Getting darker and darker in the mornings now so could not go out to pick beans until 6 a.m. so I got the next pattern ready to cut out.  Then I went down to the garden and picked some beans to put into a salt brine.  Rosemary told me about pickling green beans in a salt brine to keep them for winter use and I just had to try it.  I got about one meal worth but wanted a few more so looked in the kitchen garden.  There were three plants there that had good sized beans on them so got some there and left the rest to pick and can on Saturday.  Then after breakfast Norman and I went to the cellar and did two batches of jelly.  My big stew pot lets me cook 1 and 1/2 quarts of juice without boiling over so we did two batches and got 12 jelly jars full of nice grape jelly.  I never add pectin as I don’t care for the taste of the jelly unless I do it without pectin and grapes have plenty of their own.  When we finished we had a short break and then I canned three quarts of dill pickles, I found quite a few cucumbers when I went to pick the beans and wanted to get those into jars while they were nice and fresh.  Then I got the beaned into a brine in a two quart canning jar and put that into the refrigerator with the corned beef.  By then I had to start making dinner.  I discovered something great!!  I read that blueberries can be used to tenderize meat and tried it the other day on a small piece of sirloin steak.  It came out good but did not know if it was the cut of meat or the blueberries so today I had cubed steak which has a tendency to be a little tough.  I pounded the blue berries into the steak and let it marinate for three hours and it was wonderful- so nice and tender and the flavor was outstanding so from now on we will try the blueberries on all kinds of meat to see if it works on other kinds of meat.  Good way to use some of our blueberries and so good for you.  Oh, by the way, when Norman was tested at the doctor’s yesterday he was told his eye had improved quite a bit and wondered what he had done, when he told the doctor he was eating more blueberries the doctor was not surprised he just told Norman to keep it up!

I was going to make bread this afternoon but I ran out of steam so will fudge it tonight and have zucchini  bread for supper and make the whole wheat bread tomorrow.  Norman insists on two slices of whole wheat bread with his supper but I only have two slices left.  I could care less what I have so rather than make bread when I feel lazy, I’ll have the zucchini  bread with my baked beans for supper and he can have the two slices of whole wheat bread.  I use only stone ground whole wheat bread flour to make my bread and it does wonders for the digestive system but I use the same flour in my zucchini bread so to me I don’t see the difference.   Time to feed the birds again so must run and get more food for them in to cool.  Have a great day.