Canning Time

The apricots ripened last week - at the same time we had a trip scheduled. We need to plan better next summer. On the way back from Mendocino County, I picked up the canning pot (vat?) shown in the photo. It can be used to process six quart-sized jars when "canning", although we mostly process pint-sized jars (six pints is one batch in the canning world). We'd been using a large kitchen pot before, which could only hold 4 pint-sized jars, so every batch took a lot longer. The jars have to be submerged in violently-boiling water for ten minutes, so the large pot shaves about twenty minutes off a batch (the ten minutes plus the time it takes for the water to boil after the jars are put in).

Last year's addition to the canning routine (besides actually starting the canning routine) was the specialized jar-grabber shown in the photo. It saved Maeve from second-degree burns, or the risk of them, when she tried extracting jars from the cauldron.

This pot holds so much water, we filled it a few days ago and processed a batch one evening. We saved the water, but can't save the heat. Even so, the water in the pot was still warm the next morning. So far, Maeve has made a batch of nectarine jam, two of peach, and two of apricot jam.
We also made one batch of pickled cauliflower (your mouth is watering now, I'll bet) from the heads I grew in the garden (small heads, I admit).

Not all is hunky-dory out back. The basil I planted barely grew, as did the lettuce. Out of two packs of Basil seed, about three purple plants appeared. They enjoyed life for a few days and then croaked. I'm not sure the lettuce ever appeared. So far, my attempts to direct seed those
plants are failing. I don't know if it's the heat, the soil, or a brown thumb.

I put about eight pepper plants in pots that are now hanging out in the garden, where the water can reach them. Three have died but the rest are looking pretty good. I'll try to post a photo of the diseased peppers (the good ones too, I suppose).

The corn is coming along - it didn't get mowed down this year by cutworms like it did last year.

Some of the cherry tomatoes are now ripe, and the plants are growing great. We pretty much have a hedgerow of tomato plants out back now - some are approaching four feet tall (now that I'm tying them to stakes).

The zucchini is growing like wildfire, as it has the past few years. I've started passing it off to the neighbors (I feel like I live the joke: "Why do Vermonters lock their cars in the summer? So someone doesn't leave a zucchini on the front seat"). I gave two to the neighbors next door, and softened the blow by adding some apricots and plumbs. They claim to like zucchini.

- Bruce