Let the season begin.....

The food preservation season that is.  I started a bit of canning this weekend.

Pickles.  These are the only pickles I make. I got the recipe from an old canner and it does not use an approved canning method so I store them in the fridge.  Louise stores them in the pantry and has been eating them for 90 years but I just can't bring myself to do that.  That food sanitarian in me just errs on the side of caution. Have done 6 quarts thus far and there are tons still growing on the vines.

Bean vegetable soup. I used some of my onions that were not going to store well as well as some of my baby carrots that I pulled to give my peppers some extra sunlight. I added some of my dehydrated peppers and jars of broth.  I incorporated a variety of dried beans; lots of limas.  Dried beans are some of the easiest things to can, they just take a longer amount of time.  Through the winter months is when I usually can all my pintos, black beans, navy beans, etc. Heats up the house a bit and fills the pantry and keeps me from storing empty jars.  You see, it is just as easy to store jars with beans in them as it is to store them empty, just a whole lot tastier. 

Miscellaneous stuff.  In the jars are dehydrated squash. I am covered up in patty pan squash right now.  Not sure what all I will do with it besides use it in stir fry.  So I  experimented with dehydrating some.  Also pictured are basil, the first of the cherry tomatoes, dill, sage and a few asparagus spears that popped their heads up this weekend.  

Corn.  One of the farmers at the farmers market last weekend had his white corn available.  So I bought a dozen, used 2 for dinner and we canned the remainder with the mini potatoes that we dug up this week.  We grew 4 different varieties of potatoes this year and the red skinned ones were the first ones that were ready to dig.  There are always some that are the size of large marbles so I sorted them out and I threw them in with the corn.

So this is the beginning. Tomatoes are in our future as long as we can keep blossom end rot at bay.  I sprinkled them all with epsom salts (magnesium) tonight.  We will see what that does.