Still Doing the Can-Can

Apricot halves in light syrup, green beans, apricot pie filling, strawberry jelly, apricot jelly, whole plums in light syrup, plum jelly and cherry pie filling....whew! Just two days and the pantry begins to fill. This is totally FUN! When I did all that canning when the kids were little as much as I enjoyed the finished product I always felt so stressed out and rushed...never really savored the whole process...now I just LOVE it...every minute is so rewarding. The prep, the slicing and dicing, choosing the jars, cooking the fruit and waiting for the timer to go off...pulling the jars from the canner and then lining them up...such an awesome experience. I've even caught myself day dreaming about the fruits and veggies that will be hitting the Farmers Markets that I'll *Put Up* in the weeks to come.

The fence for the garden is almost finished...it's been a long week. I thought it would be a two or three day project and it looks like it'll be another couple of days. The garden is looking really nice...several melons and squashes. I counted a half dozen tomatoes. The potatoes have not bloomed yet, but I do have a second flush of Chard I think I'll use in a lasagna tomorrow. The Wonderberrys I got at Baker Seed (a Luther Burbank creation) taste like YUK! I just don't think they will ever taste good...lots of slimey teeny seeds...I'm not pulling the plants, they're really bushy and have lots of berries...I have them shading the new Chard and Golden Beets. I'll pull them out BEFORE they go to seed (I bet they could easily become a pest) and feed them to the chickens. The bush green beans are such a disapointment, they were last year too...I may give up and just buy them at the Farmers Market. I take one of the vendors a pint of canned and she sells me 5# for $4.00...great deal I think.