Not sure why, but every year I wonder, once the garden is planted, whether it will ever get busy so that I can get harvesting … and every year it does so so quickly that I am suddenly having to go-go-go to harvest. Needless to say, every year is different: the weather is different, the seeds are different, some things get started (and start well) while others, not so much! This year is no different.

Yup, those are big bowls – 21 quarts of gooseberries from our 3 bushes harvested this year. Last year was only 8 quarts – so we gave 2 quarts to a neighbour to make jam, made a batch of jam ourselves, ground some up to make yoghurt-gooseberry popsicles (I love them!) and put the rest, whole, in freezer bags of the correct size to make pie filling. This was after spending hours topping and tailing them! But so worth it.

While they don’t grow in my garden, we love strawberries and go to pick them at a local pick-your-own to make jam and crushed strawberries, again for yoghurt-strawberry popsicles. I have some one cup plastic Ball jars that I use to freeze the fruit – then pop them out into a large freezer bag so I can reuse the Ball jars!

I started this a couple of weeks ago, and, as predicted, immediately got go-go-go harvesting. We now have been picking blueberries – making jam and putting several quarts into the freezer (just put in container and freeze: wash as they come out and you are good to go) for our grandson’s favourite: Grampa’s waffles with maple syrup and blueberries – one in each square! We hit our local roadside stand when our raspberries failed in the dry and heat so we have some raspberries in the freezer. We also picked up half a bushel of #2 cucumbers and made 16 quarts of dill pickles and picked up 15 lbs of carrots and made GG’s Dilled Carrots that we love. The shelves in the “cold room” under the front porch are filling up!

We are now eating primarily from the garden. The photo above shows zucchini casserole with zucchini, dill, parsley and green onions from the garden; salad with lettuces, arugula, peppers, broccoli, tomatoes that were home grown; parmesan bean salad using our beans and onions; spicy cucumber salad; stewed tomatoes and peas from our garden. The salad dressing is blue cheese – homemade. We can sure tell at this time of year that it is August. Yesterday was local corn on the cob after we put the corn from 4 dozen cobs in the freezer and peach custard pie from local peaches after canning 20 quarts. My cold room overfloweth.

The roma style as well as the beefsteak tomatoes are now starting to ripen as well as the eggplants – tonight’s dinner will be burani bonjon (a spicy Afghan dish of tomatoes and eggplant with mint yoghurt sauce) over rice and a green salad with cumin tahini homemade dressing … ah, the joys of gardening.