Put up or Shut up

I've been so busy. I hate when people say that. But I know sometimes it's actually true, and when it is I don't mind hearing it. I've actually been so busy myself for the past few weeks. I've been working on freelance work in all my spare time and that's why there have been no blogs. I did manage to carve out time to celebrate my birthday, take a couple weekend trips out-of-town, and put up a bunch of goodies.

Our CSA came to an end last week; that's a little on the early side but we knew that going in. Between that, the farmer's market, our garden, and a trip to the berry farm, I've been able to freeze and can quite a bit of things. I froze two types of jam, blue berries, pesto, and corn. I hope to get at least one more batch of pesto frozen this weekend. I love pesto and I'll know next year to plan 7 or 8 basil plants since the 5 I have has not yielded as much as I would have liked. I've also discovered that though I love basil, I absolutely adore rosemary and it's likely my favorite herb.

There should be a name for this time of year, between summer and fall. The days are noticeably shorter and range wildly in temperature - today is 90 here but yesterday was 80 and tomorrow is forecasted to be in the 70s. That's crazy but also so normal for this time of year that clearly needs a name. It's also when gardeners are inundated with tomatoes and zucchini. We only grew tomatoes this year. We have 8 heirloom plants and they are massive, however they're not yielding a crazy amount of fruit. I've gotten enough to freeze some pints of salsa as well as a handful of containers of oven roasted tomatoes, however I've had to supplement from the farmer's market. I also got 12 pints of tomatoes canned. I hope the remaining tomatoes ripen in time for this weekend so I can move on to quarts and do a last batch.

This is my first year of canning and that is the source for my blog title - Put up or Shut Up. I've been talking about wanting to can for at least two seasons now. I spent most of the summer filling our freezer, hesitant to actually get the canning supplies out and try my hand at it. Well, it's easy! I'm so excited to have successfully canned peach butter, tomatoes and jelly (okay the latter wasn't a success but that was an issue with overly juicy peppers not their processing) that I'm looking forward to apple butter, applesauce, and even soups this fall! Now I need a place to store all these goodies in the basement. Of course I'm set on something vintage, so I've been scouring Craigslist.

Admittedly I could have also called the post Put up AND Shut Up considering ever since the arrival of a large box of canning jars and accessories from my mom arrived, D has been bugging me about using them. He didn't think I actually would and that they'd just take up space. Ah, but now they are taking up space and filled with garden fresh fruits and veggies for winter. Someone will have to shush now.