Preserving Frenzy

I have been in a bit of a preserving frenzy this summer now that I have all this free time on my hands. So far I have made cherry and strawberry preserves, canned plum tomatoes and made two batches of bread and butter pickles. Yesterday I weeded out my garden, made lush by the abundant and unusual summer rains, and brought in an enormous bunch of dizzyingly aromatic basil with gigantic leaves.

It inspired me to break out the food processor that my brother gave me two years ago and finally figure out how to use it to make four batches of lovely pesto that are now safely in the freezer for enjoyment in frostier months.

Then, on Friday we got a call from the Finnens who had a box of peaches that they had just picked, so I now have a huge amount that I have to cook up, freeze, eat or give away in the next few days.

So this morning, I made a batch of peach ginger jam.

What you can't see is that I have also had a basket of plum tomatoes sitting in the kitchen for two days, along with an abundance of green peppers and jalepenos.

So now we have lots of lovely salsa.

I am getting a bit worn out, but I still want to make some hot pepper jelly - maybe later next week.