i'm back, did you miss me? ~

Fall.  My favorite time of the year!  Blue jeans, hoodie and hiking boot season.

I've been super busy with filling the shelves and freezer with goodies from the gardens and beyond.

I'm ready for the Zombie Apocalypse!

Look at all the mushrooms ... and this is only a fraction of the ones I put up for later use.  

 ~ Wild Hedgehogs aka. Sweet Tooth ~

 ~ Wine Caps ~

The shiitake and oyster mushrooms should be fruiting soon :)  I've been watching for some.  Yum... nothing better than homemade mushroom soup or a big heaping helping of mushrooms piled on a grilled steak in the middle of winter ~ or anytime of the year for that matter.

Half of them I froze uncooked and the other half I sauteed with butter and garlic then froze.

5:00 a.m. today I already had half a bushel basket full of peppers cleaned and waiting to be transformed ...

I made 7 pints of pickled peppers ~ used some with the tomatoes and froze the rest.

Yesterday I did up 22 quarts of stewed tomatoes with peppers and onions ~

... today I finished up the tomatoes by doing 14 quarts of just plain tomatoes

... and as I'm making this post I have a kettle of salsa cooking down.

I did take time for lunch and scrubbed the dirt off of a German Butterball Potato and popped it in the microwave and topped it off with some butter, salt and pepper :)

Yes ~ we've been busy.  

The wood shed is almost full too ~ happy dance, happy dance.  We still have a few more storm damaged trees to clean up in the yard; but it always feels so good to get that shed full and ready for the onset of of long winter months... just like my canning shelves and the freezers. 

We got cut short on progress one day  ... those little annoying things  ~ like getting a tractor stuck sure can slow you down sometimes.

 Thank goodness for the brawn and strength of our guys and the invention of a come-along winch!

Well... long story shortened ~ it's good to take a breather and get back on the blog.  I have lots of little tidbits to share and hopefully can get back into the groove of things again and start posting again on a more regular basis.

I missed you!!!  Thanks for visiting.

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel