Oh yes, the canning continues. Blah blah blah blah blah. Yes, my enthusiasm is waning, but just a bit. I’m also sure you’re quite tired of hearing about it as well. But my goal is to document my doings, so I’ll stick with it if you will. So quick rundown. Canned, so far: 2 marmalade, 8 pear butter, 10 cranberry pear chutney. Also finally figured out how to pressure can (for low acid foods like veggies and meats) rather than just hot water bath can (for high acid foods like fruits, which is what I’ve been doing). The whole pressure aspect is a bit scary: the steam gushing forth, the frenetic knocking of the pressure weight. I keep waiting for it to explode. Hopefully that will not happen. I’m also running out of the good Bartlett pears so I’ve been playing around with canning the Asian pears. I can definitely taste the difference so I may just save the Asian pears for Pears in Brandy or a light syrup. Plus the Asian pears are low acid (apparently pears are one of the lowest acid fruits on the high acid fruit totem pole and Asian pears fall just under the mark) so they need to be pressure canned. Who knew?
Pecans are falling. Several of our trees are early fruiting (nutting?). And this is the first year of nuts for one of our younger pecan trees (so proud, our little tree-ling is growing up). It’s creating quite a respectable harvest for itself (and us). This year, since we have several different kinds of pecan trees, and thus types of pecans, I am gathering and storing the pecans by tree so we can gauge the quality of the nuts, the haul, and hopefully record and correct any issues with a particular tree. Wow, we seem so scientific and organized! If only. I’ve been trying to identify our pecan types online, but frankly, they all look pretty much the same. Some are bigger, some smaller, some rounder, some more oval. They all taste good.
Our seedlings are popping up out in the gardens. For winter, we’ve planted red cabbage, cucumbers (big and petite), bok choy, broccoli, purple potatoes, garlic, spinach, boston lettuce, european mesclun, little gem lettuce, cilantro, beets, rocky top lettuce, edamame, snap peas, lunar carrots and finger carrots, and I think we might get one more round of tomatoes from the existing plants. I still have to plant onions. I also need to pot some of the herbs to bring inside before it gets too cold.
The weather here has started cooling off. The mornings are especially chilly now requiring a sweater. Well, at least I, Florida girl, require a sweater. It makes it easier to work outside which is good because we have a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, the days are getting shorter. We’ve considered working at night under a spotlight, but, knowing us, we probably won’t. We definitely don’t have a true farmer’s work ethic.