A Good Neighbour!

"Love your neighbour as yourself." Mark 12:31 

Ok, so after doing a google search to find where this verse is found (my Sunday school teachers would be appalled), I have settled in for a speedy-quick lunch break blog post.

Super speedy! Because all this blog post is, is a big shout out to my neighbour Gary! He is the kind of neighbour that makes putting this verse into practice easy! Easy-peasy! 

Bowl o' peas!

I got a knock on my door letting me know that he had more peas than he could handle, and I was free to clear them off his vines! WHEEEE!!! I have planted peas this year as well, but let's just clarify that Gary's garden is something I aspire to. My pea vine might provide a single meal's worth of peas...but I think what I got off of Gary's vines will last me through the winter!

On a side note-I have found my camera! So these second rate cell phone pictures will come to an end. YAY!

Well stocked freezer!

It's That Time of Year Again!

Ah summer, the time of year when it is so scorching hot outside, the last thing you want to do is have your stove on all day...but that is what canning is about! Unfortunately, most of the lovely fruits and veggies I can are in season in SUMMER!

But is always worth it! So this summer, we got started with berries and baby cukes from a local U-Pick (the Jungle Farm) that I have used before, and then got to work! A big thanks to my lovely sis-in-law, Lisette. It made a big job much more manageable! And another big thanks to my neighbour Kayla, who came out and helped me pick! I am surrounded by amazing people!



Getting everything prepped!



I love home canning for so many reasons. I love to control what is going into my jars of deliciousness, and I love how it tastes! Not to mention I am a bit of a "Martha" and enjoy homemaking activities in general! Cooking, baking, sewing, bring it on!

So back to the canned goods:



Pickles all ready to be processed!



We are all garlic lovers in my house, so we threw in a couple extra cloves per jar-I can't wait to see how they taste! The catch with pickles is the six week wait before you can dig in. The flavours need time to make friends, or else you are just eating cukes coated in vinegar.

I also used a new pickling spice mix this year. Usually I just use the Bernardin pickle mix, which is fine, but this year I had the chance to visit Silk Road Spice Merchant in Calgary, and their pickling spice looked amazing! So we will see, come October, what difference a high quality spice mix makes! I am also considering their dried hot pepper varieties to spice up upcoming batches of salsa!

We also made a batch of raspberry jam and a batch of strawberry-rhubarb jam. I have rhubarb coming out of my ears in my backyard, so I am going to be canning it in some new ways this year!

Beauties!

I have a long list of what I would like to can this year: tomatoes, homemade ketchup, pasta sauce, salsa, rhubarb marmalade, red pepper jelly...now just to find the time to do it all!

A BIG thanks to Lisette for cleaning up my kitchen post-production!