Pray tell...Sauerkraut?

It's that time of the year, there are not enough days, and certainly not enough time to get everything done. Today was full of things to do - made sauerkraut for the first time, pretty easy! I had purchased a beautiful old crock (2 gallon) at the World's Longest Yard Sale about two weeks ago, with just this purpose in mind. I also had a huge head of cabbage ready to go. Here is the a link to the recipe I used:

http://chetday.com/sauerkrautrecipe.htm

So my crock is ready to go into hiding for the next 5 weeks. I'll keep you posted how it turns out!
Now cookingon the stove is tomato sauce. Though we did not have any tomatoes of our own , as we all know, I purchased 50 lbs. from another fellow Certified Naturally Grown farm, Gretchen at Greensleeves in Alexandria. I have an excellent Italian countertop pureer, and after blanching, coring and seeding the mostly roma tomatoes (there are a couple in there from Dan Berkshire's farm too, the ones Fran and I set the same day as ours), I added the wine, herbs and spices, and now the whole house smells great. Tomorrow, homemade ketchup. Once you've had homemade, you'll never go to store bought again. I'll post that recipe...

And finally, here is a great shot from the garden...I spied Mr. Mantis on my agastache looking for his next meal. I have lots of them around, and make sure to not destroy any of the preying mantis egg sacks when I clean up in the spring so they stay around.

Summer in a Jar

Wow, it has been along time since I wrote an entry. I am still grieving the death of my garden, but - plants go on - and summers harvest is in full swing for other farms. And I mean to take full advantage of that. We still have some items we will be able to use. Garlic is ready to harvest. Elderberries if the birds have left me any...herbs, cantaloupe, watermelon and summer squash. Still have those left.

I did have peaches at the farm, and made natural peach jam, just peaches, lemon juice and organic sugar. Also peach and apricot jam the same way. Bought some pickling cucumbers, and made refrigerator dills, bread and butter and sweet pickles. Made blueberry preserves today. Tomatoes are next, with just plain canned and sauce. Need to make some salsa too.

This is the peach jam with farm peaches.

An array of already canned items.

Well, that's it for today. Just wanted to at least get something in and let everyone know we are still alive and kicking. Had a great time for the past couple days at the 127 Yard Sale where I had a booth. Other farm ladies from my area, Tonya and newly met Marlene helped the hours pass quickly. It is such a pleasure to meet other women in agriculture that have great stories and great passion for what they do.