....a time to harvest!

The past couple weeks I've been busy harvesting and preserving fresh fruits and veggies!
About 2 weeks ago I harvested the first of my green beans! I got a very good picking!

I got 8 pints of green beans from this picking which I canned!

This past weekend a good friend of ours who used to live here, has family here, and was a member of our church (not to mention, our landlord) was so gracious and took time out of his weekend to come bring a few of us here in Nevada fresh fruit from Idaho, where he has recently moved to. He brought lots of apples, peaches, and pears!

This week I got busy using my apples and pears. Only got a few peaches, will probably make pie or cobbler or something. We've also just been snacking on yummy, fresh peaches!

I used my apples for applesauce! A friend loaned me an apple slicer/peeler/corer, which was extremely helpful!

I cooked the apple rings until soft.
Mashed up with my food processor.

And heated my applesauce. I added a little sugar, since I used gala apples and once I made them into sauce, they were bland, so I added just enough to add flavor.

After I was done with the applesauce, I started on the pears.

I peeled, halved, and cored. Cooked in a light syrup and canned.

At the end of the day I had 4 quarts of applesauce, and 7 quarts of pear halves.

My new "appliance" arrived in the mail this week too, that I can use for preserving!
I tried it out with zucchini chips. My freezer if full of zucchini, and so I decided having some dried would be good.
It's the Excalibur Dehydrator, 9 tray 3900 series. :)

 I plan to use this to make homemade backpacking meals. Rather than paying for expensive freeze-dried individually packaged backpacking meals. I found a great website with some good recipes I look forward to trying soon. http://www.backpackingchef.com/index.html

I still have lots of apples to can. And this afternoon I harvest 3 large bowls of produce from my garden, including another decent picking of green beans. :)

I am thankful for God's provision! And giving me the means and abilities to preserve it to enjoy throughout the year! To God be the glory!