Yes, I can, yes, I can!

Ah summer, you're the busiest time of year and thus most blog-worthy (or at least full of the most fodder) and yet also, due to said busy-ness, leave so little time to actually write anything down. Case in point, I started composing this entry on August 9th and it is now, well. . . no longer August. It's been a good month and I'll do my best to talk about all that's gone on, although likely not give it quite the focus it could/should have. To begin, the garden has been a little slower this year than last, in that we've only been completely overwhelmed by tomatoes, eggplant, melons, and pumpkins for the last few weeks, rather than for the past two months. Tres is talking about downsizing a bit next year, as two years of trials have given us a pretty good idea about which varieties we like and do well here. Perhaps he'll want to talk a little bit more about that on here sometime this fall/winter.

A few minutes picking yielded a bowl full of tomatoes (my favorite, "Katja")

I tried to make and freeze cucuzzi bread again, but unfortunately was a bit behind on my harvesting. I got a biggie I was sure would yield lots of bread, unfortunately it was way too far gone. It was well on its way to gourd-dom, with skin so hard it was virtually impossible to cut and full of big seeds on the inside. As we're up to our eyeballs in pumpkins right now (or rather the garden is full, but it will be time to harvest them soon), perhaps I'll try to make and freeze some pumpkin bread instead. 

giant cucuzza, incredulous face

As the garden winds down, the pantry continues to fill.  Two Saturdays ago, Tres picked about 100 pounds of tomatoes for us to can. With Silas in the mix, we were definitely slower than in years past, but we finished by mid-afternoon and still had some time for other work and even a little relaxing at the end of the day. There are more tomatoes still ripening, so we will likely do one more batch in another week or two.

Time to do the tomatoes

33 quarts of tomatoes

A few days later, we headed to the local orchard and picked about 45 pounds of peaches. We ate and baked with a number throughout the week and the following weekend, with the help of a visiting dear friend, we turned them into 17 half pints of peach butter and 8 quarts of peach halves in syrup. I managed not to take any photos of the peaches or, more importantly (and sadly), our visitor, but here's what the pantry's looking like these days and a current inventory:

So, from the left to right, we've got the aforementioned peach products, 11 half pints of amaretto cherries, 6 half pints of  blackberry/raspberry jam, 6 half pints of blackberry jam, 7 half pints of blueberry jam, a few quarts of last year's leftovers (including sun-dried tomatoes in the foreground), 14 half pints of strawberry balsamic syrup and jam, 13 half pints of nectarine jam, and, of course, the tomatoes up above. Toast is going to be exciting this winter!

Also, two giant squash and about 7 more down in the shop, not to

mention the many, many still waiting down in the garden.

Time to get roasting and pureeing!

Despite the above evidence to the contrary, we've been up to a bit more than cooking and preserving this month, but I think this is plenty long, so I'll write a bit about our visitors and visiting in another entry (and post it before another month goes by, I promise). In the meantime, even though the time has flown by, I find myself looking forward to fall and enjoying the feelings of change in the air.