The Colors of the Garden . . .

Good Morning!  

It's Wednesday!

It's Canning Day!

I went by the farmers' market in the church parking lot yesterday afternoon!  Oh my!  I came home with the two boxes of  Heirloom Romas (below), two dozen eggs, gorgeous lettuce, yard long beans, cow horn peppers, eggplant and a whole bunch more heirloom tomatoes, a cantaloupe and some Blueberry Cobbler Bread!  

Add to that:  cucumbers, another cantaloupe, a few tomatoes and a couple of bell peppers from a friend, and zucchini and cabbage (not pictured, because it showed up later in the evening).  My daughter sent the bowl blueberries for me to can for her.  I measured them up and pulled three pints of blueberries in lite syrup from the pantry in return!  The ones she sent are going with others into the crockpot to create Blueberry Butter!  The two baskets of miscellaneous tomatoes came from my garden the last two days.  Those baskets full will make a new batch of Tomato Jam!  The two pineapples came home following my Monday morning trip to Sam's Club, and will likely become another Jam (w/5 spice powder).

As for everything else, I'm thinking the majority of those two boxes of Romas will be canned simply.  Peel, core and cover with hot water, a touch of salt and pressure canned.  I love versatile end products. There is so much I can use those for.  I'm always going to the pantry for a can of tomatoes!  Some of them have a fighting chance at becoming something more spectacular.  There will also be some set aside to combine with the eggplant and bell pepper for Caponata!  Note:  The skins will be saved, dehydrated and ground into powder for seasoning purposes!  I love it when you can use virtually the entire product!!!  

Those two plump cantaloupes will be made into Cantaloupe Jam!  The recipe sounds dreamsicle-ish!  

As for the peppers, the cowhorns will go into jars with hot vinegar for future pepper sauce.  The jalapenos will receive a similar treatment ... to be used later with nachos, etc.!   The banana peppers ... ditto!  

I'm still not certain what I'll do with the yard long beans.  Maybe I'll just can them in the pint-and-a-half jars with a clove of garlic. Or, better yet, I will likely dehydrate them and use them however I want later!

The lettuce will go with a salad, along with the cucumbers and those yummy, candy-like heirloom grape tomatoes in the center of the top photo.  OMG!  I will be purchasing more of those next week!

I also have a large bag of garlic cloves in the fridge.  Time to make another batch of roasted garlic!  

Anyway, that's the Plan!  We'll see how it pans out!