Here is a picture of a small batch of Cranberry Mustard from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving that I just made. Also have a 5 gal bucket (what was I thinking??) of cucs on the counter for sweet pickles.

Total of 63 pints of corn.

sorry double post

This post was edited by myfamilysfarm on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 9:46

wish I could delete double/triple posts

This post was edited by myfamilysfarm on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 9:48

please ignore all double posts, sorry

This post was edited by myfamilysfarm on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 9:50

11 more pints of tomatoes, more sweet pickles tomorrow AND I'm teaching a friend how to make dill pickles. That has to count for something, right?

Anxiously awaiting apple and peaches here!

Is this the recipe for Canned Fruit Salad? http://www.sbcanning.com/2013/06/canning-fruit-salad-in-jar.html I think my kids would love this... :)

It's just me in my house, but I do like to can...comes in handy for gifts too! I didn't do any jams this year, have so many left over from last year. This year, so far:
17 pints green beans
14 pints of vegetable soup
4 more pints green beans (neighbor lets me pick)
13 pints Roasted Tomato Garlic Soup
16 half pints tomato soup
7 pints tomatoes in tomato juice
7 pints/ 6 pint and half tomatoes in water

Still lots of tomatoes coming. I had NO tomatoes last year, and I really missed my tomato soups. I purchased some tomatoes initially from a farm to get the garlic tomato soup and regular tomato soup done before I went on vacation. I took some with me as gifts.
My neighbor got all my extra tomato starts from seeds, so I offered to can some for him as well. His tomato plants are loaded! I don't have that large of a garden! Just two 5'x6' raised beds. I have Sugar Baby watermelon growing in his garden too, squash, zucchini, pickling cukes, etc! Which I have shared of course!! 6 watermelons coming so far!

Hi, all. I thought I'd share what I've been working on this year... I canned for the first time in 2010, then not again until this year. Now that I have garden space and fruit trees at home, I've been going preserving crazy!

This is my first year with a full-size community garden plot (600sq ft), and it's been a huge learning curve of how much I DON'T need to grow, lol.

Today I'll be canning around 6 quarts crushed tomatoes, and next week I'll be making more salsa. I also have to figure out what to do with the 11 pounds of green beans (harvesting weekly from 1-18 foot row), too many cucumbers (I'm so over making pickles), and 5 ripe cantaloupe (still have 6 ripening)...

Canned
8-8oz Glenora grape jam**
5-8oz strawberry lemonade concentrate*
5 pints cucumber veggie relish
4-8oz strawberry basil jam*
7 8oz jars pickled garlic
2 pints pickled jalapeños
8-9 8oz Blenheim apricot jam**
8- 8oz braspicot jam (blackberry, raspberry, apricot)**
8-9 8oz jars strawberry jam*
Pickles: 13qt, 20pints
15 pints salsa
6-8oz apricot jam (very thick. Oops!)**

Freezer:
14 pounds blanched green beans
5 lb cactus
5 qts pickles
10 cups chopped onion
22 cups chopped variety of peppers (several cups gone into canned salsa already)
13 cups blackberries**
2 cups chopped basil (in tablespoon portions)**
1 lb tomatillos (saving until I have enough for canning salsa verde)
6 cups blanched fava beans

*purchased strawberries at farm stand
**grown at home vs community garden

Thanks for taking a look. :)

what a long, interesting thread ! only browsed, so i hope this isn't a repeat. i don't can much ( only BWB) but i do have 2 freezers (i prefer to use glass jars to plastic). it bothers me to waste all the left over canning syrups, so i tried this last year, and it works ! if there's left over pickles or relish from a full canning load, i just freeze it. not quite as good as canned, but still yummy. diced squash gets cooked in leftover fruit syrups ( spiced or with spirits) and eaten or frozen. it's an interesting change . anyone use them in a different way ?

7/9/13 - 10 half pts. strawberry jam (low sugar, Pomona pectin)
8/16/13 - 6 pts. strawberry lemonade concentrate

Next weekend the real fun begins. We're doing a day trip out to farm country and hitting all the produce stands & u picks.

eliminating double post

This post was edited by JennyinRoss on Fri, Aug 16, 13 at 21:57

So far I have canned:

Strawberry freezer jam

Lilac Jam

Blueberry Jam

Black raspberry Jelly

Black raspberry-peach Jam

Seedless wild blackberry jam

Bing cherry jam

Rose petal jam

Green beans

Corn

2 types of tomato salsa

Mushrooms

Crushed tomatoes

Spaghetti meat sauce

Dill pickle slices

Green, yellow and red peppers

Black raspberry pie filling

Corn salsa

(I think that's all)

I have frozen many quarts of fruits my daughter picked at PYOs, strawberries, blueberries, black raspberries, and wild blackberries I got from my Dad's property.

What recipe did you use for corn salsa?

This last week, hubby and I have canned tomato juice and sliced peaches--46 qts of tomato juice and 49 qts of peaches. Still have about 3/4 bushel of peaches to finish this weekend. Next week is spaghetti sauce, have about 2 bushel of Romas to use for that.

ajsmama,

I made 2 different corn salas so far. The first was from the book 'Can It!' published by Better Homes and Gardens. The recipe is called Farmer's Market Salsa on page 159. This is a pretty simple corn salsa.

The second recipe came from Food In Jars on The Mrs. Wage's website. It is called Roasted Corn Salsa. As the name implies, it's a bit more involved than the one above, since you need to roast the corn first. I have posted the link below

Both tasted good right out of the pot (I had a small bit from each that didn't fill a jar), I can imagine it will only taste better once the flavors mellow and mingle more.

Here is a link that might be useful: Food In Jars' Roasted Corn Salsa

This post was edited by JennyinRoss on Sat, Aug 17, 13 at 13:11

not much so far:

24 pints of spicy pickled beets,
6 pints raspberry-apricot jam
8 pints of Annie's salsa.
bags and bags of frozen zucchini

Looking forward to peaches, pears and pear sauce, apple sauce, pluot jam, more salsa, crushed tomatoes, pickled carrots.

Perhaps next year I will plant green beans along with the usual.

Thanks - I saw there was some question about testing acidity of the BHG recipe, but I figure if Mrs. Wages put the Roasted Corn Salsa on their website they must have verified the safety? Certainly looks like a lot of acid (over 2C) for the veggies (3C corn plus 2C onions/peppers plus 5C tomatoes). Linda Z's Corn Relish with Tomatoes has 2C vinegar for 4C corn plus 3 1/4C onions/peppers plus 3C tomatoes. I was thinking of making some substitutions for the spices (and lime juice for part of the vinegar) to that recipe for a "salsa" as Carol suggested on the other thread.

5.5 half pints of Huckleblueberry Jam and 3 quarts of huckleberries in the freezer

Mrs. Wages adds citric acid to her ingredients, if you are using her packets.

This post was edited by myfamilysfarm on Sun, Aug 18, 13 at 15:04

@canfan: I am jealous of your huckleberries!

ajsmama ,

There is lime juice in the BHG recipe. The BHG recipe makes a small batch. I would think the amount of lime juice called for would be enough.

The roasted corn salsa is a recipe from the author of "Food In Jars' on Mrs. Wages site, and does not use any of the Mrs. Wages packets, so there is no asorbic acid in the recipe. I know it sounds like a lot of acid, but it really does not taste too vinegary right out of the pot, and will mellow over time. I made one batch with extra lime juice and liked the taste even better. I also added some cilantro to it.

NilaJones.. Huckelberry's are so tasty. Last year we picked our own.. this year we bought from a fruit stand.. figured that we still got a good deal d/t the cost of gas and lunch... : ) as for today's canning.. just finished 7 pints of dilley beans..

NilaJones.. Huckelberry's are so tasty. Last year we picked our own.. this year we bought from a fruit stand.. figured that we still got a good deal d/t the cost of gas and lunch... : ) as for today's canning.. just finished 7 pints of dilley beans..

I saw that there were no Mrs. Wages' products in the Roasted Corn Salsa, but still figured they wouldn't take on the liability if it wasn't safe. I was just comparing the acid/veggie proportions to Linda Z's Corn and Tomato Relish, which I'm sure is safe. I just heard back from Linda and she said my substitutions sounded fine, and she may even make it, so as soon as I get her permission to post her relish recipe online for reference, I may post my substitutions here. Funny thing is, I was just looking for a recipe for someone in Rosey's new group over on that Pinch forum, I don't grow corn and we don't even really like salsas with corn so it's not something I'm planning on making! So I'll post the recipe and anyone who makes it will have to tell me how it tastes, if spices need adjusting ;-)

Today I did 1 pt. (didn't actually can it) of peach butter. Its a test batch to see if we like it. Last year I ran out of jars about the same time I ran out of energy so pureed remaining peaches & froze them. Sort of forgot about them until recently so looking to use them up. The first container became peach ice cream, now the peach butter, next will be Zesty peach bbq sauce, & the last is undecided.

I'm cooking down a 22 qt roaster of peach butter at this time. Try some spices in it, like cinnamon, ground cloves and nutmeg, our family likes it this way also.

So far, the peach butter seems promising. Great idea on the spices. I don't have a roaster. Has anyone ever done this in a crock pot?

So far, only tomato hot sauce, which is all I plan this year. My tomato crop is typically big. I already have loads of plum jam, tomato Italian sauce, a couple of other tomato canning products, but figure I should go for more hot sauce:

My recipe:

10 lb. vine ripened (Early Girl) tomatoes, cut in pieces
1 lb. jalapeno peppers, diced
salt
pepper
citric acid (1/2 teaspoon per quart)

Simmer ~ 15 minutes and can.
- - - -
Edit: Looking in the thread a bit I see a post from JennyinRoss from two days ago, very ambitions canner, lots of stuff. Mentioned was "seedless wild blackberry jam." I'm thinking she strains out the seeds, something I don't do. I have canned wild-picked blackberry jam for many years, also quarts of blackberries with some sugar to be made into pies. I thought I'd relate a story:

I went to my dentist probably a bit over a year ago and told him I was concerned that a piece of one of my teeth had broken off, and I showed him the piece, which I had in a small zip lock plastic bag. He looked at it and opined "I think that's a seed!" I was skeptical but after thinking about it some I realized that it probably was a seed from my blackberry jam that had lodged between my teeth and suddenly come loose.

This post was edited by dMuse on Sun, Aug 18, 13 at 20:24

I did the Mrs Wages corn salsa too from Food in Jars. It's sweet for me & next year I'm going to add less sugar but it's yummy. I added a cup over salmon & baked it &it was a nice dinner with some rice.

Today I did 8 quarts roasted garlic tomato sauce as spaghetti sauce. ?.

Yes, I'm still around and I'm still canning. I've been busy farming, selling a house, planning a new house (which isn't built yet as I still have ANOTHER house to sell), playing with a new granddaughter just born last week. Both daughters took their turns in the hospital and I kept their children, then grandkids came to visit from California. Whew, it's a good thing I retired! Did I mention that I'm raising heritage turkeys this year? (grin) Bad idea, incidentally, I've already lost half, next year it's back to chickens!

Anyway, I've been to local U-picks and came home with:

37 pounds of strawberries in the freezer
43 pounds of blueberries in the freezer
21 pounds of red raspberries frozen
22 pounds sweet cherries frozen
13 quart bags of rhubarb, diced and frozen
11 half pints of strawberry freezer jam
4 quarts of sour cherries frozen (I have a small tree)
21 quarts beef stock
18 quarts chicken stock
31 pints beets
13 pints pickled beets (beets did well this year)
18 pints dill pickles, half hot
4 pints pickled jalapenos
9 half pints strawberry jam
7 pints blueberry syrup for pancakes (more to come when it gets cold and I need the freezer room where berries are)
18 dozen eggs, frozen

Corn, peaches and apples are just starting. Beans didn't do well because of a long, hot, dry spell. Tomatoes will be ripe in a week or so, I've only gotten enough to eat so far. I'll be canning "plain" tomatoes as well as KatieC's Chipotle Catsup, some of my own Annie's Salsa and Tomato Basil sauce. Oh, and some sauerkraut as cabbage is doing well. I'm kind of thinking of trying some pickled watermelon rind too, I've never done that.

Annie

dMuse,

Yes, that's I what I meant by seedless wild blackberry jam, I pushed the fruit through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds. What a funny story about your "tooth seed"!

The reason I went to the extra trouble of removing the seeds on this jam is because I have a friend who wears dentures who asked if I would make some type of berry jam without seeds so she could enjoy it. Those blackberries had a lot of seeds!

Here is my own blackberry story... from this year. My dad was ill earlier this year and spent months in the hospital, before he passed on August 3rd. As a result his property had been neglected and the wild black berry patches were very overgrown, most of the canes were located in about 4ft. of weeds. One day my husband and brother and I went out there to build a ramp so Dad could come home and be under hospice care. After watching the guys for awhile I decided to go pick blackberries and grabbed my bucket. Wouldn't you know that the biggest, juiciest looking berries are always furthest back in the overgrowth? I braved the overgrowth and poison ivey and picked, on, even though I was not dressed to pick in my short sleeve shirt, shorts, etc. I was feeling the thorns from the canes scratch me, but didn't care, I was on a mission. After I was done I went inside to wash up. Normally I don't catch poison ivy, haven't had it since I was a child, but I decided to wash my arms and legs good anyway, just in case. While washing the underside of my left forearm, I noticed two evenly spaced marks, that were slightly raised and red. Yep, I had been so intent on picking , that I must not have seen the snake that bit me, which is actually good, because if I had I would have passed out from fright and spilled all my hard picked berries!

Hi - I just found this group after spending way too much time on the kitchens forum last year. Just getting started trying to can/freeze our own stuff.

uaskigyrl I see that you are on MD? we are in Montgomery County, any places you recommend around here?

Annie, you weren't trying to keep turkeys and chickens together, were you? There is some disease that make the 2 not livable with each other.

Annie - how do you freeze your eggs?? I've frozen small quantities of egg whites from time to time but never very many and no yolks. I'd love to hear the secret -at one point we had 7 hens laying, too many eggs at one time for 2 people but not enough to make it worth the hassle to sell so we were just giving them away to neighbors and coworkers. We're down to 1-2 eggs per day now since most of our hens are too old to lay any more, but we'd like to build up the flock again if there is a way to preserve the eggs.

Thanks,
Edie

Just finished 13 pts. pickled jalapeno rings and 5 pts. roasted tomato garlic soup. As the soup was new tor me I made a single recipe, but before I even filled the jars I realized I'll be making more. Absolutely delicious. Also have umpteen pounds of grilled eggplant to be made into baba ganoush (which will be frozen). Its in the fridge, since I'm not sure I'll get to it tonight.

Edie,
Annie posted her instructions for freezing eggs on the Cooking Forum. I've linked the post for you below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Freezing Eggs

4 pints succotash (1 broke in the canner)
2 quarts Green Chili Sauce (frozen)

9 more pints roasted tomato garlic soup in the canner as I write this.

Today I added 7 pts. roasted pickled peppers to the pantry.

Thanks Malna - I appreciate it!
Edie

This weekend I was finally able to get my BWB canner out of storage - Yay! We now have 6 jars of peach jam, 8 jars of raspberry jam and 3 jars of blackberry. Not quite sure how I ended up with only 3, though; I used the exact same recipe as I did for the raspberry, only everything in 1/2. ?? Unless it is because the blackberries were juicier and they cooked down more? Whatever, at least I have a lot of my Christmas shopping done now!! :^)

Edie

Three pints of ketchup, using the Ball Blue Book recipe. It was my first time, and I think it is delicious. I have frozen a couple quarts of roasted-tomato puree, 2 quarts of carrots and, I'm guessing, at least 20 quarts of green and wax beans.

Here are my totals to date:
7/9/13 - 10 half pts. strawberry jam (low sugar, Pomona pectin)
8/16/13 - 6 pts. strawberry lemonade concentrate
8/18/13 - 1 pt. peach butter (test batch - refrigerated only)
8/24/13 - 13 pts. jalapeño rings
8/24/13 - 5 pts. Roasted Tomato Garlic soup
8/25/13 - 9 pts. Roasted Tomato Garlic soup
8/26/13 - 9 pts. Roasted pickled red peppers
8/28/13 - 15 cups baba ganoush (frozen)
8/28/13 - 8 one & a half pints peach halves
8/30/13 - 12 pts. tomato sauce

Going to have another go at peaches tomorrow. The first batch was rough going. I didn't start until 7 pm., and was kind of tired. I'm sure the peaches are edible, but they sure won't be winning any prizes at the state fair!

7 pint and a half jars of Dilly Beans
11 half pints Dill Relish

The Armenian cucumber plant has proved itself to be a real survivor of the 3 types of cucs planted. I am sure there are a dozen out there and probably more lurking in the undergrowth.

Seasyde,

I don't know if you have access to more blackberries or raspberries ( I prefer blackberries), but blackberry - peach jam is very,very good. We don't use much of it so we give much away. Additionally, you can leave out most of the pectin and have a chunky syrup which is great on ice cream, french toast, etc.

So far this year:

24 qts of peaches,
24 pints Annie's Salsa,
24 12 ounce jars of blackberry-peach jam,
8 pints peach-raspberry jam,
24 pints of spicy pickled beets,
lots and lots of zucchini in the freezer

Still to come... more tomatoes to be processed, pear and apple sauce, peach pie filling, frozen broccoli (if fall harvest is there), and perhaps some winter squash soup.

I will hopefully have a lot of fall cabbage to harvest. Does anyone have a good sauerkraut recipe they wouldn't mind sharing?

Tom

This post was edited by nugrdnnut on Sat, Aug 31, 13 at 15:25

nugrdnnut,

Thanks for the suggestion. Peach/blackberry jam sounds wonderful. I usually have to buy the berries at the store, and usually the raspberries are more plentiful but it sounds like blackberries are worth seeking out. I'll put this on my list for next year.

In the end, I punted and froze the last 7 pints of peaches. Not my first choice, but it was the fastest. We have company coming today, and all the canning paraphernalia had taken over the dining room table. I need to get it out of the way until applesauce season starts!

I love this thread, for inspiration and because it's so fun to see what different people eat!

I got a new freezer, so I froze everything until it was full :).

Tons of raspberries, blackberries, peaches, grated zucchini, green beans... the whole thing is crammed full, now, and no room for tomatoes, figs, and the fall crop of raspberries! I also made a few freezer pickles, for experimentation -- just 4 pints.

The ONLY canning I have done since spring is 2 half-pints of lindalou's zucchini relish, yesterday. And the last bit in the fridge. But I left the BWB set up in case I want to do a bit more :).

Since my last update, I've put up fermented Deli Dill Pickles, dill sandwich slices, fruit salad in a jar (oh my is it good!), amaretto peach conserve, peach mustard, peach almond conserve, vanilla vodka cheries, cowboy candy (candied jalapenos) and the remaining syrup, and vanilla plum butter.

I am currently working my way through 100 pounds of plum tomatoes, starting with spaghetti sauce. I have much work still ahead of me. :)

In addition, I froze quite a few pounds of raspberries and blackberries, which I found for a great price.

One of these days I'll get a few vinegars started.

Took a step away from the produce and canned 7 qts + 4 pts chicken stock. I used to just freeze the stock, but canning has freed up a lot of space in my freezer.

Made a minor error when I neglected to check the jars carefully. I found a chip in the rim of one, of course when it was full of hot stock. :( Stupid mistake, easily remedied, but it did put me off my rhythm of filling the jars.

Edited to add: I didn't realize I was the last post in this thread. Thanks NilaJones for starting part 2. Here is the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to part 2

This post was edited by seasyde on Sun, Sep 15, 13 at 11:58