Veggies and Berries

This morning I awoke to the sound of Mom moving pots and pans around in the kitchen. Hmm... when I hear that sound I can almost guarantee there is probably some sort of produce processing in the day's plans. Sure enough after I pulled myself from my warm bed and trudged into the kitchen I found the kitchen island covered in tomatoes, zucchini and peppers freshly picked from the garden. 

Don't they look beautiful? Our garden is doing pretty well considering the heat and drought. Dad is watering it, but even so the paper and straw is doing a good job of keeping moisture in and weeds out. 

Canning is a normal part of summer activities around here. The shelves in the basement are lined with green beans, tomatoes and chicken broth we've put up in past seasons. If you've got it, you'd best not waste it! Waste not, want not. Ben Franklin knew what he was talkin' 'bout. 

Today's agenda was canning (or rather hot-bathing) tomatoes and freezing peppers. We're also trying something Dad read about- dehydrating tomatoes. I guess after they are done dehydrating you ground them up into a powder, then when you need tomato paste you just add water. 

And, while we're on the topic of produce... Over the Fourth of July my aunt and I went blackberry picking down by the pond (which sadly is more like a hole in the ground right now). The week previously I had been at Kathryn's house and she showed me their beautiful, tame blackberry bushes. I explained we had wild berries but they hadn't produced well in a long time. The very night I got home, Dad informed me there were a bunch of blackberries nearly ripe enough to pick! How ironic. My aunt was here when they were ready to be picked so the two of us got up early to beat the heat and went down there. A couple hours and several thorn scratches later we had a gallon of berries.

So what did we do with them? Well, of course I had to make a cobbler. Then Aunt Jennifer passed on her jam-making knowledge. That was really special to me because Mom doesn't make jams, and come to find out jam making was the last thing Aunt Jennifer learned from my grandma before she passed away. It was a lot easier than I expected, so the next week when I was back at Kathryn's I helped her make some plum jam from their plums!

That same day a neighbor brought up some sweet corn for us, so we went to freezing it. Some of my earliest memories are of freezing corn. My first job was carrying the corn inside to Mom and Grandma after Dad husked it outside. Then I was the official mover of the corn cobs from their first warm bath after being boiled into the cold bath. Now they let me use knives to cut the corn off the cob. Hehe... ;)

I'm usually the photographer, but Mom took
this picture so you'd have proof I actually do help!