We’ve had a lot of late nights lately. We’ve been up late gardening. We’ve been up late reorganizing the house (more on that later). We’ve been up late preserving. And we’ve been up late watching movies and knitting to relax after a long day of gardening, reorganizing, and preserving. Other than that last one, it’s been time well spent. The pantry and freezer aren’t quite bursting at the seams but they’re showing signs of strain.
As I blog we’ve got peaches in the dehydrator, more waiting to be made into preserves, and I’m waiting on water to boil so I can can tomatoes. Yesterday, I made made and froze tomato sauce. (Had to freeze instead of can since I didn’t use a recipe and couldn’t be sure of acidity.) Earlier this week I spent a whole day on green beans. A neighbor kindly let us have all that his garden could offer while he visited the Grand Canyon. As it turns out his garden could offer a lot – to the tune of 6 quarts in the freezer. We’ve spent all week turning a half bushel of peaches into peach leather, dried peach chips, and, now, peach preserves. Add that to the quick dill pickles, pickled beets, and jam in the pantry and the blackberries, strawberries, and rhubarb in the freeze.
Tonight will be another long night. Tomatoes will be canned. Peaches will be preserved. And we will grind grain and prep for brewing beer tomorrow after church. All while drinking beer and watching movies as cans boil on the stove and we turn the grain mill crank. A long night, sure, but a good one.