Annie- I love your shady patio. Here on the farm, we do almost everything with baling wire :)

Lattice is great and works well for so many things. A few cattle panels and some ductape and I'd think we were copying the same "rustic chic" designs! LOL

Hi Annie - I'm a canner. So far this year I've canned fig preserves, sweet crisp cucumber pickles, cinnamon cucumber pickles,kiwi jam, blueberry and lime jam, and blackberry juice. I plan on doing some watermelon rind preserves and pear honey. I have a huge fig tree and it's keeping me busy for now. I would love to know more about your Hot Watermelon Rind Relish. That sounds delicious!

You are keeping busy that's for sure. I like the patio - very inviting. Reminds me of what I did this Spring. I tacked pieces of that wooden, white picket fence edging you can get at Lowes for cheap between the railings of my back porch around the bottom so my senior pup who is nearly blind wouldn't fall off the porch. Then I got some more and nailed it right above it for a Cup and Saucer vine to grow on. Looks pretty good from far away! ha.

No, I don't do any canning. Tried tomatoes once and the all spoiled, all those hours of work for nothing. Usually, I make marinara sauce from my tomatoes and freeze in containers for pasta sauce all winter long. Canned green beans last year and still have pints left in the cupboard. Also stuffed green peppers wrapped in aluminum foil and frozen in packages of two or four each. My all time comfort food in winter. Just put them in the slow cooker overnight and awake to the delicious aroma of cooking peppers in the morning.

Other than the above, I'm not inclined. Especially, since it's only me and I can buy for not too much money. Now if I had a family, you bet I'd try harder. Plus I have friends who do alot of canning and preserving; so I get hand outs all the time!

I began edging this morning around 10am, then it started to heat up outside and I finally came in at 1:30pm. when I started to feel a little nauseous. Too many wheelbarrow trips full of dirt to the compost pile. Ate a can of peaches and drank some coffee and felt better. Went back out and did a little more, but decided to finish that job another day.

Noticed some of the lilac bush was encroaching into a path so just had to get the loppers out and take care of that, then turned my attention to the big Service Berry shrub in the sunken garden. Figured it was time to take off some awkward branches and some dead ones, so got my bow saw and made quick work of them. Then I quit for the day.

Tomorrow morning, if it's not raining, I'm going to cut back English Ivy again and cut back anything that is overgrown once and for all.

My garden is late this year; no ripe tomatoes yet and the pole beans are just starting.

I have made plum preserves, peach jam, apricot jam and frozen peaches, apricots and pie cherries so far. I have a late peach tree coming on and when it is finished, we are sawing it down. It is a half tree and I have to crawl under it with the mower and several limbs have broken off under pressure of fruit this year. Sayonara peach tree. I still have one mature tree that I may be able to prune up and save. I have a new one started in the new orchard.

We may have lost the cherry tree. It is pretty old now and the beetles ate all the leaves off it and a huge limb, almost the whole side of the tree broke off in a wind storm.
I think I will order a new one. Cherries are one tree I don't have to spray for disease and insects and still get a decent crop.

I am loving the new garden area. It is such a treat to not have to stoop under something or dodge briars or asparagus.
Just a nice open area that I can mow around and run the tiller up and down the rows. It does seem like a long way to go to get to it, but so be it.

I hope to have sweet corn and tomatoes later. If the raccoons don't beat me to the corn first and disaster doesn't hit the tomato patch. I think one of the cuc vines is dying. I only planted two hills so I won't be doing many pickles unless I buy cukes. I see my sweet peppers are gone......unless they are buried under the southern pea vines!

Annie- Do you still have your potager? I have a kitchen garden for some things and hope to add a more "traditional" veggie garden for the bigger things. I saw some of your older posts on the potager forum and wondered what worked best for you.

Also, do you still have your herb garden in the former potager? I saw some pictures on the herb forum...very nice :)

We all seem to be in the same state with our gardens this year. Well, I see I am not the only one who uses "Designing de Junk". :) Necessity does that. I don't care really. It is what I have always had to do, and at least we can all say that we don't waste anything and are not adding to the glut of the earth. Waste not want not.

Bailing wire is the greatest thing that ever happened...that and Duct tape. I also use Bailing Twine - blue, green, pink or orange. :) And that netting that goes around the big round bails is very handy to have sometimes.

Schoolhouse, Your porch railing sounds fine to me. Your pooch's safety is more important than foolish pride. Right?
Clever of you to know how to do that.

Sometimes I get tired of making do, but at least I know how to do things like that. Comes in handy to know how to do things yourself. Like knowing how to use bailing wire and a piece of your shirt or a rag to tie up your muffler that fell off when you are out on a road and miles from nowhere. (and ain't it handy to have that piece of tee shirt and bailing wire in your car - you never know when you might need them. (hahaha)

My Red Bells are making. They are just beginning to turn red. Right now they are at that changing stage. Ugly. But soon they will be that pretty red color, I hope. The Jalapenos are just beginning to put on fruit. They really put on fruit at the end of summer when the days are still hot but the nights are cooler. They like that combination. Reminds them of the Andes where they originally came from I guess. Did any of you watch the show on the Andes Mts. last night? It was on Public TV "Nature" It was awesome! I learned a lot. Glad I recorded it. Anyway, the narrator said that is where peppers (and potatoes) came from. I think there were other things too. Have to watch it again.

Cucumbers - of all the vines I planted, only two have survived, but they are doing good finally. Lots of blooms. I picked my first Cuke this morning. It's a dandy. I don't plan on pickling any - just wanted some to eat fresh every day. I make a Fresh Basil-Balsamic Vinegar & Olive Oil dressing and marinate sliced Cukes and Tomatoes in that for at least 30 minutes. It is wonderful. Sometimes I add Bell peppers too. It is a wonderful side dish in summer with any meat.

Blondie, send me an e-mail and I will give you the recipe for Hot Watermelon Rind Relish. It is fantastic. Great on hot dogs and I like it on Pinto Beans too. Easy to make too and a good way to use up those rinds. I leave some of the pink or red on the rind. Cut off the outer tough green part, dice it and soak overnight in salt water. Drain, rinse, and add all the good stuff in a kettle; simmer for X amount of minutes, pack in hot clean jars, and process in a hot water bath. Easy to do. Best relish I ever ate! Really pretty too. The only part of the watermelon that I give the chickens is the rind skin I cut off and a little of the pulp that was chewed on. (Eeeeew...) JK.

I got the recipe years ago from Country Living Magazine - you know, back when it actually was for and about country living. Imagine that!
(don't get me started...)

Well, I started letting my hens out of the pen to run and get grass and eat bugs. The Girls are being very good about going up when I want them to do so. I call and they come running right up to me. So cute! It was just way too hot and miserable in that barren pen and the grass wasn't as plentiful for cutting to give them now that it is so hot and dry. I couldn't catch enough grasshoppers to satisfy their need for protein and it was just miserable for them. I am having to change their water two or three times a day. The water in their buckets gets hot, even in the shade. Don't you feel so sorry for the poor critters that don't have a caring Mommy to see to their needs? So sad. Such a stain on mankind.

Well, time to go move the sprinkler again and check on the Girls.

I loved hearing how you girls cope and do things. Thanks so much for openly sharing like that. LOVE IT!

~Annie

Hi Annie,
I have canned blueberry jam, peach jam, tomatoes, and sweet pickles, the thin crisp kind I like with peas.

The blueberries, some of the tomatoes, and the pickles came from my plants. The peaches and some of the tomatoes were generous gifts from a friend.

I love to can! You will note that none of these are pressure canned, just water bath. My little cucumber plants have done fairly well. I love cucumbers anyway.

The fig tree lost a lot of its figs due to the dry weather. I hope to get some figs from it for jam, but we'll have to see If I will be lucky this year.
kay

All my figs dropped off last month.
No fig preserves for Christmas this year.
Bummer.

Lucky ALL of YOU who got Blueberries, Cherries and Figs enough to make jam and pies. I am so envious!
I'll have to buy fig preserves at the grocer's to make my Figgy Pudding. Nothing new. Haven't had figs or enough figs to make preserves since I left Louisiana. I had the nicest, biggest Brown Turkey fig tree in my back yard. It grew big, yummy figs.
So far, knock on wood, my California Gird Grapes have several clusters of grapes. I am watering them well twice a week and they are nice right now. Hope I have them to eat this fall, right off the vines. :)

I am very happy for all of you who have gotten good crops this year. You have been blessed - twice!

~Annie

This is my "do your friend Annie Proud" year! I borrowed a water bath canner (I wanted to see what size I need, I need a smaller one :)
We had a community jam day a few weeks ago and made all sorts of crazy things: many multi-berries, peach, mango (someone bought those) mostly whatever we found for free in the neighborhood or got from our local farmers market in season.

I have also made:
apple sauce
apple butter
apple raisin butter
apple jelly
apple lavender jelly
lemon, honey ginger marmalade (we had too many lemons after canning day!!!)
raspberry fig jam (this is so delicious!!!)
Blueberry/blackberry and Reisling jelly (so good)
left over berry jam: whatever we had left from canning
2 bottles of refridgerator pickles but I'm hoping my mom's 9 day pickle recipe comes in the mail soon (my cucumbers are finally making!!!).

Also been freezing things I can not can: I have not had oversized zucchini so I get it super cheap at the farm market (nobody else wants it) and made chocolate coffee zucchini cake with coconut icing (loads of it)

carrot zucchini & pecan (I always find plenty in the neighborhood and freeze them) breakfast cookies

Applesauce cookies

I have been drying herbs like crazy and have a huge larder of them.

Made about 15 different flavored vinegars. We use a lot of vinegar as I need it to make anything baked that is gluten free, and we make all our own salad dressings (plus I put vinegar in every sauce, soup and stew)

Froze several bags of veggie patties

lots of spring greens are bagged for late summer/early fall eating (before new greens are ready)

today I froze 3 large bags of black eyed peas

Had already froze 30 servings of soup made from spring veggies this spring

have frozen unimaginable amounts of pesto. It's unreal! All I have to purchase for this is cheese. For christmas we got about 20 bottles of very good olive oil from hubbies dad for the pesto.

Tomatoes are not ripening yet, it's been a slow year but I can't wait! I plan to can tons of them. I have also planted oodles of beans and southern peas for drying.

Wow GGG!

You remind me of ME...about 15 years ago!

Now, make some homemade bread to slather all those delicious things on and have a feast!

I am VERY Proud of you...and a little envious that you have friends to do that with! Sounds like so much fun. Groups can be so inspirational in getting a lot done.
Bravo!

~Annie

OK, so do any of you canners make peach jam with hot peppers in it? I need a recipe.I'm wondering if I can just make peach jam and add hot pepper flakes-but how much hot pepper? anybody ever do this? It tastes so good warmed up and poured over a block of creme cheese for a good spread with crackers.

You make me feel very inadequate!

Now, now, schoolhouse,

You have many skills and abilities that I (we) don't have - things that you do well and that you love to do.
((HUGS))

And speaking of your many talents, I need your help with two of my Boxwood shrubs. Am sending you an email with my questions.

~Annie

Annie, do you have a/c? It always amazes me to hear about people who can in this heat without it. You remind me of another Annie (on Cooking & Harvest). She has quite the basement larder from her yearly harvest.

My mom always canned and I got the bug 8 or 9 years ago. It was fun trying different things ... tomatoes, bread & butter pickles, salsa, peach salsa, peach BBQ sauce, blueberry conserves, cinnamon basil jelly, strawberry jam, and hot pepper jelly. This year I made strawberry freezer jam, lol.

Tomorrow I'll make a batch of pesto. We'll have some for dinner and the rest will go in the freezer. There's still some in there from last year I think.

I leave all my bells on the plants until they turn red, then roast them and freeze. I have a batch to do today.

Usually I make marinara to freeze, but with a reduced harvest this year that didn't happen. I did freeze a couple bags of whole tomatoes for Pasta e Fagioli later this year.

Berry Berry Hot Pepper Jelly

1 1/4 cups processed hot peppers (I use a combination of red jalapenos & serranos)

3 cups cranberry-raspberry juice

1 cup cider vinegar
6 1/2 cups sugar

2 pouches (3 oz. each) liquid pectin

Seed peppers and finely chop, then puree in food processor or blender with a little of the vinegar.

Put pureed peppers, cranberry-raspberry juice, sugar, and remaining vinegar in large saucepan or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes. Skim off foam.

Return to heat and bring back to a rolling boil that can't be stirred down. Stir in pectin and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and skim any additional foam before ladling into sterilized half-pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Wipe jar rims and seal with hot lids and screw bands. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water bath canner.

Yield 6-7 half-pints.

Never canned in my life, but I really want to learn. Not sure how to go about starting though. Perhaps taking some classes on it would be good. I have a bad feeling if I went at it alone for my first try I would end up poisoning someone with my tomatoes, LOL!
CMK

One of the girls in the canning "group" (there are really just 3 of us who would like to continue regularly) made blueberry hot pepper jam. It is amazing with peanutbutter! So delicious. She added one small hot pepper to her batch and that was all it took.

I was finally able to make really good herb jelly with Pomona pectins. Lemon verbena, wine & roses jelly, I've got chocolate mint to do later and perhaps some lemon grass.

The jellies are particularly good in homemade yogurt. My homemade yogurt is not sour, it is very sweet so the not-very-sweet jellies are the perfect compliment.

Annie, homemade bread is the order of today! For some reason I am not very successful at making my hubby good bread. I think I need to try sourdough for him or something. It is difficult for me to make his bread too. I have to wear heavy gloves, a mask, goggles and clean the entire kitchen three times afterward to get the gluten out of it. He doesns't eat enough bread to do the 5 mins a day bread.

CMK, rent a video/dvd on canning. That's how I got the nerve to start. Also, the Ball Blue Book is excellent! Lots of step-by-step instructions.

GGG, you can freeze portions of the dough from the 5 Minute bread for later use as pizza dough or just bake loaves and freeze.

-natal, wonderful idea!!! I will have to check out our library to see if they have a dvd (and that book).
Now all I need is tomatoes...out of fourteen plants all I have gotten is one sad little sungold, lol.
Thank you!
CMK

Well that's a start. ;) Sun Golds are always first in my garden. Unfortunately I'm at the tail end of my harvest.

Years ago I did a lot of jams, jellies, canned cherry and plum pie filling, made peach chutney, salsa, tomato sauce. I used to do beautiful baskets at Christmas and add various quick breads and candies. Those were the days!

My family never did eat the sweet jams, etc - they just aren't that sort of eaters for whatever reason. I actually still have a shelf of the remaining jams that I guess I need to just pitch one of these days.

But I enjoyed it, too and I love to cook and bake in any event - there is a real pride in those bright colored sparking jars with the pretty labels and the little pop of the seals sealing.

I do make marinara sauce and freeze it now - and I've roasted tomatoes in olive oil but they've been eaten up so fast I haven't gotten them in the freezer.

I suspect I'll get back to it - all these ideas have me very hungry - especially for a peanut butter and homemade jelly sandwich!

Cindy, we're not jelly eaters either. I gave the majority away. I do use hot pepper jelly in a few recipes so always kept those ... until recently when I was cleaning out the pantry and found jars from 2006. They still looked good, but I pitched 'em.

I do have a question for our canning experts - do you think I could finish up that roasted tomatoes that I do in the oven with olive oil and basil and put them in half pint jars, process them like jelly? That stuff is incredible to make bruschetta or I've added it to tomato sauce for amazing sauce. You can take a huge sink of tomatoes and end up with a very reasonable amount of yummy sauce - I'd like to do that this year.

I did a quick search after I posted about the tomatoes and found an interesting link. I think I'm going to try it - I think half pints would be even better to give you just enough to spread on bread or add to sauce for the two of us - maybe I could process them a bit less time this way like 30 minutes? I'm not sure about adding the balsamic - while it would be good it changes the flavor and I'm not sure i'd want it that way all the time.

Here is a link that might be useful: Canning Roasted Tomatoes

I eat the jams and jellies! The jellies I've been making in between a syrup and a jelly, and not very sweet - I add a bit of sugar or honey and the rest stevia and it works great for adding to the yogurt! My hubby only eats jam with Peanut Butter on Sundays before the gym, I eat jam all the time with my tea and toast. Lots of days I eat a bowl of soup and toast with fresh fruit jam.
One of the things I liked about the canning was that I could make my own individual servings of apple sauce and stewed figs to take with me. Sometimes we go on vacation, or out with friends and I can not eat anything at the event (like Sunday at a casual but long wedding celebration). If I have my own things I can run out to the car and eat. However I also make the items so that they can be used instead of sugars and eggs in baking, they make quick breads extra delicious baked right inside!

We are overrun with tomatoes right now. As usual, we planted too many LOL. I have already put up pasta sauce and will be doing another run of pureed (much like tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes) today. As our peppers produce more, I'll freeze some of those - red and green bell peppers. I usually quarter them and freeze - come in so handy this winter. We go through alot of peppers. Also sweet corn - silver queen. We're not big on relishes or jams/jellies here - so won't be doing any of that. Would love to put up a few jars of applesauce, the kind my grandmother used to do. Not sure if I will have the time though . . .

tina

Tina, I canned applesauce one year. It was good, but I find it just as easy to cook a quick sauce. Takes less than 10 minutes.

I just made two huge lots of local blueberry muffins. Local cornmeal, blueberries from Church. We've had so many amazing blueberries. I think I'll do some peach/blueberry loose jam next - with about the last of the Georgia Peaches and the rest of the blueberries I can pick. Sugar free, it will be nice in yogurt (which I eat just about every day for the probiotics).
I'm STILL waiting on 99% of the tomatoes. I can see lots of tomatoes hanging on the vines...but OHHHH, I can't wait! YUMMY! There are a few damaged green tomatoes I brought in. Some of my firsts have blossom end rot. Just not enough for a green tomato relish. We eat relish and salsa a lot on bean burgers. My next goal is to find some of those old Tupperware patty stackers and get ready to make a ton of blackeyed bean burgers for freezing. They are handy and fast for us as I'm gearing up for a rather heavy teaching and work season this fall, I need more fast foods for hubby to make. Keeps him outta the junk!

Natalie,

That is beautiful Jelly!
Thank you for posting your recipe.

I'd love to try that. My SIL and I are the only ones who eat the Jalapeno Jelly, so I don't make too much, but it is so easy to make and so good on toast or English Muffins. In India, they have tea every afternoon around 4 My daughter has tea every afternoon for him and their little daughter. In India they put on quite a spread for Tea, much the same as the English, but with that love for all things HOT. In fact, the area where my SIL is from is considered to have the hottest food in all of India. (a professor at Lander College in Greenwood, SC told me this at my daughter's graduation when we visited afterward. :) He went there as a missionary). But they also love their Sweeties. Boy howdy! Cookies, candies, cakes, and of course jams and jellies...the lot!

So...I think my SIL would really like your jelly. Thanks!
Gotta keep the men in my family well fed and happy. :)

Wow! This has really turned into quite a topic! I had no idea so many people on here would be that interested in it.
This is terrific!

Thanks People!

~Annie

Really Natal? How do you make yours? My grandmother did hers with the colander, etc. and it took a while. Of course, she did several jars at once. I'd like to do some and have it on hand. I always so loved it growing up, delish on a piece of hot buttered toast - a favorite treat then and a favorite memory now. She is 93 now and has slight dementia, so no more cooking.

I fixed cooked apples one night last week - so yummy, hubby just loves them. I should do them more often.

tina

Tina, I used the recipe from the Ball Blue Book.

Applesauce

2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounds apples per quart
water
sugar (optional)

Wash, stem and quarter apples; do not core or peel. Cook apples until soft in a large covered saucepan with just enough water to prevent sticking. Press apples and juice through a sieve or food mill to separate seeds and peel from the pulp.

Return apple pulp to saucepan. Add 1/4 sugar per pound of apples, or to taste, if desired. Bring applesauce to a boil, stirring to prevent sticking. Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints and quarts 20 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Recipe variations: Spiced applesauce can be made by adding ground spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, or allspice to the sauce during the last 5 minutes of cooking. For a chunky sauce, core and peel apples before they are cooked. Coarsely crush half of the cooked apples with a potato masher; press remaining apples through a sieve or food mill. Combine crushed and sauced apple apple mixtures; continue as for applesauce.

~Source Ball Blue Book 1999

____________________________________________________

When I cook a quick sauce for dinner I sub apple juice or cider for the water and don't use any sugar.

I remembered reading something about new guidelines and dug it up. Apparently there's a new standard for boiling-water baths and a requirement for lemon juice in the applesauce ... something that I would never do. The reason I don't care for canned tomatoes is the addition of lemon juice ... same with salsa ... the addition of vinegar.

Here is a link that might be useful: canning applesauce (GW Cooking forum thread)

I did not add lemon juice, (and most of the sauce is still in the fridge) - however I used underripe apples which are higher in acid and pectin. I did notice that the very ripe ones were too sweet and not very acidic and wondered what you could do with them then...so far I'm not dead yet! But thanks for that link Natal.

Today I had to pull out a cherry tomato plant, and it looks like probably another one tomorrow. They are full of little green tomatoes so I found a recipe to pickle the little fellas. Anything to save a few, I worked hard trying to rescue the plants, I might as well eat what came from a month and a half of work!!!

I've never used a boiling water bath only a pressure cooker canner (not sure that's the correct name). Most of my canning has been done with my grandmother. She never put lemon juice in the applesauce. I've never done the canned tomatoes. I don't like cooked tomatoes, just do a tomato sauce (pureed kind of like crushed tomatoes you buy in a can, but a bit more liquid) and pasta sauce, but I freeze those.

hmmm, I may have to think a bit longer on the applesauce. I'm thinking my grandmother used McIntosh apples for hers.

Thanks for your recipe Natal.

tina

A pressure canner reduces the length of processing time. I've never used one.

I don't care for home-canned tomatoes either. Of course I've only made them with a boiling water bath, which means longer cooking. They're just too overdone for my taste.

There really should be classes on canning! I'm with CMK, I'd love to learn how to can, but I think learning from a person, who has done it for years, is so much easier than learning from a book :)

LL, a group from the Cooking forum got together in 2006 at one member's home in Michigan. They had a 3 day canning class. They called it Canny Camp. People joined from across the country. It was pretty cool to see how they shared knowledge and had a great time in the process. I think there were 2 or 3 experienced canners in a group of 12. They also took side trips to Penzey's and a tour of a local cheese factory.

Here is a link that might be useful: pics from Canny Camp

We have canning classes here in Georgia. A local urban farmer and his wife teach both water bath and pressure canning classes a few times a year, and the local community garden where I teach also has a professional come and teach classes several times a year.

In the last few years I've mostly been making jams and jellies, Ana's raspberry vinegar and Annie's strawberry rhubarb jelly are a couple of my favorites. I'm definitely going to try Natals Berry Berry Hot Pepper Jelly, it looks soooooo good.
I freeze more than I can nowadays, always used a water bath when I did can so that limited what I could put up. I used to do a lot of peaches, pears, cherries and plums, they taste way better than what you can buy, especially peaches.

We've got a propane burner (for want of a better name) which we take out and fire up outside either in the courtyard or lathhouse where it's cool and do any water bath canning there, no need to steam up the kitchen.

Annette

Is that canned cranberry-raspberry juice you use in your jelly recipe?

Annette

I canned so many things the 8 years I stayed home when my children were small, but once they all were in school and I went back to teaching, I did very little along those lines. I enjoyed all different colors, tastes and aromas!
Plus at the end of the day, you could actually see you had accomplished something.

Now that I'm retired, I may do more. a friend and I canned spaghetti sauce last summer. Right now my father in law's transparent apple trees are loaded, so may try applesauce this week. Transparent apples do make the best!
The two oldest granddaughters are old enough to help and they would love it.

I'm impressed by what all you do who answered this question!

Annette, I used Ocean Spray.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cran-Raspberry juice

Thanks Natal, this is top on my list of things to do after I finish plastering a crooked wall, the Mrs. Fix-it in me is at it again, too hot in the garden right now so had to find something else to mess with. I wish I had my own peppers but will have to buy them this year.

Annette

I don't have any canning equipment, so I am freezing the tomatoes that DH hasn't eaten and I'll try and figure out what to do with them this winter. Hopefully I can try making a spaghetti sauce out of them. I don't have the time or energy right now to try any cooking.