Canning, Gardening, Picking Berries, Oh My!

This year we have had our first garden.  I was the one who really wanted to have a garden, but Brian spearheaded the whole project and it has become his baby.  Brian planted tomatoes, cucumbers, 2 different types of squash, 5 different peppers, pole & bush beans, watermelon & cantaloupe.  Some of the plants have been more fruitful than others and Brian has plans to refine his garden next year.  But all in all, it has been such a great experience for our family.  Addison and Kennedy love going outside with Brian every evening to pick garden fresh veggies.  Addison's favorite were the cucumbers and Kennedy loved the beans.  They were always so proud of their picks coming in the kitchen with their arms full and asking me to wash them up so they could begin devouring them!

In addition to gardening we are learning to can fruits and vegetables.  Thus far, Brian has canned peaches that we got on the Hood River Fruit Loop and has pickled cucumbers and pickled peppers from our garden.  We have full intentions of making applesauce, canning pears, and whatever else we can find along the Fruit Loop this coming weekend!

We have also found a great location for berry picking that we have been frequenting.  On our first trip, we were able to get raspberries and blueberries and one trips 2 & 3 were got marionberries and blueberries.  I would say we picked nearly 60 lbs of berries over those 3 trips.  It was so much fun to watch the girls get excited about picking the berries, not to mention getting excited about eating the berries (I think Kennedy got more in her mouth than she did in the bucket!).  With all of our berries, I made lots of jam of all varieties, baked blueberry pies, blueberry zucchini summer squash bread, blueberry cheesecake, and then froze the rest for blueberry pancakes....yum!

We are really enjoying all of the fresh finds.  Bring on fall, I want to start making some pumpkin treats! :)