Harvest Reckoning

The Harvest Season is about over. I pulled the tomato and squash vines from the back garden today, preparing for leaf fall, which began during the winds and rains of the weekend. It was, overall, a good year, although being gone for the month of July has impacted our fall garden crops.  We all decided it was time to “Eat Down” on the stock of jams, butters, and pickles already on the shelf.

This is what we have in storage for the winter (bold indicates from our yard):

Blueberries—

                Three quarts dried

                Two quarts frozen

Apples—

                12 half pints of apple butter

                4 quarts dried

                5 pints in sauce

Peaches—

                3 quarts dried

                10 pints canned

                12 half pints chutney

Figs—

                7 quarts dried

                4 half pints apple butter (more next year!)

Plums—

                3 quarts dried

Tomatoes—

                14 pints of sauce

                1.5 quarts dried

                30 half pints roasted

                14 pints of salsa

Cucumbers—

                4 pints of Bread and Butter

Green Beans—

                5 pints

Gooseberry jam—

3 half pints

Potatoes:

                6 pounds of All Blue

                31 pounds of Desiree

                30 pounds of Butte

                17 pounds of Yukon Gold

Dried Beans—

1 quart of Indian Woman

1 quart of Cranberry

1 pint of white

There’s also cabbages, beets, and parsnips in the garden and six small pumpkins and several squashes in the larder.  I’ve ordered 70 pounds of onions, more dried beans and winter squash, hard wheat berries and oatmeal (which came today!) and garlic. We are almost set for the winter.