Dave

14 8oz jars of Vidalia Onion Relish...which stank up the house, again. One year I'm going to learn how to make onion relish without the strong odor lingering all over the house and clothes. I also added ascorbic acid so hopefully it won't oxidize.

Some roasted and frozen (haven't thawed any yet to see how that little experiment worked out! LOL)

Anyone else done this?

Deanna

Also "put away" another big bowl of wilted lettuce salad with fresh spinach and green onions for supper. Does that count? ;)

Dave

(...trying to decide how many more onion bags to freeze.)

Yup, I'm back. Sorry about the absence, I've been off getting married. That didn't stop me from making 5 jars of sugar free apricot jam for Dad when I found sweet and dead-ripe apricots locally for less than $1 a pound:

So, 4 pounds of apricots and a cup of apricot nectar to simmer them in, about a cup of Splenda to sweeten after they thickened, and that's all that's in those jars, no sugar, no pectin and it's still pretty thick, kind of like a chunky apricot butter.

Annie

Dave

Lots of Meat.

Lots of Veggies.

Roast Meat First Then With Veggies Added.

Add Roasted Meat with Bouquet Garni to Stockpot.

De-glaze Pan with Wine And Add with Water to Stockpot.

Process Cooked, Strained and De-Fatted Stock.

The Finished Product - 16 Pints.

Carol

gator jerky???!!! wow, I think that's a first in the years I've been hanging out here! did ya wrestle the gator yourself?

annie, CongratulAAAAAAAAAAAAATions!! I was wondering if you done the deed yet. So far I can definitely recommend married life. (Even if my dh says it is a lot like unmarried life but with some bills from the wedding to pay off.)

Zabby

canned 7 qts. tart cherries
froze 9 pints tart cherries

I expect to do the same tomorrow.

And I have frozen 6 qts. of strawberries so far. My own plants, so it's an ongoing process.

Gave 3 qts. to my daughter and will probably give another 3 to my mom. Then the rest are MINE!!

Deanna

Flowerp

and three 4-cup bags of crushed strawberries waiting in the freezer. Not too shabby for a noob, eh? :-)

The canned pork makes the most wonderful quickie burritos - I just dumped it in a pan, added the spices, heated it up and pulled the chunks apart and thickened the sauce a bit - a smash hit with my family. I've got 6 more large pork shoulder roasts in the freezer that need to have something done with them, so they will be canned too.

We're leaving on Sunday morning for our annual fly-fishing vacation, so hopefully I'll be bringing back a lot of Kamloops trout, both frozen and smoked. I can't imagine canning the fresh fish, but I may try it with a few of the smoked ones. :-)

*extra zucchini has been used to bake zucchini bread
*also, have given away green beans, summer & zucchini squash, and tomatoes

My family has been heavenly blessed with produce from our garden. We are very thankful especially as my husband has not had steady work in 6 months due to the decline in the housing market.

I had some extra cherries pitted and some rhubarb so I'm also playing with Cherry-Rhubarb jam. I'm writing down the proportions just in case it works out. The cherries are tart and, well, you know rhubarb. I may end up calling it "Pucker Puss" Jam. =)

Today: 16 pints of Seasoned Tomato Sauce from BBB, 8 quarts of string beans with onions, and 8 pints of salsa. Wife went to the orchard and picked a bushel of peaches this afternoon go guess what we'll be doing tomorrow. ;)

Got to use my new propane burner out on the deck yesterday and today. Works great!

Dave

on top of that, i'm working on 2 fermented batches: baechu kimchi and sauerkraut. i'm planning to do some all-red kraut as well.

Considering that I have to buy my produce, I think I'm finished with veggies unless someone gives me some of their overflow. I do plan to can some pears and pear preserves when my MIL's trees are ready to pick. And some meat-based items later, when the weather cools down. But I miss having anything to can!

12 qts olives
2 1/2pints dandelion capers

BWB:

10 1/2pints strawberry preserves
6 pints dill relish
4 4-oz pickled hot banana peppers
4 pints salad onions
3 1/2pints onion relish (still nervous about this new-to-me recipe, which was very thick and gave me fits getting headspace correct and which to me didn't seem to have enough acid, though I followed the recipe exactly and it came from The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving.)

I'm going to make my first foray into pressure canning with peppers next week using a borrowed pressure canner. Pray for me.

I'm also planning to BWB peach halves, probably the first week of August as that's when the orchardist I buy from at the farmers' market says his prices will be best for buying large quantities. I'd like to put up ~15 pints of those.

I'm also planning several tomato products: whole toms, tom sauce, ketchup, and (if I can find paste tomatoes) tom paste. I'm a little nervous about the paste -- with that kind of thickness of the product, how do you make sure you've filled the jars correctly? If I can borrow the canner again, I may pressure can these, probably in September when my local farmers are practically giving away their uglier tomatoes.

I'd also like to do some chile sauce, enchilada sauce, and salsa if I can find recipes I like.

My husband thinks I've lost it.

ML

I made about four cups of pesto (I do just basil, olive oil, pine nuts, and a little salt, then when serving I add parmesan and a bit of melted butter).

I froze it in a muffin tin in 1/3-cup servings (that's about enough to do a pasta dinner for DH and me). The muffin tin I use for that is old and has fairly shallow cups, and when I popped the frozen pieces of pesto out of them they were a shape suggesting someone should be using them to play hockey with.

This prompted DH to start singing "Pesto, pesto puck!" (to the tune of "Disco Duck"---this will give anyone else out there of about our age an idea that we're contemporaries....).

Zabby
P.S. OK, the truth is that I froze only 11 of those servings of pesto. We ate the other one, on fresh fettucine with a little chopped tomato and feta sprinkled on top, and MAN was it good. I LOVE summer!!

I traded with some people: lemons from my tree for some oranges and plums from their trees. Everyone was happy. One can only drink so much lemonade.

Soon (hopefully) I will start canning tomatoes and making pickles.

ML

8 jars of low sugar strawberry jam and it all jelled, even cutting the sugar called for by half.

8 more jars of sugar free strawberry jam for Dad, made with Ball Low Sugar pectin and Equal. It was pale and oddly thick, but it's sweet and it's strawberry so he's happy.

10 quarts of fresh strawberries, picked myself and yummy this year, into the freezer.

4 jars of sugar free plum jam/butter.

5 jars of sugar free apricot jam/butter.

5 pints of mango/pineapple salsa

2 quarts of sour cherries, my entire crop that escaped the late frost.

2 more quarts of rhubarb in the freezer.

6 jars of lime-chipotle marinade on the counter right now, a new recipe I'm trying to can for the first time.

Oh, and my "girls" are laying well, and I'm inundated with fresh eggs. I've been beating them up and freezing them, two per package, for baking next fall and winter, when the "girls" are on vacation. I have about 12 dozen in the freezer, I think that's probably enough, LOL.

Annie

Oh, Annie, I'm so jealous! Our strawberry season was just getting going here when we had a solid week of pounding thunderstorms that pretty much did the crop in. My neighbour went to the PYO and found a meagre, soggy crop. I went two days later when I had my niece to help, hoping things had dried out a bit, and they were done for the season. Argh! We did get to have a few fresh, a couple of shortcakes, but got nothing put up. Sigh....

Zabby

Right after that we got the rain. The county north of me got 12 inches in 24 hours. 11 counties have been declared federal disaster areas, roads are washed out, entire houses have washed into The Lake. 8 people were killed.

Being 40 miles inland, only those people in my county who have waterfront property had flooding and my garden thinks it's in the rainforest, it's been in the 90s a lot of the time, with humidity also running in the 90s.

Peaches and blueberries seem to like it, I hope my tomatoes do!

Annie

along with 7 pints of dilled beans, including this one that I added two jalapenos to for Elery, who likes pickles HOT:

I also made 4 half pints of gooseberry jam, not my favorite but Dad loves it.

annie

I am ready to chime in here. Here is what I've put up so far this year (though much more has been harvested and eaten fresh and given away):

55 lbs. of strawberries we picked at a u-pick
10 qts. canned green beans
4 1/2 lbs. frozen cauliflower
2 1/2 lbs. frozen broccoli
35 lbs. frozen whole kernal corn
8 half-pints peach jam
8 half-pints apricot mango jam
6 half-pints vanilla apricot jam
5 half-pints apricot and nectarine with ginger jam
4 half-pints and 1 quarter-pint pears and nectarines with vanilla jam
8 half pints and 1 quarter-pint raspberry with white peach jam

Also 2 hogs in the freezer, but those were done by the butcher, so I can't really say I put them up.

Oh, and we are getting approx. 6 dozen eggs a day, though those are eaten fresh, given away, or sold, not really put up.

I'll be adding more very soon!!

Becki

Strawberry Jam
Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
Strawberry Jam with Pinot Noir and Spices
Sour Cherry Jam
Raspberry jam
Raspberry Apricot Jam
Blackberry Jam
Blackberry Peach Jam
Raspberry Blueberry Jam
Pear Jam with Honey and Ginger
Pear Jam with Balsamic Vinegar and Spices
Peach Jam
Pickled Wax Beans
Bread and Butter Pickles
Sweet Hot Pickle Relish
Dill Pickles
Sweet Chunk Pickles
Many quarts of frozen blackberries and sour cherries

Mary, "Strawberry Jam with Pinot Noir and Spices"? That sounds like something my mother would love, what did you use for spices, if you don't mind.

Annie

18 qts. Chase's Dills
Still need a few more and cukes for relish.
2 pints of chopped rhubarb

Deanna

6 quarts of pork
8 pints of Lemon Rosemary Pickled Beans
3 quarts of seasoned green beans
4 quarts of baby carrots
6 pints of meat stock (pork/beef mix)
7 quarts of chicken stock

and 8 fresh Kamloops trout in the freezer, ranging in size from 1.5 lbs. to 5 lbs. each. These are red fleshed and taste like salmon. We also came home with 8 smoked ones, yum! :-)

Going to pick blackberries this weekend to make more jam.

And I keep reminding myself of the joy I had from my sugar snap peas this year, which just went crazy, and the fact that my herbs, which are in pots and usually starting to look a little dry and scraggly by now, are just fluorishing.

Meanwhile, I managed to squeak in

3 1/2 pints of raspberries, frozen

Not much, sigh. The season is winding up and I finally had a bit of time to go to the PYO. I called to see if they had any left, and they said, yes, some, but they're pretty sparse, though I was welcome to come see what I could find. I only had about an hour --- and with my having forgotten my hat, that was all the sun would allow me, anyway --- and 4 pints was all I had managed.

OTOH, the price was right: the owner looked at my collection, and knew how long I'd been out there, and asked me for $2 for the lot. (I then doubled the price of the expedition by buying a Diet Coke at the closest convenience store, I was so thirsty I couldn't wait another minute LOL! I told DH his job next year was to make sure I remembered a) a hat and b) a bottle of water when going to pick berries. DUH--I was so busy remembering my carefully saved punnets and even the box that holds them.)

Sigh. My compter has a little corner window that cycles through random photos stored on my hard drive, and one just went by showing my raspberry haul from last year, in only SLIGHTLY more time spent picking: eight THREE-cup punnets, or about 3 times this year's hauls.

Zabby, feeling berry-deprived this year.

Becki

And another 400 feet of field fence stretched, 2 gates hung...Oh. wait. that's not harvest! Ugh.

Deanna
(wishing I could send Zabby some blackberries, they're everwhere!)

10 pints dill pickle slices
8 pints bread and butter pickle slices
22 cups of frozen shredded zucchini
2 cups (dried measure) dried cherry tomatoes
2 dried green bell peppers

This isn't the end. I have enough cucumbers to do at least 12 more pints of pickles and my cherry tomatoes keep coming. I haven't even picked most of the bell peppers yet. My big tomatoes are starting to turn red. I plan to can some of those - especially the romas as sauce.

This is all so much fun!

Ah, well, better satisfy myself with blueberries, currently everyehwere around here...

Zabby

17 pints of swiss chard
16 pints of peas
3 pints of pea pods
3 pints of beet greens
3 pints of asparagus/chard pesto
5 pints of cauliflower
2 quart bags of rhubarb
15 pints of green and yellow wax beans
5 quarts bags of sliced zucchini and summer squash
5 pints of shredded zucchini
4 gallon bags of blueberries
4 gallon bags of strawberries
3 quart bags of shredded cabbage

And, 45 pounds of sauerkraut fermenting. Ready is about 2 weeks.

lynn

Lynn :)

I've been busy. Elery and I picked 10 pounds of blueberries before we got rained out. I usually pick some for my daughter and my stepmom, we'll see if I get the time this year. Sigh.

We canned 54 quarts of pink half runner beans, one of Elery's favorites, but it's an old fashioned southern bean and needs to be stringed (strung?). Ugh.

I also canned 9 pints of collard greens and 6 pints of pickled beets and we made another 15 pounds of Italian sausage to get rid of this year's pork before we get next year's pork!

I'm trying not to put anything in the freezer until after our reception/party on September 13. We're doing all our own cooking and I need freezer room for pulled pork, homemade rolls and the ingredients for baked ziti. And yes, I'm making my own wedding cake, LOL.

Annie

Two batches of dehydrated zucchini rounds. One batch dehydrated shredded zucchini. One batch of dehydrated strawberries (mostly gone, was I going to store on these or nosh?). That's it for me. Need to do celery this week in the dehydrator. No tomatoes yet, dang it.

So far this week I've canned 10 quarts of green beans and 9 quarts of delicious pasta sauce (but I'm still working on getting the spices just right for our taste buds.)

I'm hoping to get a dehydrator soon, and then I'll start preserving all the herbs (along with lots of tomatoes and peppers, and squash and all kinds of other goodies!)

Becki

Deanna

Dave

And I planning on doing something with that bag of peaches and plums I picked up at the farmers market. I'm thinking peach butter,,,

kim

Sniff and blue berries are gone and about all the black berries.

Love Black berries.

ML

15 pints of garlicky pinto beans
5 quarts of baby carrots
10 half-pints of pickled garlic
4 lbs. blueberries in the freezer

and today I pick blackberries!

Deanna

Six loaves of zucchini bread

(yes, all from my one baseball-bat-sized summer squash that appeared the week I was away)

Annie,

> And yes, I'm making my own wedding cake, LOL.

But of course you are! I'm just wondering if you've started grinding the flour yet.... ;-)

Sounds like a FABULOUS party. I hope you have a lovely, lovely time.

Carolyn,

Welcome!

Z

In the meantime, I'll be canning tomatoes in about a week.

Annie

Really something betweeen a jam and a butter---I got worried it would scorch, and tired of waiting. ;-)

Found 3 packages (1.5 litres each) of Ontario apricots at the grocery store today, and bought them all--- 'cots grow in the NIagara region, but because they have such a short season, and nobody here in my immediate area grows them because our frosts are too late, it can be hard to find them.

They had a pleasant, sweet, taste, but weren't particularly intensely flavoured, so I thought a butter would be a good use as a way to intensify. I added a shot of Frangelico (never hurts, right?).

I think I'll make the rest just into puree. It bet it will taste amazing in the middle of winter stirred into some oatmeal....

Annie, you had BETTER serve your salsa at your wedding party! It was sure a big hit at mine last September!

Z

Mmm - that apricot butter sounds yummy!

Becki

6 pints Applesauce
8 jars Banana Jam

Deanna

Melissa

My cucumbers were a bust for the most part. There were enough to eat but not enough to can. I've also frozen a lot of shredded zucchini in 2 cup increments to make into bread later on.

I've also dried gallon bags of basil, oregano and parsley.

Becki, it IS good--we had some on pancakes yesterday for breakfast. It's amazingly coloured, too---really bright, deep orange. Not quite as thick (or dark) as it shd be for a butter, but smoother-textured, more homogeneous, than a jam, and very thick. (Turn the jars upside-down and nothing oozes even a bit.) And really apricot-y. You don't taste the Frangelico but I think it intensifies the apricot flavour.

Zabby

Spicy Three-Plum Sauce (adapted from the trusty Ball Blue Book)

2 pounds pitted and chopped plums, any kind or combination
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup onion (about one small), finely chopped
1 medium jalapeno pepper, finely chopped (I used four small hot peppers, including cayenne, serrano, and Super Chili--a generous tablespoon when chopped--which made this quite spicy!)
2 teaspoons mustard seed
1 teaspoon salt
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Bring all ingredients except plums to a boil in a non-aluminum pan. Stir in chopped plums. Reduce heat and simmer until thick and syrupy, stirring often (this took, I'd say, between 30-45 minutes, until it was reduced by more than half). Mash with a potato masher or blend if you want a smoother sauce (I used my stick blender).

To can: Fill hot, clean jars with hot sauce, leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe rims, adjust lids, and process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes at 0-1000 ft., 25 minutes, 1001-6000 ft., or 30 minutes, above 6000 ft. Makes about 4 half-pints.

*This sauce is great for dipping, as a grilling sauce, or brushed on baked pork chops or chicken.

Enjoy--Gina

85 quarts green beans
Swiss chard
Mustard greens
Brussel sprouts
Okra
30 qts Tomatoes
140 ears of Kandy Korn (so far) still have 10 rows coming on
25 pints blackberries

I am getting tired. I work full time too!

Decided to take the day off from preserving today - too much laundry and house cleaning to catch up on!

Becki

First summer canning, tho as a child I did all the peeling, pitting, chopping for grandmothers.

So far --

No sugar blueberry preserves
Blueberry preserves w/local honey
Raspberry preserves w/local honey
Apricot/ginger jam
Sour Cherry jam
Sour Cherry jelly
Mango/ginger/raisin chutney
Apricot/fig/dried cherry chutney
Jalapeno Jam
Sour Cherries in Brandy
Tomato Sauce
Frozen blueberries, raspberries and sour cherries
Frozen yellow beans, lima beans and roasted corn
Grapefruit Wine
Walnut Wine

Planning to tackle salsa, dill pickles and ketchup/tomato jam and green tomato marmalade this weekend.

Thanks for all the fabulous ideas!

Cathy

picked alot of pears, peaches and apples but pretty much out of jars.

ML

I've been thinking of putting up some habanero gold & kiwi daiquiri jelly. I'm having a tough time finding red peppers from local produce stands though. The grapes are starting to ripen. Maybe the grape jam will beat out the other two in priority if I have enough ripe this weekend.

a 7-litre basket of peaches peeled, sliced, and frozen

Oh, I really want to get the canner out---why do I have all this work to do?

Zabby, hoping her guests coming this weekend were serious when they said they would love to try canning something

After I found this discussion board:
3 pints mango chutney
5 pints plum chutney
4 pints plum sauce

After I bought Christine Ferber's Book on August 31 and a whole new world opened up to me:
12 half-pints green tomato with cinnamon
24 half-pints blackberry chocolate orange jam
15 half-pints raspberry chocolate jam
15 half-pints Vanilla bosc pear jam with pine nuts and walnuts
12 half-pints peach jam with black rum
5 half-pints peach melba jam
4 pints mango lime marmelade
5 pints plum jam with anise
12 half-pints Anjou Pear jam with Thai spices
5 half-pints spiced peach jam
4 half-pints of rhubarb jam with honey and rosemary
4 half-pints of white nectarine jam with rosemary
5 half-pints of quince jam with ginger
6 half-pints bartlett pear with balsamic vinegar and spices

I lay my obsession at the doorstep of anyone who ever mentioned Christine Ferber on this website. I haunt the Farmer's Market. I am trying to get my hands on crabapples even this late to try to make my own pectin. I have made my plans for all the jams I can make in the winter - after all, grapefruit, oranges, mangoes and coconut are never/always in season in Calgary.

I bought new wooden spoons to be used only in jam making. I went to Williams Sonoma on my way home from a nasty root canal one day in September and found a hand hammered copper confiture pan, imported from France. I'd never seen such a thing before. It has style and substance. I was feeling mightily sorry for myself, and thus, it now belongs to me.

Everyone I know is enabling me, because of course, they will be the recipients of all this bounty.

Is there a 12 step program? Anyone?