Harvest Spring?

We have been so fortunate to have exceptional weather these past four weeks..... the garden has exploded with growth and veg and I have begun in earnest the picking and pickling and canning.

All the tomato plants are heavy with fruit and I really anticipate a terrific return on the Romas... so much so that I am researching ketchup recipes online. The Cherokee Purples are weird beyond description but so sweet and meaty, it is a bite of heaven. Nothing makes me think of youthful summers like tomato sandwiches, unless I think of sand sandwiches which are a WHOLE other memory, and we have been snarfign them everyday . True confession: ok, I have been snarfing them daily.

I have picked the last of the spring beets and pickled them. The batch before this I pressure cooked and so much of the color leached out I don't think I want to repeat that at all. Next year, I will freeze simple beets for borscht. I mean, c'mon! Who wants to look at an anemic borscht?

Potatoes are all in now and I hazard a guess that we hauled in in excess of 175lbs. No kidding. We have given alot to friends and neighbors and stowed the rest in a secret undisclosed temperature regulated location. I like the Adirondack Blues roasted but not boiled. They had a slightly bitter taste, to my way of thinking. Not everyone agrees with me and that's cool. The yukons grew enormous and that last day I dug potatoes, I realized that ants had moved in to feast. Who can blame them? So I lost around 4 to predators and two to a miss-placed fork in the soil.

Tomatillos have begun to ripen and we have four jars of salsa sitting on the shelf. It is delicious and I found this recipe online: Tomatillo Salsa

I will look into adding a sidebar tally...... I'm gonna need it!