How many people out there are a slave to the garden this time of year? I am! I am past the aesthetic pleasure of watching our cultivated patches of terra firma blossom and into the drudgery of constantly washing or buying canning jars and feeling overwhelmed by produce. And facing the guilt of being too busy to harvest my garden 100% and losing some of it to insects, blight or just letting it get too large. The broccoli flowered almost before the heads truly looked developed this year.
Yesterday I started at 7 AM towards doing up pickled beets. I went out to pick some and wash them. I got into picking a few flowers for the house, had to wash some dishes and then started a huge pot of beets to boil. My canning jars and pickling solution were prepared and waiting.
By 11 AM I was roughly half done. I had to turn over the project to my very capable fiance' to finish because I had to leave for a family gathering!!! I returned to see 5 1/2 quarts of pickled beets were done. That seems like a lot of time for two people to make that amount of product...plus preparing the ground and growing the beets.
I think our tomato sauce is more cost effective but this year I am not sure we will get much. As gardeners in the Northeast know, there is a blight this year that has devastated our tomatoes. The plants got a powdery looking mold and withered overnight. Now, as the tomatoes ripen they are getting soft and rotten spots on the tops. I am down to my last 2 quarts of tomato sauce and I may have to buy my tomatoes this year if I am going to can at all. I am contemplating the idea of going back to Prego for a while.
On the upside, my gooseberry bush put out a record crop this year. I got 2 batches of jelly instead of one. For anyone who hasn't tried gooseberry jelly it is similar to cranberry, but sweeter. It has a lovely deep pink color. I have also made currant and that is almost identical. I would say the gooseberry has a little more tartness than the currant. I personally like gooseberry better.
My other favorite jelly to make is elderberry. That closely resembles concord grape. Don't be afraid to try making it. You don't have to remove each tiny berry when you make the juice. Just clean the whole bunch of berries on the stems and put them all in the pot together. After you boil and mash the berries take the stems out and strain the pulp through your jelly cloth. I don't know how anyone could make elderberry pie. Now that would be a job!
It may sound like I am complaining, but if I didn't want to can or garden I wouldn't. There is a lot of satisfaction that comes from watching the garden grow. It is exciting to see the baby radishes, carrots, peppers flourishing. During the long upstate NY winters it is lovely to make a stir-fry with pepper strips frozen from our crop grown in Earthboxes on the deck each summer.
Sometimes I wish life were simpler so there would be more time to do these things. Then, it wouldn't seem like such a huge chore when canning season came around. If only it didn't have to be done after a long day at work or early in the morning. But, regardless I will make the time. And if I run out of time, I can ask for my Sweetie to help like he did yesterday. Thanks Again Hon.
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