loving the harvest

as satisfying as it is to gather in the harvest of what i've planted and lovingly tended during the summer.... well, dealing with it is lots of work and time, and dare i say it... gets damn boring.  Jim brought in this big (and deeper than it looks) basket of green beans today... all of it the first harvest from one row of pole beans.  and, oh dear goddess  this means there's much more to come.  i do love having garden produce in its frozen form to eat during the gray days of winter, but the abundance is killin' me.  suffice it to say that the local food bank receives the overflow.  and that is a good thing!



most of this batch is headed for the food dehydrator that i'm borrowing from my neighbor.  will be good in soups and stews and etc during the winter.

so... first wash, then cut up,  put on dehydrator tray and fire up the noisy beast.  (it's an Excalabrator which cost them around $350 or more and which i will never buy... because of the price, size and NOISE)

and after about 4 to 5 hours the beautiful green beans become way decreased in volume and are hard little nuggets which will live in a jar until needed.  ah, yes, a mere shadow of their former selves.

and the muscat grapes are getting close to being harvestable.  there is some critter out there that seems to be reaching up and pulling off the lower-hanging sweet nuggets... damn their retched hide! so Jim netted them yesterday and maybe we'll have some left for wine.

the u-pick peaches from friday are suddenly ALL ripe and ready for processing.  so, most will probably end up frozen in quantities perfect for the "peach crisp" we both love.  if dessert can't be chocolate, then this will do.  i'm pretty sure the recipe for this is in a post about a year ago.

i know that J would love to have lots of them made into jam, but i'm such a friggin' jam making failure that i'm just not going to go there again.  i already did my "pioneer woman" routine... long ago... and i'm finished with that and canning and long hot nights slaving over the canning kettle.  i'm at the place where it's just too much work, and boring besides!  i could be spinning or knitting or taking a nap.

also harvested basil and made a couple of batches of pesto.  and tomatoes are very SLOWLY
 ripening, but did have some juicy ones for BLT yesterday... yummmm.

and the sunflowers!!  they make my heart sing.  love 'em.  they are just so perfect and impressive and it's fascinating watching the bees forage for pollen and gather so much they can hardly fly away.  i think of them as kind of a reward for all the labor that goes on around them in bringing the harvest of vegetables in.

there are more Alaska photos to come.  i'm still in awe of the beauty of Glacier Bay and have the pics to prove it!