Summer Baking

 

I haven't had time to keep up with weekly blogging I like posts, but I wanted to drop in and share some of the things I might normally share in those posts.  This includes things I've been baking and cooking during the last few months, especially with fruit and veggies from the gardens.  I had a really good crabapple crop this year, but didn't have time to deal with all the ones from the tree.  I harvested about half the tree, but then unfortunately a bunch of them fermented while waiting for me to get around to processing them.  It's ok, I still have lots left from 2023. 

In any case, I did make 3 dozen jars of jelly this year along with some fruit leather.  Since I had so many jalapeños in the garden I added a bunch of them to the jelly this year for the first time.  The jelly isn't spicy, it just has a delightful complementary pepper flavor to it.  I think it turned out really tasty!

I had a good blackberry crop in the garden this year as well.  I only have a couple of plants, and of course I had to pick them as soon as they got ripe, so during blackberry season I went out every day and picked.  Usually I got a handful each day and I just put them mostly straight in the freezer.  There were enough for a couple of cobblers by the end of the harvest and they are so good.  

And of course with so many jalapeños there have been several batches of poppers.  They're always a hit,  the danger is they're not really particularly healthy.  But super fun for a game night or ballgame.

And not from the garden, but my friend Brett brought me back a cookbook with Italian baked goods, and I tried this chocolate espresso torte recipe.  It was very delicious and rich, definitely a fun thing to add to the  baked goods rotation.

Squash bugs ate all the squash and pumpkins in the garden, so none of that.  The pepper plants, tomato plants, and green beans are still producing though, so more of that should be coming for summer harvest.  And my flowers are growing ok too.  Right now we're in the really hot time, hopefully I can get the flowers through to september and then they should do better.