Misty Monday

I spoke too soon yesterday ~ 2 days of sunny 70 degree weather does not a summer make!  Today is rainy and gray (again) and I actually see a few chimneys wafting wood fire smoke in the middle of a late July afternoon.  Uncle!!!

But it did make for a good day to stay inside and try my first solo canning adventure:

Getting ready.....

Done!  Sweet Cherry Jam

I only made a single batch since I wasn't sure how carried away I wanted to get without any help, so the rest of the Bings went into the dehydrator and I'll vacuum seal those in small bags to use in baking over the winter.  It's a great feeling to be stocking up for the cold months when all the foods we love are limited, expensive and definitely not from around here!

I need to find a new way of testing them to see if they're done ~ the taste test thing is a bad idea.... We may not have any dried cherries by the end of the day, let alone this winter!

I also finally sat down and figured out my fair entries and got myself registered for the Skagit County:

and also for my first go at the Evergreen State later in the month:

I'm a bit concerned they won't take my entries at the state level since the registration was a little more involved than at the county level and I'm not certain my knits ended up in the correct categories.  We shall see....  Now I need to get everything reblocked and packaged up for delivery in the next couple weeks.  What a fun way to wind up the summer and I'm glad that Kelli will be joining me again this year (although she beat me to registration this year so I guess I'm joining her!).

Busy days ahead ~ there's more canning I'd like to try my hand at while local produce is in season and it sounds like there is a huge weekend project showing up this evening that I need to get ready for!  Rumor has it there are 4 silver salmon and 1 king salmon freshly plucked from the waters of Canada that I will be smoking and they need to be filleted, cut in pieces and brined by Saturday morning.  Or is it 8 silvers and 2 kings ~ I guess I'll find out when the fish changes hands tonight!  JR, you rock!!  I can't wait to have fish in the house again!  ~ Melissa