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Looking back, I neglecting posting about my canning in 2010. In fact, I hardly photographed it. Here's a list of this year's canning exploits. Much of this was given as gifts during our Christmas travels.
Strawberry Rhubarb Compote 5 (1/2 pints)
Strawberry Preserves (4) 1/2 pints
Strawberry Lavender Jam (2) 1/2 pints - More of this next year
Strawberry Juice (3) pints
Cherry Marmalade (8) 1/2 pints
Cherries in Syrup (2.75) qts,
Asian Pickles (4) pints (These were an experiment and I over-cooked them. Mushy pickles are not so good)
Bread & Butter Zucchini (2) pints
Crock Cured Dill Pickles (3 quarts) This was an interesting experience. I canned half of them and put half in the fridge. My mom says they are too salty so I didn't give any away. I also haven't opened the ones canned to compare the texture. My husband doesn't eat pickles so these are going very slowly.Bread & Butter Pickles (9) pintsBlueberry Lime Jam (11) 1/2 pints
Lime Juice 1 (1/2) pintWhite Grape Juice (4) pints
Dilly Beans (7) pints
Annie's Salsa (22) pints - I was very happy with this recipe. I used only the added tomato paste, not tomato sauce. We made it spicy and with the acid used 1/2 c. cider vinegar 1/4 c.lime juice, 1/4 c. lemon juice for a balanced flavor.
Tomato Sauce (3) quarts
Tomato Juice (2) quarts
Cider Jelly (15) 1/2 pints (pictured above)
Apple Sauce (7) pints
This comes to a total of (49) 1/2 pints, 62 pints, and 8.75 quarts, for a grand total of 51.25 quarts, or 12.8 gallons. Now to work on enjoying what we haven't given away, as well as to eat up the fruit and tomatoes we have stored in our freezer.
Here is part 2 of my summary of this year's garden. Click here to read part 1 from yesterday.
Potatoes- We enjoyed a good crop of potatoes, even though I cut down the foliage early to prevent disease spread. Next year I need to be better about picking of the beetles and water only in the morning. We enjoyed the All Blue potatoes for their color, liked the creamy texture of the Irish Cobbler, and our Yukon Gold taste good though they lack the gold color. We still have some in the basement in a old lobster box.
Peppers - I planted a fair amount of both hot and sweet peppers, but our yield were poor. High heat in July seemed to make them all drop their blossoms. Next year I need to start the seedlings earlier to get them to a fair size before the are planted out.
Eggplants- Eggplants had the same problem as peppers, not much production. I also need to start them a lot earlier next year. They were significantly smaller than the ones nurseries were selling for seedlings when it was time to plant them out.
Tomatillos- The pineapple tomatillos were wild and out of control. We enjoyed their flavor but next year they need to be restrained. I also want to try traditional green tomatillos.
Tomatoes- The support system we designed just barely survived the year. Next year we need stronger posts, cross braces and I need to plant the tomatoes singly along the center of the row rather than in two lines. This means that I need to plant half as many plants. However I hope that with more room they will do just as well.
I started two cherry tomatoes and two green zebra early and put them in the ground with walls of water in early May. This meant that I had early cherry tomatoes but the green zebras didn't produce as fast. Next year I hope to start a wider variety of tomatoes early. I think I have enough to do 8 plants.
As far as varieties go, the Amish Paste was great, with large paste tomatoes and a prolific producer. The Chelsea Cherry tomatoes were good and early, but large for cherry tomatoes. I'm hoping to plant another couple varieties instead next year. The green zebras were prolific as well and we enjoyed the flavor of green pasta sauce. Red zebras weren't that exciting and are off the list for next year. Market Miracles were ok, I will do fewer of them next year. My heirloom mix produced some stars and some duds. I did a little detective work to try to find the names of the ones I was saving. I'll plant a few of them next year.
The winner of the tomatoes this year was the Purple Calabash. They were the first tomato besides the cherries to ripen, and though small, they pack a lot of flavor. They were just the right size for a tomato sandwich for breakfast, which I enjoyed daily for almost a month. I has about 6 plants of them this year and I'll do just as many next year. They'll be one of the varieties I start early.
So that's the wrap up for the year. I've already ordered seeds from Fedco for next year, through my local coop which does a bulk order and therefore gets 20% off. And I'm thinking of working on a preliminary plant for where things will go in the New Year. My husband and I recently discussed where the light table might fit in our new house. Before I know it will be time to start seeds!
This week I got over 2 more pounds of tomatoes ripening from the green tomato box.
I picked 8 oz of kale, including some red kale that leafed out. It overwintered from the previous owners garden, went to seed,I saved seeds, and now it is producing again. 
I picked 11.5 oz of leeks, 6 oz of chard, and 1 pound of brussels sprouts (not pictured).
Now that the garden is winding down, I'll sometimes share what we're eating from what we saved from the garden. This weekend we roasted our first jarrahdale pumpkin. It was a 15 pound one. My husband cut it in half.
Then we quartered it and scooped out the seeds. I roasted it in the oven for over an hour until the flesh was soft. This photo is before it was baked.
The flesh was good, not stringing, not too strong either. The only downside was the seeds. They looked wonderful, but some how different. When we roasted them we found they were too tough.
We roasted apples and onions after the pumpkin was done and used them all to make soup with a stock made with apple cores and pumpkin scrapings. It was all pureed to a smooth soup. We had plenty for a gathering of 8 adults and 12 kids and still some left over to freeze.
Total this week: 5.08 pounds
Total this year: 441.69 pounds
You can see what other gardeners harvested this week at Daphne's Dandelions.
The garden has changed quite a bit in the last two weeks. Here's what it looked like on September 14th.
Two weeks later on the 29th, I had taken down the cucumbers, harvested and weeded the potato row, pulled the last of the winter squash, and brought down the tomatillos. I seeded winter rye in all those places, except where the tomatillos were.
Only a few days later on October 2nd, the tomatoes came down, the hoop house went up, the pumpkins went out, the cold frame windows went on.
A few details. Around September 20th, I dug up four pepper plants and put them in pots.
From Left to right: Habanero, Hungarian Wax, Purple Bell, Cayenne. I sprayed them daily with a soapy water solution. This past week we got some rain and then a bigger storm was forecasted with cold temps to follow. I brought them in on Wednesday because I didn't want them water logged when they came in the house. They are sunning themselves in the front windows and so far are doing ok. I'm continuing to spray hping that I don't have aphids with them. I'm hoping to overwinter them.TomatoesHere's what the tomato support looked like after 5" of rain. It was worse, the metal props had fallen away and it was leaning even more. I propped it back up so that I could at least cut down the tomatoes.
Here's the after photo from the other side. I haven't weeded it yet, nor seeded it. The bed to the right is where the winter squash were and has been seeded with winter rye.
Here's how the winter rye looks in the potato bed, seeded a week before.
I also planted garlic in the former pumpkin bed. I ordered 6 heads of Red Russian and 3 heads of Music. 
All total it was 60 some cloves planted. It took up half of the bed.
So in all the garden is looking a lot more like fall. Many peppers and eggplant remain in the garden and that's the only thing I'm covering to protect from frost. We had a light frost in the back field again on Saturday night. Each time, it creeps closer to the garden. I'm sure it will get the last of the beans soon.
We are still enjoying the produce of last year's garden. We enjoyed a pesto from the freezer last week and a Butternut Squash & Parsnip soup with one of the butternuts that was beginning to go bad. Today I made a Tomato and Bread Soup with a gallon bag of frozen tomatoes. I knew the tomatoes would give off a lot of liquid as they thawed, so I decided to cook them on the wood stove rather than the oven.
As the liquid came out, I used a turkey baster to collect it and save it for the soup. Eventually the tomatoes cooked down and softened. I put them through the food mill to take out the seeds, skins and cores. I used some of the tomato liquid to soften oven-dried cherry tomatoes as well. I roasted some sweet onion slices in the oven and then added them to the tomato mixture along with cubed dried bread. A little frozen basil and dried oregano from the garden and we had our dinner.
I've begun making preparations for this years garden. However, I'm pretty sure we will have another couple of months before we are able to harvest again. I sorted through my seeds today (more about that in another post) and took the oldest lettuce seeds and planted some under the new light set up. Maybe we'll have some indoor greens in a month or two.
