Hasta la Vista, Okra!

Some of you may have seen this picture on facebook, but it bears repeating.  Here is jar number 6,830 of the pickled okra ordeal.  We needed 6,604, but I bought 18 cases of okra Tuesday, and needed to pickle it all.  Dustin and Melanie and I got pickling this stuff down to such a science, we were able to get 400 jars a day done.  Yesterday, we made 355 before noon.
  I'm so happy to have the order done, plus enough to keep the gift shop in the stuff for a while.  Today, we'll wash the 355 jars, box them and send them to the warehouse.  Then, we'll make granola and start to prep Spicy Pear Chutney.  We are all so excited to be making something else!  Melanie's been in the preserve kitchen for three weeks, and aside from one day with peaches, she's done nothing but pickle okra.
  Now, fall can officially begin in my kitchen.  The Stayman Winesaps for apple butter should be ready next week, and I just bought the last of Mike Z's pears.  I'm going to have to find a lot more pears than he was able to sell me.  The smells of the chutney and the apple butter are two of my favorites.  Along with the cooler air, the smell of autumn leaves and the slightly different angle of sunlight, cinnamon and cloves are my favorite things about fall.
  This Sunday is the Maryville Farmers' Market fundraising dinner.  http://www.maryvillefarmersmarket.com  I'll be making rustic apple tarts, sheep's milk caramel and Brebis cheesecake for the dessert.  I really don't want to do it!  I'd really rather have a day off to ponder my newly okra-free existence!  But I'm beginning to look forward to making a big dessert for 100 people.  And it will be at a farm in Friendsville on what will probably be a beautiful late-summer evening, with a lot of happy farmers and farm supporters.  There are still tickets available, if you'd like to go!