Food and Fiber Friday - Harvesting!

I am writing this post mid-afternoon on Friday. I'm also munching on watermelon. There is nothing as good as a cold piece of watermelon in the summer. Anyway...

Also good during the summer are all the fresh fruits. Fresh fruits which I can throw into a Dutch Baby pancake for breakfast.

Adding fruit to the pancake means I don't have to add any confectioners sugar and/or syrup. I have no control making these. I usually wind up basically planting my face in the pan and eating. No portion control at all!

Of course, I need to turn some of the fruits into jams. So far this year I have done some strawberry jam. This past week I made Blackberry Jam and a Raspberry/Blueberry/Rum Jam. Yummy, yummy on buttered toast!

I also canned three pints of Italian Green Beans I picked up at Bush-n-Vine. I love this type of beans and they are often hard to find.

From my own garden I am starting to get veggies every day. I have a few cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash and one lone okra. 

I have picked a couple of handfuls of pole beans so far. In fact, I have about 10 ounces of beans. 

One thing I would like to attempt to do this year is to keep track of the amount of produce I get from the garden. I'm growing the pole beans because I am supposed to be able to get a larger crop from the same square footage of plants since they are growing up. We will see. 

On Saturday, I should be receiving a package of red hots. Those little red cinnamon candies which you can see everywhere until you need them. I want to make some candied cucumbers. It's simple, but it is a process and they taste like candy apples.

Next I want to make some candied dill pickles. I use hamburger dill slices for that, but I love them so much. 

But first I probably need to get another shelf unit in order to put my canning on this year.