Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Yes, We Can!

For those of you who are dreading an entry of a political nature, relax. This is nothing of the kind. I just liked the idea of a title that was a double entendre.

As I may have mentioned previously in this blog, there is a great deal of fretting, obsessing and sweating that comes with being a gardener. Initially you fret, obsess and sweat over whether your seeds will sprout and develop properly. Then you fret, obsess and sweat over whether your plants will reach maturity and produce delicious produce. And somewhere in the middle of all the fretting, obsessing and sweating; Mother Nature pulls a fast one and creates a harvest so prodigious you can hardly believe your eyes. Neither you, your family, your neighbors nor your friends can eat fast enough to keep up with the output. So what do you do?. You do what mankind has done for years, you preserve the fruits of your labors for future consumption.

Pictured above are the results of some of this season's canning efforts. From left to right we have mock raspberry jam(made from green tomatoes), pickled green tomatoes, pickled crookneck squash, tomato conserve and pickled papaya pear squash. And perched atop the green tomatoes we have tomato preserves. As Jackie Gleason used to say,"How sweet it is!"