The Harvest Continues.....

The valley has had frost and frost warnings 3 times this week. This is unusual for us. I checked back over my blogs and the last 2 years we didn't get frost until after thanksgiving. With frost coming so early, it makes my gardens look so sad. the tomato plants are mostly yellowed and dead with my tomatoes still hanging on and turning nice shades of orange and pink. Most of my flowers have gone to seed and my beans that climb in the back are full of pods waiting to dry.

My sweet little vine from Ann in the USA that grew and bloomed so sweetly for her, was a little shy and probably bullied by my big Scarlett runner plants all around her. You can see the sweet little leaves with the pink veins going through them. They grew quite tall, and they have hints of blooms coming, but you can see the big leaves of the Scarlett runners all around her, blocking her sun and doing God knows what to her little roots.

Tons of beans growing and a few pods are drying nicely.

My beloved Saturday was spent making juice from all my grapes. 3 quarts of grapes equals 12 cups of grapes without the stems. Add half a cup of water, one over active potato masher, & 10 minutes boiling on the stove. Then strain for an hour through an old sock (kidding, I bought a jelly bag draining thingy) and you get..... ta da... 4 cups of grape juice.

Then you add 7 cups of sugar, more boiling.. and ta da.... Grape jelly. I made 8 batches of grape juice, and from that I made 4 batches of Jelly. I have 17 more cups of juice in my fridge. I ran out of jars. I love making Jams and Jellies. Not so fun making the darn juice.. but again, I really like making Jams and Jellies... so... gotta do what ya gotta do.

I may go to the Canadian Tire and buy more jars and some sugar and then sell the jars of jelly at school. Maybe as a fundraiser for "The run for the Cure". Sadly I won't be participating in that this year. I am expecting company next weekend and didn't have the heart to tell them they couldn't come. But, my sister is running in it, so I can give the money to her.

I am having a tough time with my lids for my jelly though. Out of 32 jars of jelly, 6 of them didn't seal properly. You know, they didn't suck down into the jar. I am not sure why, but I will give those away right away so they will get into fridges right away. Sort of annoyed me...

My Jelly.... a very blurring picture, I am afraid, but you get it... lots of jelly. the purple jars on the right are "no sugar" freezer Jelly. I had some on my toast this morning... sort of OK, but not as good as the real stuff.!