In the Kitchen: Preserving Summer

Although we are quite busy with blacksmithing events and the like during the summer (not to mention the kids' activities and our other jobs!), we spend a lot of time preserving the summer's bounty.  Maybe it's because I grew up in the Midwest where everyone had chest freezers and pressure cookers, but I tend to consider putting up food just a normal part of the summer routine.  

My garden is too small to produce everything we need so we often supplement from other sources, but we have a great time doing it.  Just this morning, I froze peaches for pies in the middle of winter and yesterday, I canned whole tomatoes for future soups.   Earlier this summer, we picked blueberries, which we froze.  We also picked cherries, which we froze, turned into preserves with some raspberries, and tried to make fruit leather (which I accidentally burnt -- oops!)
 

Tomatoes from our garden went into "bruschetta in a jar" and pizza sauce.  Our garden tomatoes will also be regularly roasted and turned into sauce that I'll freeze.  

And, as the jars are finished, a supper of squash starts to saute on the stove:

Our garden's cucumbers turned into a small batch of bread and butter pickles: 

 
And, of course, I make pesto out of our basil as it ripens, and every year, I realize that I didn't plant enough basil for a year's worth of pesto!