I’ve been working a little bit most days to try to keep caught up on the piles of produce that our amazing garden is producing right now. Some days, though, there’s more than a little bit that needs dealt with. Yesterday was one of those days. While I work, I always take the time to admire the flowers. This delphinium is one that Rob started from seed in the greenhouse for me. It is my favorite flower right now!

I started by picking what I could find and added it to the considerable pile that was already in the house. (This is the raised bed in the side yard. Most of what I picked was from the main garden.) I got about 6-7 zucchinis, a bowl of regular tomatoes and some cherry tomatoes. I harvested yellow bush beans, purple ones and a handful of green ones from the pole beans. I snipped off the basil was that was going to seed, trimmed it up and left the bushes to grow another crop.

It was a bit overwhelming, so I just started in, and tried to process as much as I could.

I used all that basil to make pesto. I will pop that out of the ice cube trays today and put in a baggie to stay frozen and easy to use. I filled 3 ice cube trays, plus had a little more which I spooned onto a cookie tray to flash freeze.

I processed the beans, with another bag from 2 days ago, into dilly beans. The dill is producing well, right now, so I’m happy I can pick it and use it as needed.

The third project I got done yesterday was 5-1/2 pints of crushed tomatoes. There were enough to do something, but not enough to do a big batch of anything. I just went ahead and made a small batch because we could not use that many up before they went bad.

The cucumbers have been producing lightly and I did these 2 pints of pickles a couple of days ago. There weren’t more ready yesterday, but I’ll check each day as they grow quickly once they set on.

I got a few jars of beets pickled last week.

The broccoli is almost done producing. I blanched and froze a large pot of it the other day. That took care of the last few large main heads and a bunch of side shoots. Now, all that’s left is tiny side shoots. I’ll give it a few more days and if it really is done, I’ll pull it out.

This past week, I also got a jar of bread crumbs preserved. I was given a loaf of gluten free bread, which I did not like. It had been around a while and was very dry. I laid it on a cookie rack on top of a cookie sheet and let it air dry for a few days. Once dried, I pulverized it in my little smoothie maker/blender. Now I’ve got an entire jar for free!

There’s still lots growing out there in the garden and I”m looking forward to putting lots more away for winter in the next week and beyond! I do love this time of year:)