This is what keeps me busy

 I always have really big plans of getting a lot of sewing done in the summer but usually I get side tracked by other things.  One of those things is a garden.  I grew up with parents that had a huge garden and I do mean huge.  I always swore that I would never ever have a garden when I "grew up".  Well I was wrong!  A garden is a lot of work,  but it also saves lots of money at the grocery store.  Yesterday DH and I picked green beans, and cucumbers.  It looks like we are going to have a huge crop of both.  After working on the green beans last night, I was too tired to can them, so that was my project for today.

This is the canner that I use.  It belonged to my DH's mom at one time.  It has definitely been put to use over the years.  I canned three canners of green beans, that is 18 quarts of greens of beans, we will really enjoy them this fall and winter.  I know that is just the first of many times it will be used this summer.

My second project this week was a new one for me, Strawberry jalapeno preserves.  I have to be honest I didn't know how this one would turn out but it is really good.  I found the recipe in Mother Earth news, I did add more strawberries than the recipe called for and I still think that I could have added a few more, it is more "pepperie" than strawberryish.  

Here are the berries and peppers cooking.

The finished product

Hopefully no more gardening this week and I can do some sewing.