Daelith

I'm still heating mine, just not boiling. So far all but 2 or 3 have failed to seal. And that's this year and last year combined.

Locate the closest mobile home/RV parts place in our area. If you have any plumbing problems or repairs, the stuff at the regular hardware store will not work. Unless they've changed that in the last 20 years. Definitely no grease down the drain. Save old jars (chipped canning jars or whatever still comes in glass jars at the grocery store nowadays) and pour your grease in those so you can just throw out later.

Love the peaches. I really should try to at least get some peaches to do a batch of peach conserve.

We have had such a mild summer this year. I don't ever remember having one like this in my area. Finally got to normal temperatures last week. Makes me wonder what kind of winter we're going to have.

I made some ham broth from our Christmas ham last year and canned it. I've not opened a jar of it yet. Might try cooking some purple hull peas in some to see how it came out.

Glad I'm not the only one who collects old cook books. Or at least reproductions of them. We're having a veggie dinner tonight - butter beans, squash, corn on the cob, corn bread. Think I might do some cinnamon apples too. Need to use up my canned apples.

Sad the way people don't mind using other people's things, but don't want to help maintain them. We've had people offer to loan us their rear tine tiller, but we still go to Home Depot to rent one because we are afraid to use someone else. We don't know how well they maintain it. Anyway, I went to the farmer's market Saturday and picked up 5 lbs of butter beans and a few ears of corn. Canned the butter beans yesterday. 9 pints total. Used two ears of corn to make 2 of the jars into succotash. . Had a handful left over to cook up for dinner. Thought I had a jar break about 15 minutes in on the cooking. Heard a loud pop inside the canner. Everything was fine when I was able to open the lid though.

Our garden is starting to peter out - squash and tomatoes. Something has gotten a hold of the green beans and just stripped them. Still have watermelon and peppers doing well. Some of the peppers are just now getting blooms. I don't think they liked all the rain we had in June and July. Okra just now starting to come around. Grape tomatoes still producing. Cucumbers have been erratic. I really wanted to get about 12-15 ripe at about the same time to try my hand at some sweet relish. I've only gotten about 3-4 at a time though and have end up giving most of those away. Thinking about planting some spinach around Labor day and see how it does.

That sounds good. Wonder how that would be with blueberries!

I have one of those. Will put it to use next time. I think I may run all of it through there tonight then put it back on the stove to cook some more. Thanks for the info, John.

Thank you WormGuy. I didn't have near enough tomatoes for your recipe.*L* Also I was trying to avoid peeling. I tossed them in the crock pot with the skins. (I did core them.) The pureed in the blender. Do you leave yours cooking on the stove top or crock pot/ roaster oven(on low setting) for 16 hours?

Tried my hand at some spaghetti sauce for the first time this weekend. Didn't care for the way it turned out though. I simmered the tomatoes with garlic and peppers in the crock pot over night. Added some other ingredients and let them cook in the following morning, then pureed it all in the blender. After it came out of the canner, all the pulp rose to the top as it cooled and the liquid settled to the bottom of the jars. It was only 2 quart jars thankfully. I'd say I've got the beans down pat, but other stuff is still trail and error with me.

Sorry about your hubby, Skagitgal! Prayers for you both. I have decided it is just best to let sleeping dogs lie. Skagitgal is correct...if she wants it bad enough, she will mention it to me, then I will proceed from there. I really do appreciate the input. Sometimes it helps to be able to talk things like this out before making a decision.

I got another 5 pints of green beans done last night. Picked them, snapped them and canned them. I think that brings my total up to 23 pints from our little 20 x 20 garden.

I appreciate everyone's input.

Not sure if this is the area to post this or not. If not, let me know and delete it. I’ve gotten myself into a little situation I'm not quite sure how to handle. There is a friend of mine who is interested in canning. (I went over to her house last year and helped her make some strawberry preserves and some soda jellies.) She’s somewhat computer challenged so I looked up some stuff on line for her. Found that a water bath canner could be purchased for about $20. When I saw her last weekend, I offered to go ahead and order the canner for her and she could repay me. She said she would really appreciate it. Then I talked to her about canning some peaches together in August. Now here’s the problem. When she went off to the ladies room, I wandered over to where our husbands were and mine was telling hers what all I had put up so far this year. Her husband says “Yeah, P wants one of those canners, but I just don’t see the point of spending the money on it. We don’t have a place to store it. Besides, why go to all that trouble when you can just buy the stuff already made? It's a waste of money.” Mine tried telling him how much better it was than the store bought stuff, but he wasn't convinced. I know he controls the money in their household, so I’m thinking…uh-oh, what do I do now? I told my husband the conversation I just had with P once we were alone and he said to just forget it and not saying anything more about it. That it would likely be forgotten. I don’t want to cause problems for this couple, but I hate that I said I would do this for her. Any suggestions on how I should handle this? Should I just take DH advise and let it slide?

This has been a strange summer. Temperature was 56 at my house this morning when I left for work. High in the mid 80s today. Tomorrow mid 70s. Just unheard of in this part of the country for this time of the year. I'm worried we're in for an even colder winter than this past one.

Yeah Jeepers! I liked the way my house smelled too after canning mine. And I don't normally like a vinegary smell.

I have found that the aloe with lidocaine and menthol helps with the itching of insect bites. Especially ticks.

I've got to pick green beans tonight. We're getting over run with cherry and grape tomatoes. Cucumbers are coming in slowly. I need about 10-12 to ripen at the same time so I can make some sweet relish. Reminds me I need to look for a recipe that doesn't call for onions. DH hates onions.

I also turn on the radio. Usually country music while canning. Might listen to a movie I've seen a number of times. I always have my dogs to keep me company so I also talk to them. They help keep the floor clean when I drop stuff.

Do you mind canning outside or have a place to put a camp stove? Tractor Supply has a 10,000 BTU dual burner camp stove - http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/masterbuilt-double-burner-camp-stove Currently on clearance for $59.99

I got it working today. Had to file a report as a false positive then update it. Working fine now.

They've been migrating out of the west for some time now and I don't think they really care if the live the desert or the humid South. We seem them all over the place here.

I love the old comedy movies - Ma and Pa Kettle, Blondie and Dagwood, Marx Brothers, Andy Hardy, etc. And Mae West. TMC was having a marathon of her movies a couple of weekends ago. I made it through 2 before getting too sleepy to hold my eyes open.