I would suspect we only have a few more weeks of summer weather remaining. And I'm ok with that! How I long to have crisp, cool nights and mornings and days when the windows can be opened to air out the stuffiness that comes with a closed up home.
Soon enough we'll be prepping the garden for the impending winter and harvesting the last of it's offerings. I promised myself that this year I would work hard to consciously enjoy the summer moments despite heat and humidity and not wish for my very favorite season to quickly approach. And for the most part I've succeeded, but as it gets closer, how can you not wish for fall? How can you not get excited for mums and pumpkins and beautifully changing leaves and sweaters and homemade hot chai tea? Not to mention adding pancakes back to the breakfast rotation and stews and soups to the lunch and dinner ones. And homemade bread!
Oh how I love cold weather comfort food.
This month has overflowed with activity. Our days are currently full of tomatoes. In fact, a batch of our very favorite Tomato Jam is on the to-do list this week. I adore it slathered on bread or crackers, or just eaten with a spoon if I'm being honest. I'm going to try the honey-sweetened version this year (found at Food In Jars). Salsa will also be canned and the very moment our humidity drops the oven will be on so I can start roasting a plethora of tomatoes for the freezer. We absolutely LOVE making these into sauces. Especially the cherry tomatoes. The roasting really amps up their flavor even more!
A few weeks ago we were swimming in zucchini and green beans. The green beans continue to provide but the zucchini is coming to an early end thanks to vine borers and my unfortunate lack of attention to catch them early on. I was so disappointed when I saw the wilting begin. I did, however, get some sliced and dehydrated before they were gone. A few of you suggested this is your choice for preserving them and so we are giving it a try. They will get rehydrated in stir fries, soups, and such this winter. The cukes continue on strong thankfully and we are enjoying the challenge of eating them all.
Our freezers are filling up with both locally raised meats and our produce. I haven't canned a whole lot this year. Mostly because we don't eat a lot of canned food, preferring excess veggies and fruit, for the most part, to be frozen or dehydrated instead. And partly because I've got some left from the past couple of years.
Isn't that one of the best feelings? Having enough to put up for years of good eating.
It's been a laborious season but one good thing the pandemic taught us was that we could reduce our work time a bit more allowing us more time to enjoy things we love and get more accomplished around the homestead. We've really enjoyed the pace we set this summer and have decided to continue it.
Despite the never ending (it felt this way anyway) humidity, it has been a good summer. We were blessed with rain pretty much weekly allowing the garden to produce prolifically. The rain really has been relentless which, unfortunately, kept our humidity up. I'm not much of a fan of humidity so I decided early on to focus on the benefits of the rain rather than the drawbacks. Because what we focus on grows and we can't do a darned thing to change the weather (or many other things in our life) I try to remember to look at, and therefore magnify, the good. The free water for crops and wildlife, a healthy well full of water, the fact that the temps were relatively moderate, and a green lawn all summer long!
This week we find ourselves celebrating our wedding anniversary (how can it be 24 years already???), starting our fall prep for the business, and listing out the homestead to-dos we hope to complete before winter arrives. Our grill and air fryer will be used a lot this week as our temps and humidity will both be high. We've been discussing the possibility of creating a small outdoor kitchen on our upper deck next year. I think it would work out well.
We'll continue working on filling our freezer with more produce and eggs (to get through the molting period) and adding more beautiful jars to our cupboards as well. And I've got to take the time to figure out what I can make with an excess of Asian Pears. Our tree is LOADED this year and we can't possibly eat them all fresh!
Hoping this finds you doing well and magnifying the good in many facets of your own life.
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