a winding down
holy cow, i have been a canning machine! and let me tell you – buying an electric food mill was THE BEST purchase of the last few years. i just canned 14 pints of apple butter yesterday, and if not for that sucker, i’d still be grinding the apples through my manual mill.
i’ve made four batches of pickles so far – maybe 30 pints or so. i may have one more batch out in the garden yet, but it’s been cold this week so i’m not sure if the growth is over or not.
i did a little bit of tomato sauce, but that is such a low result for a lot of work. i don’t necessarily like making sauce because of that.
and my apple tree is INSANE this year. i picked a bushel basket of apples the other day, and i’d bet there are at least 2-3 more. i made some apple crisp, ate some, and made the 14 pints of butter, and i only went through about 2/3 of the basket.
so, if you’ve got any ideas for how to use apples, let me know! i don’t know if i need to make any more apple butter. i don’t eat a ton to begin with, and canning lids are hard to come buy these days.
in somewhat related gardening news, i have 4 peony plants out in my garage, along with 30-ish tulip bulbs. i’m hoping this weekend to remove some of the landscaping rock around my front door and replace it with some spring flowers, maybe a couple other shrubby things, and mulch. the rocks have got to go. (i think i’m going to throw them in my pond.)
on an unrelated note, i’m annoyed that it’s dark by 8 p.m. what is this. seriously. stupid axial tilt.