Independence day challenge

     Simple Pleasures.  Yup.  When everything is crazy busy this time of year I take pleasure in simple things.  One thing I am getting great pleasure out of is the squash patch. It was so lush and rambling this year.  When everything else in the garden seem to be a bit of a struggle with rain and creepy crawlies.  The squash patch was the actualization of the vision I had when I planted it.The great thing with the squash now is that as the plants are  fading away they reveal their bounty.  There are so many  butternut squash.  More pie pumpkins that I thought.  And  yummy buttercups that are now sitting in my sunroom window to season their stems.

 

    Another simple pleasure, a cupboard full of home canning jars.  All those beautiful colors.  Crisp pickles will taste refreshing in January when we are sick of potatoes.   Soups will be a matter of emptying jars.  All the work now will save me work later.  And the sense of accomplishment.  I have had to buy new pint jars for salsa and jams because I have used up all that I had.   There are still many quart jars downstairs but I still have many more foodstuffs to put up.  Apples, Apples and tomatoes and more tomatoes oh and cranberries.  So I am feeling very independent this week.

Planted:  More spinach.  I know, I know this is getting redundant but we love spinach and I would like to eat it fresh for a as long a s possible.

Harvested:  Carrots, potatoes, zucchini, acorns, apples, basil, leeks, squash, corn, spinach

Preserved: broccoli, salsa, tomato paste, dried eggplant, zucchini relish, tomato puree, frozen spinach.

prepped:  I've been pretty lame on this one lately but we've been so busy with the garden and food preservation that I think of that as prepping too.  Oh no wait...stacking firewood, putting up hay for the critters winter feed.

Local foods:  farmers market, local farmstand and neighbor gave us some corn.  I am going away next week and researching if there are any local fruits available that we can't get easily here that I can bring home to preserve.

learned something new:  I cut out the pattern for teenager's christmas pjs.  I am learning how to use treadle sowing machine.

cooked something new:  spinach pancakes, tomato paste, zucchini relish

reduced waste: the usual composting, recycling, sending stuff to the thrift store.