Sweet Peaches

The tomatoes keep rolling in. We may have to plug in the pork freezer to hold them until I get sauce made, because I am running out of space in the freezer here at the house. I set up a table in the living room for the overflow of ripening ones. I had already planned to make extra sauce this year even if I had to buy a box of tomatoes, but I doubt that will be necessary.

I present to you the 2020 peach harvest:

Before you laugh, remember that this is Montana. Susan is the only other person I know with peach trees. Also, our peach trees had peach leaf curl—a fungal disease—a few seasons ago and Susan expressed doubt that they would even recover, let alone bear fruit. I will give them another year or two and see what happens. We picked these even though they weren’t quite ripe just to save them from bears and because of the weather that is coming in tomorrow.

This time of year, the kitchen starts to look like a science lab. I have more tomato seeds fermenting:

The jar on the left is Dirty Girl seeds and the jar on the right is (I think) Indian Stripe. The Indian Stripe and the Cherokee Purple tomatoes look very similar so I can’t say for certain, but it doesn’t matter for my gardening needs. I just want to save the DNA of those freakishly large tomatoes.

I picked tomatoes again yesterday morning, cleaned out the cucumber patch—that may be the last of them—and brought in the last zucchini. I spent the rest of the day in the kitchen. I had taken out more pork to grind up and season because I use so much sausage. That meat grinder I bought is very useful. And I made one last batch of zucchini bread and zucchini fritters. I’ll probably pull the zucchini plants out this week.

I’m keeping one eye on the weather forecast—the rain tomorrow is supposed to be ushered in by a strong back door cold front from Canada. We are under a high wind watch. This is the same type of storm we got back in March when all those trees came down. Hopefully, this storm won’t be as strong but I am prepared for the possibility. This is 2020, after all.

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The Noon and Night quilt is still coasting for the moment. Finishing it may have to wait until after the wedding. I need to see how the schedule plays out. That denim-y Essex Linen I bought in Spokane is in the process of being turned into an apron. When I was in Maryland in February, I bought an appliqué kit at a quilt store there. The appliqué has been put together, but the fusible webbing to attach it to the base fabric is starting to break down (which is typical after a few months). I need to get it sewn down to the base fabric before it loses its stickiness. I am going to try sewing it down using a blanket stitch setting on my big Janome machine. I’ve done zig-zag appliqué before, but not any of the fancier stitches. Wish me luck. It’s just an apron, though, so it doesn’t have to be perfect.

I also have another secret project in process. I’ll post pics after it is gifted.