The Ugly Side

It has really been a trying last few weeks.

I am loathe to chronicle our failings but realize they must come with our successes or people might start to view us as super human and without challenges. We have had figs exploding in the pantry, and I can tell you those don't smell good. Some might imagine a liquor type smell from figs gone bad. I can promise you the reality is not so attractive. It is down right foul and rotten smelling. Blech! Oh and it leaches into the rest of your house! :P We won an auction on a Squeezo for the In-Laws from Ebay. It's suppose to awesome for applesauce and tomatoes.

Unfortunately, 2 of the bushings for the screens were missing. Fortunately, we can order a repair kit. Since the tomato screen was broken, we had to run our tomatoes through the berry screen. We ended up more with tomato juice than sauce. So the next go around we just used a recipe I had on hand that uses seeds and peelings and all :)

Our garden is looking horrible.

The tomatoes have dried up and died.

Our Cucumber is yellow and wilty. The weeds are knee high.

On the bright side our Bell Peppers have finally decided to fruit and our eggplant has put on new flowers!(which the stupid bunnies have since eaten!) I have put off starting new seeds, for the past 2 weekends. I could already have new sprouts up and growing but laziness has taken over. Even the wonderful cool weather we have been experiencing isn't motivating me to the garden. Nor the bees poor girls it looks like it will have been 2 weeks before we get back into the hives. Bad bee parents!

I'll go ahead and blame it on the canning. I am so sick of canning this year. The first few weeks we spent canning I was proud and delighted at the novelty. Now I just feel like a slave to vegetables. the prospect of stringing any more beans sends shivers up my spine. I really have to wonder just how many jars of tomatoes we really need. I'm sure I'll be happy in winter. As for now I'm just tired!

So far this year:

15 quarts Tomatoes

12 quarts Tomato Sauce
43 pints Tomatoes
20 quarts Applesauce
21 Quarts Green beans5 pints fig preserves
7 pints whole figs
4 pints Jalapeños
4 jam jars of salsa

Frozen-
28 ears of corn
7 quarts of creamed corn
8 quarts of okra
7 quarts shredded zucchini