Harvest Time!

This afternoon I bagged up some tomatoes from the garden for freezing. I used to can them but discovered that freezing works just as well and is a whole lot easier! Just slice them up and toss 'em in a freezer bag.

Our garden right now is overflowing with a bounty of veggies in spite of the drought we've had here all summer. I've been able to can some dilly beans, beets and jalapeno pepper rings and freeze a ton of green beans. The freezer is chock full of blueberries too.

We managed to eat all of the corn as soon as it was ready, as well as the different varieties of lettuce, swiss chard and carrots as they came. We're by no means done putting up our stock for the winter but we've got a good start.

Okay - the point of all this? I'm really bent on including more veggies in my diet! The past 8 years I've been too busy to can and freeze. When late hubby and I bought the cottage we stopped planting a garden. He was diagnosed with cancer 2 months after we closed on the place and life as we knew it just kind of stopped. Fast forward to my "new" life and present hubby insisted that we plant a garden. This year was the biggest one yet (with all of our building projects I told him he was insane - but he persisted and now I'm glad he did.) There's something about eating things you've grown that makes them taste...I don't know...better I guess. And if they taste better (even if only in my mind) then I'll eat more. At least that's the plan.

And something else has been happening here too. Since I've found my way back into the kitchen....I feel like me again. I'd kind of lost myself when first hubby got sick. I was attending school full time - raising three teenagers - and caring for a sick spouse. It was draining. And I just kind of existed. Especially after he died. The girls had busy, crazy schedules (as teens do) and we stopped having a set meal time. It became every man (woman) for herself. Which meant crummy food choices all the way around.

Enter hubby number two a few years later and the guy is a cook. I found myself kind of nudged out of my own kitchen. But these past few weeks - have been glorious! I'll admit...I was a little reluctant to begin when I started dragging out ll the canning supplies but once I got into the groove again it was fantastic! I don't know about you - but I really get a kick out of seeing rows of jars of canned veggies cooling on my counter. And opening the big freezer downstairs and finding stacks of frozen veggies, neatly arranged on the shelves makes me giddy!

I'm starting on applesauce next week. Can't wait!