Much goodness is beginning to be gathered out of my little garden; peppers, blueberries, basil, garlic, and cabbage are the latest placed under seal.
I gathered several cups of wild blackberries and canned up what I’m calling ‘Black-Jap’. This is a jelly made by combining 4 cups of blackberries and 10 diced Jalapeno peppers. Around here we’ve grown accustomed to calling the Jalapenos ‘Japs’; thus the ‘Black-Jap’ moniker. I had some of this great jelly spread across hot biscuits yesterday morning and will definitely be making another batch! I think 16 or so half pints will last about a year.
I’ve also put up a batch of pepper jelly made of green Cayenne (as the heat producer), bell and banana peppers. It actually is just a tad more spicy than the Jalapeno pepper jelly, but the flavor is significantly different; for lack of another descriptors, I’ll call it more ‘smokey’ in taste.
Our daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter, and a couple other kids came up on Saturday to fart around with the cattle. We broke out the the jalapeno pepper jelly, cream cheese and crackers and they put a couple of bottles worth away in a single sitting. They left with a ‘care-package’ composed of two types of pepper jelly (cayenne and jalapeno), some blueberry jam, cabbage, and some basil Pesto.
I’ve made several types of pesto so far this year, but the one I like most is basil with walnut. I did arugula earlier and while it’s good, it doesn’t match the basil. With 10 basil plants producing this year I’m shooting to get 2 dozen half pint jars frozen. I’ve pulled 50 plus head of garlic and have them hanging in the barn to dry. The key to good pesto is freshness. Fresh basil, garlic, parmesan cheese, walnuts, and extra virgin olive oil all come together to make this a delightful snack.
I pulled in the few heads of cabbage I’d planted. They’ve been sliced and diced and placed into quart jars to ferment into sauerkraut. I didn’t get enough planted to make more than 8 quarts. According to the farmers almanac I can get a fall crop in if I plant more again this week. Think I’ll try that out. I planted Napa cabbage to make Kimchi with, but the heads never formed tightly., so that’s a bust.
The okra and zucchini are beginning production and I’m beginning to see color in the tomato crop so will be busy this summer!
I must confess I’ve been watching these garden posts with some selfish interest as I’m wondering how the slanted cuke trellises worked out for you.
Thanks brother. I planned on using a slanted trellis but realized that it wouldn’t work with the way I planted this year. Because I planted them at the back of the long side of a 4 X 12 ft planting box (with bell peppers planted along the center of the box) that If I slant the trellis back then I wont be able to reach the cuc’s that don’t fall through the mesh. I cannot stand to the side of the row and reach in, because the trellis is 12′ in length. Poor planning on my part!