recent food preservation and gardening

What $20 at the local market can get you on an early September morning: 8 scratch-and-dent tomatoes, 5 large bruised peppers, 3 lbs of green beans, 2 cucumbers, 4 lbs of Asian pears, 4 lbs of white peaches, 6 ears of shucked corn

The scratch-and-dent tomatoes and 2 of the peppers are still sitting in the basket waiting to be made into spaghetti sauce on Monday, because who can open a jar of canned spaghetti sauce when there are still cheap, in-season tomatoes at the market?!

The rest of the peppers have been diced and frozen and the green beans were blanched and frozen.  The stash in the freezer is almost too packed to find anything.  I might need to do a bit of organizing out there lest I lose something in the crowd.  I've found that freezing a few peppers each week, either from the bruised pile at the market or extras from our own garden, really allow us to use from our stash and buy very few during the winter.

The herbs received a trim just before the storm rolled in this afternoon.

I dried 4 trays, basil, chives, parsley, and thyme, to add to the jar accumulation.  I've really developed a new respect for the price of dried herbs since I started drying my own.  It really takes quite a large amount to fill a jar!

And in the garden, the peppers are really growing like weeds.  We have SO many jalapenos that I've started giving some away.  I do need to freeze some more before winter, but I have no doubt we'll still have plenty to spare.  The bell peppers are starting to produce nicely as well.  I still see many flowers and small peppers sprouting so I bet we'll continue to produce until we get a frost.

The compost that we added a few weeks back must have agreed with the beets.  They have been looking better than ever.

A few of them are even ready to be picked soon!  I'll definitely be planting more beets in the garden in the next week.

The last lone butternut squash is waiting to be picked, and I think his time is nearly nigh.  The squash plants have started drying up in the last week so I'll likely pick him in the next few days.

The garden peas have started producing nicely again.  I think they like the September weather better than the July weather.

Several of the pea pods are almost ready to be picked.

I hope to get some of my fall garden in over the next few days.  I've been delayed by the weather a few times.  (It's been too muggy here to be out there for long!)