Fall is here and it's time to dry peppers. I picked several varieties from my garden; some red and some green and prepared them for drying. These will make dried pepper flakes for use in soups and other dishes.

These are dried cayenne peppers that I dried last week.They are now ready to grind to make cayenne pepper.

Last month I pickled my

"Big Bomb" peppers. They are about the size of a golf ball, very meaty and ripen early. These are kept in a gallon jar in the refrigerator. They are moderately hot and delicious!

Today was pickling day. I canned 25 quarts of dill pickles and 14 quarts of bread and butter pickles. That should last!

These are the dills

These are the bread and butter. Both recipes are in my cookbook Dad's Home Cooking; Traditional Recipes for Preparing Healthy Family Meals available on Amazon.

Aronia

Today I picked my Aronia (Black Chokeberry) berries and made juice and put it in the freezer for juice or jelly. Aronia is native to the Eastern US but the best varieties were bred in Europe where it is very popular. The fruit is very tart and it is used in juices, jellies and wine. It is high in flavonoid/anti-oxidant content, vitamins and minerals. I like that it is self fertile, very easy to grow, disease resistant and does not need spraying for insects. It grows 5 to 6 feet tall and has dark green leaves resembling cherries. In the fall the leaves turn red! Next year (It will be 3 years old.) I hope to get enough to make some wine.

First Bell Pepper From My Garden!

This is Northstar, an early hybrid. The seed was started on March 28 and set out in the garden on June 1 so from seed start to maturity was 106 days and from set out to maturity was 42 days. I used this pepper in a shrimp salad along with red leaf lettuce and Walla Walla sweet onion from the garden. Yummie!

Blueberry Picking Time!

My blueberries ripened early this year! I will be picking weekly for the next 2 months. Most are frozen for use during the winter months.

I picked currants today from my Red Lake currant bushes. Time to make currant jelly!

Time for a garden update. I picked the first crop of broccoli to freeze today. The kohlrabi also have been ready to pick. I enjoy kohlrabi raw as a snack. These were started from seed on March 2, 2013. (See my March 2, 2013 post.) and transplanted out in the garden on March 27, 2013. (See my March 28, 2013 post.) The kohlrabi hybrid variety is Kolibri and the broccoli hybrid variety is Packman.

I am also harvesting spinach which has grown well in the cool weather we have been having. This hybrid variety is Olympia.