I was busy canning in my pj's this past week. I did 13 pints of diced tomatoes. With only 1 pint jar left and 8 cups of diced tomatoes, I froze the rest.
Here's a sampling of what I canned this year: spaghetti sauce (4 quarts), chili sauce (4 pints), diced tomatoes (13 pints), and zucchini relish (5 1/2 pints). While our garden didn't look as beautiful as in years past, it still produced well. I froze carrots & peas. Randy roasted Anaheim chile & he loves adding it to his fresh salsa. He will miss it. We've had our fair share (but still loving them!) of fresh cucumbers and red, yellow & green bell peppers. Our strawberries have done pretty well, even after I accidentally tried to kill them by over-fertilizing. We definitely enjoyed our fresh garden peas & snap peas, as well. And you know that we also got some good onions.
The potato plants, however, were diseased, so while the ones we got were nice-sized and beautiful, there weren't very many. 10 plants yielded what 3 healthy plants should have.
We battled squash bugs a bit, but our zucchini prevailed. It gave the perfect amount of food. I was able to use it for kabobs, zucchini cake a few times, zucchini relish, share a few, add it to some dinner recipes, and make zucchini bread. It was the perfect plant for us this year.
Our green beans did horribly. I think I planted them where they were too hot & got too much sun. I won't be planting them again next year.
The corn had limited success. They were planted next to the green beans & may have been too exposed, as well. The wind would also knock them over. This next year, I'll plant them in a different spot, and plant more of them. Not being fully pollinated was also a problem this year.
The cantaloupe was killed, and the garlic didn't like all the rain we had early in the summer, so it died. We actually had one that re-grew (I missed it when pulling out the others), but of course, Jenna got to it.
Plants I didn't enjoy or do much with: cauliflower (just didn't look right), broccoli (small yield at any given time & then I'd let it bolt too often), beets (I'm sure they were good, but I wasted them.)
I've loved the garden & the fresh produce, but I'm almost glad it's done this year. I think some of our plants froze a few nights ago, but I need to go check on them.
5 comments:
I've heard pickled zucchini is delish! It all looks and sounds wonderful Keri! I envy you!
way to go Idaho! that is a serious yield! I am hoping to get our garden ready for next year. I will get to finally plan it out!! Yeah! then we can do canning together.
way to go supermom, you always have great looking pictures of your garden. You actually inspired us to plant a very small garden this year, you proud?
The zucchini bread was FABULOUS by the way. Thank you so much!
Way to go Keri! Good job! Grandma Wimmer and Grandpa Hunt would be proud of you!
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