It’s been a busy few days around here. The garden has been very, very slow this year. Some things haven’t really grown at all. The weather has been so cold and gray that our beets and most of our radishes just didn’t develop properly. Thankfully, the greens have been fantastic, but this week, I realized we are finally starting to have other things ready in the garden This means we have to get busy putting up food for the rest of the year. We also have to make sure we eat everything fresh that we don’t put up–or share it–before it goes bad.
Anyway, we have so many delicious greens, but my favorite spinach is starting to bolt. This means I have little time with it and need to freeze some for soups and quiches throughout the year. I also need to make some rhubarb jelly while the rhubarb is still in great shape. I may freeze some as well the year because I am gradually learning to make more things with rhubarb.
One perk of the cool June is that the chickens and ducks are still laying very well. In the last five years or so, it’s been so hot in June and July that the chickens didn’t lay as well. Right now, it’s such a pleasant temperature for a fluffy chicken that the laying has been great. We are eating eggs, selling eggs, and I am freezing eggs. So far, we only have four dozen put back for winter though, and I need twelve dozen.
I am hoping to have some time tomorrow to make the rhubarb jelly though, and I am about to go freeze one more dozen eggs. The time is upon us. From here until fall harvest, we have to be ready to put up food. It’s pretty time consuming, but, of course, it’s so worth it.
Oh, and I have a Ruby update: Her babies are doing well. I got a great video today that I’ll post on Facebook. Those babies got big overnight.
