From My Home to Yours: 5/29/26

   From My Home to Yours

5/29/26

~ Canning Jars! ~

This week I want to talk about the lowly canning jar ... that has many uses!

This week alone, I ...

used them in making iced tea ... Here's how I make iced tea:  (1) take 2 empty canning jars, two rubber band (these came from celery bunches purchased at the store) and 4 tea bags.  Place 2 tea bags in each jar secured by the rubber bands (2) bring a kettle of water to just before boiling, don't let water come to a boil.  Boiling water can make some teas bitter, I prefer a more milder tea taste.  (3) pour hot water into jars and place an air tight lid on each jar quickly to hold all those tea flavors inside the jars. (4) Once the tea is cooled and dark in color, 12 - 24 hours, I pour the 'tea concentrate' into a pitcher and add as much water as tea.  Sweeten as desire, stir, refrigerate and enjoy!

used one as a 'vase' for my homegrown roses

used some for storage purposes ... I needed to restock my tea bags and so used three to store newly purchased tea bags in, in my pantry.  This will protect the tea bags from anything that would diminish their flavor or cause them harm until they're used.

and we can't forget all the yummy foods, kefirs, home canned foods, herbal concoctions, dried, and or fermented foods that call canning jars home for a specified amount of time in my home.

You can always find empty canning jars in residence in my kitchen waiting to be used in any of the above ways!   Empty canning jars are a staple in my kitchen and are near the top of the list of most used items in my kitchen!

How do you use the lowly canning jar?

Now, let's talk about our garden and my to-do list for the week ...

I harvested ...

squash ... actually, I harvested at least twice this much and then a dear friend shared with us from her abundance, more squash.  If all goes well, I should be preserving squash in the upcoming week.  In the meantime, we are enjoying fresh from the garden squash with our main meal of the day ... and it's delicious!  Thus far we've enjoyed it grilled and pan fried ... both equally good in their own way!  As of this writing, we have enough pan fried left over to make a squash casserole.  Hmmm, I can't wait!

Can you see all those 'pods' in the above picture?  Look closely, they are hard to identify! Each of those pods houses several seeds ... collard seeds.  We left a couple of collard plants to over winter to produce seeds for this fall's planting.  I harvested the pods this week and placed them in a dry area so they will continue to dry and then be removed from the pods.  This will make hundreds of seeds.

I did the same with a couple of cabbage plants and harvested those pods this week as well.  The pods look a lot alike so I had to make sure I placed them in separate areas so as not to accidently mix the seeds!

I harvested more elderberry flowers and apple mint this week.  (On a side note, I worked on thinning out my elderberry bushes, they were turning into a thick mass that was doing it's best to outgrow it's designated area!  A place for everything and everything in it's place definitely applies to those herbs that like to challenge their boundaries, one of which are elderberries!)

Next up is my 'to-do' list ... how did I do?

clean out another raised bed ...  I got one more done!

continue harvesting elderberry flowers ...  Done!

work on herbal garden area (it needs some freshening up)  Didn't get done!

plant wildflowers and cockscomb seeds in tractor tires.  Didn't get done!

We had a lot of rain this week, almost daily in fact, so finding time to work on my to-do list was a challenge ... but ... I did make a little progress and a little progress is better than no progress.  We desperately needed the rain so I'm praising God and in no way complaining!

Let's set some goals ('to-do's') for next week ...

of course, I'm going to work on the unfinished items from last week's list

preserve squash

plant more garden (the weather in our area this year has made planting the garden a challenge)

I continued reading book 7 in the Bregdan Chronicles, Glimmers of Change, by Ginny Dye. I finished listening to Roses by Leila Meacham and started listening to The Reluctant Bride by Jody Hedlund.  (All the audio books I listen to come from Libby the library app.)

This past week was my birthday week and I had a somewhat unusual 'gift' request!  You can read about it HERE and see what I did with it!!!  My dear hubby never knows what to expect from me and this was not even on his radar for possibilities of things I would asked for, for my birthday!!!

That's it for this week, I hope you've found something in my ramblings that will help and or encourage you in the upcoming week.

Until the next time ...  

mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry  

~ quietly holding the home front ~

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

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