Is spring really here?

*sniff sniff*  Yup, I think that's spring in the air!  Time to really start working on the garden.  Hubby and I have spend the last month or so planning out our garden.  We have seedlings growing in our indoor greenhouse.  We have drawn a map of our back yard and planned where everything is to go.  We have ordered and received our seeds.

Our goal is to plant and preserve enough to meet most of our needs for fruits and vegetables.  We all know that diabetics aren't the only ones that need to follow a healthy diet.  That's true for everyone.  However, diabetics have consequences tied to their eating habits that many do not.  Eating fresh fruits and vegetables is part of a healthy lifestyle.

Today, hubby and I went to a local department store (a local one with a rural flare).  This weekend they're having no sales tax plus a lot of things on a great sale.  We were able to find fruit trees for only $20.99 each (normally $29.99 plus tax).  Our plan is to plant three to five dwarf fruit trees along the back fence of our property.   We found three trees we like (two varieties of peach and a golden delicious apple), so we'll be planting those tomorrow.  The rest of the fruit tree varieties seemed to be semi-dwarf or full-size.  For our other two, we might consider pear or cherry.  We have plans to eat some of the fruit as it ripens, but also learn how to preserve what we will need for the coming year.

Gardening brings me joy.  I love seeing my basement cupboard full of jars containing foods that we have grown and preserved.  Yes, I have a lot of pickles, but we love pickles.  The joy in serving those pickles to my family makes it worth the effort needed, and then some.

More pickles

Today we decided to do some canning of pickles, instead of refrigerator pickles like we did earlier this week.  We got the recipe from a friend, only altering it slightly.  Our kids love eating pickle spears so we decided to do this batch in spears instead of slices.  We learned some lessons along the way:

1. Pack the spears in tightly, leaning the jar on its side at first, adding more spears to the top horizontally if needed to fill void. (Did this after 1-2 jars.)
2. Check adjustable measuring spoon to make sure it stays at the correct measurement.  Each jar was to get 1/2 tsp garlic.  At least one, but not more than two, got a full teaspoon.  (That's ok, I love garlic.  Too bad I didn't mark that jar!)

One thing we learned last year that I'm so glad we remembered was to heat up an extra pot of boiling water in case the hot water bath doesn't have enough to top the jars.  There was no scrambling to get more water this year. 

I can't wait until these pickles are ready!  They don't have all the sugar that the refrigerator pickles have.  Actually they have none, so these should be great for my glucose levels.  I still probably shouldn't hog the whole jar though, right?

Canning update

Hubby and I made seven quarts of refrigerator pickles yesterday.  We have only gone through about half what we picked this weekend and there are probably more to be picked.  I can't wait until we can start eating them!  We'll probably let them sit about two or three more days before we open the first jar.  Nothing is better than homemade pickles!  Hoping to do some actual canning later today.  I'm helping out at church this morning, answering phones, so we'll try to get canning after lunch.

Time to start canning

Yesterday I decided to pick cucumbers, thinking I might get a few.  By the time I decided to take a break, I had 40 cukes.  Most of them about medium size, but a few were huge.  I wasn't prepared to start canning, but it looks like I don't have much choice.  I did get the numbers down to 32 after giving half a dozen to a friend whose vines died off then having two with lunch today.  I might send the kids out to see if they can find any more.  Hubby is at the store right now buying lids for the 24 quart jars we already have plus another two dozen jars in preparation of what is to come.  I think today we'll make up this batch as refrigerator pickles since we've run out of pickles that we jarred last year.  We need a quick pickle fix.  Last year, our first year canning, we used a recipe we found on the internet.  This year we have hubby's grandmother's recipe to try.  We're looking forward to eating them in a few days.  I'll make sure to blog about the final result!