Harvesting and preserving

This post may contain affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase I may receive a commission. Thank you for supporting this site.

The last few weeks my kitchen has been transformed into our canning kitchen. But we’re also doing some freezing and dehydrating.

We’ve harvested 13 cantaloupes and I bet there are about 20 more on the vines. Esther was super excited to smell the first one we cut open. We’re eating one a day and have cut up a few and froze them for smoothies.

Our tomatoes keep coming in. So many are ruined from the Leaffooted bugs, it really makes me sad but it makes the chickens happy. But we’ve still managed to can 24 quarts of salsa. We’re hoping to can about 50 quarts to last the year. We’ll see if that goal gets accomplished. Our celebrity tomatoes are pretty juicy so I let them sit in a colander and drain some of the juice out before making them into salsa. Then I can that juice to use in soups and rice later on.

Our cucumbers are doing well. They seem to know that only a few of us love them and the pickles they make so they’re only giving us a few a day. I’ve made 8 pints of bread and butter pickles. That’s probably enough for us but I want to make a few to give away. I also want to make a few pints of dill pickles. So if you have a good dill pickle recipe please leave it in the comments.

A friend’s dad scored us some corn from a farmer he knows. We canned 15 pints of sweet corn. Another friend gave us some and we froze that on the cobs. We’re not huge corn eaters but we like it in soups and occasionally as a side.

We’ve also make about 3 cups of basil pesto to freeze. I freeze it in ice cube trays and then pop them out and put the frozen cubes in a ziplock bag.

Our cherry tomatoes have done really well and we’ve been dehydrating the ones we’re not eating fresh. I like to grind these up in the extra coffee grinder and use it to flavor soups and add to rice.

So that’s about all we’re harvesting right now. The wild grapes should be ready, I’m driving out to check them today. I found one last jar of grape jelly way back in the cupboard yesterday. Gabriel was pretty excited.

Recipes for these and other things to preserve are under the In the Kitchen tab at the top of the page.

What are you harvesting and/or preserving?

This post is shared at Clever Chicks blog hop, Mostly Homemade Monday, Barn Hop, Backyard Farming Connection, Beauty and Bedlam’s Tasty Tuesday, Wow Us Wednesday, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, Homemaking Link Up, HomeAcre Blog Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, Home and Garden Thursday,

Thanks for sharing with your friends!

28 thoughts on “Harvesting and preserving”

  1. I’m jealous of those cantaloupes!! The corn looks fantastic too! Our chickens are really enjoying the tomatoes that the critters have gotten to also, and we’re still bringing in a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes! We’re having good luck with the fermenting of them I was telling you about. Our cucumbers didn’t do well…not sure why. We’ve only gotten a handful, not even enough to make any pickles. I have some fermented dill pickle recipes that we love. Here are links:

    Basic Dills: http://www.homewithpurpose.net/2011/06/real-honest-to-goodness-fermented-dill.html

    Some fun variations: http://www.homewithpurpose.net/2012/05/tasty-pickles-garlic-cinnamon-rosemary.html

    Reply
    • It is nice that the garden cast offs don’t really go to waste. I was thinking about your fermented tomatoes today as I was cutting up more cherry tomatoes to dehydrate. I posted the link on my facebook and google plus.

      Thanks for the pickle recipes, I have some cucumbers I need to take care of.

      Reply
  2. Oh my, I’m so jealous!! Everything looks amazing! We haven’t harvested much, a few broccoli…my broccoli grew huge leaves but little vegetable so I ended up buying some from a neighbor down the road who has a huge garden. And we’ve picked onions as needed. Our peas wilted while we were gone on vacation this week so nothing there. 🙁 But our corn, beans, and tomatoes are looking fabulous and I’m hoping for a good harvest from them. Oh, I did pick my first zuchinni yesterday and we ate it today! Yum!

    Reply
    • No need to be jealous, Mary. We’re about at the end of our season. I still have some melons to pick and some tomatoes and okra. But most of the tomatoes are getting sunscald because of the heat and/or eaten by leaffooted bugs. My goal now is just to keep the plants alive until mid September when it should cool down. Enjoy your harvest.

      Reply
    • Thanks, Vickie. I hopped over to your blog and your garden looks great. You guys have really done a lot of work with it and the trees. I’m excited about your post on cheese. I think I’ll have to try some with some of our watermelons – after some research. Thanks for visiting.

      Reply
  3. You are ahead of us in PA…anything we have now is from the South though the first local corn at one or two of the larger farms should be ready soon! 🙂

    We have had local strawberries here though.

    You have so much done and canned and processed already! Amazing! 🙂

    Reply
  4. lots of nice canning going on I see! all we are canning is jams and jellies, everything else is starting to grow though! cant wait! my favorite time of the year is harvest season! your melons look wonderful! I can taste them!

    debbie

    Reply
  5. What fun! Our canning season is not here yet (which I am rather thankful of at the moment as that sounds like a hot job) but I am always excited when it comes. We are harvesting salads and things like that though. God is good to bless us so abundantly!

    Reply
  6. What an amazing harvest, I’ve only just begun to can this year’s harvest. There is nothing more satisfying than a well stocked pantry. Thank you so much for sharing on The Home Acre Hop, look forward to seeing what you share this week! Nancy
    On The Home Front

    Reply
  7. You really are harvesting marvelously! The corn looks beautiful – love the photo with the sweet child! The rain has definitely affected crops in our area. I do appreciate you sharing with Home and Garden Thursday,
    Kathy

    Reply

Leave a Comment