Catching up - Canning

I'm behind on posting but this is from the 8th of August. This is the second picking of the jade bush beans and the first pick of the wax beans. 

 I filled my entire deep stainless steel sink with jade bush green beans.  They weighed in at 14.8 lbs

And these yellow wax beans weighed in at 6 lbs. Honestly, I won't grow them again.  The jade bush gave me 3 pickings and these wax beans barely gave me a full picking before going dry. And they're tougher. 

I packed the jade bush in bags since I wasn't sure I was going to be able to can all 21 jars that day.  I DID get all 21 jars canned completely.  My pressure canner holds 7 quart jars.

Here the wax beans are getting blanched before adding them to the jars. 

Here are some of the jars sitting in the canner.  I wanted to see if I could get a pic of the rolling boil and yep, you can kind of see it.

14 jars cooling off with the last 7 in the canner.

Harvest Monday - July 30, 2012

Kiwi is sneaking a a Victory Freezer pea just seconds after I dumped them on the table. 

I gave him this one and then I put him in the living room on the window sill to snack on it.

I had several little helpers.  My son and Kiwi both thought that they needed to shell peas.  My son was a great big help.  Kiwi was not although he was very cute to watch.

My daughter was all excited about the new oven mitts I made.  I should not go into the Bernina shop in the old Main Street area.  It's a fun little quilt shop, I think it's called Stylish Fabrics or something like that.  I purchased the patterns, two fat quarters, the rick rack, hobbs 80/20 batting, and the insul-batting. Now I'll be making some more for Christmas gifts ...

My son said it looked like an angel.

Just having fun with the 50 mm lens.

Here they are all spread out on the silpat in the cookie sheet.  This way they freeze individually.  I don't blanch them before.  I learned this from Stoney Acres. They are so tasty this way.  If I get a craving for something sweet, I can just grab a handful of frozen peas.

 I like to cover them up before I pop them into the freezer just incase someone tries to dump them on accident.

I also picked 12.5 lbs of green beans.  Thankfully my husband helped me snap the ends off.  I'll be canning those this afternoon. I grew one 15 foot row of wax beans and 90 feet of Jade Bush green beans. They are my favorite green bean after trying several different types.  I will get two more pickings off the plants before the grasshoppers mow them to the ground.

 Where has this summer gone?  At least we have plenty of fun memories.