Canning and fruit stuff

I've been doing a TON of canning, herb drying, fruit dehydrating and such. So far I've canned;

Dill Pickles
Bread and Butter Pickles (for mom)
Green Beans : Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Gingered Zucchini Preserves
Balsamic Caramelized Onions
Jerked Onion
Dried White/Black/Garbonzo Beans
Peaches in light syrup: Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Summer Solstice Jam: Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving ( I let the jam over heat so it's similar to leather... no matter, I'll find something to do with it...)

That's just this week mind you....

I've also got cherries out in the solar dehydrator and I have peaches to cut up and dehydrate or freeze for oatmeal.

Our little tri-star strawberry patch is producing like mad house right now. They are a late ever bearing strawberry that is small and sweet. We're rooting some of the daughter plants right now to place into our old June bearing strawberry bed. I can't remember the name of the June bearer but it did nothing 2 years in a row, so it can no longer take up garden space. Jake and I ripped it out and are going to plant the tri-star daughters in it's place. If the second bed produces as much as the first one, we should be rich in strawberries next year.

The raspberry patch is doing really good this year. Well half of it is, the bed runs slightly up hill and the up hill quarter of the bed does produce raspberries but they are not as sweet. We're not sure what to do about supplemental water for that part of the patch. This is the first year of actual raspberry production, we let it get a little out of control until july then we had to cut some of the shoots that were leaning way out into the walk way. Next year, now we know better, we'll keep better control of the patch and help the shoots to grow straighter by tying them up.

Only one of our grapes survived the winter. Our freakshow apple has one branch with apples so big it needs support. All the other branches have maybe 4-5 apples on it though. So we'll most definitely need to get apples from elsewhere.

The herbs I have drying on the front rack are: purple and green sage, some basil, marjoram, winter savory, rosemary, thyme, and 2 types of mint. I am waiting for more basil to come in so I can make my own Italian seasoning (this is what you get when your husband was raised solely on pasta.) I didn't plant any parsley or cilantro this year because I still have some from last year. I still need to harvest some marigold flowers and lavender as well.

Our intention this weekend is to rob the bees of some honey.... pictures/videos will document the wild rumpus!