I made a big decision this week, not to plant a fall garden or even attempt a second planting of anything. The reason is that I just do not have the time or energy to attempt this year. I have been super tired every day this week after working. I am doing well just to keep up.
But someone forgot to tell the garden! We are continuing to get a small harvest 2 or 3 times a week. Last Sunday, I made a pot of tomato sauce to use in our favorite Mexican rice recipe. I was able to freeze a total of 19 1/2 cup bags to use. This is just 4 short of my total of 24 I wanted for the year. I am almost positive that I will be able to get the remaining four before the end of the garden. Last night we again harvested a medium size bowl of tomatoes. I debated on turning these into sauce as well but decided to chop up and freeze as diced tomatoes. I have about 10 cans of diced tomatoes but these are seasoned for Italian food. Zach pointed out that we needed diced tomatoes to make Spanish rice. I was able to freeze 4 bags of 2 cups of diced tomatoes. I would like to get another 8 bags in the freezer but if not we have a start and don’t need to purchase this minute.
I don’t remember if I shared about our pear harvest this year. If not or if you want to get a refresher course, check out the story here! After canning 21 quarts of diced pears, we placed about 2 dozen in our closet that we use for cold storage and left another 20ish on the counter for fresh eating. I noticed this week that the pears were starting to turn and needed to be used. We also discovered that some of the pears in the closet needed to be used as well. We decided to make pear sauce/syrup. It made 2 pints and 5 pints. I used some on my pancakes this morning and it was good!
Another item that we are still getting from the garden is cucumbers. I have canned 3 pints of bread and butter pickles already. I made an “experimental” batch of refrigerator pickles, and they were a hit. I was able to get a second jar started today. We also have some cucumbers for fresh eating as well.
Matt and Zach have been outside working on a new deck in front of our small metal building that holds the bikes. I spent alot of time, trying to make sure we don’t waste food. I have gone through the refrigerator as well.
Today we saved by staying at home and eating at home. Remember every little bit counts!
