[Tammy]

My garden is not doing well this year, but I did pick a few raspberries, some beans and a zucchini.
my moms garden on the other hand is doing quite well and my parents are leaving for Europe in a couple days and will be gone for 3 1/2 wks so I'm tending to their garden while they are away. she said to take whatever I want. Her plum trees will be ready for picking and she thinks her grapes will be ready also. So I'm looking forward to a few wks of getting carrots, beans, plum and grapes. Plus, they have blackberry bushes within a quick walking distance of their place that grow along a creek, so they are HUGE berries. I'll be picking a bunch of those too. mmmm, can't wait!

What are you picking and enjoying from your garden right now?

 

[Tammy]

let me know how your beet canning goes. Have you canned beets before?
I've canned them for a few yrs now but after last year I swore I'd never do it again. I pressure canned them and so much of the red comes out of the beets that they are a light pink and really didn't have much flavor at all. have you ever had that problem before? I wonder how the beets you buy in the store that have been commercially canned are still such a dark red. They are pressure canning them also.

 

[Tammy]

Thanks. When I just boil the beets for either prepping for canning or for eating, I do leave some of the stem and the bottom tapered root off to stay red. But then when I'm doing the actual canning in the pressure cooker, that's when the red bleeds out.

 

[Tammy]

num! love those carrots! I planted a packet of mixed varieties this year - so i've been getting some purple, some reddish/orange and some a real light orange. My son seems to enjoy eating them more when they are varied like this! hey, whatever works!! lol

 

[Tammy]

This past Friday I picked veggies from my moms garden again (parents in spain for 3 wks so i'm taking care of the garden) and picked ALOT of beans. so I canned 7 qts of beans for her. also picked some carrots and cucumbers. and from my own garden, I picked enough tomatos to make up a large batch of salsa (fresh pico de gallo style). Only had to buy cilantro for that but otherwise everything came from my garden. I also pulled some beets from my garden and carrots. I planted the multi color variety this year, so although they are not very big, i did get a colorful bunch of yellow, orange, dark orange, red and purple carrots.

what did you do this wknd in your garden?