Preservation...

I accomplished a lot this weekend.  It is hard keeping up with everything that needs harvested.  Sometimes it seems like a lot of work.  Then you have a perfectly smoked venison roast, green beans from your garden, sipping on homemade wine, and topped off with fresh peach cobbler.  That's when you know all is right with the world.

My first project was the bumblebee tomatoes needed picked and quartered.  I've been waiting all summer for this.  Cover them in olive oil, onion powder, garlic salt, basil, parsley, and pepper roast them at 400 degrees for 10-20 minutes.  After they cool, I take them directly to the freezer still on the pans.  Once frozen, they are transferred to freezer bags so I can savor them all winter.

Then there was a peck of perfect peaches to preserve.  Honey spiced canned peaches and peach salsa was at the top of my list.  Tomorrow I will make Spicy Vanilla Peach syrup.  

They didn't all make it to canning.  Many were eaten fresh, with cream, and in peach cobbler.

The weekend wasn't all work.  Plenty of time was spent enjoying the garden.  The bee below must have been drunk on pollen.  He stayed in that flower for two days.  Never moving, even when other bees crawled over him.

Despite finding out I have developed an allergy to bee stings, I couldn't help but take photos.  They were sure busy.  I suppose they feel the fall push.

Another project was to braid my sweetgrass.  It has been drying for a few weeks now.  I wish I could share the smell of sweetgrass.  Nothing compares.  That was not the only dried plants harvested.  One of the jars is filled with lemon basil, lemon balm, and lemon grass.  The other is licorice basil.  Currently, I'm making a cup of lemon grass tea.

Have you ever smelled sweetgrass?  Do you look forward to the peach harvest as much as I do?  What is your test to prepare peaches?  I hope you had a fabulous weekend.