The Last of the Apples and Apple Jam

The last of this year's apples were so perfect and ripe that I decided that I would make apple jam. I guess there's no such thing because I've never seen it at the store. It's always apple butter or apple preserves.

I used a package of pectin and followed the directions to make the jam. It's delicious and sweet, but the consistency and taste are a bit like apple sauce. It's a little thicker than apple sauce, but still it's pretty liquidy.

Next year, I think I will just make apple sauce and can it. The apples were perfect and were so delicious.

Here are a few photos.

The Last of the Tomatoes and Luka

When the frost killed all the tomatoes, I took Blogger Tina's advice and put all the green ones in a paper bag. It will be going in the garage, and I guess we'll see if I will get to taste any ripe garden tomatoes soon...

Below: Beautiful green tomatoes


As I look back on this summer, I will miss these ripe tomatoes the most. They were so tasty and so delicious in my salads. Store-bought tomatoes just don't taste the same; they are too watered down. Now that I've tasted the real thing, I don't think I can ever go back. I have to wait until next summer and try to grow some more.

I may be planting a few seeds in pots and place them in the sun room, and hopefully it'll be like a green house for these seeds and maybe I can have some veggies in the winter. We'll see if this experiment works out.

In the meanwhile, it's time for a Luka update. Skeeter mentioned that I should've posted pictures of Luka for Halloween... but I forgot, so here's my belated Luka pictures. As you can see in the photos, she's been a busy kitten... (and it's very hard to take photos of her cute little face)




Now that we're starting to bring a lot of our potted plants inside, I'm trying to keep Luka away from them. She really does like to eat those leaves, and I noticed that she ate some rose petals (from a vase on the living room table) when we were away... And then she threw up... and it was not pleasant to clean up. So I bought her some pet grass at the pet store, and hopefully this will keep her thirst for greenery away from other plants.

I'm keeping my eye on her!

Planning For Next Year

Cam and I have started to plan for our garden next year. We decided not to purchase seedlings next spring, but to plant heirloom seeds. We figure if we can save the seeds from all our heirloom vegetables, it will save us in the long run.

We may have gotten ahead of ourselves, but we purchased many, many seeds for various vegetables. Some of them I can probably plant this fall, but I'm not sure what. Is it too late?

Here's what we purchased. What do you think? Which can we plant now that won't die with the intermittent frosts? Also, what's the best way to save the seeds? Do I need to freeze them?

America Spinach
Monnopa Spinach

Calabrese Broccoli
Dragon Carrot
Scarlet Nantes Carrot
Country Gentleman Corn
Bushy Cucumber
Boothby's Blonde Cucumber
Seed Savers Lettuce Mixture
Australian Brown Onion
Yellow Onion
Amish Snap Pea
Alma Paprika Pepper
Orange Bell Pepper
Early Scarlet Globe Radish
Blacktail Mountain Watermelon
Amish Paste Tomato
Black from Tula Tomato
Cherry Roma Tomato
German Pink Tomato
Italian Heirloom Tomato
Brandywine Tomato
Boston Favorite/Eating
Dwarf Gray Sugar Pea
Stowell's Evergreen Corn
Early Snowball Cauliflower
Buran Pepper
Apollo
Long Island Improved Brussel Sprout
Blue Solaize Leek
Star of David Okra
Purple Top White Globe Turnip
Amish Melon
Double Yield Cucumber
Lao Green Stripe Eggplant
Copenhagen Market Cabbage
Mammoth Red Rock Cabbage
Chioggia Beet
Detroit Dark Red Beet