What are you canning today? Part 6

[Jori]

Thank you Violet! I think I might have to mentally shift the to do's for this week to squeeze it in.

 

Thank you for the tip, Cricket! Never thought about that.

 

Oh! Canning - DH canned 20 pints of cream corn (it doesn't look creamed). More corn in the fridge so I'm thinking another 12 pints of corn before having to get more.

 

Both toddlers are up so need to take care of breakfast.

 

 

[Violet]

Homecanned cream corn is not like store stuff. It just means you have scraped the cob when you cream it at home. I see no advantage, it only made a bigger mess in my kitchen. Just my opinion.

 

[Jori]

Ah, yes, the mess. I'm still trying to clean up from it - lol! I just hoped on to find the thread about cans. Our Walmart is finally carrying Golden Harvest so I wanted to refresh my memory. Need to run to the farm and pick up plums and see how the farmer did in surgery & decide if I have the energy to take DD & DS to Sam's and Costco to try and find the complete home preserving book or just order it on-line.

[Cricket]

18 pint jars of beans - 12 Blue Lake Green Beans and 6 bush beans. That pretty much does it for my beans plants this year. They are starting to look pretty sad.

 

Plus 3 pints of Okra Pickles. Not together. Beans in the pressure canner and pickles in a water bath.

[Jake]

20 quarts and 8 pints of dill pickles and I have about 12 pounds of larger pickles soaking overnight in brine in a crock and will do those tomorrow.

[Simplegirl]

I have been canning all week. Not sure where I left off telling everyone what I had done but I now have on my dining room table (no room on the shelves- cleaning out a cabinet for them now):

 

6 quarts green beans

5 quarts pinto beans

9 pints pinto beans

4 quarts dehydrated okra

4 pints spaghetti sauce

8 pints chili base sauce

4 pints pizza sauce

5 half pints sweet pickle relish

4 pints sweet salsa

12 pints regular salsa

 

I think that is all right now.... plus I froze some corn, lima beans, and cream peas. Mom did most of those though- about a dozen quarts of each last week.

[Donit]

In 24 hours, 10 boxes of peaches, 1 box of apricots, 4 boxes of tomatoes. Mostly by myself in the wee hours, but did have some help from the "deputies". (don't anybody look in my kitchen)

[Jori]

Finished 17 pints of cream corn last night/this morning. So I think that brings it to 37 pints. 3 half-pints and 4 pints of plum jam.

 

Chopped and in freezer quart of gypsy peppers and quart of green bell peppers. Shredded and in freezer 4 1/2 c zucchini. I'll be posting later the holes in my first aid preps (thumb v. box shredder)

 

I'm going to call a few of the local farms to see if anyone has apricots but will pick up more plums to can them today as well as pickles DH picked up and are sitting in fridge.

[Cricket]

I have been canning all week. Not sure where I left off telling everyone what I had done but I now have on my dining room table (no room on the shelves- cleaning out a cabinet for them now):

 

6 quarts green beans

5 quarts pinto beans

9 pints pinto beans

4 quarts dehydrated okra

4 pints spaghetti sauce

8 pints chili base sauce

4 pints pizza sauce

5 half pints sweet pickle relish

4 pints sweet salsa

12 pints regular salsa

 

I think that is all right now.... plus I froze some corn, lima beans, and cream peas. Mom did most of those though- about a dozen quarts of each last week.

 

How did you prepare your okra for deydrating? Do you reconstitute and fry it or just use it in soups and gumbo?

[Crazy4Canning]

Well, I got berries and made jam - low sugar in a jar, NOT the freezer. (last time I did over 100 of those plastic Ball pints....then my freezer died...)

 

Marionberry - 18 pints

 

Boysenberry - 24 pints

 

Strawberry 14 pints (+ 2 cups in a measuring cup, I ran out of jars!)

 

Mixed berry jelly - 18 pints

 

I did most of this after 8 pm last night. When I finally got to bed, I crashed and evidently snored like a lumberjack. My husband gets so annoyed when I do that.

 

I have to say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Pomona's Pectin. Each batch I made was a triple or quad batch. I used some apple juice and just a little sugar to sweeten. Each and EVERY single time, it set up PERFECTLY. Ooorah! That's what I'm talkin' about - perfect jam & jelly! The jelly does take a bit longer, but it's SO worth it.

[Simplegirl]

I have been canning all week. Not sure where I left off telling everyone what I had done but I now have on my dining room table (no room on the shelves- cleaning out a cabinet for them now):

 

6 quarts green beans

5 quarts pinto beans

9 pints pinto beans

4 quarts dehydrated okra

4 pints spaghetti sauce

8 pints chili base sauce

4 pints pizza sauce

5 half pints sweet pickle relish

4 pints sweet salsa

12 pints regular salsa

 

I think that is all right now.... plus I froze some corn, lima beans, and cream peas. Mom did most of those though- about a dozen quarts of each last week.

 

How did you prepare your okra for deydrating? Do you reconstitute and fry it or just use it in soups and gumbo?

 

We are going to use them to reconstitute and fry. I tried it and it works pretty well. Also I like the taste of them just like they are right off the dehydrator

 

[farm~maid]

So much going on in your kitchens. Our's is bustling too, with all the canning, freezing and drying. It sure needs a good cleaning, too. Actually, the whole house has been neglected, but there are only so many hours in a day.

 

I prepared grapes to make jam today. It's in the frig until later.

I also need to go pick so I can make more of the Crispy Freezer Cucumbers. It was a big hit with my DH and we have an abundance of the ingredients. Only wish I could freeze it using the Food Saver.

 

farm~maid

 

 

[Cricket]

Thank you Simplegirl! What do you do to prepare the okra before dehydrating. anything but slicing? How do you reconstitute later?

[Jingles]

I would be canning 25 - 30 jars of tomato juice tonight, BUT just after I got ALL 2 bushel of tomatoes squeezed and cooked to the right temp. a glass jar of olive oil I have had up on my spice rack above my stove (for the last 2 years) decided to pick just the moment I started to fill the first jars to EXPLODE!!!!! And spread glass over my whole stove and floor! Luckly no one was hurt and we didn't have a fire from the oil hitting the stove. BUT we had to throw the entire pot of tomato juice out since we had no idea if the glass was in it and I will not take the risk with my little ones. Luckly we still have a ton of tomatoes on the vines and already picked so we will be able to can some more, but boy am I frustrated tonight. Bit of advice move all your spices and oils away from your stove when you are canning. It is a real bummer when they decided to explode on you!

[Homemaker]

Oh Jingles, what a heartbreak!! I usually clear away everything away when I can. It can get pretty crazy in that kitchen.

 

I was given 8 plastic grocery bags of apples!!! I'm in the process of making applesauce. So far I've done 18 jars of apple-blueberry sauce using berries from our bushes I had frozen. I estimate when I'm done I will have around 50 pints from this load of apples.

 

I just casually mentioned at church that apple season would be starting up and a guy started saying how he had a garage full of apples he didn't want. I jumped right on that!! I think I'll start working apples into conversations around other people now when I'm at church. You never know when you'll strike oil... or applesauce!

[zophiel]

Today will, hopefully, be my first attempt at canning tomatoes. I'm a bit excited about it!

[Homemaker]

We're cheering for you Zophiel!

Let us know how it went.

[Jingles]

Homemaker too bad you didn't live closer to me I'd let you pick my tree clean! We did 23 quarts of apple sauce and I can say I really don't want to do any more, but I can see me out there picking and canning more if I don't find a home for them can't let them go to waste. We had a wren family nesting in that tree this spring and they did a great job of keeping the worms down. I only saw maybe 4 in all 3 bushels! This is a great year for apples.

 

I do have a bushel of tomatoes on my freezer waiting to ripen enough to can so we do have more coming and I know I have a ton more on the vine so we will be fine. It was just frustrating last night when we went through all that work just to have to toss it out. Live and Learn. No spices above the canning! Check got that one!

[Jori]

It was a slow day.....2 pints of plums and 5 quarts of kosher dills. I'm hoping to do more plums but I don't know if I can get to the market before the weekend (they are thinking the trees will be done). Need to finish up the pickles in the fridge but am just plain tired so I think it will wait until morning.

[Tammy]

Off the subject a little but looking to see what others are thinking. I have a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach (actually, it's worse than that) that it's going to be a rough/bad winter. Does anyone else?

 

I was just talking to DH about that .... we both are sensing that it will be a 'different' kind of winter than the last many years.....

 

Today I was at the grocery store looking at the meat and it was like I had a vision or something about a bear and hibernation and it needed LOTS of food to store cuz it's going to be a long hard winter season, then it was gone.... soooooo, of course I purchased lots of meat and am currently trying to get it canned.

 

The discernment within is always right and so I must follow His lead on this one.

 

 

 

 

[Cricket]

No canning to report, however yesterday morning I called the local WalMart to see if they had any jars left. The lady said they did, but asked if I was coming right away because, she said, "they are flying out of here".

 

I ran over on my lunch hour and scooped up ten flats of Ball pint jars!

 

I had been picking up jars since spring, and it had gotten to where DH would give me "the look" when I would slip another flat into my cart. But on Monday, while we were snapping beans (he felt well enough to be at the table with his foot elevated for short bursts to help) and all the jars of carrots still on the counter form the day before, he popped out with "You should have gotten more, jars. I told you to get more jars, you should have listened to me!" Funny guy!

 

Of course I hadda listen to my DH!

[JCK88]

LOl Cat...I love that you got more jars...at dh's urging, haha

 

Well this week I canned the last of the beans, a batch of salsa, peach pie filling, peach jam, peaches and today I will now go work my way through the last 25 pounds of peaches. Then, I need to make sweet relish and work on the bulk of the tomatoes. This year, everything ripened at once because we had a burst of hot weather after all that cool rain so the canning is all piled up together!

[zophiel]

We're cheering for you Zophiel!

Let us know how it went.

 

It was a small batch, mind. I'd rather get all my "learnin' mistakes" done on small batches. I took the tomatoes we've gotten in our CSA boxes and got about 3 solid pints. One of the jars is really pretty--most of the tomatoes were red, but there was one Lemon Boy in the lot, and he went on the top of the one jar, making it look a bit like a canned sunset. I followed my maternal grandmother's recipe (as relayed through Mom), including salt, lemon juice, and a clove of garlic into the jars. When I was done, all three lids popped down, making me happy.

 

Also in our CSA box we got a sunflower head, so I set that up to dry next to the bundle of sage, and cut up all the waiting bell peppers to freeze. And from the ripest, saved some seeds. ^__^

 

The kitchen still smells of tomato. heh.

[Canned Nerd]

I was just talking to DH about that .... we both are sensing that it will be a 'different' kind of winter than the last many years.....

A little interesting fact is that we will be entering a 'Night Cycle' about Nov 9th according to the Mayan Calendar. They are never good times according to history and this one is supposed to last one year. Coincidence? I doubt it.

 

Yup, I'm canning and storing as best I can while I have the food available. I've been on a relish kick recently. Corn Relish and more Salsa this week. Last week it was Zucchini and Cucumber Relishes. All that meat and potatoes will be boring without a good relish.

[Tammy]

Last night was up until midnight (started late anyhow) and from that batch have 2 pints of beef strips, 5 1/2 pints of beef chunks and 2 pints of crumbled hamburger. On my counter is sitting 5 pints of chicken broth, 1 qt chicken broth and 6 pints of chicken.

 

Today I am going to tackle the rest of the crumbled hamburger and I have 5 roasts to cut up for beef chunks. I also have 4 packages of pork country style ribs that I'm going to try and tackle with a bbq sauce to make bbq pork..... we'll see how that turns out.

 

My tomatoes are still waaaaaaay behind....only have about 8 small to med sized on my counter and they aren't fully ripe. Not only did we get hit with this cold weather all summer long but the blight is hitting my tomatoes pretty hard. I think it's blight anyhow....my tomatoe plants are pretty much stalks with tomatoes on them and they are withering fast....

 

My FIL planted some tomatoes in pots and have them out his front door (we live on the same property) and those plants are big and lush.....not many tomatoes just lots of flowers and we are in September almost. For Wisconsin this weather has been quite cold and damp all summer..... hopefully I will be able to "convince" him to let his DIL can up some of those beautiful tomatoes of his when they are ready.... lol... so so sad about the tomatoe crop in my garden.

 

**shaking head** "surely I hoped to be canning so many tomatoes this year that I couldn't keep up...planted over 50 plants and so far only 8 tomatoes have made it thus far" and my plants are hangin' by a thread........... wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

EDIT** I spelled tomato with an "e"...is that proper? LOLOLOL....me bad.**