On Friday morning I got the kitchen cleaned up and chores done and started setting up to make another batch of squash relish. The wood cutter said they’d be here between 8:30 - 9AM. My helper arrived at 8AM and we got started on the relish.
The wood cutter called at 9:30 and said he was just leaving, so it would be ½ hour. He’d call when he reached the driveway. We kept working on the relish and got it in for the 2 hour brine soak.
Garlic - for sale on top, for eating on bottom
My helper friend got all the garlic out of the alcove in the woodshed and put it on a sheet in the office. I brought in the big bowls and we got busy cutting off the stalks and grading it. The grades were:
Seed: had to have 4 large cloves, or more cloves if large
Selling: 4 cloves on decent sized bulbs
Eating: all the small stuff
In the middle of this we hear a knock on the door. Apparently my phone had not disconnected when I hung up and the wood cutter had come up the driveway. That all worked out because he had a different style truck from our old woodcutter and he was able to back right in.
This was the old wood area and he’d be setting the logs along side of the shed.
While taking the photos, I saw this bee sitting on the side of the woodshed. I went back inside and we continued with the garlic. The wood cutter finished unloading and left.
I counted the cloves in the seed garlic and only came up with 240. I needed at least 300 to plant. So I took the biggest out of the selling garlic. I ended up with 352 cloves to plant, weighing 13.71 lbs.
The leftover selling garlic weighed 5.24 lbs and the eating garlic was 6.15 lbs. I decided not to sell any this year as my brother likes garlic and uses a lot. I wasn’t sure 11+ lbs would be enough. There would be some left over from planting probably to add to it. Total harvest: 25.10 lbs.
All the rain and gloomy days had taken its toll on the garlic this year. Alliums need sun/day length to grow well.
Once we’d weighed the garlic and got it to the root cellar, we cleaned up the office and resumed work on the relish. We got the syrup boiling and rinsed the vegetables. They all fit in one pot and I’d made just enough syrup to cover them. They soaked for 2 hours. We cleaned up the kitchen and my helper friend started cleaning and re-seasoning all the cast iron while we waited for the vegs to soak. Oddly enough, with all the humidity problems we’ve had this summer, none had rusted. When he finished it was time for my helper friend to go.
In discussing the next time he’d come, I realized it wasn’t Tuesday but Friday and I’d forgotten to do the milk order. So I dashed in to do that. When I called Tom’s house for his order, my general helper answered. She’s holding the fort while Tom’s off on his anniversary getaway.
She’s moving back to the area and said she would be able to work one day a week for me. I am delighted! I’ve missed her so much! But she can’t start until mid-September once she’s settled in at school.
Two years of wood
I got the milk order in and cleaned up the kitchen again.
The vegs would soak until 12:45 when I had to run them through the grinder. Then I heated them to boiling and got them in jars and processing for 10 minutes.
I only got 6 jars from the double batch.
Slowly the shelves in the root cellar are filling up. Most of it is purchased stuff as I buy in bulk. There will be some squashes added but no onions. When I get to the onions, they will have to be chopped and frozen as none are big enough to store this year. I’ll be making a lot of spaghetti sauce also.
I finished the relish about 1:45 and cleaned up a little. Then I made some phone calls. I sat down for a while and I got a return phone call. I’ve been dealing with my health insurance being cut off since last week. It’s scheduled to happen on the 30th. There’s an organization that helps older people navigate health insurance, food stamps, etc and they had returned my call.
It looks like I have to do an appeal with the help of Legal Aid. So I filled out the application online and we now wait until next week to see what happens.
After supper I spoke with family for a while and went to bed. I was exhausted.
Saturday is to be a muggy cloudy day. I have to empty the trash shed and go to the dump. Besides that, I might just take a day off, or part of a day, as I’ve got the remainder of the canning mess to deal with.