will the raspberries, bush cherries, and asparagus. When the green pea vines were pulled, hubby planted peanuts and sunflowers, which are thriving. The winter and summer squash, muskmelons, watermelons, and cukes show no sign of quitting for awhile yet, but we'll share a lot with the chickens. Have 2 more rows of green beans coming along for our prep families to pick and learn to can. Our Home teacher has a persimmon grove, so we'll have several free bushels of them to can and to make fruit leather from in September. I've already told my husband only food for the table in our fall garden! Then again, we'll have to see what is happening to food prices and availability by then...we may have to plant for others.

We drove the 2 plus hours up to the bishop's storehouse last Wednesday to help put up welfare orders. Those orders are increasing in numbers, I'm told. I picked up a couple of bags of white flour, 2 bags of sugar, and a bag of quick oats from the cannery, while we were there, to replace what we have used since we went onto living off our storage in January. (I had already increased our store of dry milk, oats, and white wheat on a run earlier in the month.) The cannery missionary says that prices of food are going up this week.

May your gardens do as well as ours did this year, --and may you have a bit milder (cooler) weather to deal with!

Earthling
06-23-2009, 08:54 AM
wow - all I've got so far from my garden is lettuce and some herbs. Your post on your garden sounds like something I would be posting in September! You must live in a warm place. Very impressive.

phylm
06-23-2009, 07:54 PM
Yep, northern Florida.

signseeker
06-24-2009, 10:28 AM
100 quarts of wild blackberries?!?! Heaven...!! :svengo:

I can't even find that many canning jars. My husband thinks I'm nutso for having around 400.

phylm
06-24-2009, 08:54 PM
100 quarts of wild blackberries?!?! Heaven...!! :svengo:

I can't even find that many canning jars. My husband thinks I'm nutso for having around 400.

We gave in and bought another small freezer. the 50 quarts of blackberries are frozen, but the jelly is in jars, of course. We are buying more cases of jars and lids each month, knowing that we'll have to do a lot of fast canning if the Schumer hits. We are, however, having to store a lot of our canned goods in our camper!