Sunday, July 15

the kitchen gets hot

With the expectation that our house will shortly be a bit [more] crazy, I am trying to make it through a few things before I'm a) too tired to do anything other than parent or b) too hot to do anything other than eat popsicles.  So far I've been neither, but you never know when that will change!

Peaches have been on sale.  All in all, we wound up with 45lb.  The LG helped make jam and I canned 20 quarts for the basement.  It was perfect timing, their skins practically fell off, and everything sealed.  That should free me up for putting some pears away later, before applesauce.  I got better about stuffing them into jars this year, but there must be an actual method in order to really maximize quantity.  I'm not overly impressed with the peach freezer jam - just it's consistency.  It's beautiful.  Sometimes I want to line my south-facing kitchen window sill with all our jars of jam and just watch the sun shine through.  I've had other people's freezer jams that didn't set very well, but ours have set just like canned jam until this time.  We've never tried straight peach before.  Oh well!  Bet it's still terrific.  The kids also made some strawberry jam - it set wonderfully.  I wanted to try apricot (love the color! love the taste!) but Dustin told me it was one of his least favorites (anyone want a 1/2 batch of apricot jam?!) so I hesitated.
S manned the pickle-making table. We got our first cucumber from the garden yesterday and added it to the mix. Little A is starting to 'help' in the kitchen and couldn't be more pleased with himself. My soaker hose is starting to fail (to be dealt with shortly) but the garden is thriving. I planted a morning glory seed right next to each sunflower and it's lovely to see them twining up. We went camping this past weekend. Summer is in full swing. I'm going to miss the state fair this year (much more rewarding prior engagement, you know), but if I can sweet talk Dustin into a county fair or two, I'll be golden.

As for other projects, I keep looking at storage solutions. But I want to actually own fewer things. So why would I need more storage? Conundrum.

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