You know what I’ve been doing a lot of lately? Canning.
It’s not been the frenetic dash of ushering bushels and bushels of produce from the field to the jar. It’s been much more casual and, dare I say, fun. I feel like food preservation this year has fallen into an almost Goldilocks and the Three Bears like state: just right. I am a fan.
We didn’t put in a garden this year, and I haven’t regretted it for a moment. I’ve set this victory aside in my heart as something of an ebenezer to call up the next time I’m confronted with one of those, “But are you really sure?” nudges of the Holy Spirit. Not tending the garden meant less stress here, and more time to invest in other, more needful places. It also meant watching as God returned the blessing of living open-handed with our own gardening back to us in the form of friends sharing their own bounty. We haven’t wanted for anything, and we are grateful.
So far, I have put up peach butter, apple butter, pickled peppers, lemon jelly, and tomato sauce. Not shelves and shelves, but a few quarts here, a handful of pints there. I’m looking to do applesauce in the next week or so, as time permits.
Our spring chicks have started laying. We are getting about 15 eggs a day, the most beautiful blues, browns, and even olive. I am terribly fond of the olives. While living with free range chickens can be maddening at times— the mulch from my front flower beds is never not all over the walkway thanks to nosey hens— the eggs produced are sublime. Some mornings, our omelets are such a deep yellow that they’re leaning towards orange.
Of all the new hens, my favorite is a very bossy Whiting True Blue I named Frau Weiss. She is adamant that every window sill belongs to her. She also pecks at the windows themselves quite aggressively, almost as if she’s asking to come inside. I have no idea why I’ve taken a shine to this particular girl aside from the fact that she’s always around and seems to entertain Alice. Also, she lays the prettiest little eggs, so I guess there’s that, too.
Our ducks haven’t been as prolific since they lost a clutch of eggs Vanillapea was sitting on. We had hoped to hatch some chicks without incubation, but a black snake got involved and well… have you ever seen a snake bloated from the consumption of five duck eggs? Let’s just say it would have been comical were it not so sad. I suppose we will now wait until spring to try again. For right now, the ducks are enjoying life essentially as pets. The kids took them down to swim in the creek the other day and I think the amount of joy that brought five young people justified housing and feeding them a little longer.
We’re moving into fall mode here and making decisions about what winter and next spring look like here. I have a feeling we’ll be back to planting and expanding our self-efficiency. I’m ready bto dive in!