GRAPE jelly is one of the family favorites.  Although, blackberry comes in a close second along with strawberry.  This week has been a busy one at Joker Ridge.  Since school has started back, posting on the web has slowed down. Our garden has been tremendous this year with tomatoes, beans, carrots, onions, corn, etc. etc. etc.  Tuesday evening work consisted of canning twenty quarts and five pints of pizza sauce.  We use it for spaghetti also.  Over 120 quarts and pints of items canned so far this year will provide enough food for the winter.  We have been blessed.

The morning air today is a teaser to what we anxiously await for in just a few months. Fall weather is always appreciated after the hot summer days, and if the calendar didn't say August 12th, you might just think we skipped ahead to mid-September.

There are  very few things in life that bring back memories like the smells of certain foods and the handwritten notes from those of your past. I have the great fortune of having many of my grandmother's recipes. Granny was a wonderful cook, and she left lots of notes on just how to recreate many of those wonderful smells and tastes of our past. It is quite heart warming to read her handwriting on the worn cards that show the stains of all the times they were pulled from the box for use. It never fails to make me smile at how her words were written as they sounded. Some things in life are just priceless - those boxes and books of Granny's recipes are just that.

As planned, we put away peppers, kraut, and some chow-chow yesterday. The pepper recipe comes from my Grandma Elma. She was my dad's mother who made the best refrigerator pickles and these peppers that are the best condiment for a bowl of beans and the absolute best on a deer steak sandwich. Our family can't eat those things without a jar of these pulled from the cellar or fridge.

Life is never dull in the summer. Simply said, it's just downright busy. The garden work has turned into less weed control and planting to now canning. These past two  weeks have been just that. Tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, peppers, and cabbage are all going to be canned this week. Well, that's the plan for now.  It seems like it all comes on at once. This week is one of the last weeks until September to make kraut (the signs are all above the bowels until late next week, for those of you who look to the signs for canning certain foods). We canned two turns (14 quarts) of tomato juice today and put away 73 quarts of corn last week along with canning 15 pints of pickles.  

There's a good bit left in the garden that will be ready  for canning and putting away in the cellar later on this fall. Sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, onions, potatoes, and more corn will continue to produce for another month or so.