Harvest Time

I remain in disbelief of the incredible stretch of temperate weather we are experiencing!

Every day is just as beautiful as the one before and the one after.

It's as if Pennsylvania has become the new San Diego.

Although I know it is just a temporary fluke,

I am nonetheless grasping each day and squeezing the life out of it.

We are now in the midst of harvest time in the garden.

Each day brings oodles more of tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers.

Chard, corn, carrots, beets, onions and kale continue to be bountiful, also.

(Before I forget....this kale salad is the best I have ever had...try it....I mean it!)

( I promise, you will thank me!)

Yesterday was a typical day during harvest season.

Let me recap:

*Up at 5:30, showered, out to do AM animal chores, put horses out to pasture.

*8:00 - cleaned harvested hot peppers and canned 4 pints of hot pepper relish

*10:00 - brought horses in and fed them their chow.
*picked blueberries and blackberries

*canned 8 pints of mixed berry jam

*picked sweet peppers, onions, tomatoes, basil, oregano

*made 4 quarts of spaghetti sauce and froze in canning jars

*3:00 - Afternoon feeding, manure clean up and egg gathering done

*4:00 - went to feed store and bought chicken and goat feed

*stopped at gas station and filled containers with 30 gallons of gas for mowers

*unloaded and distributed 1000 pounds of feed (20X 50lb. bags)

*cleaned front pasture

*made and consumed dinner

*watered garden

*picked ground cherries (see end of post)

*8:00 - bedtime feeding and manure clean up done

*9:00 - put the chickens to bed

*9:15 - passed out....asleep!

I would think myself completely insane for packing this much into one day,

except for the fact that they are all activities that I love to do!

I have received a couple of comments over the past few weeks about the barn kitties.

We continue to have 5 barn cats...

Ella Bella, queen of the barn...

 (she is an agoraphobe, and rarely leaves the safety of the barn.)

Tom Tom, our hunter...

(came back to the barn last week dragging a dead grey squirrel...half his size!)

Little Leo, not so little anymore...

(he is the heaviest small cat I have ever lifted!)

Moll Flanders, keeper of the garden...

(world's best grasshopper catcher!)

And last but never least...

Bobby Cat, who can't decide if he is a barn cat or a garage cat...

(he always comes running for a ride in the gator.)

And now a word about ground cherries.

This unusual fruit, also known as a husk cherry, is a member of the tomatillo family.
It is a great self-seeder.

We have two boxes that come back thick and lush each year.
When ripe, the fruit drops to the ground, making harvest easy.

It is sweet...with a mild pineappley flavor.

We use it to make a ground cherry/orange jam.

My favorite breakfast is a piece of toast with organic peanut butter and this jam.
(It's what I'm having this morning!)

Today I will be tackling the basil patch and making pesto to freeze.
After that....I will be planting more basil!

And while I am thinking of it...
can you believe it's the last day of July?
Where has the time gone?