7/29/2013 -- Summertime!

Lots of summer projects this month.  The first part of the month was pretty hot, but we finally did get some rain here.  It has cooled off quite a bit for the last part of the month.

Lee took the opportunity to build the shelves in the pantry and had enough lumber left over to build shelves along the north wall of the utility room also.  The pantry now has pretty much wall to wall shelving on all four walls.  He saved the last wall in the pantry (the south wall) for a special project.  I have posted a page with photos of his building process and how it turned out:  http://sugarmountainhome.blogspot.com/p/can-rotation-rack.html

Or just click on the link at the side bar.

In the meantime, I've already unloaded 13 cases of home-canned goods into the pantry shelves.  I will post some photos of the pantry and the utility room within the next few days.

One summer project of mine has been using the summer produce.  He made a batch of old-fashioned brine sauerkraut, which is still in the fermentation stage.  It'll be interesting to see how that turns out once it's finished and canned.  We have been dehydrating cabbage.  The last load (for this round) is in the dehydrator now.  It's interesting how much cabbage you can fit into a half-gallon jar.

We've been blanching and freezing sugar snaps (snow peas), green beans, broccoli, and even a bit of cauliflower.  I have found new and different ways to use up lots of zucchini and summer squash.  One new way was something called Pizza Boats.  This turned out pretty good!