Greetings, Rural Sprout Readers,
As the temperatures in the evening become decidedly cooler, I’m starting to find myself slowing down from the hustle and bustle of the summer gardening season. Those final tomatoes of mine have reached the breaker stage and are now hanging out on the dining room table to finish ripening.
There were fewer trips out to the garden this week. And I think it will be time to pack up most of the rooftop garden, sow a few crops for late fall and call it a season.
Most of my gardening endeavors seem to be happening in the kitchen at this point in the year. I’m sure it’s the same story in your kitchen too. Empty Mason jars are turning into filled Mason jars lined up in shining rows in the pantry.
It’s a good feeling, isn’t it; seeing a well-stocked pantry at the end of summer.
My sweetie bought a used All-American Pressure Canner off of Facebook Marketplace this spring after I was lamenting the sad state of my old Presto. And this week, I finally put it through its paces now that I’ve finished most of my water bath canning.
I whipped up several large batches of ratatouille - my favorite thing to make when I have lots of vegetables that I need to deal with all at once. I even wrote up an article with the recipe and canning instructions.
And earlier in the week, I found my first hen of the woods mushroom for this season. It was a beautiful specimen, weighing in at just under twelve pounds. I found it in the same spot where I found my very first hen of the woods four years ago.
Naturally, I made a large stockpot full of mushroom broth and canned that too.
Without sounding like a paid advertisement, that All-American canner is awfully nice. I was happy to lay my old Presto to rest in the Goodwill donation bin. No more gaskets to buy!
I love the sound of that pressure regulator weight when it starts to wiggle and dance.
We all have specific scents and sounds that recall fond memories. And for me, the happy sputter of a pressure regulator weight whisks me back to my grandmothers’ kitchens.
That sound instantly transports me back to the linoleum floor and honey-colored pine kitchen cabinets with their black cast iron handles in a house on a hill way up in the woods. Or to a smaller, sunny kitchen that led out onto a screened-in porch overlooking a yellow-green pasture with quiet black and white cows in it.
I even remember the sound of a pressure canner at work in my dad’s cabin every summer as we preserved corn and carrots and green beans.
It’s funny; I’m sitting here typing up our little weekly hello, listening to the weight jiggle and settle a couple of times each minute. (I’m canning some cream of mushroom soup for the cold days ahead.) And I’m having a hard time remembering eating the delicious, homegrown food we canned. And there was plenty of it for all the canning that happened when I was growing up.
This one specific sound has the power to bring to mind the most vivid memories of my grandmothers and my dad pressure canning, but for the life of me, I can’t recall any distinct memories of eating the fruits of their labor. It’s just a blur of meals around the table over the years.
Well, my timer has gone off, so it’s time to depressurize. I hope you have a depressurizing Sunday too, my friend. And don’t forget to head over to Rural Sprout, as we have some great pieces you’ll want to read.
Delicious & Easy to Can Ratatouille – Use Up Your Harvest
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As I mentioned, I wrote up my ratatouille recipe with pressure canning instructions. This versatile dish uses up a glut of garden bounty all in one fell swoop, and the resulting stockpot of goodness can be eaten in many ways for any meal.
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14 Ways To Shut Down the Garden At The End Of The Season
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Lydia has some timely advice for us with fourteen ways to shut down your garden for the end of the season. This is a must-read as your garden winds down. A little tidying up and preparation this fall will set you up for success next season.
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Homemade Traditional Green Tomato Relish
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Cheryl shares her recipe for green tomato relish. This is an excellent way to use up any green tomatoes hanging around at the end of the season before that first frost comes along and wipes them all out. And I have to say, all of Cheryl’s recipes are quite tasty.
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25 Miniature Vegetables to Grow & 5 Reasons to Grow Them
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Miniature vegetables are cute and a bit of a novelty, but did you know there are some pretty good reasons to grow bite-sized veggies? I go over the reasons why you might want to plant a few in your garden next year, or even right now (reason #2), and there are 25 miniature vegetable varieties to get you started.
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15 Uses For Nasturtium Leaves, Flowers, Seeds & Stems
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And finally, Madison has a whole list of ways to use nasturtiums. She’s got ideas for everything from the stems to the leaves to the flowers to the seeds. You’ll want to give this a read so you can put your nasturtiums to good use before the frost gets them.
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That's all for this week, Rural Sprout Readers.
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