Preservation Wrap Up 2017

I feel like this might not be complete and I know I've got a few projects to wrap up, but I want to get this recorded before I lose my paper full of scribbles!

Frozen

Rhubarb  2 gallons
Strawberries, whole 4 quarts
Strawberries, sliced in sugar 7 pints
Mulberries  8 gallons
Blackcaps  4 quarts
Cherries 1 gallon, 6 pints
Blueberries 2 quarts
Green Beans 18 bags
Swiss Chard 6 bags, 1 large bag
Kale 22 bags
Mixed Green 7 bags
Beets 11 bags
Corn 4 bags
Roasted Vegetables 5 large, 16 pint containers
Chopped Jalapenos 6 3/4 c. bags
Garden Marinara 4 quarts
Vegetable Bisque Base 3 large containers
Pesto 19 small containers
Zucchini Butter 5 containers (meal sized portions)
Shredded Zucchini 14 bags


Canned

Applesauce 52 quarts, 1 pint
Strawberry sauce 6 pints
Peaches 14 quarts
Queen Anne's Lace Jelly with Currants 5 half pints
Mulberry Jam 4 pints, 13 half pints
Brown Butter Banana Butter 6 half pints
Apple Butter 5 12 oz jars
Corn Cob Syrup 4 pints
Peach Syrup 2 quarts, 7 pints
Diced Tomatoes 26 quarts, 1 pint
Garden Marinara 8 quarts
Enchilada Sauce 7 pints
Pizza Sauce 13 pints
Tomato juice/water 16 quarts
Tomato Soup 14 quarts
Tomato Chutney 9 pints
Tomato BBQ Sauce 20 pints
Roasted Corn Salsa 20 quarts, 8 pints
Tomato Salsa 9 quarts
Fiesta Corn Relish 6 pints
Dill Pickles 18 quarts
Bread and Butter Pickles 14 quarts
Garlic Scapes 3 pints
Chicken Stock 5 super concentrated quarts, many other quarts

Garlic Bulbs 88
Maple Syrup 12 quarts (from bulk buy)
Dehydrated Apples 1.5 quarts
Dehydrated Cherry Tomatoes  3 quarts


We are basically done with our grass fed beef from 3 years ago and will most likely buy a quarter or half from Wundrows in the coming months.  We purchased 1/2 a pig from Ibelings after fair and are quickly making our way through it.  We purchased a lamb from Knutsens in the spring and are slowly making our way through it :)  It is stronger flavored and also pricier so we are spreading it out.  The meat chickens did well this year and are disappearing all too quickly.  The 5 new layers started laying, but then stopped so they are a disappointment so far as they've been here since May and we've gotten only a few dozen if we are lucky.  The 2 year old girls molted and also stopped laying so we are basically eggless right now.  Kelby is eating duck eggs from Wundrows and other friends.  Milk still comes from Wundrows, honey from the neighbor on 140 and most of the produce is from our own gardens.  It was a late, but productive tomato year for us.  We got apples from Marcee, our tree and Aunt Betty, strawberries from our patch and Wundrows, Peaches from Michigan through Kauffmans.  Syrup still from Troy, but may need to price other places as he is getting higher and gave us less for the higher price this year.  Have a bunch of squashes and pumpkins that are partially cooked and partially waiting to be cooked.  They were bought at Aldi and at the 4 way stop in Clinton.  Potatoes did terrible in the ground this year and will be back in a raised bed for sure!  All in all it has been a good year and our freezers and shelves are very full!

Preserving 2015

This has been a big year!  Here is the run down...

Frozen Items

Beet Greens 1 big bag
Garlic Mustard  4 small bags
Swiss Chard  6 small bags, 3 quart bags and one huge bag
Kale 21 small bags, 3 large bags
Green Peppers approximately 100 peppers chopped and sliced for fajitas
Orange Pepper 4 quart bags sliced for fajitas
Mulberries  6 quarts, 5 gallons
Black caps 5 quarts
Red Raspberries 1 quart
Blueberries 9 quarts
Peaches 1 gallon
Garlic scapes 14 bags chopped, 10 jars of paste
Strawberries 6 jars of sliced, 1 gallon whole
Tart Cherries 2 gallons
Green Beans 14 big bags, 10 medium bags
Cauliflower 7 bags
Pesto 20 small jars
Zucchini 4 bags shredded
Garden Marinara 2 quarts
Garlic Lemon Veggies for bisque 5 jars (3 soup recipes)
Zucchini Butter 6 large batches
Beets 6 bags
Cinnamon Apples 6 gallons
Squash/butternut squash/pumpkin puree  17 pb jars
Pumpkin Butter 10 1/2 pint jars


Dehydrated
Apples 7 quarts
Cherry tomatoes 2 quarts, 1 pint
Thyme, Oregano, Chives, and lots of Mint

Canning
Garden Marinara  7 quarts, 2 pints
Tomatoes 22 quarts, 1 pint
Tomato 'water' 4 quarts
Salsa 16 quarts
Spiced apples 2 quarts and 9 pints
Pears 25 quarts, 5 pints
Peaches 12 quarts
Peach Juice 4 quarts, 1 pint
Cherry lime syrup 3 pints
Applesauce 51 quarts, 2 pints
Apple 'juice' 2 quarts
Pear 'juice' 3 pints
Dilly beans 9 pints
Garlic Dill pickles 20 quarts
Bread and butter pickles 7 quarts
Pickled garlic scapes 1 quart, 11 pints
Chard Stems w/ Sriracha  5 pints, regular 3 pints
Roasted corn salsa 9 pints
Fiesta Corn relish 10 pints
Spiced cranberry apple sauce 3 pints, 1 half pint
Sliced apples 4 quarts
Apple Bourbon Chipotle BBQ sauce 15 pints, 1 quart
Spiced Pear Pancake sauce 4 pints, 1 quart

Jam

Mulberrry jam 13 pints, 2 half pints
Blueberry cinnamon 4 pints
Black cap/Mulberry 6 half pints
Pear spice 7 pints, 4 half pints
Wild grape jelly 11 half pints
Rhubarb vanilla 2 pints


I still have about 15 butternut squash and 3 large other ones to freeze (one Hubbard and two other ones).  These got eaten and turned into puree and pumpkin butter.  I've got about 5 small cabbages in the fridge along with beets and turnips.  Kale, chard, turnips, lettuce and spinach still out in the garden and doing okay in the frosts/freezes so far.  Lots of maple syrup canned up, along with pinto, black and garbanzo beans, chicken and beef stock.  We put 21 chickens in the freezer (gave two away) and have a little pork (last year's pig purchase) and lots of beef (fall of 2013) left from previous years.  We get our honey from 2 miles away and our milk from 10 miles away.  Most of our produce came from our 10 raised and 1 in ground gardens, mulberry trees, and black cap vines.  The extra squash and peppers came from Brad at the market, garlic scapes from The Blossom and The Bean, apples from multiple neighbors and Orchard Ridge, pears from tree near church and Orchard Ridge, cherries from our tree and Korleskis, corn from McCabes and peaches from Kaufmans.  Really happy with everything turning out as good as it did with our incredibly challenging year and especially summer.  We foraged the garlic mustard and asparagus in the spring and just missed out on some puff ball mushrooms this fall!  Lots of jars are filled...makes me feel so content and secure to see them filled up.  Still had a decent amount of applesauce, tomato chutney and other items left from last year.  Last count put the jars filled right around 450 or so :)

2013 canning wrap up and grocery info

A very belated posting of this, but at least I'll have it for comparison purposes in the future!

This year I canned a lot of new recipes to play around and see if there are some new favorites out there that we just haven't tried.  I didn't have access to our big farmer's market, but I have a neighbor with a small stand that I took advantage of throughout the summer.  I also got pears from a family at church, apples from a few local trees, peaches from our Mennonite store, cucumbers from a different neighbor and lots from our own garden.  Here is more or less what was in stock at the close of the fall canning in 2013.

Applesauce 106 quarts and 7 pints
Apple slices   1 quarts and 1 pint
Peaches  20 quarts and 1 pint
Apple Jalapeno jam 11 pints and one 1/2 pint
Apple butter  4 pints
Pears 20 quarts of diced and 2 quarts of juice
Mulberry jam  9 pints, three 1/2 pints, many others given away to visitors
Cranberry Sauce 16 pints (mix of regular and with orange)
Piccadilly  5 pints (to give to Grandpa G at request of Grandma G)
Tomato chutney  6 pints
Green Tomato chutney  10 pints
Green Tomato Relish 3 pints
Brushetta 3 pints and 3 half pints
Tomato soup  9 quarts
Rotel 5 pints
Diced tomatoes 8 pints
Salsa 25+ quarts  (forgot to do a final count after last batch from freezer)
Salsa water (from frozen tomato batch) 4 quarts and 5 pints
Tomato Sauce 4 quarts
Roasted pasta sauce 4 quarts canned and 4 quarts frozen
Fiesta Corn Relish 4 pints
Dilly Beans  19 pints
Zucchini relish 6 pints
Sweet Garlic Dills 7 quarts
Honey Bread and Butter Pickles 4 quarts
Quicker Kosher Pickles 8 quarts and 1 pint
Bread and Butter 3 quarts and 1 pint
Sweet Jalapenos 6 pints
Pickled Jalapenos 1 pint
Beef stock 6 quarts

plus mixed stock, beans, pickles, zucchini relish and diced tomatoes on hand.  Cranberry sauce was from last winter and I did do a bunch of great chicken stock that isn't in these numbers.  We bought a100 pounds of potatoes from the farmer's market, as well as some cabbage that we turned into sauerkraut (5 quarts I believe).  We had 2 bushels of butternut, acorn and spaghetti squash from our old house and the market.  I frozen a LOT of mulberries (at least 5 gallons), 2 containers of black raspberries, a gallon of peaches, 20 pounds of blueberries, and 1/2 gallon of blackberries.  We froze a bunch of broccoli, a little cauliflower, zucchini, roasted beets, at least 12 pints of pumpkin puree and a LOT of green and yellow beans.  Dehydrated some mulberries, lots of apple rings, some blueberries, chives, oregano, mint, and roasted lots of pumpkin and squash seeds.  We picked up our 1/2 grass fed beef this fall and filled more than our small freezer with the huge steer!  Helped butcher chickens for the first time and brought one home to eat!  Found a source for raw milk (local home school family) and bought 5 soup chickens from them as well after their cull day. Get eggs from the son of our local meat market owners (fellow St. Stephens members) or next door neighbors.  Honey from a family near Janesville (who also turn out to be home schoolers) and maple syrup from our old connection up in Lomira.

All in all a good year for food!  A lot of what we eat comes from very close to home these days. Hoping for homegrown eggs and chickens next year a lot more home garden produce!

Our grocery total for 2013 was much, much larger than in the past!  It came in at $4769.23 for the year.  Works out to $397.43/month or $91.71/week for our family of 5.  The big increase was because of the half beef purchase, but that meat will last two years we believe.  And really when broke down by the meal it comes in at $4.37/meal, less than $1/person/meal.  Granted we don't eat every single meal at home as sometimes we are on vacation, but the huge, huge majority are eaten at home.  I pack for Mike in the summer and we take a lot of food with us when we do go away.  So I think it is fair to say we don't come in too much above that overall.  I'm so happy with our food choices (for the most part) and where we are headed and who we support that I am okay with our budget and won't be actively trying to lower it, although I do expect to have lower overall numbers next year because we won't be buying any beef, just our pork and chickens.

Here's to a great 2014!
Heather




 

Summer 2012 Canning/Freezing

So haven't done so well on the whole 'I'm going to post more' have I?  Ah, well, such is life.

Here is a mostly complete rundown of what I froze and canned in 2012.  I'm hoping these lists help me see what we need more of and what we have a glut of from year to year.  Most of the produce was purchased by the bushel and such at a local farmer's market, but a few things were grown in our little city lot.  (The good news, the exciting news, the unbelievable news is that next year...this year...I'll be growing things in my own huge garden!  Yes, we are moving the country...in less than a month!)

Mustard Greens: 3 bags
Green Beans:  19 frozen bags, 12 pints of dilly beans   (these were crazy expensive this year because of the drought, but we love them so I bit the bullet!)
Dill pickles:  26 quarts
Garlic pickles:  5 quarts
Zucchini: lots and lots chopped and shredded
Salsa: 26 quarts, 8 pints
Cranberry sauce:  about 20 pints
Corn:  22 bags
Tomatoes:  Done with freecycle tomatoes early in the spring, not sure of numbers
Banana Butter: 4 pints, 2 half pints  must do more!!!
Zucchini relish:  6 pints (still had many left from 2011)
Bread and Butter pickles:  4 quarts, 1 pint
Broccoli: 16 bags, 1 bag of leaves
Beets: 11 bags
Cauliflower:  2 bags (still had many left)

So this isn't complete, but I also bought 4 bushels of squash, almost all butternut and about 150 pounds of potatoes, as well as multiple cabbage.

We didn't get any beef this year as the half (bought fall of 2011) will last us for 2 years.  The pig we got in March 2011 was much larger than the previous and we still have a fair amount left.  We are debating ordering another as the butcher is going to be 2 hours from our new home...however we also get our maple syrup there and we don't have enough for another year.  We'll see how the move goes and then take it from there.

Still going!

Can you believe I haven't posted since May? I realize no one may be reading this at all, but even for my own memories I can't believe I've skipped half a year! We had many things that contributed to it with my Grandfather passing away, Mike being gone basically all summer long, me being pregnant and just the general mayham that seems to have taken over our house with a very mobile 1 year old who thinks she is a 3 year old and the said 3 year old who stays mighty active himself!

So we are now at 38 1/2 weeks. Baby is doing great and I'm doing okay. I've never dealt with carpel tunnel during pregnancy and it is not. fun. at. all. This poor baby isn't getting the daily life journal that the others did, but I'm hoping to do a fairly comprehensive list of things that happened and fun stories at some point. I've also had some hip/pelvic issues that may have something to do with the surgery I had after Peanut's birth. Whatever the cause I'm now seeing a chiropractor and hopeful that things will still be fine with the birth! Based on my emotions and the pressure I'm feeling I'm hopeful that we'll not be as concerned about the looming 42 week induction pressure as we were with Peanut. Of course, in a month this kiddo might have decided to just hang out and we might be pleading for prayers again :)

The thing I most want to get down (before I lose the paper I kept track on) is the canning and freezing I did this summer and fall. It was a big challenge because of my wrists, but I am pretty proud of what did get accomplished considering the two little ones and third on the way. I want to have a record to give me an idea for next year so here goes...

Freezer:
Corn 4 1/2 quarts and 3 bags of on the cob corn
Broccoli 23 quarts and 4 quarts of ends for soup
Cauliflower 20 1/2 quarts
Green Beans 7 1/2 quarts
Snow Peas 2 small bags
Zucchini 2 9-cup bags sliced, multiple small bags of diced
Swiss Chard and Beet greens didn't count, but multiple servings of each

Canning:
Diced Tomatoes 39 quarts and 6 pints
Zucchini relish 13 pints
Dilly Beans 13 pints
Spicy Garlic Pickles 17 pints
Garlic Dill Pickles 5 quarts
Pickled Jalapenos 1 pint and 5 1/2 pints
Tomato Soup 10 quarts
Pears 10 pints
Applesauce 94 quarts and 7 pints (plus over 2 gallons we ate and didn't can!)
Apple Pie Filling 9 quarts
Caramel Apple Butter 7 pints
Sauerkraut 11 quarts and 7 pints
Salsa 48 pints
Green Salsa 6 pints
Chicken Stock 7 quarts
Beef Stock 7 quarts

Storage:
Potatoes 75 pounds of Yukon Gold, 50 pounds of Red potatoes
Squash 3 mixed 1/2 bushels of butternut, buttercup, acorn and delicata, 1 half bushel of small butternut
Pumpkins 3 to process after enjoying this weekend
Cabbages 3 smaller ones for longer term use


So a quick run down! And we've gotten a 1/2 of beef (this months grocery bill is about what we spent for an entire YEAR not long ago) and I've filled our smaller chest freezer with food for after Baby 3 arrives. Here's hoping for a great labor and delivery and recovery this time around! And a big harvest again next year..these kids are growing and eating like crazy!

Happy Halloween,
Heather

Canning Recap

This is for my own notes than anything else. I need to get my recipes down somewhere so I hope to link back to them. For now it is a list to help me remember what got done this year!

What I canned in 2010

Diced tomatoes
Tomato Salsa
Green Salsa/Enchilada Sauce
Diced Pears
Pearsauce
Applesauce
Peaches
Beets
Carrots
Chicken Stock
Beef Stock
Zucchini Relish
Dill Pickles
Dilly Beans
Sauerkraut
Cherries
Nectarines
Tomato soup
Split Pea soup
Lentil soup


What I froze

Green Beans
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Swiss Chard
Roasted Eggplant
Green Peppers
Zucchini
Pesto
Freecycle Fruit

Storage Vegetables
25 pounds small Yukon Gold Potatoes
50 pounds medium White Russet Potatoes
1 bushel Butternut, Spaghetti, and other squash
19 Acorn Squash
3 Cabbage
10 pounds of Empire Apples


Things to change next year:

More Cabbage for Sauerkraut and for eating fresh
Second bushel of squash (mostly Butternut)
Freeze many more quarts of Green Beans, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Zucchini and Carrots
May need to can jam again (check stores--did in 2009)
May need to freeze corn again (check freezer--did in 2009)
Second 50 bag of potatoes with plan to freeze mashed and hash browns as they sprout
At least 10 cups of pesto in freezer


Happy Preserving!
Heather

Time of Plenty

This is such a great time of year, isn't it? It seems that everyone is talking about how this is their favorite time of year and I have to agree! I was born in the (late) fall, I met my husband and married him in the fall and I just love the cooler nights, the beautiful colors and the return to more baking. I must admit that I do seem to 'love' each season in its own time and have found that I do even more so since I've made a more conscious effort to eat seasonally, but fall is extra special because I do not want it to end!

I find myself spending more moments than I should paused down in our basement looking at all the jars that are full of food I've canned. I loved the different colors of food, sizes of jars and promised recipes they all store. On a whim I decided to get a rough count of jars and there are approximately 230 jars of tomatoes, pickled items, vegetables, soups, salsas, jams and fruit stored in our basement. I had no idea! No wonder I keep running out of jars. I found 5 more at a very quick rummage sale stop yesterday and will have them full shortly. I've got a big bag of green tomatoes to continue to use and just need a few more jars... I can't tell you how many times I've told my husband that I just need a few more jars, a few more jars. He asked when I'll have enough. When I'm ready to start downsizing canning after the kids leave home was my answer. I (kind of) believe that you add jars until you start subtracting jars. I also figure that more jars I have, the more I fill, the more I can share if the moment strikes, the more we can use any and all produce gifted to us or found inexpensively. And the more we have to get us through winter!

We are also waiting on our 1/4 of grass fed beef. It will be ready in a week or two (is at the processors) and the freezer is waiting! It has been a struggle to get the freezer empty in a time when I want to be filling it. I would have frozen many more vegetables this year, but we only have a smallish chest freezer because our basement door will not fit any other size. And normally that would still have not been a problem. However, I have been pumping milk 'just in case' and have about 1000 ounces of milk stored as well. The milk takes up a lot of room, but it gets priority over the vegetables since it can't be replaced at the grocery store! Here is hoping that I won't find my milk gone at 6 months and that this frozen milk can be used much later or donated to someone.

I find myself more and more content (from staring at all my jars) during this season of plenty. It reminds me of something that Laura said in one of the Little House books. I don't know the exact quote, but basically she was always so happy in the fall when the house was full of things to get them through the winter. I feel the same way! This is definitely a Finer Thing.

Have a great weekend,
Heather

Canning again!

Saturday Mike and I went and did the Freecycle produce pickup. It has been months and months since we've been involved, but they needed help, we had a gift certificate to use for the A&W near the pickup spot and I'm in serious nesting/cooking mode. Made sense to volunteer!

We ended up picking up 5 cases of nectarines, 2 cases of green grapes (most were composted right away), a flat of strawberries, probably 20 or so pounds of large onions, and a decent sized box of tomatoes. The benefit of doing a Saturday pickup is that the amount of total produce is lower, so it is easier to manage going through it and composting what is not in good shape without feeling the need to build six more compost bins. I expected to find the quality to be a lot lower, but it turned out to be in fairly decent shape overall. I was especially grateful for the onions since prices have shot up considerably in the last two weeks and we have completely run out of onions with all my pre-baby cooking.

The oddest part is that today, April 27th, I find myself canning. Nothing is really in season yet here in Wisconsin and I have 5 cases of nectarines to deal with. Some are not good, many are a bit discolored inside, but overall they taste good and can just fine. I've done two cases and have 17 quarts done, but I have to work tomorrow and still have 3 cases to go! I'm not complaining, just trying to figure out how to balance canning, being a mom to a very active and not very helpful around boiling water toddler, work and my NEED for a nap after work. Crazy times!

I'm just grateful that our family has a very full freezer, some shelves of home canned goods and full bellies. And when you can get produce for free it is even easier to be grateful for all we have!


And for anyone interested, I'm okay with using this fruit even thought it isn't organic. We eat a lot of organic/home raised fruit and I figure that some of this sprinkled in is okay. When it is free or basically free (see moral dilemma: carrots) I'm not willing to turn my back on it!

For more grateful people visit Heavenly Homemakers.

Have a great day!
Heather

How to Remove Burnt Tomato Sauce

So, I've been doing a lot of canning. And when I can I'm a bit messy at times. Seriously, I think it is impossible to avoid it! When I had a big overflow of tomato juice and sauce I knew that I would be left with a big mess to clean up. There was a huge amount of burned on gunk left on my stovetop when I was able to take the kettle off the burner. Not very fun. I wish I had taken a picture of how bad it was, but I think you'll get the idea.

Thank goodness I remembered that it can be easier to remove than just scrubbing till my arms want to fall off. All it takes is some baking soda and some patience.

First I VERY liberally sprinkled baking soda over the entire mess. I dumped quite a bit over the area since it was a pretty thick mess. I sprinkled a little bit of water on it and just let it sit for a while. I think I did some dishes and kind of forgot about it for at least 10-20 minutes.

The next step was wiping it off. In the picture you can see that part of it has wiped off fairly well. I kept washing out my dish cloth and rewiping it, but not really scrubbing too hard. Some parts just wiped right off, some parts were still a big, black, yucky mess.

I just dumped a bunch more baking soda over the parts that didn't clean up, sprinkled a bit more water and continued on my way with the rest of the dishes.

When I was done with my other clean up I just came back and wiped it down again. Most of it came right off by then. There was a chunk that seemed determined to stay on there, but with a little elbow grease it finally gave up. I didn't worry too much about total perfection (I rarely do) because I knew I'd be canning the next day and probably have a similar mess to deal with!

Luckily, it wasn't so bad the next day. If it had been I would have just reached for the baking soda again! Such an easy way to make quick work of canning messes. For more great Kitchen Tips visit Tammy's Recipes.

Heather

Zucchini Relish

Which could also be called "The best pickle relish you've ever had that has no cucumbers in it whatsoever!" or "An easy way to use up a lot of big zucchini fast." or "Gift back those zucchini your neighbors hid on your porch without them knowing they are getting zucchini!"

I do not even remember where I first heard mention of making zucchini relish, but it was on a website somewhere this year. "Huh, that's a great idea, if it works" was my first reaction. As everyone who lives in Wisconsin (or most other states) knows zucchini is something that grows really well and really abundantly here. Many people find themselves doing everything they can to just give away the extras. Cucumbers so too, but not with the same prolific zeal that zucchini does. My garden did not feel it right to supply me with EITHER of these items this year, but gratefully the farmer's market does!

We do not typically eat a lot of pickle relish, but after getting a few big zucchini from assorted people and then being able to buy about 6 bigger ones for only $1 at the farmer's market I figured I'd see if I could make some relish myself. (We already had lots of diced and shredded zucchini frozen for winter use.) Since cucumbers are like $2-$3 a pound it made sense to give the zucchini recipe a shot. And the recipe says its delicious and I'll never buy pickle relish in the store again, so it must be worth a shot!

I found the recipe that sounded the simplest with the fewest ingredients here. I liked the fact that I had gotten a bunch of red peppers from our freecycle connection, there were onions in the drawer and cheap zucchini to use. My biggest expense was getting spices (turmeric, celery seed, and dry mustard) but those weren't too bad and really it was just the turmeric that I wouldn't have normally had in my cupboard. The sugar, vinegar, corn starch and black pepper are pantry staples for us as well.

Basically you just grate up the zucchini, onions and red peppers. I used my Kitchen Aid attachment to do the zucchini (seeds, skins and all) and onions. It really wasn't too great with the onions, but I figured it didn't matter how smooshed they were as relish is more about flavor than anything else. I ended up using my little Cuisinart to do the red peppers as they were already in a large dice and I just needed to get them finer. These all get salted and put in the fridge overnight. Or for 2 days as was the case with my first batch!

The vegetable mix gets rinsed, drained, and put in a pot to combine with the other ingredients. This is where the spices, vinegar and sugar all get added.

Mix well and bring to a boil. This cooks for 30 minutes and does get a bit thicker thanks to the cornstarch. When stirring make sure you use a utensil that you do not mind getting stained. I used a wooden one (as I am doing more and more these days) and it is the prettiest yellow color up to the point that the mixture reached! I do not mind at all, but even my enameled cast iron took on a yellow hue for a while. The turmeric is strong stuff so be aware of any drips or where you put your spoon down. You could end up with stains on your counter tops as well.

Doesn't this look like it could be cucumber relish? Smells strong, but good while cooking!

The finished product after boiling and canning. I'm trying to remember, but I think I waterbathed the pints for about 20 minutes. I followed the suggestion that was on another recipe and figured that since this is so similar in texture I should be okay. The linked recipe does not specifically give a time for canning.

I've tried some of this on a sandwich and it was wonderful! I typically only use relish in chicken, egg or potato salad or occasionally on a hot dog. I have a feeling that the 12 pints I've put up will be used up though. The color is great, the flavor is awesome! I actually have a bit of store bought relish in the fridge and when comparing them I found the store bought one to be too uniform in size of chunks, too all one color as it is just pickles with a tiny bit of red something in it, and just too sweet smelling and tasting. This one is just more fun all the way around! And I think it would make a really nice looking gift as the colors and texture make the jar look very festive.

Next year I hope to get lots and lots and lots of zucchini and red pepper to be able to put up a bunch more of this! I originally just did the 6 pints, but when I got a few more zucchinis last week I knew what I'd be doing with those too :) I pulled red pepper out of the freezer and whipped up another batch right away.

Happy Canning!

Heather

What Tuesday and Wednesday Looked Like

Yup, it was crazy trying to can with a very active toddler!

Tuesday Mike was gone all day playing for libraries and schools which left little guy and I on our own. Typically I love days like that, but when you are trying to deal with produce that can't wait and do some canning it makes it a bit tricky. The above picture was taken at about 7:30 am and shows most of the contents of one cabinet now spread out on the floor. It actually got worse than this at times! Thank goodness for nap times :)

So this is what got prepared and canned on Tuesday.

There are 5 batches of strawberry jam in those jars. I've run out of 1/2 pint jars so we will be eating jam by the pint. I don't think my husband will mind having to eat up a bunch at a time! Strawberry jam is his favorite. We have more jam in this house than we could possibly eat in a year, but I'm sure that some will make for great gifts as well this holiday season. It is wonderful treat that I've never really bought, but we like having now that I have access to fruit that is best used for things like jam.

There are also 6 pints of zucchini relish, 2 pints of pear-apple sauce, 4 pints of pineapple, 4 quarts of tomato juice, 3 quarts of diced tomatoes and 4 pints of diced tomatoes. It is amazing how small 39 jars of food can look in a picture! Especially when it took me an entire day to get that all put up. I know I'll get better/faster at this the more years I do it. And I also think that it would be faster to focus on one thing at a time. I got such a variety of things that I had to multi-task in the type of things I was making. And goodness knows that it takes some serious time to make jam when you do it without pectin!

This is Wednesday's work.

Wednesday I started by washing up lots more jars! I think there are 25 more jars of things pictures. There are 6 more quarts of diced tomatoes and tomato juice, 5 pints of diced peaches, 3 pints of peach sauce, 4 pints of pear sauce and 7 pints of apple sauce. The pears I got were really 'organic.' The apples were also picked from trees that are totally ignored, but I've little worry about bad spots or worm holes. The pears have been much harder to deal with though. And after a while I started getting fed up with them. I've got a few more to do (they weren't fully ripe yet) and I'm kind of dreading them. Some of the remaining ones are bigger and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get some diced pears out of them. We'll be eating an awful lot of sauces this winter!

I've still got lots of apples to deal with and many of those will be come sauce as well. I will be freezing some and may try and do some apple pie filling. My biggest worry is running out jars as it appears that I will be soon.

I realized I never took a picture of Thursday, but it was an all applesauce day. I only canned what I had cooked down or at least cut up the day before. My family needed me to be more focused on them and the apples are more forgiving than the other produce. I believe I did about 14 more jars that day. 4 quarts and 10 pints if I remember correctly, all applesauce!

Hope your food preservation is going well!

Heather

Not For the Faint of Heart

Canning is going well, but is exhausting work! And I'm not even really doing that much stuff compared to many people out there. I seriously think they should consider canning for the next summer Olympics or something. What other sport makes you stay in a kitchen with boiling pots of water and other assorted things for 10-12 hour stretches at a time? And then stay on your feet while coring, peeling, chopping, measuring, washing, filling and oh, so many other things? I think that the Olympic committee would be impressed by the stamina and endurance of many serious canners.

I'm too tired to get my camera and load pictures, but I've got lots to show. I've done so many different things in the last 2 days and had to call it really early this evening. My husband and son needed my attention and food, so canning got put away until tomorrow.

So far I've done:
5 batches of strawberry jam
diced tomatoes and tomato juice
pinapple
diced peaches and peach sauce
pear sauce
apple sauce
zucchini relish
and canned some pear-apple sauce that I had made on Saturday

Mostly I'm working on apples from this point on. A few pears will be diced up once they ripen. I'm going to be out of jars tomorrow which makes me really sad! I'm also almost out of lids, so I need to stock up on those or be done canning and freeze things from this point onward.

Can't wait to show you pictures!
Heather

And The Fun Never Stops

Or at least it hasn't yet! :)




A few more canning adventures to share today. I mentioned the dill that I got from my parents that was picked out of my grandparent's garden in South Dakota...did you get all of that? I put it to good use in the traditional way by canning dill pickles and also canning dilly beans. We used to do big whole pickles when I was growing up as well as bread and butter pickles. I threw caution to the wind and canned dill pickle spears! And I've never had pickled dill beans, but it seems to be a very popular thing and I love dill so I figured I'd give it a try. So, Nettacow you were right that pickles were in the picture! But beans, who would have thought? Tons of canners all over the place, that's who. Now for enough time to pass so I can crack open a pint and give them a taste!




First things first, here is the recipe I used for Canned Dill Pickles. Here is my big bowl of cucumbers all cut up and ready to become pickles.

This gave me enough for 7 pints of pickles and a few left for eating as they were. I really tried my best to squish them in the jar as tight as possible which is why they wouldn't win any blue ribbons at the fair. But even so, aren't the jars cute all ready for their brine?

The beans and pickles required a bit of garlic so I got to work smooshing and then peeling some cloves. Hopefully it doesn't affect the flavor too much, but I find that it is SO much easier to peel garlic when you've smashed it with the knife first.

Then I washed the beans and got them ready for a quick 3 min steam. I did this with the frist pints I canned, but when I came back a few days later to do some more beans I picked up at the farmer's market I skipped this step. I figure they are going in a boiling water bath, so they are getting as cooked as they need to be. Any one have any thoughts on this? Will my other jars be terrible?

The key to good steaming is to stop the cooking process ASAP. So after the 3 minutes was up they headed into an ice water bath.

I bought these at the farmer's market as well. I cleaned out this vendors green beans ($1/lb) and to equal 2 pounds I needed a few yellow ones as well. I did a couple of jars all green and a couple mixed.

A hill of beans!

Okay, so the disappointing thing. I haven't gotten a picture of them afte they came out of the water bath. It was late, the lighting was bad, I was hot and tired. Need more excuses? :) I will get one though. And then I'll show you that a girl can learn and how much prettier my next set of dilly beans were. There is a trick to packing green beans into a jar!

Have a great day,

Heather

Frugal Find Friday--Canning Edition

Since we are in full on canning mode in most parts of the country, I thought it only right to feature a recent frugal find that has to do with food preservation.





As you may have read yesterday I have recently been blessed with produce from relatives in South Dakota and Wisconsin. I've also been able to find produce through some friendly freecycle folks. (I'm doing another pickup later in September!) I've even been busy supporting our local famer's market. All this wonderful bounty has been being enjoyed and also preserved to make sure we can enjoy it for many months to come.

When canning often the 'other' ingredients and tools are often the most expensive part of the recipe. I was lucky to get some quart jars and two dozen or so pint and 1/2 pint jars from my mom's huge stash. I found another dozen pint jars at a rummage sale for $1. They were still in their original box and had perfect rings on them and they were at least 30 years old! The other great find was completely accidental. My manager at work was getting ready to move from a good sized house to a smaller town home. She had three boxes of jars---was I interested? They were headed to the dump if I didn't take them and as they were originally her grandmother's she'd like to find them a good home. I was VERY interested! I was excited to see that the boxes were almost completely filled with pint jars.

I grew up canning with my mom and 98% of what we canned went into quart jars. I'm finding that I like using pints at this point. We are a smaller family and they just seem less overwhelming than the quarts. Now, if I EVER find tomatos and get to can those they are going in quarts. Hopefully lots and lots and lots of quart jars. For the things I've done so far I really like using the pint jars the best. And nothing is more frugal than dozens and dozens of free pint jars!

I've been fortunate to really stock up on sugar when it was $.99/ 4 lb bag and I found some vinegar for $1.50 a gallon. I've gotten dill from my grandparent's garden. I did have to spend a little money on pickling salt ($2) and pickling spices ($2.12). The lids I've bought at Wally World and they are $1.50 for 12 lids. I have two pots--the big one was a second hand gift from my mom and the little one I bought years ago and just held onto it. I am still looking for a metal ladle, but the jar lifter, rack and funnel were in with the big pot my mom gave me. My canning colanders were wonderful rummage sale finds! I spent $8 for two of them and haven't yet decided if I'm going to sell one or keep them both.

Canning can be as expensive or as frugal as you make it and I am happy to report that ours is staying pretty frugal! Put the word out that you are canning and it is amazing what will come into your life. And don't forget the internet when it comes to finding easy, wonderful recipes to can!

Any frugal finds in your life? Have a great Friday!
Heather

Chokecherries!

My parents recently visited us on their way home from a trip to South Dakota. They were both raised there and both sets of my grandparents as well as many aunts, uncles and cousins live there now. A few relatives sent along things for me! I am a truly lucky girl.


I had never tasted or even seen a chokecherry until I came home to find about 4 gallons of them in my freezer. Thank goodness for the internet! I looked up a recipe for chokecherry jam and one for chokecherry syrup. I figured we might as well give them both a chance as we had no idea what to expect.

I would say that chokecherrys are a bit winey tasting. The juice, jam and syrup have the dry mouth feel that the tannins in a good red wine will leave with you. The cherries have a large pit relative to their size and are a bit messy to work with. Luckily the juice wiped up easily and the jam jelled pretty easily. The juice is a beauiful purply-magenta color and my pictures do not do it justice!

I put my canning collander to good use! The larger pits made getting all the juice and pulp out a bit tricky, but I got enough to make me feel like it was worth my time.

My stations...from the boiling kettle (with the cherries and a bit of water) to the collander to the pan (for the pits and skins) and the big measuring cup (for the juice and pulp). I ended up doing all of this part on day one and then coming back to make the jam and syrup and do the canning on day two. Too much mess, too little time to do it all at once!

This is the juice and a TON of sugar boiling away to make jam. The first batch of jam got really good and sticky, the second stayed a bit looser. I may have just not let it boil long enough as it was a large pot of juice. The syrup is the right consistency for pancakes and we look forward to trying a batch really soon!

I am excited by how frugal this project was. There was a lot of sugar involved, but recently our store ran a promotion for $.99 bags of sugar (4 lb size). I figured I used about a full bag of sugar to make all the syrup and jam. So even with lids and such I spent about $2 total. Of course, I also used some energy, but in the end it was a lot cheaper than buying syrup or jam! And no added colors or chemicals. I told Mike that the syrup looks like the bright colored stuff at IHOP, but it is the real deal!

Wait until you see whatelse my wonderful Aunt Mary sent for us!

Heather

Can You Identify This?

This is what has kept me from posting. Do you know what it is? It looks harmless enough...cute little purplish berry type thing.





Then you start cooking it down and it turns into this.

And now you know why I haven't been around much lately. My kitchen floor has not yet been scrubbed and for that I'm very sorry. Many canning adventures to report. And I'm not working tomorrow, so stay tuned for an update!

I hope you had a wonderful Labor Day. I spent a big part of mine laboring...uh, working. After about 45 hours of childbirth I should know better to refer to anything except that as laboring. The weather here was wonderful and I did get to enjoy some of the afternoon.

Have a great day!
Heather

Produce Pick Up Update

So, I went and picked up the produce last weekend for the freecycle folks. It turned out to be a bit different than I expected, but it really worked out for the best.







I got to the location at the time that I was told to, but the stand had thrown out all the stuff that would typically be picked up. They knew the regular folks were not coming, but hadn't heard that I was. I was so bummed as I had driven for a ways and had cleared my schedule for the next day to process whatever I could. They even checked to see if they could salvage what had been tossed, but it was all over in a dumpster and I wasn't about to try and rescue it. I do have some limits in my selective squeamishness!







The woman was so apologetic and really, she had done nothing wrong. She gave me her cell number and asked that I call if I ever do pick up again. Then she started looking around. They had a box of plums, a box of broccoli, and a box of eggplants that they were trying to sell for $1 each and she told one of the guys to load it in my van. Than she brought over 7 pints of blueberries. Then another guy brought over a big bag of oranges. Seriously it was like produce was being thrown at me!



So, I looked around their stand and decided I'd buy a few things as well. They are definitely in the market of moving lots of produce for not too bad of prices. They had stuff that is more iffy marked down even more and from there it must go to the $1/box stuff and then eventually if it hasn't sold it ends up with our freecycle folks. I picked out a few sweet potatoes and bunch of cilantro to get and was contemplating more when she told one of the helpers to just let me have them. It would only have been a $1-2, but I was so touched that she would do that! I couldn't ask for more things as I didn't want to appear greedy and I went home and enjoyed those sweet potatoes with my boys!







When I got home I looked everything over and was THRILLED to learn that the blueberries were organic. The ironic thing was I stopped to buy non-organic blueberries that same day, but the store I stopped at was out of them. Talk about having things provided! There were a few bad ones, but really they were in amazing shape. We ate about a pint, froze a couple pints and then used the rest to make jam and syrup.

I went through the plums and they were not in that great of shape so they were the idea behind the jam. I made one batch of plum-blueberry jam and one batch of plum-blueberry-orange syrup (AKA jam that didn't jell!). These are awesome tasting and I was excited to do some more canning. In fact, I used up every pint and half-pint jar I had from my mom. Thank goodness I got to get more from her this weekend!

It only took 1 orange to make the syrup and one was rotten. The other 6 are being eaten and are very yummy! The eggplants ended up in the compost. They were going too fast and I left them till last since they are our least favorite of the items we got. If they had been used that night I could have saved some, but really they were so spotty and soft that I just decided to let the compost bin have some goodies too.







The broccoli was a project. It was not the best looking broccoli I've ever seen, but I'm sure it has been around longer than I would like to think. The crowns that were in decent shape I blanched and froze. I ended up with A LOT of bags for us to eat. I also took the stems and cut out the softer core. Those pieces I froze as well as I'll use them (with the crowns) to make some really wonderful broccoli cheese soup this winter.







The load ended up being smaller than anticipated, but the produce was in decent shape and it was an amount I was able to handle. I am so grateful for this produce and for my ability to use it to feed my family so well!





Heather

Canning Adventures Continued!

So, when you've got a sink full of not perfect, but free tomatoes, some (free) garlic, 1 huge (free) Vadalia onion, and a couple of (free) sweet red peppers what do you think you should do?

I say clean up some canning jars and start the water bath going!

Then use your cute little princess to chop up all the garlic and onions and dice up the red peppers.

Get all the supplies lined up and ready to roll! Start the water bath now as it takes some time to get to a full boil.

Start boiling the tomatoes for a minute or so to make the skins come off easier. Peel them into a big bowl if you can't have a canning colander. (This is from over a month ago now, I could skip the peeling part now thanks to my fun twins!) Put your favorite cutting board into a big jelly roll pan to make clean up WAY easier later. Chop, chop, chop the tomatoes and get ready to have some fun! Of course, you can freeze the watery tomato juice for soup.

Saute the garlic, onion, and red peppers in some olive oil. Add the tomatoes and cook. Let them cook down until you get a nice sauce consistency. Add basil, oregano, salt, pepper and whatever other spices you like in your tomato sauce. Can it all in quart jars adding 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to each jar to ensure higher acid content. Water bath for 40 minutes, remove and let cool. Check seals after cooling to be sure they have all sealed, remove rings, wipe jars down and then take pictures of your accomplishment.

I seriously think I am getting addicted to posting about canning! These were done right before the pears and I ended up with 5 quarts of this yummy tomato sauce as well as enough for lunch that day. The other two quarts are peaches/nectarines that we got the same day. This was all done with produce that we picked up from our freecycle connection. When I saw what I had gotten it just made sense to turn it into sauce right away. Some easy, quick, yummy pasta meals coming our way!

Heather

Keeping Clean while Cooking or Canning

Don't you just adore alliteration? I was feeling clever this morning! :)

This is a quick tip, but one I've just fallen in love with. It makes clean up so much easier when dealing with very juicy or messy items. I've got a big plastic cutting board that I like to use, but the juice of watermelons or tomatoes or cooked meat just runs all over. The board is flat and there is no lip to catch the mess.

So to make it easier when canning tomato sauce I placed the big plastic cutting board in a big jelly roll size cookie sheet. There is a pretty big edge to the jelly roll pan and no juice was able to escape! When the board started swimming in juice I just dumped it out into a container to save it for soup. When it came time to clean up I was able to wash the cutting board, the jelly roll pan and do a quick wipe of the counter. There was none of the usual disaster around the entire counter top, cabinets and floor! So to make cutting tomatoes easier and less messy always put your cutting board into a cookie sheet.

Talk about a time and sanity saver! I'm posting this at Tammy's Recipes. Check out all the other great ideas here!

Heather

More Canning--Diced Pears and Pear Sauce

Just a quick post today to show you a few pictures of my canning adventure from a few weeks ago. You may remember that I mentioned having pears from some of our free produce. However, I never showed you how it turned out! I ended up making diced pears and pear sauce.

I didn't take any pictures of the case of pears that we got or of me peeling the pears. So sorry, but it would not have been too exciting anyway. Just know that it was a wooden case with Argentina stamped on it and the pears were all wrapped in green tissue paper. Can you believe these pears came all the way from Argentina? Crazy how far our food travels. There were some good ones to eat and a bunch of them that were really yucky. The majority were somewhere in between! I wanted to can diced pears, but knew that many of the pears would be best suited for sauce. I kept a big measuring cup with some lemon juice water next to the cutting board and threw any dices that were fairly firm in there. The rest of the pears were chunked up and put in my enameled cast iron pot which also had a bit of lemon juice water to prevent discoloration. You can see the diced pears waiting patiently in the picture below.

After I cooked the softer pears down a bit I used my Kitchen Aid Hand Blender to puree it to a smooth consistency. This blender was not a frugal find, but it was a gift from my husband and it is well used and loved!

The next step for the sauce was the addition of cinnamon. Did you know that most cinnamon in the US is not actually from the bark of a cinnamon tree? It is Cassia. Not sure what that is all about, but it tastes good! Penzeys Spices are wonderful and flavorful. The company is headquartered right down the road from where I work. Again, not really frugal, but I have a wonderful friend who gives me a gift box of some spices every year for Christmas. I love it!

I didn't add any sugar so it will be great for baby and for us to eat this winter! I've never canned pear sauce, but it was the exact same process as doing apple sauce. The pears were free and I am excited to use what I have to provide for my family!

I ended up with 3 pints of diced pears canned in a light syrup. These were cooked in the syrup for 10 minutes and then water bath processed for 15 minutes. Exactly 4 quarts of pear sauce is what a full enameled cast iron pot holds! These were water bathed for 25 minutes. It was not a hard process and will give us yummy fruit options this winter when pears are $50 a pound...just kidding, but you get the point I'm sure.

Anyone out there canning anything yet? I'm learning a lot and learning fast. I love it and I'd love to hear your adventures.

Heather