What good looking 'pickling things'! Your skills go far beyond the average male's -- and mine, too, for that matter! LOL

Jim, if you run out of space, I take the extras :-). Seems this year I have not time for anything, 4 day's with doctors appointments and husband back in rehab, still can't walk more than a couple of yards.

Jim, that looks so good.

Today I was making tomato sauce. Lots of San Marzano tomatoes. Many years ago I bought an Italian hand-cranked machine that squishes the tomatoes while pushing the pulp aside. Very few seeds. It's noisy, but so much better than trying to strain through cheese cloth.

After cooking them down, I ended up with four containers. Since there are only two of us here, each container has enough for us for one meal. I will probably put up another 12 before the season is over. The missus knits with her girl friends 5 afternoons a week, so this is something I can do solitary.

I learned all this when I was a youngster. My parents had a BIG garden (about 1/2 acre) behind the house. Not only veggies, but we had several fruit trees. We kept busy all summer and into autumn.

Your pickles look like the county fair. Bet you could win a blue ribbon.

I just realized that those are shallots, not garlic in the small jar!

I had never grown shallots before and I got a large crop. I don't recall the number but it was more than 20! It was one of my 'experiments' that worked!!

I forgot about these carrots. This is the third digging and all but a couple got blanched and put in the freezer.

I'm impressed by the carrots. I've never grown those.
What kind are they, how long are they and how big is the (hard) core?
I love carrots, but the ones I buy in the store are huge, about 8-9" long, they are already showing white fuzzy roots and the core is almost the same size in diameter as the carrot itself.
Lol. as you can probably tell, I'm not a happy camper with store bought carrots.

I planted several rows of carrots. I believe that these are Nantes Half Long. I weighed the big ones, real close to 3 ounces.

Carrots take a long time to germinate and then at least 90 days to get to a decent size. With the weather that you have, you should be able to plant at any time. Make sure the soil is loose. Generally, they are not bothered by pests, although Black Swallowtail Butterflies will often lay eggs on the tops. Then you get topped off carrots, but that does not changed their taste.

Many times, I just hose them off in the yard and eat them within 2 minutes of digging them. Ya cannot beat that flavor.

I volunteer at the county-owned nursing home in town. Among the things I do is to maintain the flower beds and some vegetable gardens. Here are some of the things that I gathered this morning. I'll take them back to the gals in the activity department and hope that they will get the residents involved with preparing fresh stuff (just like the old days) for them to eat, rather than the dining room fare.

If I could, I would invite myself.