Preserving

Yesterday we spent the morning harvesting cabbage and kohlrabi for a wholesale order. In the afternoon we preserved some of the left over vegetables from the previous day's CSA harvest.

We blanched and then froze broccoli, snow peas, and garlic scapes. We also made 33 bottles of pickled scapes. I think the prospect of me actually enjoying pickled scapes is rather dubious, but I'll give it a shot -- they're so good when they're fresh, they have to get better once they've soaked in salty acid for a week, right?

Anyhow, it was a great day. And a busy day. My head felt quite full on the way home. I thought a day of preserving would be rather relaxing and enjoyable because of the change (and the extreme lack of bending over to lift things). Maybe it was the pacing of the day and how much focused attention it took. Everything we did involved coordinating the timing of things: making sure water was boiling, keeping track of how long something had been boiling or sitting or cooling, making sure things didn't get too hot or too cold, etc... I felt more tired after a day of that than I have been feeling after a day of transplanting.

I'm glad we did it though. Knowing that each of us will be able to eat our amazing broccoli and peas in the winter... well, it's just great.