For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. Jeremiah 29:11-14

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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Fall like morning...raspberry jam...and sauerkraut!

This is the scene I woke up to this AM...is it fall and I really missed summer? Our weather has been more fall like this summer than summer like. My garden has suffered because of it. So frustrating, but I can't change it so I will choose to be thankful for what our garden does provide this year. Potatoes, onions, beets and carrots are doing well in my garden. Tomatoes are going to be scarce, as are green beans I'm afraid. Not one of my cucumber, zucchini or squash came up from the seeds I planted, most of my pepper plants have totally stalled or died since going in the ground and my lettuce is looking more like micro greens than lettuce. The fog is beautiful though...I just wish it were settling over a well producing fall garden, rather than a poorly producing summer garden. :) Oh well...can't have everything.
My raspberries, on the other hand are doing quite well this year! They don't seem to care that the weather has been rather cold and fall like. Sure, we could get more juicy berries if the sun would come out and shine, but we are still getting a good harvesting of berries anyway. Yesterday I spent a bit of time washing berries and making jam. I had a big bowl of berries that the kids had picked on Sunday just right for a batch of jam. Aren't the jars pretty?
When I was in town on Monday, I picked up about 6 heads of cabbage at a local produce stand. I love this place, a 5th or 6th generation, family owned, working farm. Most of the produce that I preserve that I can't grow myself, comes from Bi-Zi Farms. It just feels good to support a local family run farm, plus they are such a neat family to boot! :) Anyway, back to my cabbage....I have been wanting to try my hand at making Sauerkraut and found a wonderful recipe in a cookbook put out by a local lady named Fran Gillette. The kraut ferments in the quart jars that you end up canning it into. What could be easier!! We'll see how it works. I didn't buy the 40 pounds of cabbage the recipe called for, so I tried to salt it accordingly. Hopefully I didn't over do the salt. :) Either way, it will be a fun experiment. If it looks like it's working the way it should, I'll go buy 40 pounds of cabbage and make the whole recipe later. I can't wait to try the kraut....but it will be another month before I'll know how good it is.

3 comments:

Ma said...

Everything looks beautiful! I'd like to see that kraut recipe if you have time to post it!
-Stephanie

Cinnamon said...

I am ready for a bit of cooler weather. It's been drippingly humid here lately :-9

Your raspberries look amazing!! I'm jealous :-)

~Cinnamon

Unknown said...

Stephanie, I'll try to get it posted later today. Cinnamon, we are in for more heat...after I posted this post I heard that we are in for 90+ temps starting on Friday or Saturday. We've had such unseasonably cold temps this summer, just a handful of really warm days. I'm hoping this means summer is finally here to stay. :) You can keep your humidity though. :)

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