Garden Success

My mother came to stay with us in May to help us with the baby which freed up some time to plant the garden.  I think we were officially crazy for doing our garden with a baby in the house! 

We had a great year as far as yield.  I think I picked 4 colanders full of tomatoes which were turned into pints and pints of sauce and marinara.  I do enjoy canning and glad that I do come winter when we're enjoying what we put up in the summer.  It can feel like a major chore when you spend your precious time off processing all of it and you have to do it when you do it because it is perishable.  As with everything in my life, I'm a good starter.  I make coffee and get out my favorite tools and equipment and enjoy the colors of the produce...

...and then much later that night my feet are swollen and painful from standing and I'm tired and just want to finish and go to bed but I know I still have to pump, etc.  I destroy the kitchen in the process and I'm ashamed to admit it but when I'm on a roll and canning several days in a row, I just leave the stove messy because it is just going to keep getting crusted up until I'm done.

As I said earlier though, it is worth it to enjoy the colorful treats of summer throughout our bleak and bland Minnesota winters.  Marek enjoys his little exer-saucer thing and I talked to him and picked his toys up when he'd throw them down and he was pretty well occupied while I worked in the kitchen.

You can sure tell the difference between this year and years past.  Our first year gardening, one of us would proudly march up the steps, "I picked a zucchini!" and we were thrilled.  Now I think, "Dirty son-of-a!  What am I going to do with these cucumbers?!"  Dave's mother shared a fantabulous pickle recipe and I've pickled so many cucumbers I've literally run out of jars!  That's one way to stop canning! 

I made zucchini tots, zucchini roll ups, zucchini bread, zucchini muffins, zucchini noodles, pizza with zucchini crust, zucchini cobbler, etc.  I've frozen both grated and chopped zucchini.  As crabby as I get sometimes trying to use it up, I miss it in the winter.

This is all that's left of the pint of pickles I cracked open this afternoon.  It's nice to have a little break from canning as the garden slows down.  The squash are finishing up and the only tomatoes left are green and not in any hurry to ripen.  Maybe I'll fry a few on my day off this week and eat them with the marinara I canned earlier!