Saturday, October 4, 2008

MILLIONS of.....

Peaches, Pears, Plums and Apples!!!

Sorry to all that I have been a little slacking on my blogging.....I've been a little busy. When we planned our landscaping, we decided to do an orchard. We planted: a cherry tree, a pear tree, a plum tree, a peach tree, and not one but TWO apple trees. Last year they started producing. I was not inspired to learn how to bottle yet, so we fed most of it to the pigs. This year my goal was to bottle everything and not let anything go to waste... So, this is what my life was like for a LONG two weeks:

It's impressive to me that the pictures made it look all clean and organized. In reality it felt like a giant sticky mess!

Maddie was a really good sport about mommy being so busy...she found good use for all of the extra bottle rings... I could never get her to be still long enough to get a picture of her when both arms were full up to her elbows where she couldn't even bend them.

The end results: 48 pints of pears, 21 quarts of apples, 35 pints of apples,

21 quarts of applesauce, 63 pints of pureed plums for juice, 49 pints of peaches,

and a fourth of my deep freeze full of bags of sliced peaches.

All in all a HUGE success! I learned many things to help it all go smoother for next year....not that I'm looking forward to it, yet!!

6 comments:

Autumn said...

I think I'll be in the canning spirit for next year...maybe....
So glad you're learning all of the tricks of the trade so you can teach me all you know!
P.S. Just read your confession! He He HE HE HE HE HE.....hey that's what you get when you forget to buy me a birthday present!!! Still laughing about last night...good times!

Unknown said...

Bonnie, you are amazing!! wow. Doesn't it feel great when all the work is done? I love that feeling. I planted one peach tree last year and it died. We will be planting 3 this fall... very soon I hope, so I can start having my own fruit. There is nothing like a fresh peach off a tree. They are so delicious. I will need you to teach me how to do it all.... I have no clue! Way to go!

Unknown said...

Bonnie... this is really Cami... I always forget to check if Emily is logged in on my account so her name shows up instead of mine. I am such a dork. :)

Christina said...

You rocked the canning world this year. And hooray for food storage- that much less you'll be buying!

Susie said...

Oh man, you're nuts! That's awesome! I love frozen peach slices. I did that one year and they lasted us two...we only used them for peach cobbler and baby food.
Maybe when we buy a house, we'll plant some trees. Maybe not quite so many. I think one apple may be enough!
Oh, and I'll have to buy the canning supplies, too!

Heats said...

Good for you!!! WOW! You should be so proud of yourself. That is an amazing accomplishment. Yay for Maddie for being a good sport.