put up and put away

It's official!  The canning season in this house has come to an end!  My canning supplies have been crowding our kitchen for the last few weeks in hopes that a batch of apple butter would somehow find its way into my canner and onto my shelves, but this past weekend, I resigned myself to the reality that we're not going to have apple butter this year (nor any jam for that matter...darn strawberries and raspberries!).  And so, with that sigh of resignation, I moved the canner and it's accompanying parts back down to the basement and put them away.  Away until next June when the strawberries return and the gardens begin to once again produce their bounty.  

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Along with that sigh of resignation, however, came a sigh of relief.  THE CANNING IS DONE!!!!  Hooray!!!!!  This means that winter is on its way and with it will come a much slower pace--quieter weekends, quieter evenings, and more time to knit, sew, and read.  Yes, a sigh of relief, indeed!  I love August and September and my many hours spent in my kitchen prepping veggies and such in order to preserve them, but after awhile, it gets a bit exhausting to plan my life around ripe tomatoes and the like.  The freedom that follows putting that canner away is quite lovely--not to mention the shelves full of preserved summer goodness!  

This summer, I was able to put up jars of tomatoes, tomato soup, tomato sauce, salsa verde, corn, applesauce, pickled tomatoes, pickled cucumbers, pickled mixed veggies, and fermented jalapeños, as well as a gallon of frozen blueberries, a gallon or so of frozen green beans, and a few different types of dried herbs.  Running down to the basement to grab some of that home-preserved goodness never gets old!  I find it rewarding each and every time I open a jar, add its contents to a meal, wash it up, and put it back on the shelf for next summer.  It feels so fulfilling, so resourceful, and so very satisfying.  

Yes, putting away the canner for the season is good, but by the time next summer comes around, I'll be very ready to take it back out again and start the process over.  

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garden notes :: 10.16.15

I said farewell to most of my garden this past weekend. We still haven't had a hard frost in Minneapolis (however, tonight could be the night!), but the tomatoes and peppers had reached a point of making very little progress in growing and ripening.  Also, as it's already mid-October, I've been feeling a strong urge to wrap up the outside work and prepare the house for the long winter months ahead.  So, away went the tomatoes, peppers, tomatillo, and eggplant.  Some carrots still remain and the beans will stay until the vines die back from the frost.  The basil was covered last night and will be turned into pesto and some will be hung up to dry this evening.  

Before pulling out the tomatillo and tomatoes, my sister-in-law helped me gather all of the fruit that was still covering the vines.  We gathered another 2.5 lbs of tomatillos and a large bowl of tomatoes.  Sunday was then spent in the kitchen busily canning another couple jars of salsa verde and 8 pints of pickled green tomatoes.  I'm was excited to put all of those green tomatoes to use! Hopefully the pickles will be a great winter treat!

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While it may seem like the garden is done for the season, there is still quite a bit more to do.  I'd love to cut back my herbs for another round of drying and there's a fresh batch of compost waiting to be dumped into garden to prepare the soil for spring.  Then there is garlic to be planted!  I had such a good time growing garlic this summer and so I'm going at it again and quadrupling the amount!  I have 4 heads to get into the ground in the next few weeks!  This year I'm planning to mark those heads so I know where to find them in the spring and so I can take notes on the different varieties I'm trying.  If you are wanting to grow garlic next year, now's the time to plant!  You can pick up bulbs at local garden shops, but make sure you get types that are good for your climate.  What's sold in the grocery store is generally not cold-hardy enough for these harsh Minnesota winters.  

After the unruliness of the summer garden, I do love the quiet, tidy, and restful fall garden bed.  It's calming to prepare it for winter where it will be able to rest, recoup, and rebuild before next summer comes around...that garden bed is a bit like us, I think, needing the quiet and rest that winter brings...I must say, I'm getting ready.  How about you? 

when life is too busy to pick the beans...

...the beans get really big.

It's been a week of really big beans around here.  With a busy holiday weekend spent with the best of friends and the start of the fall semester, there has hardly been time to sit down, let alone pick the beans!  And because of that, I just washed and froze a quart of rather large beans.  They won't taste the best and the texture may be a bit strange, but they will still nourish our bodies in the middle of winter and that's what's really important.  

So, with the summer behind us and the fall in full swing, I wish you all the best as you find yourself with maybe a little less time than you had a week or two ago.  There is something about fall that brings more regular commitments to the table, which can be lovely and bring such a good rhythm to our lives, but it can also mean that some things, like the beans, get a bit overlooked in the hustle and bustle.  So, as you fill your days with things, I hope you are still able to find ways to nourish your bodies and souls, even if it's with slightly overgrown and less than perfect beans.  

Cheers to fall!  And cheers to you, my dear readers.  

summer heat, in the house and out

July is in full swing and with it has come the hot and humid Minnesota air of summer.  I love this time of year, because it's such an extreme contrast compared to the frigid below zero temps of January.  In years where we don't really have a hot summer, it makes the freezing winter seem harder to bear.  Granted, days upon days and weeks upon weeks of very hot and very humid is not my favorite, but I'll take at least a bit of it!  

Now, in the winter, we like to keep our house on the cooler side...with the thermostat rarely reaching above 65 degrees.  Our thought on this is that you can always put on an extra layer to keep warm and your body really does adjust to it over time.  It also makes the transition from inside to out much easier as it's comfortable to keep the under layers on in the house, instead of being too hot inside and too cold out.  

In the summer we have a similar philosophy.  In our little house we do not have much in the way of air conditioning, except a rather small window unit that currently sits in one of our living room windows.  Living in a society where almost everything is cooled with central air, it's difficult for some to imagine a home without air conditioning, but it wasn't that long ago when having air conditioning was quite the luxury! Since it's become such a standard element in our society, in my opinion, we've gone to the extreme in using it.  We now walk into buildings in the middle of summer and find ourselves shivering because it's too cold, or we have to bring sweaters to work in order to comfortably sit at our desks all day.  For many they walk out of their air conditioned houses, climb into an air conditioned car, sit in an air conditioned office all day, just to go home and repeat it all again--hoping they'll get just a few minutes out in the sun and fresh air during lunch or in the evening.  

For me, that doesn't work.  We get these few short months of warm weather, weather that's perfect enough to spend the entire day outside, yet our society often prefers its perfectly controlled climate set at 70 degrees all year round.  It doesn't work for me because I want to fully soak up summer while it's here so that I'm ready for the cool down of fall and the coziness of winter when they come.  Now, don't get me wrong, A/C has it's place.  I understand that we need to keep our work places workable and it's much easier to sleep when you're not drenched in sweat.  I get it.  However, I wish we could find that happy medium as a society where we could cool when needed, but let the fresh air in order to enjoy summer the rest of the time.  

The good news is that we can make those choices in our homes.  Shut the air off!  Open the windows!  Yes, 80, even 90, is warm during the day, but goodness, 60's feel so good at night!  If it's hot in the house, wear as few clothes as possible and enjoy the temporary heat of summer.  Let your body sweat!  It's good for you.  And more importantly, let the warm temps inside send you outside.  We find that when our house is warm, it's usually more comfortable outside, which means we spend hours of our day in the yard and on the deck.  We eat outside, work outside, relax outside.  It's wonderful!  

So, my challenge for you today is to think about the amount of air conditioning you use on a daily basis and ask yourself whether you really need it.  What would happen if you turned the thermostat up just a bit or even off for a bit to simply enjoy the heat of summer?  Try it for a few days, for a few weeks!  I think you may be surprised how your body can acclimate if you allow it to and I think you'll find that summer won't slip away as quickly as it usually seems to.  Give it a chance.  Open those windows!!

in bloom

As I add perennials to my flower beds, it's been fun to add more plants that will bloom throughout the summer.  The lilacs kicked off the blooming season a few weeks ago, and now the peonies and mock orange bushes are taking their turn!  Peonies are such a heavenly flower.  I love filling our house with them and smelling their decadent fragrances as they waft in through our dining room windows.  This year my bushes are staggering their blooming times a bit, which is much appreciated by me!  It's nice to have the short peony season extended a bit.

How about you?  What's blooming in your yard??