mom11

Here's another fine example...Coons got my corn last night...Know why??? My neighbor borrowed my traps a month ago and they re still in HIS garden. I told his wife today....I needed my traps back, but honestly it's too late. This is the stuff that is gonna stop and it is hard not to be selfish, but still not be taken advantage of. A couple months ago, this neighbor wanted 3 of my T-posts. One of my chicks came and asked me. I told him to tell my neighbor he could borrow them, but I wanted them back when he was done. My chick didn't quite pass along the entire message...You know the part about wanting them back. I went right down to the neighbors and nicely asked them if they were using them for bean poles. I said I just needed them back at the end of the season. No...They were planning on using them for a permanent arbor. I explained that my son bought those for me and I couldn't give them away. Now this neighbor had T-posts, but he sold his....Then wanted me to give him mine. About a month later my T-post came home.....Now I can only ask this question here, but can anyone think why they would ever have too many T-posts!?

This is such a sore subject for me. I have people ask for my canning supplies or they will see a large crate of rings...And hint. I hear "I don't have time to can because of A,B,or C..." That really gets me. We are just now ready to eat dinner. This is early for summer and it is almost 9pm. One canner just started timing. The others are done for the day. My sweet daughter, who is 17 blanched, peeled 578 tomatoes today. Yeap...She counted each one. She had them ready to can. My boys weed whacked, picked veggies, mowed, hung laundry....This evening I canned 48 jars of pizza sauce and 14 jars of stewed tomatoes. Since Thursday evening we have canned 85 quarts of fruit cocktail, 11 quarts of peaches, 97 quarts of Darlene's yummy marinara, 23 quarts of roma green beans, 64 twelve oz. jars sweet pepper salsa, and now the pizza sauce and stewed tomatoes. We don't have air conditioning and we aren't having much fun. We are tired, but this is how we stay in our home and eat healthy and if this sounds just horrible...Well...I don't care what anyone else eats. When the garden is done, we will start maple tapping...Now if you think people are beggars about canning and gardens, there is nothing like what they think about maple syrup. We started tapping maple trees, just about the time Evil Monsanto announced the new GMO super sugar beets. We go out in the freezing cold, wind, rain, snow, and in the dark...Drag back home 40lb. buckets of sap, and strain and boil for weeks on end. Not selling it and give very, very little. I do this with my chicks, for my chicks and we substitute as much of the maple syrup for sugar, as we can. I get that stuff hidden...ASAP! This is not cheap either, but in the long term I may be even more grateful for the expense...But there is the evaporator, filters, strainers, buckets, jars, refractomers.....Nope...I am NOT giving it away and not selling it either.

I have people ask for my jars, lids, rings, and hint for veggies. I have had people just grab a jar out of my basement and say they are taking it home. I have finally had to look at all of this...Canned goods etc. as my groceries. I don't go to anyone else's home and walk away with their groceries. I try not to even feel guilty anymore. I ONLY go out in my garden when it is 112 degrees for my chicks and NO ONE else. If someone needs food and I mean is starving...I give them store bought, but not my home canned foods. People tend to look at gardening and canning as a hobby. They look at foods in a jar, as a gift. I have found that the best way to keep your home canned foods for your own family is to get those jars washed, labeled, and packed up...AND out of site as fast as possible. My chicks and I decided we were putting a dead bolt on the basement door. Now you guys can do what you want, but if there is an emergency that basement food is for this family only. I refuse to become a food bank. I watch neighbors pulling boats, touring around in gators, 4 wheelers, even golf carts. Sometimes I wonder if people have forgotten how to walk. They go on nice vacations, while we go into the garden....No...I am not going to feel guilty anymore! I also have people want to shop from my stash of jars, rings, and lids...I am saying no from now on. Even if they pay me, I am the one that has to go dragging back for more. I'm not doing that anymore either.

Are you talking about a steam juicer? I think that would work fine. You will also get more juice, if you freeze fruit and berries first. We cook the grapes first and drain the juice. Then I put the pulp in my steam juicer and get a lot more juice out. I do it this way, because I usually do 7-8 bushels. I cook the grapes in my outdoor-wood canner, since it is large and I can do them faster this way. My Mennonite friends cooked them in their wood-canner last year, then borrowed our cider press. They put the remaining pulp in a pillowcase and then into the press and they got a lot of juice. I may do that this year.

I thought we weren't supposed to use fresh lemons in canning, because they would have varying amounts of acidity and bottled lemon juice had a standard/consistent amount of acidity. I would surely like to use one of the fresh lemons growing in my sunroom, but guess they would be even better in a lemon meringue pie.

It takes, for an example, two jars of pintos and ham, to feed my chicks...It really takes two days, to sort and soak beans, chop ham and onions, and can....Its just silly for me to do 7 quarts for 3.5 dinners. I try and find ways to keep organized and make the process go efficiently. My children help and we have done the all night thing and are not doing it anymore. I bought hams on sale a month ago. My daughter cut the ham into cubes and we measured and froze it all. Now I will spend a few days canning split pea soup, bean soup, and pintos and ham, but when we are done we will have at least 150 quarts....2 per meal and just these meals go a long way, especially as a prep item or at the end of a busy day. If I am canning for just myself, no way would I be doing all this. I don't see any reason to buy an AA, if you mostly do pints. Even the 14 quart canner, only holds 20 pints...The same amount as the 7 quart Presto and the Presto is lighter and cheaper. Mine work fine...I was just looking for a way to mass produce this stuff. I hope you find a deal! Maybe Amazon Prime, with free shipping!

I love my AA's, because they hold 14 quarts. You can't get a Presto that does that. I have two of the AA's that hold 14 quart jars and two of the 23 quart (7 quart jars) Prestos. I line them all up, so I am not canning 24/7. I am only 5ft. tall. The AA's are more of a challenge, but it's do-able and they save me tremendous time and fuel. If I am only doing a few, which is rare, or want to do just 40 or so pints, the Presto, holds about the same number of pints as the much larger AA, and I will use those. Heat isn't really a problem when putting the jars in or taking them out of the AA's. The canner isn't usually that hot when doing these tasks. They also make smaller AA's, than mine are. The AA doesn't need to have a seal replaced, so I like having those for emergencies. The weight is simple to use, although there is also a dial. The dial is good for letting you know everything is going OK. I use the 3 piece weights for my Presto and they are simple to use. Just leave the weight together for 15lbs. pressure, remove the bottom ring for 10lbs. pressure, and remove 2 rings for 5lbs. pressure....I think Amazon sells the Presto weights. They just unscrew. Good luck!

Thank you! I love you too!

Hi Darlene, Didn't your recipe at one time, have yellow and green peppers in it? What were the quantities and did the processing time change? I grew colored sweet peppers just for your marinara sauce. We love it!

I hope you had a happy day, in your new home!

Thanks Cat! I just ordered this! You're nice!

Almost 70 jars of jelly, some pear, some grape....This week anyway. Today 24 eight oz. bruschetta. I have about 5 more quarts of pear juice to can into jelly tomorrow. I'm giving about half of the jelly to my dear Mennonite friend, with 9 children, the other half for my dear children.

This weekend....12 quarts apple cider, 21 quarts fruit cocktail, 52 quarts grape juice...Tomorrow grape jelly and hopefully pear jam and jelly. I now have a purple kitchen.

39 quarts of fruit cocktail..What a sticky, icky mess....All done though. I bought the fruit for 100 jars, but three out of four boxes, of the peaches molded. They were still firm. I don't know if they had some kind of blight. SO now I have a bushel and half of pears, tons of green grapes, and a gallon of maraschino cherries, that won't be going into fruit cocktail. 15 boxes of grapes are on the way, so time to move on.

Today 10 twelve oz. jars apple jelly for a neighbor, and 28 twelve oz. and 13 eight oz. jars plum jelly. I split the 12 oz with our dear Mennonite friends, and the eight oz. will be gifts.

Got the 30 quarts of apple pie filling done. Tomorrow apple and plum jelly. I washed all the applesauce jars, labelled, and boxed them up, and they are all in the basement.

Got the 30 quarts of apple pie filling done. Tomorrow apple and plum jelly. I washed all the applesauce jars, labelled, and boxed them up, and they are all in the basement.

This weekend...104 quarts of applesauce. I juiced the guts and will make jelly tomorrow. The apples are peeled and sliced and in the fridge, to be canned into pie filling tomorrow....30 quarts of the things. I am so sick of apples. Next will be fruit cocktail and hopefully that will be out of the way, before my grapes come...15 boxes full. Grapes sound wonderful now...So easy compared to this stinkin apple mess...

Well....I DID get 20 cases of filled jars washed, labelled, sent to the basement, but DID NOT get the floor washed...I DID bribe two chicks, with $$ to do it for me, so we will see........I am so tired, I could just crawl, but so are they, but with a little $$, it's funny how energized they become.

Well the stuff wouldn't sweep up, so thought it would sweep up, once dry, but NOPE! It's stuck like glue, so off to wash that stinkin mess....So for all of you that want a bigger kitchen...Think about THIS....625 square feet, on my hands and knees.....UGH! No one around here, wants to hear the word CORN today! They will come winter though!

39 quarts fruit cocktail, 9 twelve oz. pear jellies, made from the peels and guts of the pears, from the fruit cocktail, 19 twelve oz. peach nectars, and 79 pints of corn. We froze 3 gallons of corn, so we can CAN veggie soup...Later! Another 90 minutes on the canners. We are worn out! The house is covered in corn splatter!

The last is in the canners, for a total of 28 pints corn, 20 quarts of Nana's Yummy Corn Chowder, and 6 twelve oz., 12 eight oz. jars peach jelly. Everybody helpe and everybody's exhausted....Time for a little movie party!

64 quarts, 6 pints peach pie filling. I hated every second of it. We had three water bathers going inside, two on kerosene cookers, one on the stove, and the wood canner going. We had two stockpots full of the peach stuff going, side by side, and two of us stirring.....Whewwww! One didn't seal, so it is in a cake tonight. I juiced some of the peach guts and will do syrup and jelly tomorrow.

Today 20 twelve oz. and 4 eight oz. jars red raspberry jam, 20 quarts Nana's Corn Chowder, and 17 quarts fruit cocktail...Hopefully the peach pie filling...I hate doing the pie fillings, don't know why...

Well...I can hardly remember what, but my Emma counted our "jars" for the week...We did 339 jars of stuff...Peaches, pizza sauce, white grape jelly, peach jelly, peach jam, black raspberry jam, peach salsa, red raspberry jam....I sent 12 cases back to Texas, with our dear 85 year old adopted grandmother and am taking 3 cases of jam out to my dear Mennonite friends, with 9 children. I have a case of jam for my dear sister and one for another dear friend....No one else is getting any and the rest went into the basement, for my dear chicks...Now the kitchen is cleaned up and time to can some more.....