Harvesting and canning

I harvested another pumpkin and set it out to cure.  The biggest pumpkin is almost ready to harvest but not quite yet. It's supposed to be warm & sunny this weekend (temps in the 80s) so it should help ripen that one.  There were more wax beans and lima beans to harvest so I picked those as well as a bunch of arugula.  The sunflower is developing nicely. 

I blanched, peeled and canned 3 quarts of tomatoes.  Kaitlyn helped me put the lemon juice & tomatoes into the jars - her first canning experience.  She also helped by spinning the salad spinner after I washed the arugula and she helped me shell the lima beans.  I froze a quart of wax beans and some lima beans.

another harvested pumpkin

lima beans

wax beans & lima beans harvested

big pumpkin almost ready

sunflower

lima beans in the shell

Lots of canning

I've been busy canning the last few days.  I made two batches of mild salsa, a batch of taco sauce, pickled banana peppers, to quarts of cured cukes, nine quarts of kosher dill pickles, a batch of sweet pickles, a batch of Apple Kiwi Strawberry Jam, a batch of Cranberry Raspberry Jam, and two batches of sweet pickle relish.  I have enough cucumbers to make another batch of relish but that's going to have to wait until another day.  I did find a time-saver for the dill pickles.  In the canning aisle at Walmart they had a kosher dill pickle mix that you just have to add to vinegar and water and it's supposed to make brine for 7 quarts of pickles (I got 9 quarts out of it).  Hopefully it tastes as good as I think it will.

Cucumbers salted for Cured Cukes

Mix for dill pickles

LOTS of canning