Messy Kitchen

It's food processing time around here, which makes for a very messy kitchen.  This weekend I'm working on canning and drying potatoes, cutting up and freezing peppers, and processing apples (dried, applesauce, and apple butter).  I also have a half bushel of tomatoes waiting for me to do something with them, but I realized this weekend I despise processing tomatoes.  I don't know if it's because there are too many steps (like blanching, peeling, chopping, etc), or if it's because we don't really eat that many tomatoes unless we're having it as sauce, but I think I'm going to save a few for sandwiches and give the rest to the chickens.  Life is too short to be held hostage by tomatoes. 

We were given a good amount of bell peppers, so I sliced some and diced some to freeze.  The sliced ones will be great in fajitas, and I froze them individually on trays so we can just pick out the amount we need. 

I had the pressure canner going with a second load of potatoes yesterday.  This is my first year canning potatoes.  I bought about 40 lbs of organic potatoes from my friend who owns an organic vegetable farm.  I chopped them and canned them, and we used a jar of them the other night in soup.  It was nice being able to just open the jar and add them to the soup, which saved a lot of time.  I'm also drying some chopped potatoes (which we can add to soup as well), and some sliced potatoes (for things like au gratin potatoes). 

This is the mess near the sink.  Lots of bowls everywhere, and the compost bucket is full. 

Today I'll get started on the apples, since we went to the orchard yesterday.  Hopefully the dehydrator will be finished with the potatoes soon, so I can put in a load of apple slices.