A Gardener's Diary

[Monksdream]

Oct. 20--Little Rico the black kitten becomes more comfortable with his surroundings with each passing day. He is exploring now. CC the Calico Cat has grudgingly accepted. She will swat him but not hard and then she stalks off. It's gotten to a point every time I sit down in the chair in the shade corner he ends up in my lap wanting attention. He's bigger, too, probably one-half size bigger since I found him at the bus stop about 16 days ago.

Dreama remains out sick so I will have to wait until next week to get her to take a photo of the slope. I hack into it with the mattock about 10 feet a day. One year it will all but be removed.

I've noticed something interesting about the mustard greens. The grasshoppers will munch on the Florida Broadleaf plants; they haven't touched the Southern Giant Curled. I wonder, would they attack the Southern Giant Curled if there were no Florida Broadleaf? This is part of natural inset control. You let the insects have at one variety in order to have another variety in the garden that is damage free. Very simple trade off.

The All New Ball Book includes recipes for freezer jams and preserves. It's simple and quick and saves on the boiling water bath.

Orange-Pineapple Freezer Preserves

2 1/2 cups chopped orange sections, about 6 medium oranges
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 8oz can crushed pineapple in juice undrained
4 Tbsp Ball Real Fruit Instant Pectin

1. Stir together first 4 ingredients in a medium glass or nonmetallic bowl. Let stand 15 minutes

2. Gradually stir in pectin; stir 3 minutes. Let stand 30 minutes

3. Spoon into jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Center lid on jars. Apply bands., and adjust loosely. Once preserves are frozen, adjust bands to finger tight. Store in freezer up to 1 year. Thaw in refrigerator. Refrigerate after thawing and use within 3 weeks.