It's Madcap's fault. My longtime blogging friend from Alberta decided to challenge herself to post every day in November. That was good news to me, since I enjoy her writing and her bold determination to go after the life she and her family want. So I commented with my approval, and added the idea that maybe I should take up the challenge myself. She was enthusiastic about the idea, so I'm in!
It's not that I have a paucity of ideas to write about. On the contrary, my brain has been in overdrive lately. Call it an awakening, a spiritual shift in consciousness, or whatever. My main obstacle to writing lately has been the need to wrestle my preteen kids for computer time. Oh for a laptop.
Tonight I capped off my 2009 gardening effort by canning 7 pints of salsa. When you consider I harvested most of my tomatoes in the fully green stage since they didn't ripen on schedule in this incredibly cool summer and I had to rescue them from frost, 7 pints plus a lot of slicers is a respectable yield. Overall I had a good gardening year, considering it was cooler than normal AND I had a doe who was attracted to certain crops. Payback time is coming... But I had great harvests of garlic and onions, carrots did well, and I grew more kale and Swiss chard than I could eat. I even had a fairly good crop of potatoes, though I decided my 4x4 raised potato beds need to go for two reasons: I can grow potatoes just as well in the 4x8 beds, and the kids need more space for their baseball field. :) As for canned goods, I have blueberry, raspberry, and strawberry jam, crabapple jelly, chicken broth, and zucchini pickles. I canned more this year than I have in a long time.
We are entering the season of long dark, accentuated by the change back to standard time. It's nice to wake up to a setting full moon in the first rays of daylight, but depressing to realize sunset happens when I arrive home.
Well, this is a start. If I'm going to be rambling about stuff every day this month, I better not let too much out at once. :)
6 comments:
Yahoo! I'm not alone! And it's good to hear that your brain is in overdrive - I'm hoping to jumpstart mine.
7 pints of salsa? Isn't a pint quite a lot? I'll have to go look at what that is in litres. I'll bet it was all your own vegetables too, huh?
My garden was almost a complete write-off this year, but I got 30 lbs of beets from the local Co-op and finally finished processing those today. My kitchen looks like a murder scene.
Ramble away. I keep coming back.
Hey, the garlic, onions, and carrots will go great with doe.
Looking forward to this month at Sand Creek!
Madcap- I think a pint is a little bit less than half a liter, if I am correct in thinking that a quart is a little bit less than a liter. Which brings to mind a question: Do they sell metric canning jars in Canada?
Those were mostly my vegetables, except for the jalapeno peppers and cilantro, both of which I had the best intentions of growing, but timing is everything. And, your "murder scene" description of your beet-bloodied kitchen had me laughing! I must grow more beets next year.
Pablo- I am grateful for your loyal readership.
Deanna- Ah, I forgot to put in for a doe permit, but if my son gets her it's ok I guess.
FC- It will be a challenge, but you and Pablo do it all the time!
I for one am very glad to hear you will be posting everyday . A litre is 17 ozs . I am from Canada too .
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