Sunflowers, muffins and potatoes

I've started to cut down some of the larger sunflower heads to dry for seed next year (and to fill the feeders this winter). The birds are already pulling the seeds out which nicely shows how the flowers die off and the seeds drop out.

Jenn and Jess baked this weekend, with the back raspberries giving these muffins a dark colour. A friend has kindly donated a second chest freezer, thereby alleviating the fall freezer space crunch. I'm thinking about putting this one in the garage. If we only run it from September to March, it shouldn't add to much to the electrical bill (the unheated and insulation-free garage is cold!). It is just starting to spin up so I'll move some apples out there shortly.

It is hard to convey the size of some of Jess' potatoes. I decided to can the bigger ones and here they are against a quart (1 litre) jar for scale.

Pressure canning went well but I did have a couple of lid failures (unusual). I was careful about the jars and not over filling them. Perhaps the lids were duds. Or it was just a freak accident. Anyhow, we'll be having potatoes the next few nights to use the failed jars up.

Now off to suss out some more apples.