Ahhh ~ The Joys of Gardening...

I say that with a thankful heart, and with a bit of wincing and moaning and "why now?" in my heart as well.

My husband enjoys putting out a garden each year, working it, seeing it grow, and for the most part, I do enjoy putting it up for the fall and winter. Both of us were raised in families that always had large gardens, canning and freezing more than enough for our own as well as supplying many friends and neighbors with fresh vegetables.

However, besides hoeing and pulling weeds, the part I'm not fond of is when things are ready to be picked and processed at a time when I am not ready to pick and process. I have 5 days left to get things finished up for the Lavender Festival and I have cabbages to can and freeze. Roger picked several cabbage heads this morning before he left for work, and I've been cutting up cabbage for kraut all morning ~ with an old hand held chopper, not a food chopper processor thing. I don't even own one of those, but I see where it would come in handy now! You wouldn't believe just how much kraut and / or slaw that 8 bowling ball size cabbages make! I'll also be making fresh slaw for our supper this evening, and if the rest of the cabbage can wait just one more week, I'll be making lots and lots of freezer slaw next week. Relish will be on the list too, since we also have cucumbers, peppers, and squash already ripe.

So, today I am working on cabbages, instead of cabbage roses and other silk ribbon flowers...