The wild garlic I'm talking about is Allium ursinum. So it IS your bears garlic. It is a woodland species and not a weed in open land. There are other wild alliums such as crow garlic, Allium vineale, which is probably the one LoneJack is thinking of. The leaves of A ursinum are flat similar to a tulip, not tubular. It has relatively large white flower heads. It grows very thickly and is easy to gather in handfuls. What's more it grows in my garden so I don't have to go looking for it.

Here it is growing in a local wood. It's a spring ephemeral and will have disappeared by the time the trees are in full leaf.

Ready to make another batch for the freezer.

Floral, that wooded path is just beautiful! I woke up this morning to snow on the ground and ice on the roads, but it melted by midday, thankfully.

I have seedlings under lights on my growing shelves, but nothing outside yet. It's supposed to be near 50 tomorrow so my granddaughter is going to come and help me prune fruit trees and grape vines and clean up the tomato mess left from last year that I didn't clean up because I was busy goofing off at the Heart Center, LOL>

I did manage to make a large batch of homemade pappardelle and get it in the freezer, it'll be used for Easter dinner. Since I froze it does it count as preserving? (grin)

Annie

Sounds as if you have a big garden, Annie, with lots to do.

Freezing definitely counts as preserving. And making your own pasta is above and beyond.

Annie, freezing definitely counts as preserving in my book! 😄

Floral, love the wild garlic growing pic and your harvest. This is my first time growing bear's garlic so looking forward to the harvest. Can you share your pesto recipe with us? I saw a few on the internet. I don't have pine nuts though where I live. We have pine trees here but not that kind for eating.

I was able to harvest some colorful carrots from the garden yesterday and made a colorful coleslaw with it.

Annie, I don't use a specific recipe myself but there are plenty online. This is one: Wild garlic pesto recipe / Riverford https://share.google/Pa8lMe0CJ0Sra0SOi

When I make it I use any kind of tree nut, walnuts are good or a mixture, and any kind of strong hard cheese. Whatever I have at the time. I just bung handfuls of whatever I have into the blender and taste as I go. It is pretty pungent when first made so if using immediately it's best left an hour or two to meld.

Nice carrots. I've given up on them years ago. My heavy clay soil isn't conducive to root veg.

THanks, Floral, although somewhat late. I'll have garlic scapes here pretty soon, maybe another month.

It's time to plant the garden here, I have all the rows marked and the bean towers up, tomorrow my seedlings will go into the ground. After that, canning season is right around the corner!

I'm cleaning freezers, though, in preparation for processing chickens in about 6 weeks, so I canned 4 quarts and a pint of beef broth made from scraps and trimmings as well as one package of short ribs since no one in my family will eat those. Everyone says they are too greasy, and I agree, no matter what I do to them.

Annie

Canning season obviously isn't in full swing yet, LOL. I've been doing just little bits and pieces of things. I put 3 quarts of rhubarb in the freezer, as well as one small package of snow peas for future stir fries.

26 chickens will be processed on Friday, barring unforeseen circumstances, so that'll take up some freezer space.

Annie

I sure wouldn't have room for 26 chickens in my freezers Annie. I might be able to squeeze in half that many.

I dug my garlic on Monday and was really happy with the harvest. A lot of 2.5"-3" bulbs. Must have been the chicken poop I dug into the bed last fall before planting. I also pulled about 20 onions that had already fallen over. Nothing too big yet but there are some nice ones out there yet to be pulled.

I'm looking forward to the local sweet corn coming in a couple weeks. I plan to blanch and freeze at least a bushel.

I'm going to stop by a local market gardener's self service stand today to see if he has ripe tomatoes yet. He puts his tomatoes out under low tunnels in early April so I expect he has some ripe by now. Really looking forward to the first BLT of the year!

Making beef broth is a perfect way to start the year and clear out the freezer space. You are definitely not too early; prepping staples now saves so much time later in the season.

Zande, I use a lot of broth, so I have to pretty much make it throughout the year anyway. Plus, if I run out of time in the summer it's kind of nice to stand over a steaming canning pot in January!

Today we put 27 chickens on ice, they were about 6-7 pounds dressed although I did have one 4.5 pounder and one that topped 8 pounds, so it all averages out. I keep some whole for roasting and package the rest in "parts", so individual packages of wings, breasts, etc. The backs and necks are all used for broth, so more of that will be happening soon.

I put a couple more quart packages of rhubarb in the freezer and make two quarts of refrigerator asparagus pickles. I had a few strawberries, but we just ate them!

Annie

I added one more bag of snow peas and one single quart of strawberries. Local strawberries are $7 a quart here this year, and few of the "u-picks" have any to pick. The combination of a cold spring, extremely dry May and a couple of late frosts did them in. I also have no peaches this year and few apples, the weather simply did not cooperate.

Annie

It hardly feels like summer here and yet we’re suddenly in a long scorcher heatwave. I’m in the process of making strawberry jam because I just saw an Amish woman selling strawberries in the parking lot when I went to buy milk and eggs. They cost me $5/qt and that’s the going rate for U-pick! but I’m here because I just learned that you can test pectin for efficacy by mixing 1 tsp pectin with 1 tbs water and 1 tbs rubbing or isopropyl alcohol…. if it clumps into a lump that you can pick up with a fork, then it’s still good. My pectin is still good. :)

Annie, I’m catching up by reading backwards… that’s a shame about all your fruit trees. It’s been dicey weather here too and my cherries are a failure, but my pears and early apples look good so far. I have what I assume is russeting on the pears, that brownish corky skin, caused by environmental stress = bad weather. Supposedly harmless.

Beautiful strawberries, PM, and I'm envious of the pears. My trees are 6 years old now and I haven't gotten a single pear yet, and none this year either. My neighbor kindly brought me a bowl of strawberries from her patch, it's in a very protected location and bearing nicely, they were sweet and delicious.

Meanwhile I've canned a batch of chicken stock, 4 quarts and a pint, from some of the backs and necks of those chickens we just processed. I have enough "parts" for about 3 more batches of stock.

I got a really good deal on black beans from Sam's Club, I think black beans are the only ones I don't grow! Twelve pounds of dried beans for $9.95, and I canned 10 quarts and a pint and still have two half gallon jars full of black beans yet to process.

One jars of beans didn't seal and so I made refried beans with them and we had tostadas a couple of nights ago.

I found the first tiny cucumbers on the vines today, and small green tomatoes on the tomato plants. We covered the green beans to protect them from rabbits, so hopefully there will be some to can. A live trap is set right now for a groundhog that has been munching on my cabbage and broccoli and ate all of the Good Mother Stallard beans, we'll see if we catch Mr Hungry or any of his family. Geez, it's always something!

I saw a shirt today that said "Gardeners eat what they can, and can what they can't". Made me smile...

Annie

Annie, has your pear tree flowered at all? I don’t remember how long it was before my tree started producing fruit, but I think it took less than 7 years. My tree is completely loaded with fruit this year and it reminds me of the year my overloaded peach tree had branches snap from the weight. Hopefully pear wood is stronger. lol!

Great deal on the black beans, and I love that saying on the shirt. You definitely need a shirt that says that!

No, sadly, my little pear trees have never had a blossom, and I have 3 of them, all the same age, to insure pollination if they ever do get a flower. (sigh) I water them, fertilize twice a year, they are growing and healthy, lots of leaves, about 8 feet tall now. Just no pears...

In other news, though, I canned 5 quarts and a pint of chicken stock and I'll be picking green beans in another week or so, the garden is coming right along. It's supposed to be 93F tomorrow and 98F Tuesday, then "cool down into the low 90s" Wednesday and Thursday. I spent the last two days weeding and hoeing and sprinkling and trapping the groundhogs, so now my garden will have to do without my presence for a few days until it cools down and I don't melt when I go outside!

Annioe

Hopefully next year they’ll all flower for you. Are you certain that the fertilizer isn’t inhibiting flowering? I only have one pear tree, have never fertilized it, and it is absolutely loaded with fruit this year. I hope I get some. lol! The squirrels here are awful thieves! :)

We got that awful heat here too, along with smoke from the Canadian wildfires. Air quality was too bad to be outdoors. ugh. But today is gorgeous and I harvested a big bunch of beautiful oregano to dry, and my BF suggested drying it in a paper bag in the hot car. That’s brilliant. And much easier than messing with the dehydrator!

Walmart is selling very fresh and tender sweet corn for 25 cents an ear right now. Last week I bought 3 dozen and froze it blanched and off the cob in about 2 cup vacuum sealed packages. Today I bought 3 more dozen and am in the middle of doing the same.

I also need to harvest my ~75 leeks and do something with them. I'll probably slice them julian style, vacuum seal in portions and freeze for use in stir fry.

Jack, our local Meijer had that same deal and I bought a couple, just for supper. They were pretty good, but we just ate them, no preserving at all!

My garden does have sweet corn growing which just started to tassel and get some small ears, so that'll be in the future. I picked some green beans but decided to cook them with small potatoes and we just ate them, the first beans of the season are just so good. I have cucumbers but not enough for pickles.

I think tomorrow I'll be canning the carrots from the greenhouse so I can have that room for some fall gardening. I'll be pickling beets next week. Other than carrots, the only thing I have ready is cilantro and basil, which I'll probably just freeze.

Annie

Annie - I'm envious of your fresh beans. I didn't plant any this spring.

So I just planted four 10' rows of Goldilocks filet beans (yellow- 52 DTM) for a fall harvest. They went in the 2 beds that previously had the leeks a few hours earlier.Hopefully they will survive the August heat and I'll get a good harvest in late September. I planted seed that I saved a few years ago. The seed has been in the fridge in a mason jar so I hope they are still viable.

Jack, I'm pretty sure your bean seeds will be fine, I planted some from 2014 and they came up just fine. I know you have a longer growing season than I do, so I sure hope you get some fresh beans before our crazy weather does anything...well...crazy!

I managed to can 6 quarts of mixed green and yellow beans, very pretty in the jar. I usually plant a few yellow beans so I can make some of that pickled 3 bean salad for canning, but I haven't gotten enough of them yet. Maybe next week.

Oh, and I got 8 pints of carrots: 2 jars of Yellowstone, 1 jar of Atomic Red which are really pretty, and 5 pints of just orange, they were Tendersweet. I had some Cosmic Purple too, but they are just orange in the middle so when you peel them for canning they are just like the orange carrots, you peel away all the purple. I didn't think that one through, obviously!

Annie

My garden is just starting, I added a couple of trays of sweet peppers to the freezer and 10 more quarts of green beans to the pantry/storage. Elery ate the first three Sungold cherry tomatoes today too, but they didn't get preserved, LOL.

I dug all the garlic and have 250 heads of it curing in the pole barn.

Annie

Nice harvest of garlic Annie! What variety of garlic are you growing? This year was my first attempt on growing garlic and I planted too late. Bulbs were very small so I dried and will replant in the Fall. I have Music garlic and Purple Italian garlic.

I made two jars of salsa with fresh peppers from the garden, onions and tomatoes that were on sale at the store. My tomatoes in the garden did not do well this year. Maybe the Fall time will be better or next year!

Only one jar of homemade pickles was made this year. Cucumbers were not as productive as last year when I was able to make seven jars. Thankfully we have three jars left from last year's batch.

Itsfun, I'm sorry it took so long to get back, I've been canning! I grow Music, because that's what Michigan State University tells me grows well in my area. It sure grows well for me and I just save some of the nicest bulbs for next year's seed garlic, so I will probably have Music into perpetuity, LOL.

I'm still working on green beans and yellow wax beans, I canned 33 quarts of a mixture of those two types today, and I canned 9 pints of 3 bean salad yesterday plus put a half gallon jar of tiny "gherkins" in the fridge in brine for refrigerator pickles.

I think tomorrow is pickled beets and cole slaw, maybe corn relish if I don't run out of time and energy.

Annie

Everyone else is canning so much that they are too busy to post?

I managed 6 more quarts of green beans, that makes 49 quarts this year! I also canned 15 pints of pickled beets, 8 pints of cole slaw and 4 pints of a new recipe for "Chipotle Relish" which DH thought might be good on beans. It's still warm on the counter so I haven't had a taste test yet, but chipotle flavored cucumbers sounds a bit...unusual...to me, LOL

Annie

No canning going on here Annie.

I did finish getting around 7 dozen ears of corn processed and in the freezer. Enough to last the year I think. My yellow filet bush beans are growing well and should start blooming in a couple weeks. I'll blanch and freeze about 10 pounds of those(hopefully!).

My new pullets started laying in July. The first one started laying at 15 weeks and I think all 6 are laying now. I have 2 copper maran pullets that are supposed to lay the dark brown eggs. For about the first month they were laying cream colored eggs but a week or so ago they finally started to color them dark brown. Weird!

It’s been a bad gardening year here. Still waiting for rain. I agree that chipotle cucumbers doesn’t sound right. I love chipotle mayo though! Slap some roasted red peppers and chipotle mayo on nearly any sandwich or burger and it should be good. :)

Jack, freezing counts, so you're still doing OK. :-) I have a Maran and I found that they have to "grow into" the substance they produce to make the eggs dark brown. They'll lay dark eggs for a couple of years and then they will start getting lighter and lighter, like they've run out of the pigment that makes the eggs dark, if that makes sense. The older the Maran the lighter the egg becomes. The eggs are still delicious, though, so I'm good with that.

PM, it's been in the 90s here and we have had about half an inch of rain total in the past 6 weeks. The garden is only doing well because of the sprinklers. Between the groundhogs, the raccoons in the sweetcorn and the potato bugs it seems like I'm fighting pests as well as weather. I won't be doing anything else with corn this year unless I buy some, unfortunately. On the flip side, corn is not my favorite thing from the garden, so I'm OK with a shortage of that. Frost got the apples, the peaches and the sweet cherries, so none of those this year and not many strawberries. Blackberries are yet to be determined, I suppose I should water those tomorrow too!

I think tomorrow I'll be canning some hot pepper mustard, if no one finds something else for me to do. Probably green beans again, and then eventually there will be grapes if they keep looking as good as they do now.

Annie

Oh wow, Annie, that sounds as bad as here and also where my sister lives in eastern MA. The only thing my sister and I both have this year is pears, but I bought both trees and they’re the same variety which may explain it. :)

It's very dry, hay is going to be expensive and hard to source this year. Fortunately for the garden, I have a sprinkler and am using it regularly. The pasture is pretty much dried up, though, so the cattle are eating hay already and have been for about a month now. No appreciable rain in the forecast either, so this may go on a bit longer. I felt a nip in the air yesterday, though, so fall is going to try to come soon, I think.

I canned more green beans, I'm at 63 quarts now and just gave half a bucket full to the neighbors, I'm not canning any more. I did can 5 quarts of shelled cranberry beans, one pint of cream peas which I just tried this year and like very much, 20 half pints of hot pepper mustard and 4 pints of maple syrup. The maple syrup was made by a neighbor who brought me half a gallon in trade for 6 doezen eggs and some fresh tomatoes. I think I got the best of that trade, but the half gallon is too big to keep in the refrigerator and too difficult to handle, so I decanted into pints and canned it, so it'll be shelf stable and in smaller jars. Tomorrow is day 3 of some Christmas pickles, which are a limed pickle packed in a syrup with those red cinnamon candies. They are very pretty and the kids love them.

I also have about 20 pounds of sauerkraut "working" in my laundry room, in a food safe bucket with a lid and out of the way of household traffic.

Happy canning, everyone!

Annie

Annie - I'm sorry that you are in such a drought this year. Having to feed hay already is pretty scary. It's been the opposite here with plenty of rain all year and a bumper crop of hay.

Wow - 63 qts. of green beans is a lot! My fall bush beans are just starting to bloom at exactly one month from sowing so it won't be much longer.

Jack, everyone is scrambling for hay, and it still hasn't rained. All the yards and fields and pastures are brown and crunchy and although rain was forecast for today, we just got a sprinkle and then it was gone. (sigh) When we get some it'll be too late for this year's hay, I'm afraid.

I did can another 6 quarts of green beans, bringing me up to 69 quarts and I am so over it. I have some that were picked this morning in the refrigerator and I refuse to can them. Either my daughter will have to take them or I'll give them to a neighbor, I'm done with that!

A quart of the cranberry beans did not seal so we had refried beans. My garden is still doing well because of the nearly constant sprinkler, but we just "disposed of" groundhog number 7. There will be no aspabroc or cauliflower this year, they love those. People say plant onions or garlic and it will deter them. The latest burrow is smack in the middle of a row of red onions so that doesn't work or else my Michigan groundhogs have adventurous palates!

Annie

Still canning beans here, I got 2 quarts of shelled white cannellini beans on the counter along with 5 pints of those Christmas pickles. I also have 5 quarts of chicken stock and another 7 quarts of cranberry beans, with about a gallon of grape juice draining through cheese cloth on the counter.

I haven't decided whether it's just juice or whether it's jelly, the juice is a mixture of seedless Concord and Canadice. I have a lot of grapes from those two vines still ripening and don't know of one darned thing to do with Concord grapes except juice and jam.

Any ideas?

Hallelujah, it finally rained! My "farmer's rain gauge" consists of the 5 gallon buckets left in the back of the pickup, and those contained about an inch of water, so I'm going to say we got about an inch of rain.

I'm still canning, I managed the first 5 pints of grape juice tonight, and have two sheet pans full of pepper slices freezing, they'll go into the vacuum sealer tomorrow. Any more will be dehydrated, and I have a LOT more on the vines if they ripen before any disaster strikes. I also made a big batch of marinara from fresh San Marzano tomatoes, and then was drafted to pick up a granddaughter at volleyball practice, so the marinara went into the freezer too, 3 quart bags with 2 cups per bag.

Tomorrow I'll pick more grapes, maybe jelly will be next.

Annie

I picked some more grapes and canned 7 more pints of grape juice. I also roasted/peeled/seeded 5 pounds of chilies that are supposed to be Hatch chilies, but they are HOT. They went in the freezer. My stepdaughter is visiting and I have to cook and entertain, so grape jelly will have to wait for the NEXT batch of grapes.

I have a LOT of hot peppers in the garden too, and I want to pick up some pears at a local orchard next week for cinnamon pears. I have all the peppers I need in the freezer and have to save space for beef in November, so any more will have to go into the dehydrator.

I also have garlic that's been curing in the pole barn that needs to be cleaned up for storage, we'll see if I get that done next week or whether it will be time to start canning tomato products.

Annie

I‘m glad you finally got decent rain, Annie! They kept forecasting rain for us but we kept getting missed until several days ago when it rained and rained and rained some more, and we got .95” total. Not enough, so some places here still have watering bans. The worst drought year at my house was around 20 years ago when I was only allowed to water my gardens on certain days, and only during a short time of specific evening hours. Not good.

I’m doing pears! I’ve made 3 batches of pear chutney and plan to make at least one more batch. And last night I filled the dehydrator with pears. They came out great so I might do another batch of dried.

PM, hopefully we'll both get some more rain and it will cool down a little. It's been very hot and humid here, ugh.

I have more grape juice draining on the counter for jelly tomorrow. Today I canned 7 quarts and a pint of horticultural beans and 3 quarts of white cannellini beans.

The Princess' boyfriend brought me 6 goose breasts from the geese that are ruining my newly planted hayfield. He asked if he could hunt and I told him "please, DO". We're going to make some goose sausage and maybe some jerky, I guess. I also have to take that trip to the local fruit market to buy pears, I haven't done that yet.

Annie

I just made my fifth batch of River Cottage pear chutney and I am now out of empty jelly jars. BF has boxes of unused short squat wide-mouth 8 oz canning jars that should work fine for a chutney so I will use those if I make any more. :)

PM, I just bought a bushel of pears so I can make the cinnamon pears that the grandkids fight over. My pear trees need to buck up and start producing, geez!

I just canned 21 half pints of various hot peppers, looking for a product that is like the cans of mild chilies I buy at the store. I haven't tasted them, so we'll see.

This was also the week for the first batch of salsa, 11 pints but one broke in the canner. I added 7 more pints of grape juice and 12 half pints of grape jelly, the drought didn't seem to bother the grapes at all. Plus 12 more quarts of cranberry beans made it onto the shelf along with 4 quarts of baked beans made from white cannellini beans.

Annie

Oh wow, Annie, I use canned mild chilies in a few things I make, so I’m curious about how your homemade version will come out. Good luck with your pears! I saw a sign for fresh NY peaches, so sent BF for some because he LOVES peaches. They cost him $7.50 for six and they were awful…. just like the tasteless, scentless, mealy peaches we get from California. sigh.

I just had to open a jar of those chilies and it seems that cooking them took almost all of the heat out of them. Elery dipped them straight out of the jar and put them on his breakfast this morning. I'm not excited about them, although they have a little heat and will be fine as an ingredient in something like enchilada sauce or chili. I think I'm going to try another batch, much smaller, LOL. I thought the peels stayed a little tough on some, so I'm going to roast and peel a few and maybe add some lime juice to the canning liquid and see if that doesn't come out better. These weren't bad, but they were not particularly flavorful.

Produce prices are just crazy this year. Of course, the price of fuel to get those items to the market has gone up a LOT, so using equipment to plant/cultivate/harvest anything is a lot more expensive. Fertilizer is crazy expensive and the weather hasn't helped, a lot of things just didn't do particularly well. I empathize with the BF, though. I bought some local peaches a few months ago, paid $6 for 4 of them and they were just...OK. They weren't sweet, juicy and flavorful like local peaches usually are, they were like eating slightly juicy styrofoam balls. Good thing I still have lots from last year, I'm glad I canned and froze all of those although they aren't like eating fresh peaches.

So, today I canned 14 pints of catsup, 7 quarts of baked beans in molasses sauce and 5 quarts of cranberry beans. I'm still waiting on the pears to ripen just a bit more so those will probably go into jars on Monday or Tuesday.

No one else is canning here, so I'm just going to edit this to add 17 pints of salsa,

And yet another edit, today's project was 28 pints of cinnamon pears. That's a sticky job I'm glad I'm finished with!

Annie

I'm still canning, but see a light at the end of the tunnel. :-)

Today's project was using up the rest of that cinnamon syrup so I canned 8 pints of apple slices in cinnamon syrup. Tomorrow I'm picking tomatoes and digging potatoes. Potatoes will go into storage and I only want maybe one more batch of tomato sauce, then I'll be done with those. I still have sauerkraut working in the backroom, so that will be canned when it's ready, and I have 56 hills of sweet potatoes to be dug. If they make a harvest at all I'll store the best and can the rest of them.

Yet another edit: I found pole beans ready to pick, so did that and canned a quart and a pint of rattlesnake beans and 3 quarts of Christmas Limas. All three of those limas sucked up the liquid and expanded far beyond what I expected so I'll be using those first. Fortunately Elery loves them.

Annie

I'm still canning something every day. Today I was teaching a young lady who wanted to learn to can, she's a friend of my granddaughter, The Princess. I asked what she would like to can because it should be something she'd use. She took one look at the tomatoes on the tables in the backyard and promptly said she'd like to can marinara sauce.

4 quarts and 4 pints of marinara are on the counter, sealed and cooled, she'll take them home tomorrow after their required resting time. Meanwhile, I have beef bones and scraps in the Nesco so tomorrow it'll be beef stock in the canner.

It's now 9/21/26 and I just canned 7 quarts of beef stock and have grape juice draining though cheesecloth on my counter, that'll be tomorrow's project.

9/22/26: 4 quarts of grape juice added to my pantry, and I swear I'm done with grapes, I don't care how many more get ripe! Also 9 quarts and one pint of sauerkraut.

Annie

That’s one lucky girl, Annie. I hope you both had fun! That’s a lot of grapejuice so I’m assuming it’s not from wild grapes. I started trimming my wild grapevines back recently and found enough grapes to make one jar of jelly. :) I’m reading backwards… cinnamon apples sound fantastic. I haven’t made them in a while. Overall, it’s been a really bad gardening year here again. Lows are already around 42F.

Dad planted one seedless concord and one variety called Canadice about 20 years ago. Neither of them ever had a grape on them until maybe 5 years ago, when the concord started bearing grapes in spite of my terrible job of pruning which much resembled just chopping off various vines. 3 years ago the Canadice finally had grapes, but was plagued with a fungus that caused all the fruit to get a black spot which eventually would grow to cause the entire grape to rot on the vine. 3 years of spraying diligently with a fungicide and this year I finally got grapes. Turns out the Canadice is much like the Concord in that it has tough and somewhat sour skins with sweet inside pulp, much better suited for juice than fresh eating. So, I got buckets full of grapes from those two vines. I just mixed them together and made juice, I can't figure out anything to do with grapes other than juice and jelly/jam, unfortunately.

In other news, remember you sent me seeds for those balloon peppers? They went crazy this year, they must have loved the dry/heat because there are hundreds of them on two plants. I'm about ready to stop picking them because I've dehydrated all I'm going to, but they sure are doing well.

Canning? 2 quarts of Christmas Limas and two quarts of Rattlesnake beans. One more picking and I'll be done with the beans, I think.

Annie

Grape juice sounds delicious! Nice you had a good grape harvest this year. I was able to freeze a handful of bags of chicken broth to add to soups later. Hoping to get some more items to add to the freezer soon!

I did a search and found this page with ideas for using grapes:

https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/creative-recipes-for-grapes/

I didn’t grow balloon peppers this year, but I once had a year with my plants absolutely covered in peppers, so I know what you mean!

Thanks, itsfun, the grandkids are liking it a lot so it'll get used up eventually.

PM, that Spiced Cranberry Grape Conserve looks really good, if I get more grapes I'm definitely making that. If not, there's always next year, if my memory holds out, LOL.

Today I put 5 two cup bags of collard greens in the freezer.

Annie