Keepin' it Green

Although, I haven't mentioned much about it this year, We (and by we, I mean me and the Hubby by default) are participating in One Local Summer. This past weekend was a visit to see the In-Laws and to purge their garden of any unnecessary growths, like beans, corn, okra and cukes. Granted a visit with the folks is about a three hour round trip, so it doesn't reduce our carbon footstep as much as a hardcore OLS might desire, but we did kill two birds with one stone getting veggies and visit in at the same time. It was a good visit and I'm so glad they are willing to share with us.

We immediately fried and ate the okra, so I have no pictures of that. I will share with you this is little tidbit: Before my husband married me, he didn't eat fried okra, or fried squash for that matter. After I made it the first time against many loud localizations, he decided it was good stuff. It warms my heart.

The beans were pre-canned for us by my wonderful MIL, but unfortunately she and I do not agree how to can beans. She likes hers fresh. extra fresh. As in so turgid you could break your teeth on them. I side with the extra limp overcooked in ham camp. It's okay. I own crockpot "the green beans' best friend"! Now, I only have to cook twelve cans of green beans to an acceptable level of limpness. YUM! Still no photos.

Last year I only had enough ears to make a few jars of corn salsa, but this year they sent us home with 2 five gallon buckets of sweet corn. After about 5 seconds of thought, we decided on turning it into creamed corn. I really have to thank my Hubby here, because all his years experience helping his parents do the exact same thing turned into 11 jars fabulous looking creamed corn. Although, after two days of husking and creaming and canning corn we aren't really excited about trying it, but I am sure we will love it this winter.


They also sent us home with an armful of cukes, which I immediately pickled. It made about 2 pints worth of pickles. I didn't care for last year's pickles (the Hubby ate them all), so we are trying a new instant picking mix this year. Being the pickle snob I am, I really hate the artificial yellow coloring added to this mix to make it look more picklely. (You like that word? Me too.) Hopefully, I will be able to get over this visual deterrent and eat me some good pickles this year.



And at last my tomatoes are starting to spit out ripe yumminess which I can shove into jars and enjoy later this winter as seen above. They will be great for stewing and adding to our favorite lentil soup recipe.

So, excuse me while I go find more things to squash into jars.