Thursday, September 3, 2009

Fruits of the Harvest

So at our new home we have quite a lot of harvesting to do this time of year and it has been keeping us very busy! It started about 3 weeks ago when I realized our green grapes needed to be picked soon since some of them were falling off the vine. So I borrowed a neighbor's stream juicer and we got 11 quarts of grape juice (which we still have lots of grapes left on the vine that won't be ready for a few more weeks.)


Then last week I went out and tried a nectarine from our backyard...they we so good! I started picking them and before I knew I had filled up an entire Laundry basket, and I hadn't even picked half of the fruit off! Needless to say I had a lot of canning to do! I went to the D. I. and found a boiling water canner for $3 and began a process that spanned many days and many phone calls to my Mom. Brandon thinks the canned nectarines look like pickled pig ears from Louisiana ....thankfully they are not and they taste delicious.


Then on Tuesday we picked all our pears and wrapped them and put them in a box to ripen.







We've also had fun making salsa from the the tomatoes, chilies and onions from our garden...yummy! As well as trying to come up with as many creative ways to use zucchini!
So the harvest isn't over yet...I still have a peach tree with tons of fruit that hasn't ripened yet
and two apple trees. Wish us luck with those adventures!

5 comments:

christy said...

wow! you guys really have quite the garden. nice to move to a house with matured fruit trees!

christy said...

oh, and dustin totally gets brandon's pickeled pig ear comment - they did experience those together.

Kkelly said...

That is great to have all that great food right in your backayard! A little jealousy is happening...my yard has heaps and heaps of rock and dirt still. Our project on our yard is taking a little longer than we thought!

Tara said...

hey Tina,
check your pears. We wrapped them within days of each other and I checked mine yesterday (after 1 week to the day) and they are over ripe!!! ahhhhh. My house is full of fruit flies and i've been canning them yesterday and today! Ahhhhhhhh!

Morgan said...

If you haven't tried it yet, our family loves steamed zucchini (well, any squash really) tossed in with pasta. Then I make a tomato cream sauce (tomato sauce, whipping cream, and a little bit of chicken broth) and maybe some alfredo sauce to pour over the top. Mmmmm. We love squash!