Thanks KSRogers --

I have the villaware and optional berry screen, but haven't used the screen yet. The black raspberries are just so seedy its hard to imagine there'd be much left after the seeds got pushed out... I'll give it a go though, since the flavor really is great.

Emily

Em, that screen might work if you have a newer Villaware, but the berry screen on my old "hand me down" Squeezo will only take about half of the seeds out of a red raspberry. I'm only assuming that the ratio would be equivalent in black ones.

Annie

Run the waste through twice.

Annie, have you looked into the possibility of finding a finer holed berry screen for the Squeezo? The Victorio, and Villaware only differ with the two wing nuts on the older Victorio, and the twist on screens for the Villaware. I suspect that the wing nut type might fit your machine, and these have the berry screen too. The screen isn't fine enoug to keep blueberry seeds out, but raspberries are no problem. Speaking of them, my Lauren red raspberries are huge this year. Only a few canes, compared to the puny ones my dad had growing nearby. I think its time to get rid of all of his old ones, and plant more of the Laurens. These are almost as big as medium strawberries.. I will also be getting rid of the very thorny blackberries as they are just too aggresive.

ksrogers - I also start my plants indoors, but not quite as early as you. Nor as many! My gosh, I can't imagine 160 pepper plants - everyone thinks I'm nuts to have 36 (six varieties). I start tomatoes and eggplants indoors also. But, our last frost date is May 30, and I was out of town, so didn't get planted till first week of June. I guess I shouldn't complain.

Anyway, I'm starting to catch up! This weekend I made 3x8 oz of raspberry jam, and 6x8oz of raspberry jam with much less sugar (and the no sugar pectin), froze several cups of raspberries, made 5x8 oz of low sugar apricot jam and 11 pints of canned apricots (7 with light syrup, 2 with apple juice, 2 with water). Still not like all of you BUT - these are all new for me!

so far I like using the no sugar pectin - I love the flavor of both the raspberry and apricot and it's not too sweet for my taste buds. I am experimenting with the canned apricots. I've done peaches before and always used the light syrup. I just thought I'd try the others and see how it works.

Ann

1 half-pint and
7 half-cups
of raspberry-peach freezer jam

Made on a hot evening with my 10-year-old niece visiting from Montreal. Her dad sometimes cans, but he doesn't let the kids help --- it's a busy household and it slows him down too much to have to worry about their safety. It's nice to be the childless auntie who can take the time to make it a fun project with her.

Today we're going to buy a simple pattern and some fabric and I'm going to help her make a skirt.

Ann,
Congrats on the raspberry jam. I love raspberries and apricots, too -- they are probably my two fave summer fruites!

Not all of us here on the forum can hundreds of jars, don't worry! We just all enjoy the harvest, which we preserve at varying scales....

Gosh, I'm late to this thread this season; have been busy out in the garden more than the kitchen! Missed putting up strawberries except a few quarts in the freezer. But rasperries are in full swing, and with all the heat the first peaches and corn are appearing on the early side. Just in time to start using my new upright freezer!

Zabby

The "apricot guy" told me he'd be back in 10 days with peaches....I can't wait!

We really can't grow apricots or peaches here (or plums or ...) so I live for the visits from "the peach guy". This year's apricots were a new addition, he brought them from Utah. His peaches are usually Colorado. Good man, I adore him :)

Canning season has finally started for me! I put up 9 half-pints of strawberry banana jam yesterday. Like Zabby, I've been in the garden a lot - not much in the kitchen. Cukes are just starting to come along & I should have beans in another week or so.

After reading all the posts, I was feeling a bit "subdued" - but then realized after checking the dates on the pantry shelves that things weren't so bad after all.

Just less of it -

So here goes -

1 qt. Kosher dill pickles.
2 qt. and 3 pts. in-jar sauerkraut.
1 pt. dried strawberries.
1 pt. dried bananas.
8 half pt. strawberry jam with Sure Gel - 4 didn't seal (lid question?)
4 pt. dilly beans.
4 pt. mixed dill crock veggies.
4 pt. hot pack chicken (delicious).
8 pt. Katie's beef burgundy.
8 pt. mixed vegetables for stews, etc.
Many, many quarts of frozen strawberries from U-pick (son keeps eating them - won't last till next winter, I'm afraid).

Boysenberries were better this year, but still not in large enough quantities to can. So I just froze these each day along with a few of my own strawberries - that are just beginning to grow. The strawberries otherwise come from U-picks.

I've done a lot of dabbling in meats - per Ken's kind postings, and also done some sour dough bread making for use in pizzas - so I could utilize the tomatos that were frozen and canned last year.

Summer fruits are just coming in now, but I will make a pilgrimage to the mountain country for their apples, pears and, hopefully, more freestone peaches. They should be opening up their fruit stands soon - and will wait for cooler weather to load up.

My crops have been smaller in the fruit category, but trees are still small, but am enthusiastic about a low-chill apple tree that is just now coming ripe with about 50 nice sized apples. Just tickled pink that we can grow apples at all, and peaches - The just-planted Bonanza low chill peach tree gave me about a dozen fruit - it's only 3 feet tall! Truly a miracle.

Love all the encouragement on these forums.

I'm keeping an eye on my "maters" and hope the heat doesn't ruin them all. Otherwise, I may be looking for another U-pick for those too.

Bejay

I've just been a lurker so far . . .and I'm all new to preserving of any sort, but I'm enjoying learning.

So far I've done 38 containers of strawberry freezer jam (I clearly miscalculated on how many berries to get from the u-pick farm!) 30 pints of lunchbox strawberries. 15 pints of lunchbox marionberries. 15 pints of lunchbox raspberries.

I haven't stopped to count how many blueberries I've frozen, as that is an on-going endeavor. I think I need to stop with the berries . . . it's an addiction, I'm afraid, as well as an inability to estimate our needs.

For those of you who have been doing this for years, how do you estimate what is the appropriate amount to put up? I think I have far too many berries for me and my family to eat over the rest of the year, and we still haven't even started picking the blackberries (which are the most plentiful).

Neighbor gave me some red currants so I made a Candied Lemon Peel Red Currant Jelly. Used some raspberry honey in it. DH describes the jelly as "bold." I think it'll be great on duck or melted as a sauce for meatballs or sausages.

Also started a batch of Red Currant Liqueur. I thought I could add it to jams.

Carol

Another bushel of pepperoncini, probably pickle tomorrow. Peas are near their end of life. Cukes are still way too small to pick just yet.

Hi, sorry this is a bit hard to follow but I just noticed this thread and copied over some of our canning database. The quantities are mostly quart for the tomato sauce, pint for the salsa, and pint and half-pint for the jams, things with 2 numbers had different sizes. I also see that there are many jars of pickled peppers (with garlic and varying amounts of hot pepper) and a few roasted peppers that didn't get into the database. Also I forget how much chocolate black raspberry jam I made, it was supposed to be sauce but set!

cherries 1
tomato sauce w/onions 35 quarts
peach/tomato salsa 12 pints
tomato juice 1, 2
rhubarb sauce 3, 3
black raspberry/ gooseberry jam 9
black raspberry jam 4, 7
chocolate black raspberry jam ?
pickled peppers ? a lot!
roasted pickled peppers 3 pints?

I have also frozen lots of watermelon, strawberries, some cherries, lots of colored bell peppers (some raw, some sauteeed), sauteed yellow squash, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, etc. No wonder I never get my house organized, I can and chop too much. Also froze some red currants and some black raspberries of my own (the rest was free from elsewhere), most of the jam is from berries frozen last year.

Marcia

P.S. To bejay who made "vegetarian vegetable soup with chicken broth" please be advised that if it has chicken in it, it isn't vegetarian!!! My vegie friends would freak out if they heard you call it that or you fed it to them . . .

Marcia, would you share the recipe for the rhubarb sauce and what you use it on? I have a rhubarb plant at my new house and i am trying to decide what I want to do with it.

Thanks
-Robin

What to do with rhubarb? Here's what Amanda did with some of mine:

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She entered it into the county fair and here was her reward:

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Yup, she got the blue ribbon for pies and a Grand Champion ribbon for the baking division! She used Grandma's recipe, if you'd like it.

Annie

Marcia - I don't recall canning any mixed vegetables with chicken broth - the recipe I used for the veggies was in the BBB - followed to the more or less to the "T" called "Stew Vegetables" - using vegetable stock. My GD likes plain vegetables for lunches, and these are also great added to Katie's beef burgundy for a quick stew. Sorry if I confused you there.

I'm not a vegetarian - so in this household - I try to please both sides of the family. Personally, I like meat and it has always been more or less a staple here.

That rhubarb pie looks wonderful - my little starter plant didn't make it in the heat this spring, but will try planting another again next year - God willing.

Bejay

Annie, seems a bit like your camera has a dirty lens. Suggest that you check it. I seel digital cameras, and the blur can eb either a auto focus sensor thats not working correctly, or a smudge on the lens. Not sure what the megapixel is, but at les than 3 MP, pictures are a bit spotty if blown up some.

Just an observation..

Bejay, rhubarb right now is almost dorment for the heat of summer. A totally shady spot and good watering can help some too.

Ken, I noticed that too. My grand daughter Makayla likes to "see" all the pictures as I take them. Sometimes I get little fingerprints on the lens and don't notice until after the pictures are taken. LOL

I clean it off periodically, but it's a recurring small problem with an easy fix. LOL

Annie

When my parents take a picture with their film camera, it greatly frustrates the little one that she can't see it right that second.

4 half pints and 1 4 oz jar plum sauce for pancakes in the canner right now.

Sebastian thinks film cameras are broken. They frustrate the heck out of him. Such a sign of when they are growing up. As is the way he talks when he is pretending to talk on the phone. "Where are you? Uh huh." Now when I was little if I called someone and they answered the phone there was no question where they were, well maybe what room.

Annie, I would love the recipe. Although I am guessing that I am going to just prep the rhubarb for my brisket recipe and toss it in the freezer. I think having brisket with rhubarb sauce in December will make me a happy girl. Just toss it in a bag right? btw, also more sensible then baking a pie when we are trying to get one house ready to move into and one ready to sell. However I have been dying to bake.

-Robin

I took our 3 yr old to my in laws yesterday and picked 3 ice cream buckets of chokecherries;) Now to make them into juice and make some jelly:)

But with my little helper gone I did get 34 quarts of dill pickles made and 5 pints of dilly beans. Now I am done for the year for my pickle making. But my futurs sis in law wants to learn how to make pickles so may help her with a dozen quarts or so. Ken, I remembered what you said about tasting the brine before canning and had to do a little adjustment, I am glad for the advice otherwise I would have had overly salty pickles.

BTW

I got a new canner earlier this summer that I found out last night I can fit 12 quarts of pickles in at a time. Boy is that a time saver rather than my old one that only fit 8 quarts:) I got it for 5 dollars at a garage sale and saw it for new in a store at 50 dollars:)

Stacie
who is pickled out

Woo hoo! My husband and I picked our first batch of blueberries yesterday -- 23 pounds out of an eventual 160 pounds we are aiming for. We have a dedicated berry freezer, and he has them in his cereal every morning, in addition to the fact that I make pies and crisps all year long. Am also freezing a bunch of peaches right now for blueberry peach crisp in the dead of winter! YUUUUM!

Emily

Another 15 quarts of pepperoncini pickled peppers.. Whew, seems like they are really too much now.. Picked another big basket of them today, might sell them tomorrow in my garage sale..

Found sources fro non sugar substitutes, maltinal, and xylitol. Plan to try them soon with another jam, maybe red raspberry seeing as how they are now going nuts.

Ann --

Apricots and peaches are iffy hin my area. They grow well in the Niagara region at the West end of Lake Ontario, where the last frost comes a little later. But none of the farmers in my area at the East end of the lake seem willing to risk them. (One or two do yellow plums.) The farmers' market in Belleville (a half hour away) has some folks who bring them in from Niagara, which is where I got the ones for the freezer jam, and for a VERY brief period one can get 'em at the grocery store, but I am thinking of getting an apricot tree of my own just to try. I fear it'll break my heart one winter out of two, however!

maiaa,

Welcome! Is it really possible to have too many berries???!!! Your stash sounds wonderful! I think most of us end up with extra of some things and not enough of others. Not that I'm that experienced a preserver; I just got my first separate freezer (and what is the first thing I put in it? Raspberries!)

In my case, toward the end of the winter, I find I start planning meals and food prep in part around what is still left in freezer and pantry. If there is extra frozen fruit then we have more smoothies for breakfast. If we are running out of tomato sauce then I make the pasta with something else instead. Etc.

Oh, and you know what else you can do with some of those berries? In the fall, when you go crazy with the u-pick apples, you can mix some in with applesauce. Mmmm --- apple-raspberry sauce, or apple-strawberry, think of it! Can it in small jars for those lunchboxes.

(I had some friends who visited with their toddler. He has applesauce for breakfast most days. They asked if I had any, and I gave him some of my home-canned. They were astonished at how much he ate --- about three times what he does of the commercial stuff at home! ;-) )

Lovely to hear about your adventures in berries.
MY question, now I have a freezer, is how do I make sure things don't get lost in the back of it? The saddest thing would be to THINK I was all out of raspberreis when I am really not and have them get freezer-burned and turn up years later, inedible....

Zabby

Robin, here's that Rhubarb Pie recipe. Sorry it took so long, I've not checked this thread lately.

Grandma PowellÂs Rhubarb Pie

Makes one 9 inch double crust pie

Crust:
2 cups flour
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening or lard
1 tsp. Salt
4-5 Tbls. cold water

Mix flour and salt, cut in shortening with pastry blender or two knives until shortening is the size of peas. Sprinkle water over flour mixture and stir with a fork until dough comes together into a ball. This is easiest to handle if you chill it for at least an hour

Filling:
4 cups sliced rhubarb, fresh or frozen
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
2 tbls butter or margarine

Roll out bottom crust and place into pie pan, trim to 1/2 inch beyond edge of pie pan. Mix rhubarb, sugar and flour, pour into pan lined with bottom crust. Dot with butter. Roll out remaining dough and place on top of filling, cut decorative slits in top crust. Bake at 425F 40-50 minutes or until crust is golden and filling begins to bubble through slits in crust. Edges of crust may be covered with strips of foil to avoid browning too quickly.

Blueberries are just getting ripe here, I'm sending Ashley to Costa Rica on Tuesday morning and then sometime this week I'll pick blueberries. I'll be here all alone and it'll keep me occupied.

Annie

5 half pints and 1 4 oz jar Tomato Orange Marmalade. Sebastian was delighted to lick everything clean for me. He kept asking why it was so good.

I looked again at the thread on rhubarb and for some reason I had not noticed the recipe for Mirabelle Plum and Rhubarb in Mes Confiture on my own. Thanks Melly! Now I think I may try that.

I was at the garden store and there are plums and apricots that can grow here. Decisions...

Zabby --

I had the same experience with my homecanned applesauce -- a friend brought their 15 month old, and that child nearly ate her own weight in appleauce! I second your idea about berries in applesauce -- I have made apple strawberry sauce and it is fabulous, as well as apple peach (my personal favorite) and apple cherry sauce!

Emily

Inaugurated the new freezer today!

Put up six pints of raspberries from a PYO. I do not think it is enough --- gotta go back quick.

Emily,
My friends were also amused at my label on the can: Ingredients: apples.
It doesn't get any simpler than that....

I too love the apple peach. Also apple pear is very nice in a subtle way. ;-)

Zabby

Zabby - just tuned in - (having computer glitch problems - trying to install a home-networking system, but can't get the DSL connection to work - wow - what a headache, they have been "working my head" all week, and my poor computer). Hope I don't crash.

Anyway, what I wanted to ask - how do you process the apple-other fruit combos. I have a few nice apples coming off my young tree, but not enough to can very much. But there are still some U-pick strawberries around, so would like to try them together. I had planned some small 1/2 pints of cinnamon apples to freeze, but like the idea of small 1/2 pints of processed sauce mixes.

If this in the BBB - if so, I could get out the book, but thought it would be nice to have your own personal version.

It look like I'm going to have "maters" after all. Lost a lot to BER, but they straightened out. Must have been the heat all of a sudden.

We are really having heat here - but early morning working isn't too bad.

Nice to have that freezer, eh? Like the rest of us, you will need to do a once a year inventory. This is a good time to weed out last year's summer stuff, to use, then replace with new stuff growing now. It is kind of fun, helps to decide what to have for dinner.

Bejay

Bejay,

Applesauce is the ONLY thing I make to can with no real recipe.

Sometimes, for a fancy, ultra-smooth and pale-coloured sauce, I peel & core the apples first, cook with a bit of water, puree, and can and process (whatever it says in the BBB --- I think ten minutes for pints). Add firmer fruit at the beginning, or berries after the apples have softened.

Sometimes I just throw whole apples into a pot with water and cook, cores and all, then put through the food mill to get out the peel, core, etc. Add more water if necessary. I would add mix in pears at the same time as the apples, or would add softer fruit (berries or peaches) afterwards.

Glad your tomatoes perked back up! I know a lot of folks in your zone give up by about now and wait out the midsummer, then do a fall crop. I think of myself as being garden-challenged with our long winter here in the True North, but I suppose each zone has its own problems!

Hope your network perks up, too. I am lucky that I have an ex-computer-scientist BF who takes care of such pesky chores for me! (In return, I feed him lots of good garden stuff.)

Zabby

I got busy yesterday before it got hot:

6 jars strawberry-rhubarb jam
6 jars Jessy's Lime-Chipolte Sauce
5 jars rhubarb chutney
5 jars hucklebutter
and a bowlful of rhubarb-ginger jam macerating in the fridge...I sort of winged it using several recipes. We'll seeeee........

So, Katie, you canned that lime chipotle sauce? How did it turn out, and did you have to modify it at all. I'd like to do some while the cilantro is still available here.

Annie

Okay, today's canning contributions are :

23 pints of green beans
12 pints of peaches

Now I just need to start on the cabbage (6 huge heads) that are calling my name;) Oh and the cherries in the freezer and chokecherry juice in the fridge.

Stacie
who is glad to have someone watch my oldest DD who is too much of a big helper sometimes.

Whoop de do -

Six half pints of Zabby's mixed apple/berry sauce - 2 quarter pints.

One quart of apple juice from peelings.

Two half pints left over sauce to freeze (not enough jars left - heh heh).

Also started another Ewell Gibbons dill crock from a lot of left overs from the garden (small pickles, crooknecks, zukes, green cherry toms, garlic, small multiplier onions, layered all with brine and lots of dill). This will ferment for 2 weeks, then process as per pickles.

The last batch was a bit salty, as I ran out of Kosher salt, and really can't find pickling salt, so went ahead and used the regular. It really does make a difference - what kind of salt to use. When opening a jar of the salty stuff, I usually pour off half of the brine and add some water, this seems to "tame it" a bit.

On to the tomatoes next - coming in but slow. Good thing, tho, as we are running low on tomatoes, both freezer and canned. Guess we eat a lot of them.

Zabby - thanks again for the recipe. Really nice.

Bejay

101 pints of tomatoes.
27 quarts of V8 juice.
Stan

Zabby, Fear not, that 6+ year old container of strawberries still made a decent jam. Its all in how well its wrapped or bagged. Regular freezer bags offer very little protection against dehydration after just a few months. This is a reason I use the Food Saver, because the bag material has several layers of different plastics, including a layer of nylon which is great for blocking moisture..

Yet another nearly bushel of pepperoncini again. I expect to can another 12 or more quarts tomorrow. Also picked a ffew of the first cucumbers and made them into half sours. A second half gallon jar sits on my kitchen counter with lots of dill seed heads, dill weed, and plenty of garlic added. It will be on the counter two days, then gets it dash of vinegar and stored in the fridge.

Stan, I'm in awe! You go, dude!

Bejay, Don't think I can exactly take credit for thinking to put berries into applesauce, but I'm glad your apple strawberry sauce is good! We are starting to see peaches from Niagara --- it is very early for them; I wonder if this means that the season will end early, before the apples are coming fast? Hey, who cares? I can still can apple-peach sauce if I want 'cos I HAVE A FREEZER! ;-)

Zabby

The mountain peaches that I put up last season turned out rather well. I raw packed them because I figured the Elbertas (freestone types) probably deserved less handling to keep from getting mushy. I tried not to keep them in the hot peeling water too long, to prevent them from getting to soft.

They turned out OK, inspite of some fruit float, which didn't affect the flavor and they held together well. The Cling types are more firm, but don't have the flavor of the freestones.

This was a good day (hot weather) to defrost the freezer. It was a freebee many years ago, but has done a good job. It had many scars from previous defrostings, but held up well over the years. Bringing up all of the old stuff - a few berries and plums overlooked from "05" need to be attended to these next few days. Think I will make leather from the plum puree and perhaps use the berries on my cereal.

Processed 6 pints of cooked down tomatoes - mostly fresh and added some frozen chunky types - so as to free up more space in the freezer.

Busy, busy, busy.

Bejay

I know I typed out my post on this thread but somehow it didn't get through so I will go again :)

26 half pints Blueberry Jam
5 quarts Hot Pickles (thick sliced garlic dill with 2 habaneros per qt)
6 half pints Annie's Vidalia Relish
5 half pints Hot Vidalia Relish
6 half pints Banana Nut Bread Jam (OH MY GOD!! DELICIOUS!)
1 gallon Mustard Pickles
1 batch of sweet pickle chunks is brewing

I've been picking about 35 cukes every 2 days so tomorrow will be either another 5-6 quarts of hot pickles or 10-12 pints of bread and butter pickles. And something for my zucchini! Maybe hot zucchini relish. Oh, and I got a bunch of pepper plants that were labeled jalapeno and turned out to be a sweet banana pepper. I didn't really need those so I guess I will pickle them - not sure what else to do!

Add to the list for me

8 pints cabbage spicy relish ( BBB dixie relish)
17 pints cherry applesauce.

The cherry applesauce is a bit tart but for our 3 and 1 yr old girls I would much rather them have less sugar. Now to figure out what to do with the other 2/3 of apples that I have cooked down. The third I did use made 17 pints and I am out of jars since canning 100 jars of stuff since last Thursday:)

Leesa if you are reading, the 10 cases of jars that you gave me 2 weeks ago is down to 1 case:)

Bejay,

How do you do the crock pickles, sounds like what I want to make with my bounty. I am not a sweet pickle fan, the more sour the better:)

Stacie
who needs to make more applesauce but is tired

PS
I plan on making strawberry and peach applesauce tomorrow. Who knows may try some rhubarb applesuce, I know I have more rhubarb than I know what to do with

Stacie,

If you like them really sour I have a recipe for you! I have a 2 gallon glass jar with glass lid that I put on the counter and just let them sit. If a scum starts to form I put them in fresh brine. They can sit 2-3 weeks before worrying about changing it and you can just pick them out and eat them as you're walking by.

1gal Cider Vinegar
1c Brown Sugar
1c Canning Salt
1c Dry Mustard (i put seed in my coffee grinder)
2 1/2 tsp Alum (only if left on counter, not if processing)

I use whole small cukes, as many or few as you like. You can start eating after 2-3 days.

These are a bit too sour for me but my husband and some of our friends love them!

Linda Lou or anyone, would there be reason to worry about rhubarb applesauce, since rhubarb is a low-acid vegetable? Would one need to ensure a certain amount of sugar, for example?

It sounds really tasty --- great idea, Stacie!

Girlsingardens -

The idea for the crock pickles comes from "Stocking Up III" - Euell Gibbon's and goes something like this - as I recall -

Obtain a big gallon jar - (commercial pickle jar).

Layer vegetables alternately -

I take whatever I can find in the garden, especially at the end of the growing season, when there are just a few of this and thats.

Last jar included:

Crookneck squash (split these)
Zuccinis - (I cut these in chunks)
Green and red cherry tomatoes
Small pickles - cut larger ones in 2.
Small peppers some green, some red - Anaheims this time, seeds out
Onions - small or slices - I had multipliers for this one.
Green beans - in the last jar (cook/steam slightly first).
Garlic - whole ones - your choice strength.
Thai peppers, dried - also your choice. (with or w/o seeds) - hot.
Fresh dill - lots.

Put the garlic and hot peppers in the bottom - then layer veggies, with lots and lots of fresh dill. (I used green seed heads because I had them).

When filled, make a brine of:

About 10 cups of water to 3/4 cup of pickling salt, 1/4 cup of cider vinegar. I used Kosher salt.

Add more to cover if needed and to fill a plastic baggie to place on top - keeping the veggies under the brine.

Cover the crock and allow it to cure at room temperature.

After approximately 2 weeks, taste test and refrigerate, or process:

Processing:

Scald jars, place fresh dill in jar. Strain brine, bring to boil, (taste - and adjust for your preference - more vinegar? More water?, etc.) Pour over packed pickles, leave 1/2 in. space.

If using new brine - make 1/2 cup salt, 4 cups vinegar to 1 gallon water. Seal, BWB for 15 minutes.

You can use most any "left over" fresh veggies - including cauliflower, sun chokes, wild radish seeds, nasturtium seeds, etc. Variations give interesting flavors.

Important to use Kosher or pickling salt - my first batch came out a bit salty.

Bejay

Just wanted to mention rhubarb is very high-acid, 3.10-3.40 pH, which is right in the range of applesauce. Sugar has no effect on acidity, so it's purely a matter of preference. (I'm speaking of canning safety, not taste.)

I've never canned rhubarb sauce, only frozen it and haven't looked anything up, but I seem to remember it's not recommended for canning due to texture issues - it tends to disintegrate in the jars. If Linda Lou does come on, she may have some insight on that.

Carol

Well, Zabby, I tried to take your advice. I MEANT to stake the tomatoes last night, really, I did. But first I got up at 3 a.m. and took my daughter to the airport, she's now in Costa Rica on a school trip. Then I went to the farm and spent 5 hours in the swamp fixing fence that Dad said would be an hour job. By the time I got to the garden, the beans were going crazy. I picked three out of five rows and got half a bushel, which I now have to can. I also picked a dozen cukes so I have a half batch of Linda Lou's sweet pickles on the counter. I had to be home by 8 so Ashley could call and tell me she had travelled safely. And, well, the tomatoes still need staking. LOL

Annie

My goodness Annie -- just how big is your garden? Seriously, I'm curious, and wondering how wide your rows of beans are?

Emily

My garden is pretty big, I'll try to remember to take pictures. I have 96 tomato plants and planted 15 pounds of seed potatoes. My rows are about 150 feet long and without the potatoes and tomatoes there are 13 rows. The corn and beans are actually half rows because corn pollinates best in a block instead of a row. So 5 bean rows about 75 feet long. Sigh. Too many beans.

I also have swiss chard, both red and golden beets, cucumbers, zucchini, butternut squash, cantelope, basil, dill, cilantro, purple dragon carrots, peppers (green, jalapeno and habanero), snow peas, cabbage, rutabaga, soldier beans. The lettuce and radishes are long gone.

And yes, it's smaller than last year, but still too big. I told Dad that if I had to spend all summer fixing fences I would have to give up gardening. We "negotiated" that next year the garden will be smaller still. I've already not planted pumpkins, watermelon, sweet potatoes and sunflowers this year. The parsnips never germinated, the spring was too wet, I guess. The peas aren't doing all that well, it just got too hot too fast. I'll probably give those up next year too.

I could handle it all if I wasn't a single mother with a 60 hour per week job. By the time I take care of my own house and yard and work my 12 or so hours a day, then go to the farm, I'm pretty much out of daylight. Then add in the canning.

Annie

Thanks, Carol! I remember readign you shouldn't can it on its own and I apparently assumed it was because of low acidity but it was probably because of the disintegration. I should keep my big mouth shut when I don't know what I'm talking about!

Annie, I'm still not done staking --- five out of eight beds (about 75 toms total). Am working hard to overcome the urge to go do another bed now because I know I'll get caught up in it and be out there several hours, and I REALLY need to work on a paying job this afternoon....

Zabby, who doesn't have nearly as many responsibilities as you but still sometimes finds gardening and canning not completely compatible with making a living....

Well I got the strawberry and peach applesauce made this morning. Looks like 18 pints of each for 36 pints today:)

Now to pick more applesauce for rhubarb applsauce, not too concerned about the rhubarb disintegrating, with the applesauce I want it mushy:)

Stacie
who needs to pick 6 bushels of corn tonight to freeze corn in the morning and clean house befor MIL comes tomorrow;)

Girlsingarden -

Sorry, made a mistake on the brining time for the crock jar - it is 20 days, not 2 weeks.

At 84, memory fading a bit.

My Gawd, Annie, how do you do all that?

Bejay

This is the other thread, in case anyone has missed it