Fall and Food Preservation

Fall is my favorite season, especially here on the high desert where it lingers through most of three months.  Part of that experience is preserving the harvest from my garden.  Here's a bit of this year's production.  The small jars are the best pear butter I've ever made or tasted.  The larger jars are a marvelous cream of zucchini soup I've concocted.  Unseen are the "muffcakes" I made from a zucchini bread recipe, baked in muffin pans and topped with a lemon glaze (kinda like muffins, kinda like cupcakes).

An extra step this year was to fire up the woodstove and use it in the process, like our grandmothers used to do.  It was really fun as the weather has been quite cool.  I use the electric stove for the pressure canning so I can maintain a consistent temperature, but the woodstove was great for warming the jar lids, keeping extra water hot and lending historical accuracy and atmosphere.  

Late Summer at Bully Creek

I love the late summer look of this country, my garden, my yard and the surrounding area. Lush, green, mature, full of life. So I took a stroll yesterday to capture some of it so I could share the effulgence and ripeness of this season.

The picture below is the garden, looking southwest. The sweet corn is evident, and the pole beans. In front of the beans are a mixture of bush beans and potatoes. And in front of that, partially obscured by the shade of the peach tree is winter squash.





Summer squash is in the foreground here, flowering cosmos, pole beans, sweet corn and tomatoes evident in their "rooms."

Below is a glimpse of the abundant broccoli and cauliflower of this year, winter shelling beans in the foreground.  You can see the tomato ladders 'way in the background.
More broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage as well as lots of radicchio and kohlrabi. The red is orach, a really tasty salad ingredient now going seed (it self-seeds beautifully.)
A shot of the elderberry bushes which are just loaded with black fruit.

The upper orchard with vineyard in back.

The Italian plum is loaded this year.
And so is the Granny Smith apple tree.
Lots of grapes this year. These are Thomson seedless.
I learned this year that Thomson seedless turn a purplish color when fully loaded with sugar. Mmmmm....
The "vineyard" at a distance - with my helpers, Daisy and Zeke.
Upper orchard.
Lower orchard.
The creek adjacent the lower orchard.
The recovering Asian pear which went into the beaver dam with blossoms and baby fruit early in the spring. Note cage to keep beavers away.
The path down to the launching place for the creek float.
The launch area, as inspected by Muffy.
View through cattails of the creek from the launching spot.

Goldenrod with guests.

The breached beaver dam with teasel in foreground.
Creek behind the breached beaver dam.
Lawn in late summer.
Honeydew melon.
Yellow doll watermelons.
Tomatoes with basil in front.


From tomatoes toward yard, new strawberry bed in mid-ground.


Winter squash.

Shaded seating area.
My summertime station after the work is done.