I’m very pleased with how my pepper jelly turned out. If you get the opportunity you should crank up a batch. Even if you must purchase the peppers, it’s worth the relatively inexpensive cost. The recipe I used was my own that was created/mandated by what the first fruits of the garden were.
I used:
3/4th cup of banana peppers
1/2 cup jalapenos
1 and 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
5 cups of sugar
6 oz (two packages) of liquid pectin
It seems a little stiff coming out of the jar, but once ‘dolloped’ over a pile of cream cheese it has a perfect consistency. It’ll keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks or, if you’re like me, you can it by leaving 1/4 inch headspace and 10 minutes in a water bath.
The heavens opened up yesterday afternoon and we got a soaking rain that lasted for about 4 hours. I had just finished my second fertilization of the tomatoes and peppers (and egg plant) with a liquid 12-55-6 mix by Scotts. The Miracle Grow I used two weeks ago was 24-8-16. Here is what these two sets of numbers mean: the first set provides relatively more phosphorous (55) and contributes much more to blossoms and fruit production. The second set provides more (again relatively) nitrogen (24). Increased Nitrogen will cause the plants to focus more on growth and leaves.
The rain hosed up my opportunity to gather more blackberries and harvest more blueberries. The rain was hard enough to knock most of the ripe blueberries off of the bushes; I’ve got 4 cups in the fridge and need another 3 to make a batch of jam. As far as blackberries go, I went out on Saturday and gathered a quart. If the weather holds off today I hope to be able to gather enough for a batch of Blackberry Jam today.
I’ve been pulling in the basil and cranked up some pesto: that’s good stuff as well. I’ve planted twice as much basil this year as last, so hope to be able to get some of this into the freezer for a reminder of the summer once winter rolls around.
We are down to a dozen or so pints of salsa and we are almost a month away from having the garden produce all of the peppers, garlic, cilantro, and tomatoes needed. I did not plant oregano this year (an oversight) so that’s another purchase that could have been avoided by a little better planning.
Here’s the latest guess from the hacks at the weather bureau. What I make from this is the sun still rises from day to day and each day is what we make of it !
