Preserving

What are you preserving this week? It has been "Pickle Week" here at the cabin. Over the weekend, we were the recipients of a plastic grocery bag filled with cucumbers (from some wonderful friends), many of which became dill pickle spears (pictured below). We also were given some tomatoes by one of hubby's co-workers and those became the jar of tomato puree pictured below.



Also in this picture are banana peppers, okra (both from our neighbor), peaches (from hubby's co-worker who sent a whole shopping bag full) was planning on putting up peaches in syrup, but we ended up eating most of them), some cucumbers (friend), a huge squash (from our neighbor - she said it is wonderful seeded and cubed and cooked with some brown sugar and cinnamon. I hope to try it, as that sounds wonderful), and another huge zucchini which will also be shredded and put in the freezer for zucchini bread.


Today I made pickled banana peppers and processed 6 half-pints (to the left in the photo). I also put some, unprocessed, in the fridge to use in the next week or so (big jar in photo) - yum!! I still need to decide what to do with the okra. I will probably just cook it down with onions and peppers and put it in the freezer for gumbo this fall.

It is harder to get to the farmer's market this year because we are 40 miles away from the closest one, so our wonderful neighbors' gifts have been such a blessing.

What are you preserving this week?