Garden Bounty

The last month has flown by. In August we've finally had an adequate amount of rain, which has led to an explosion of good veggies. Two weeks ago I froze 7 quart bags of broccoli and 3 quart containers of swiss chard. Last Friday, friend Sondra and I picked green beans between rain showers, cleaned and snapped them and froze 6 quarts. Four of the quarts of green beans were a new way (for me) of freezing vegetables. Sondra learned about freezing vegetables in a brine from a woman who had been raised in a Mennonite family. She gave me the recipe for the brine.

The recipe is: 5 cups of water, 1/4 cup of pickling salt,3/4 cup of sugar. I used a little less sugar - only 1/2 cup. I blended these together briefly in my blender and added the brine to the freezer bags after filling them with snapped beans

It takes a lot of brine to fill the quart freezer bags. It will be fun to do a taste test this winter - brined or no brine.

Out in the garden the tomatoes are still green, but there are so many of them! Once they ripen it will be canning, canning, freezing, canning. The corn is "as high as an elephant's eye" and it looks as if there will be lots of ears of it. In addition, I already picked one great cauliflower, the first one ever in my gardening career, and there were several a little too small to pick. I should be able to harvest the rest tomorrow morning before going off to work. Most of that will get frozen also.

With any luck, there will be another picking of green beans before the end of the season, too. I want to make some dilled green beans, which are wonderful! There is still swiss chard, probably enough for another quart or two to freeze and more to eat soon. The zucchini are producing and the yellow summer squash are also. Looking forward to stir fries, making ratatouille, and zucchini soup. I've already picked some eggplant, and will be freezing more for winter eggplant parmesan. We've had some green, banana, and jalapeno peppers and more are on the way. Brussels sprouts are beginning to sprout, and potatoes are busily growing under the soil, as are the carrots. What a great bountiful blessing it is to have all these wonderful vegetables to consume now, or can, freeze or store for the winter. Ah! Harvest!!