What do you do with preserved lemons? I've thought of making them, but have no idea what I would ever do with them.

pixie lou,

You get a North African cookbook (or website). In the meantime, you put the jar on your most visible countertop because it's so gorgeous!

Zabby, who would totally be preserving lemons if she lived in a place where they grew....

Today I made a triple batch of seedless raspberry jam using Pomona. I used my new Victorio for the first time, it worked pretty well!! I put the discards through a second time and got a bunch more fruit.

I used 12c of fruit to 4c of sugar, as we don't like our jam so tooth-achingly sweet. It fit perfectly into 9 12 oz jars, and processed like a charm in my also brand new 23qt Presto. Can't wait to taste it!

I'm doing the same thing all over again tomorrow with blackberries. I'm getting lots of practice this year, I love it!

Canned up the last batch of 10 pints of kraut last night and today did 20 half-pints of "rotel-type" tomatoes with onions and hot peppers (jalapenos and hungarian hot wax).

Right now we are trying to come up with a way to use up all the left over juice from the rotel prep. Think I'll add a bit of celery, sugar and some carrots and cook it down to a sweet & hot tomato sauce.

DW is baking up a bunch of almond chocolate chip cookies but as I sit here stuffing my mouth I told her you wouldn't be interested in hearing about them. ;)

Dave

Here are a couple of excellent preserved lemon recipes with several suggestions for use. Enjoy! She also has a recipe for Indian Lemon Sun Pickles that I can't wait to try.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tigress in a Pickle blog

Dave, I make up a "spicy vegetable juice" from the tomato juice discards, similar to spicy V8. Pressure-canned. Maybe you could do something similar with your rotel juice?

I saw a mention of Rotel???? Could that recipe get posted on the greatest recipes thread????

24 jars - half pints of cherry jelly/jam
25 jars - half pints of cherry jalapeno jelly
7 half pints Sugar-Free Cherry Jam
35 half pints, 20 mini jars, 3 pints - Cherry Jelly
9 half pints - Apricot Jam
11 half pints - Cherry Rhubarb Ginger Honey (from Elle Topp's book).

25 packages frozen peas
20 packages of corn
5 1 -gallon containers of cherries that I will thaw later and dry

I have a 32 cup container of applesauce ready and my biggest pan full of it as well. Will update later

Dave, I make up a "spicy vegetable juice" from the tomato juice discards, similar to spicy V8. Pressure-canned. Maybe you could do something similar with your rotel juice?

Yes we do that too. Hate to waste anything. But this ended up as some fantastic bar-b-q sauce with the addition of some brown sugar, mustard powder, Cavendars, dried garlic, lime juice and tomato paste. Then we added citric acid to be extra safe and pressure canned.

Will never be able to duplicate the recipe since it was a dash of this and a blob of that but the 4 pints will be great while they last. Tastes like a hot Jamaican jerk sauce!!!

The Rotel recipe - I thought it was already on that post but if not I'll add it.

Dave

This week I have put up 10 pints of plum jelly and 8 pints of ketchup. Got the juice done for a round of ginger plum sauce this weekend. And finally got a new seal for my canner and a 3pc regulator set. I don't remember who posted about that - but I am glad I saw it and could find it. Thank you - I can't wait to try it out.

Tiffany

This is the largest garden we have ever had (20 feet by 24 feet). I ordered the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and the Complete Book of Small_Batch Preserving this Spring in anticipation of the harvest. I couldn't resist all the wonderful recipes, so I made one batch of several of the recipes instead of large batches of a few recipes. I was thinking that maybe other canners did the same thing and we could rate(and share) recipes. Is that appropriate? If so, please share your experience with the recipes here. I still have a few weeks before I can taste-test my results. Thanks!

Aunt Tootie - check out the Favorites for Leesa thread here for all the recipes and recipe reviews. Or if you have a specific recipe in mind just let us know which one - many of us have the same books so no need to type out the whole recipe - just the title and page number. ;)

Dave

things are just starting here, although Zabby reminded me that I've got to do something with all that basil. My daughter bought me cinnamon basil, lemon basil and sweet basil plants for Mother's Day and they have all gone completely crazy. I've never used the lemon or cinnamon, so I'm experimenting.

Anyway, I did get some things done:

9 quarts of blueberries, picked and into the freezer
6 pints of Zesty Zucchini Relish, with horseradish and hot pepper
2 batches of Linda Lou's zucchini candy for the grandkids!

and right now I have a bucket of kosher dills fermenting in the basement right next to a bucket of Linda Lou's sweet pickle chunks that will get the "syrup" step tonight for the first night.

Annie

So far this year:
pie cherries 7 qts 2 pts
stawberry applesauce 5 pts
currant jelly 8 half pints
raspberry jelly 6 half pts
strawberry jam 8 half pts
green beans 26 qts
yellow beans 6 qts
broccoli 8 qts frozen
sugar snap peas 7 qts frozen
my tomatoes are just starting to turn so their next.

Thanks Dave!
I've already checked out the Favorites for Leesa site and had clipped several of the posts. Although we always grow tomatoes here in south Georgia, I usually just stew them down and pressure can them. This year I've made Old Fashioned Tomato Marmalade from Small Batch Preserving and Tomato and Apple Chutney from the Ball Book (and of course Annie's salsa!) I've tasted the Tomato Marmalade and like it (Husband's not so sure what he thinks). I still have a few weeks before I can taste the chutney. Will keep you posted on the results.

I'll be anxious to hear what you think of the Tomato-Apple Chutney as we have it on our list to try this year too.

Today our project is Shirley's Veggie Juice Cocktail. Anyone heard anything from Shirley lately?

Dave

Since I last posted about preserving...

10 pints dilly beans. These were done in two batches, the early batch has black valentines (bush) and runner beans harvested as snaps. The second batch has Louisiana purple pods (pole) and Cherokee yellow wax bush beans.

1 quart refrigerator cucumber pickles.

1 quart dehydrated tomatoes and on going, filling the dehydrator as more small tomatoes are harvested. I am drying about equal amounts of principe borghese, stupice, and black cherries (large cherries). I just cut them in half, skin side down, sprinkle with a little salt. I might get a few quarts of these, which would make me happy.

2 batches of the zucchini candy, one in mint flavor, and the second flavored with cinnamon and hot peppers.

wow, already onto page 3 before I found this!

I managed to can 5 quarts of Royal Burgundy Beans, one didn't seal so that leaves 4.

I also finished up 8 pints of Linda Lou's sweet pickle chunks and I have a bucket of dills fermenting in the basement, recipe from the Complete Ball book.

One jar of the zucchini relish came unsealed too, that's two and the season is just starting.

Annie

So far I froze 3 quarts of black caps and a gallon of huckleberries. Soon to pickle cukes for the first time!!!

Sorry I haven't responded sooner y'all, with my Famous Fig Preserves Recipe. Been busy with multiple fruit harvests! Bountiful this year!

The recipe is straight from the Certo liquid pectin insert. But my secret is to pick them in the late afternoon, including some that are not quite ripe, with the water boiling in the BWB canner, the sugar, the lemon juice, and water in the 1, 2, or 3 preserving pans (since you can't double the recipe, sometimes the harvest is huge and my canner is big enough for triple stacking since I only make 4oz and half-pint sized jars. I quickly wash the figs, chop off the bit of black blossom end ('cause I think it's ugly) and the top with the latex sap. They are Brown Turkey figs so I don't have to peel them. Rough chop in 4th's, measure and put in the pan(s). I use jars hot from the dishwasher on its sanitize setting. If I ever have too many one day they quickly start to soften/rot, even in the fridge, so those go into the dehydrator for fig newtons later. The fig is about the only fruit that does not ripen off the tree so I pick them everyday during the 6 weeks they bear. Figs are also on the higher side of the pH so lemon juice is essential. If the daily harvest is small and the dehydrator is full, I make Peach and Fig Preserves with defrosted or fresh peaches from Linda Ziedrich's "The Joy of Jams, Jellies, and Other Sweet Preserves" pg.233. I can't sell any jam with alcohol in it in my State of NC so instead of wine I use a 5% white wine vinegar in the recipe. I also make Fig Chutney from Emeril Lagasse's recipe for my family and for gifts from any overripe fruits. I can't sell that either (it's an acidified food that is governed by the FDA and a hassle to get tested and approved for sale to the public). Oh, and did I mention that I gorge myself on fresh figs that whole time they are ripe? As do most everyone else in the family, my neighbors, and friends who come out of the woodwork when they hear I have ripe figs.

As for the rest of what I've put up so far since my last post includes - Damson Plum Jam (tons of that from an ancient set of trees), Honeyed Asian Pear Butter, Asian Pear Jam (from Linda's book, too) from my tree's first year of producing, Chocolate Orange Jam from Mes Confitures with organic oranges, Apricot and Pineapple Preserves (from dried and canned), along with jamming fresh peach, hard pear, blackberry, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, black mulberry, and other backyard fruits. Just today I made 85 jars of jam. Some were already cooked down a few days ago and kept in my extra fridge. From June 15 post of 538 to August 2 I've made 518 more jars - I've been busy I tell you!

And, yet to go will be peach pie filling, apple pie filling, apple pie jam, apple butter, apple nutmeg jam, pear butter, pear jam, pear preserves with ginger (from Linda's book), prickly pear cactus fruit jelly, red and orange tomato preserves, cranberry pineapple conserve, and a whole gob of fig preserves and chutney since my trees are just now starting to ripen. That's at least another couple thousand. And, I'm starting to harvest the peppers for the "Gold" to be put in the freezer, and the cukes for B&B pickles and relish, and from the late plantings of tomatoes for all those tomato products my family consumes in a year.

I am grateful that I have customers who want to buy my homemade jam. Otherwise, like when I get old (oh yeah, I forgot, I am already!), I'll have to give away the fruit and forget jamming and canning forever. That would be a very sad day for me.

Nancy

Here is a link that might be useful: Joy of Jams Jellies and other Sweet Preserves

Yum, Nancy, those all sound delicious. I love figs but they don't grow in Michigan, although I ought to check the Mediterranean Market, they sometimes have fresh figs. I hope your sales just keep on booming and you sell every jar!

Here I'm still working on beans, it's the "duty canning". Nothing very interesting but I got 10 more quarts of Royal Burgundy beans and they all sealed, so I'm happy.

I also finished up 9 pints of Grandma's Sweet Relish, we have to have this stuff every year, LOL, and tonight I'm canning the dill pickles that have been fermenting in my basement.

Wish me luck, my pickles are always kind of soft and limp, never crunchy, even with pickle crisp. We'll see about these, I even bought bottled water to make 'em!

Annie

tomato jelly,canteloupe jam and annies salsa

9 pints tomato sauce. We got 3 pints red (mix of oxheart, principe borghese, neves azorean red and beefsteaks). 3 pints of black (black, carbon, black cherry and cherokee purple), 2 greens (Aunt rudy german green, dorothy green and green grapes) and one pint of yellow-orange (persimmon, sun golds, and aliana yellow). The black sauce is more of a maroon, color of a BBQ sauce. We pressure canned for 35 minutes at 11 lbs. I milled the tomatoes with a foley food mill after roasting the tomatoes in separate pans. It did not make a whole lot, but we will get more! the process was simple enough we will not mind repeating it.

Oh my Lord, Nancedar....no wonder you hadn't posted the fig preserve recipe. Sounds like you don't have time to have a decent fit. I appreciate you taking the time to post, though.

Thanks.

jude

Wow! I am so humbled by the amazing work you are all doing! I am hungry now, too, from the descriptions of your efforts. I just started canning and love it. It is such a satisfying thing to do on a Sunday afternoon when it's too hot to be in my garden. Do you all have recommendations for books and recipe sources? I am new to this site, so just learning the ropes. So far this year, I have put up kosher dill pickles, triple berry jam (extremely popular!), blueberries and blueberry jam, tomato sauce, and sun dried carbon tomatoes. My first big harvest of figs is just starting to come in, and I cannot wait to make fig jam or preserves. We had our first figs this weekend, stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped in proscuitto and warmed in the oven. Delicious!

Thanks for all the inspiration. I write about my garden and organic food and cooking on my blog, www.cowlickcottagefarm.com, so I hope you come and visit us there!

Here is a link that might be useful: Cowlick Cottage Farm

Cabrita - those roasted heirloom tomato sauces sound just absolutely yummy! I'd love to have some black tomato sauce for pasta carbonara since they are the right color - carbon! LOL. I didn't plant any blacks this year but the red, pink, green, white, bi-color, and gold are blossoming their heads off.

Few remember that tomatoes are fruits (but tomva and aunt-tootie do for sure!) - (and actually cucumbers are fruits too, so it seems) - so you might try making some of those tomato heirlooms into preserves/jelly/jam. They are wonderful on a grilled cheese sandwich, or mixed with mayo or EVOO, for a new and different salad dressing. My daughter likes to put the preserves on leftover poultry sandwiches or just slathered on my warm homemade bread.

Today I made 7 little jars of Asian Plum Sauce from "Small-batch Preserving" and I'm doing the 3-day Pickled Spiced Damson Plums from Elizabeth Albred's "Pickles to Relishes" with the very last of the plums, thankfully. I had been gifted u-pick free tons from ancient trees - and even though it takes 600 to make a batch of eight 1/2 pint jars of jam (resulting from only about 1 1/2 pounds to make 8C pulp - do the math for tons) - it took a looooong time to cook/can and sieve out the pits, like endlessly! I can't sell the sauce or pickled plums (they're acidified and FDA regulated, as I've said before) but I'd want to hoard these treasures anyway. Yum! The jams were scooped up by my Southern customers who knew the taste of this sweet tart heirloom jam that up to now I had no previous enjoyment of.

I'm doing a tasting at one of the vintage/gift stores that carry my jams tomorrow night so I made multitudinous tiny crispy crumbly Dutch Butter Cookies to dollop my jam tastes on. The recipe is from "Southern Heritage Cookie Jar Cookbook". If you like those expensive Danish cookies in the big tins - make these instead. 4 ingredients - 1C butter 1C sugar, creamed, 1 egg, 2C flour. Pat onto greased jelly roll or 15x10 pan or two 8" sq pans. Bake 350F 20-22 min. Cut while warm, cool on racks. Simple. Off topic but there it is. To make it "Harvest Forum acceptable" - dollop some of your homemade jam on them. Total yum.

Annie1992 - My four plantings of beans were eaten by a groundhog - as were cukes and okra and other veggies - so I actually really ENVY you having beans to put up. We will be sad this year without beans in the pantry - you can eat just so many jams then you need veggie foods for sustenance. Fortunately this was THE year for asparagus in my garden and my fellow farmers market vendors grow stuff I had failures with so I trade jams for their veggie bounty. Win-win.

tlfox - Where'd you get your ketchup recipe? I've tried dozens, none to my liking.

growninidaho - envy your huckleberries!!!!! Just 10 seeds to deal with.

leesa_b - cherry rhubarb ginger honey--- is it tasty? Sounds like a strange combo - all the stuff I like but togethered?

Nancy

carolynbinder,

Welcome! We're neighbors....I live just a "skip and a hop" from you in Lee Co., GA. I visited your website and I'm interested in your methods for growing organic in our heat and humidity. The diseases and pests are so prevalent here from late March until frost in November. It's a constant fight to maintain some control. Anyway, that's another forum.......

The books that I use for canning and preserving are the Ball Blue Book: Guide to Preserving, Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, the Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard and the UGA Cooperative Extension Service So Easy to Preserve.

Susan

Hi Susan:

It is a challenging environment in our heat and humidity, especially this year! I try to do my research and select seeds that are supposed to do well in heat and humidity. I started saving seeds so that they acclimate to our climate. I also try to use good watering practices (we have a microwatering system) to help reduce disease. I also find that interplanting helps to reduce pests. I think it confuses them!

Thanks for the book recommendations. I have the Ball book, but will definitely look into the others. Take care!

Here is a link that might be useful: Cowlick Cottage Farm

It's been a busy week:

3 pints caramel apple sauce
4 half-pints blackberry jelly
8 pints Annies Peach-Pineapple Salsa
3 pints KatieC's peach salsa
7 quarts sliced peaches in lite syrup
7 pints diced peaches in apple juice
3 small quarts peach sauce
3 pints peach syrup
6 pints corn relish
5 half-pints corn cob jelly

I'm planning on getting another bushel of peaches this week for more sliced/diced peaches, and freezing. Then I will start on the tomatoes.

Monday and Tuesday are busy days. The boys do the market and then everything they don't sell ends up in my kitchen!

4 half pints pesto for the freezer
7 half pints strawberry jam
9 8oz vanilla/apricot preserves
7 quarts dill pickles
7 pints Annies Salsa
6 trays basil dehydrating
2 quarts spaghetti sauce for freezer
3 quarts blackberries for freezer

I'm happy but pooped out!

Abhaya

I feel like a slacker when I read what you're all doing, but it's my busiest summer yet. Added to the list recently:

6 Mirabelle Plum Jams with Vanilla and Gewurztraminer
7 Double Fig Jams with Vanilla
5 Double Apricot Orange Jams (awesome!)
6 Blueberry Jams
2 pts Cornichons with pearl onions and cherry tomatoes
4 lbs blueberries (frozen)
3 lbs rhubarb (frozen)

Tomorrow I face down my fear of the pressure canner with Annie's salsa. If I'm successful and don't burn down the house, we'll can tomatoes next weekend. Pray for me!

Sue

I only get a few figs at a time from my neighbor's tree and the raccoons are eating half of those. So far I made a fig tart, then 1 3/4 jars preserves, 2 1/2 jars of preserves and almost 1 jar of jam. I just put them straight in the fridge. I'm taking one jar to the owner of the tree. 1 1/2 jars went to my mom and we'll go through what's left pretty quickly.

I'm still canning beans, elery and I did 11 quarts of pink half runners. I canned the fermented dills from Ball Complete, but they are all going to become chicken food, they are sour, salty, soft and absolutely awful! Never again, even if I did make 9 quarts.

I've also done 27 pints of peaches, with more to go in the freezer, and also in the freezer, 9 quart bags of shredded zucchini and 12 quarts of corn, cut off the cob.

Oh, and the first batch of salsa, 29 little 4 ounce jars for wedding favors, along with 10 jars of strawberry jam and 12 of peach jam. Of course, because it went into those little fancy ajrs with special lisds, none of the peach stuff set. Arrrrghhh...

Oh, and I slammed my finger in the door of the Jeep and broke my right index finger. Right in the middle of canning season. It doesn't really hurt but it's annoying as heck and hard to type!

Annie

Just took inventory of what we've put up so far this year.

Canned: Green beans - 16 pints
wax beans - 2 pints
3 bean salad - 4 pints
Pickles - 6 pints lime pickles
6 pints cinammon rings
9 pints B&B pickles
Salsa - 4 pints Mrs. Wages
12 pints Annie's salsa in 1/2 pint jars
9 pints corn relish

Freezer: 83 stuffed, breaded jalapeno poppers
4-5 gallon peaches
8 gallon blackberries
17 quarts corn
Two egg plant parmagian casseroles
16 stuffed bell peppers
3 quarts shredded zuchinni
3 zuchinni casseroles
9 quarts green beans

Also had enough okra to fry a couple batches and use in gumbo. Some of the tomatoes are still producing. We're freezing some to make more salsa later. Green peppers and jalapenos are still producing. I chop and freeze in small bags for using in cooking. Brussel sprouts should be coming off soon.
Green and wax beans are done. It's been too dry and hot and they just couldn't hang on. Al's cleaning them out of the garden this morning.
It's been a very productive summer for us! :-) Ms. Donnie

Annie, wedding favours? are you getting married again? I thought I told you Ellery was a KEEPER! ;-)

Nancedar, quite a few vegetables are fruits: tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers. Botanically speaking, a fruit is simply the part of the plant that develops from the pollenated blossom, and contains the seeds. (Fruit has both a botanical meaning and a cultural one, whereas vegetable really only has a cultural one, something like "plant we eat that isn't from a tree and that we eat too much of to consider it an herb"). I suppose every vegetable could also be defined as what part of the plant it is --- if not a fruit, a seed (peas, corn), a leaf (lettuce), a root (leeks, onions, potatoes), a bud (broccoli, artichokes), etc.

(The funniest point in my education [still in progress!] as a gardener, having been raised a city girl through and through, was when I first bought a package of seeds to grow peas. Excited, I opened the pack and peered inside, and was, I'm deeply embarrasse to say, startled to see...
peas! Of COURSE a pea seed is, well, a PEA. But I'd simply never thought about it. I laughed at myself even at the time and I still do today. Helps me not be too scornful of the kids at the grocery checkout who have to ask me, "What is this?" when I buy eggplant, say, so they can type in the right code....)

Z

LOL, Zabby. Elery IS a keeper. My oldest daughter Amanda is getting married in October and it's your fault that I have to can 150 fancy pants little jars of stuff for favors...it was such a good idea. (grin)

Annie

Annie, LOL! I'll be sure and tell my friend whom I canned the favours for that you're SOOOOO grateful. ;-)

What a lovely mother-of-the-bride you'll be, with Mr. Keeper on your arm.

Maybe the peaches will set yet....

What kind of fancypants lids did you get?

Z, who can only point out that it's YOUR FAULT this city-girl-canning-dilettante has to can a serious production run of 50 to 100 jars of salsa every year, since my DH has become addicted to your recipe and my whole family peers hopefully into my pantry every fall when they visit to see if maybe I have so much that I'll be happy to give some away.... ;-)

The tomato canning season is officially begun!

Just plain sauce tonight:

5 pints and 1 half-pint of red
3 half-pints of yellow

It sure thickens up faster/more when you use all paste tomtoes. (I usually grow a lot of heirlooms but this year have mostly pasters.)

Z

Z

Sorry about that salsa, Zabby... (grin) I bought little hexagonal 4 ounce jars with gold lug type lids from the Jar Store, Carol (Readinglady) found them for me and they're very pretty, but regular Ball/Kerr lids don't fit them.

So, canning. I got another 4 quarts of peaches in the freezer, I have about a dozen fresh peaches left to make a pie or something, then my bushel is gone. I also did 7 pints and 5 little fancy jars of salsa. I needed regular jars for some gifts for a Cooking Forum get together on Monday, and the overflow was a bonus in those jars.

So, let's see, 107 jars to go, if the peach stuff doesn't set...

Annie

Here is a link that might be useful: Jars

My garden was an utter failure this year, so I'm not putting up the tomato-based products and oodles of pickles I'd been planning on. I have done lots of jams and butters though. So far:

Raspberry peach jam
Peach butter
Pluot jam
Blueberry syrup
Blueberry jam
Strawberry jam
Spicy dill pickle spears and chips
Habanero peach sauce

Annie, those are adorable, and VERY classy. (My friend only got regular Ball/Bernardin-type jars, but I bought gold one-piece lids from Kitchen Krafts. I had plans for funky custom labels but they went by the wayside as other bridesmaid tasks mounted....)

Now, if that peach stuff doesn't set, all you need are fancypants labels reading "peach SAUCE." ;-)

Z

First (double) batch of Annie's Salsa.
- 6 pints
- 12 half-pints

(I've got a whole bunch of meaty paste tomatoes in the garden this year and a lot fewer juicy heirlooms than usual. This means the salsa came out nice and thick, but I didn't get my usual 7+ pints per batch, alas...)

The 1/3 pint or so leftover became the key ingredient in a plate of nachos and that I am declaring to have been supper (DH is out of town).

Z

Since I posted last, 6 more pints of black tomato sauce, 2 more pints golden tomato sauce and 3 pints of red sauce.

3 pints spicy tomato soup.

10 lbs frozen tomatoes, greens, reds, blacks, yellow and orange. It got too warm to can and I am going to enjoy having those in mid winter.

Green Beans= 48 quaRTS
Corn = 52 pints
dill piickles= 32 pints
sweet pickles = 32 pints
peaches 7 qta canned
peaches 48 pints frozen
strawvberries 49 pints frozen
blueberries = 28 pints
cherries 18 pints frozen
grape juice 24 half gallons

Gifts of homegrown oranges and Black Plums received so I made 50 half-pint jars of Plum Orange Jam from http://www.thatsmyhome.com/general/plum-orange-jam.htm - doubled and then more. I did not use the peel from the plums since they were not grown organically. The color of the jam is golden, the taste is very orange-y tart. Sorta marmalade, but refined.

Gift of Chiogga beets for pickling 8 quarts - not very pretty canned because they are not rich red - kinda sickly pink and the design is OK for fresh but lost in translation. Taste is much more sweet than regular Detroit Dark Red. So -- I have to wait 3 weeks for melding to be sure.

My homegrown figs are abundant now - 60 more half-pint jars of jam yesterday. Tried the low sugar/macerate version for 40 jars and love that version more than the pectin high sugar version. Gives a much more intense fig flavor.

Coyote Juice - Tiny grape-sized golden heirloom Coyote tomatoes that grow in clusters -- prolifically to the max. 30 half-pints - and at least another zillion jars to fill from the rest of the harvest season to come. Anyone want seeds for next year?

Nancy

smokey2877 - I'm jealous of your 24 half gallons of grape juice. I found wild grapes in our cul de sac. 1 hour of picking, 1.5 hours of pulling the grapes off the vine - with a yield of 6 pints of grape juice.

Today I put up:
6 pints grape juice
11 pints of peach-apple salsa

I still have 1/2 bushel of peaches to process - just planning on doing sliced peaches in lite syrup. I wouldn't mind peeling, pitting and slicing the peaches tonight, but I'm just not in the mood to fire up the canner again. And I don't have the refrigerator space to keep them sliced overnight. So I guess I will do it all tomorow night.

Today I put up:
4 green tomato, ginger and vanilla jam
3 (I need to make more!!!) black sweet pepper jelly. They farmers market only had black and chocolate peppers (they do well here), so I used them. It's very gothic and delicious!

I'm making the pear mincemeat from BBB today. I followed the recipe exactly, but it seems a little thin for mincemeat. It taste wonderful so maybe it's a little thin for safe density? Would you thicken with Clear Jell after you open for mincemeat pie or maybe drain for cookies?

I have put up pints of tomato sauce, salsa, blueberry jam, cinnamon applesauce and froze some fresh corn....

not bad for just starting to can for the season 2 wks ago..
for some reason my peppers (except banana) are NOT producing ugh!

I missed most of the produce season for fruits etc..plan on picking up green beans and more corn this wk to do...and can't wait for more apples!!

What I treat did we get! we canned 6 1/2 pints of Annie's salsa using our multicolored tomatoes (too many to list) and all our peppers (sweet and hot, too many to list). I will write some notes on the current salsa thread.

We also canned 4 pints of golden-orange-yellow tomato sauce. It was a mix of Persimmon, Nebraska's wedding, Aliana yellow and Golden queen. The sauce came out the color of pumpkins, I am thinking it will work beautifully with butternut squash raviolis.

Cabrita, that sauce sounds lovely!

I've canned another 44 of those little 4 ounce jars of salsa for wedding favors, making 77 total, and Amanda and the kids are coming over on Saturday to can salsa, swim and eat frog legs, so maybe we can finish up the wedding favors and I can get on with some real canning!

Annie