what to do with the leftovers?

Posted on Posted in designing, food and garden, lace/shawls, projects

tomorrow we head out for a visit with my mom in albany and of course, the garden has chosen just this time to give forth of ripe tomatoes. we’ve been waiting all summer for the generous quantity on the vine to ripen, but they did not . . . until now.

hot as it’s been, the weather did nothing to push them and when i checked with my friend kris who gave me the plants, hers are behaving the same. so hopefully, we just ended up with very late-maturing varieties and we’ll be hit with an abundant production after labor day (september can be an excellent month for tomatoes).

i put up a few quarts of our own this week, but now i have this little bowl full and i’m not sure whether to cook them down or take them along on the trip. i guess i could get a quart or two out of that . . maybe after dinner i’ll work on it.

i know—i’m obsessing. but with everything else all squared away (even the laundry!), it feels funny to leave one thing hanging.

we have been busy though; green beans are still producing in basketfuls and  yesterday i put up the last of what we’ll need (we’ll eat some fresh and give the rest away), along with some more peaches and when i went downstairs to squeeze them into the freezer i snapped a photo to share. because we added fruits to our stores this year we are full already, even though it’s only august. we still need to put up more tomatoes and then all the fall soups and sauces. hmm, looks like when we return, we’ll be shopping the labor day sales for an additional small freezer.

anyway, off we go tomorrow and i won’t have to think about the garden and its produce for a few days. i’m going to enjoy some extended knitting and pattern writing time, as well as getting out for some fun with my mom.

one thing i’m packing into the car is this impatiens start. i’ve been working all summer on propagating cuttings from the one remaining plant we had. all of my mom’s gorgeous pink impatiens (click here  and scroll down to read all about those) succumbed to blight over the winter, as did the ones she shared with her cousin.

luckily, david and i dug up a bunch of these plants while visiting with her last october and brought them home. mine did not fare awfully well either, but more due to neglect than to disease. but i did manage to get two cuttings to root and stay healthy through the winter, so that by springtime, i had a mother plant from which to work

as it has branched out, i’ve taken cuttings, which have proved challenging to root. but i figured out a system that works and managed to grow few starts. once it got a stronghold and began to branch out, the mother plant has even developed lots of promising new growth around the base of the branches.

these plants are kind of delicate though; they need to be moist and it has been dry here. i can’t decide whether to take this one along or maybe just leave it with bret. i gave him a cutting last week for his and connie’s anniversary and explained that it was the result of 50 years of propagation in our family. he really liked it; i hope they can keep it going as we all try to do!

as for knitting, i think i’m taking just three projects along (instead of my usual nine or so, haha). with secret knitting at the top of the list, my sweater in progress goes into the bag next; not only is it public knitting and moving along at a highly motivating pace, but i think i’ve finally decided on the construction.

i’m going to go with the ribbing at the seams, which will enable me to knit it in separate pieces, rather than in the round. i’ve finished one sleeve and here you see the second one—i got a lot done on it today while i was visiting with susie and debby for saturday morning knitting.

and of course i’m also taking along wasp and rose; i don’t want to lose my momentum on it by leaving it home to languish. i’ve been steadily ticking off between two and six rows during my very limited evening knitting sessions. even though it feels like less progress than i’m used to, i’m still happy that it’s moving forward instead of languishing; that was hanging over my head and i don’t like the feeling.

one thing i do just love about the piece as it stands is that with this quantity of fabric on the needles, you can see what incredible drape it has, even in its unblocked state. can you imagine what it will be like when it’s blocked??

just luscious. sigh . . . not too far to go.

so, that’s  all i have for the time being—now it’s time to pack my bag and make sure everything i want to take is organized. next time i pop in i’ll be in wonderful upstate new york!

29 thoughts on “what to do with the leftovers?

  1. Wow, your freezer looks incredible!

    Love your sweater in the making. Color is gorgeous. Can’t wait to see the Wasp and Rose completed and blocked.

  2. Hi,
    Have a wonderful holiday with your Mum, time together is a gift.
    Take care
    Megan

  3. Thanks for posting the photo of your freezer… I had wondered how you were keeping all that frozen produce frozen. It’s fabulous!
    How do your impatiens weather the Winter? I had thought they were annuals? I plant small dots of them throughout our extremely shady side yard every Spring… they definitely don’t come back up here in Virginia.
    Now that I think of it you could probably container pot them and just bring them inside when it gets chilly…

  4. My mother propagates impatiens by just popping the cuttings in a glass of water on the kitchen windowsill. The grow roots in a very short time.

  5. Wow! Freezer envy! You are set for winter already!

    Have a safe and lovely trip in upstate NY – the weather in the northeast has been simply fab lately.

  6. Have a safe trip and wonderful time with your mom! We’ll be in Albany at the end of the week for school shopping. Can’t wait to hit the malls!

  7. Leftovers–what a great problem to have. Enjoy your visit with Mom and deal with garden stuff when you return.

  8. Here in East London, South Africa my impatiens also succumbed to a disease. It was so bad, I could not take cuttings. I’m going to get cuttings from friends and try again. It is nearly spring here, so hopefully they will root quickly. Love your freezer. When are you going to visit Baby Knitspot? We want more photos.

  9. The colorful top shelf of the freezer looks like folded fat quarters of quilt fabric! The food looks awesome and made my taste buds wake up!
    Have a safe trip-enjoy time with your mom.
    I have a black thumb when it comes to the garden except for veggies.I loved to variety in today’s blog post.

  10. I used to put impatien cuttings in test tubes of water on a test tube rack on the window sill. I usually did a third more than I needed to allow for failures once they were potted up. I got the test tubes and rack on ebay. Worked great.

  11. I can more than I freeze lately because I lost my big deep freezer when I sold the last house. I really miss that freezer.

  12. Anne and David, Have as restful and fun break away the hussle and bussle of life. Enjoy yourselves.
    HUGS
    Pat

  13. What to do with the leftovers? Send ’em to me!
    The temperate climate in Oregon just doesn’t grow tomatoes with the rich flavor warmer climates do, and I miss them.
    I agree with other commenters, your freezer is amazing!
    Have a great, safe trip.

  14. Having lost my Mom in May, all I can say is to treasure all the time you have together.

    My Mom taught me to be strong enough to carry on without her being there, but the inability to ask her something, or just share an end-of-day phonecall leaves any daughter longing for her voice.

  15. I’m also in upstate NY at the moment, only near Rochester instead of Albany! Let’s hope it doesn’t keep raining 🙂

  16. Haha, oops, I just left a comment as my mom, Corinne – that’s what I get for using her computer when I’m sleepy haha! 🙂 Hope you guys have a fab trip with lots of good, fun times!

  17. And now I can add that I’m in awe of your freezer! When you’re in Albany, this visit or another, if you haven’t done so already, you might want to check out Battenkill Fibers in nearby Greenwich, NY, as a potential BNK source. I think they were recently written up in Vogue Knitting. http://www.battenkillfibers.com/

  18. Have a wonderful time at your Mom’s (we know you will). The sweater is so very pretty — I can’t wait to see it finished. And Wasp and Rose, sigh, is gorgeous, too!

  19. Even your freezer is organized! I always love it when you post recipes, your meals all sound so healthy and delicious.

    Have a good trip!

  20. I would love to hear your method for growing from cuttings! I’ve tried several times, with several different plants, with no luck at all. 🙁

    Hope you have a safe and lovely trip up to see your mom!

  21. You are amazingly organised, Anne – I have never seen a freezer look like that! I love the colours of both your sweater and Wasp and Rose (which I can’t wait to see blocked).

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