Canning shelves

The year in canning is slowing tremendously.  Here I have my whole tomatoes, salsa, peaches, peach butter and bread and butter pickles.  I didn't make any jams or jellies this year.  I made so many last year that I still have enough for quite a while.  If I can find some grapes at a nearby farm, I may make some grape jelly.

Under the stairs is more of a mish mash of things.  There are a few more jars of salsa and whole tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef stock and chicken stock.  There are also a few leftovers from last year like applesauce, minestrone soup and the last jar of tomatillo salsa.    I love looking at all the pretty jars.  It will all be so very yummy in January.

Since there are still tomatoes coming in, a few more jars of things may make their way downstairs.  There are still 3 qts of tomato sauce sitting on the kitchen counter, along with more tomatoes waiting to have a place to go.  I'm out of pint jars, so everything from here on out will be in quarts.

Peaches

Peaches are in season here in New England.  I think it's pretty sad that just a few years ago, I didn't know that you could grow them here.  I thought they could only be grown in the south, like citrus.  That's how far away from our food supply I was.  Now of course, I have my own peach trees.  They have some small fruit on them this year, but nothing that will actually feed us quite yet. 

The local farm, however, does have quite a few peaches.  When I went in the other day, they were running a special for canning peaches at a very nice price.  I snatched them up and ran right home to use up my bounty. 

I also did the tomatoes from the garden at the same time.  While I canned, my family happily slurped up the peaches still in the basket.  I think I'll be going back tomorrow to see if they have anymore left.  We are now firmly in the no industrially processed foods camp here.  If I don't get enough tomatoes for the year, I'll go back to the same farm to get big baskets of their canning tomatoes.  There just is no comparison. 

When I was finished canning, I decided a pie was in order.  This is a crumb top peach pie.  The recipe was made up, but consisted of a bottom pie crust.  The peaches were seasoned with cinnamon, ginger and allspice and thickened with a little cornstarch.  The topping was a basic crumble with butter, flour and sugar.  It was very yummy.