Ken -

About your half-sours - how long will they keep in the fridge after fermenting? Is there a time limit. Mine are now there. Upon opening the quart a few days ago, they boiled (as they should), so adjusted the taste somewhat - added vinegar and watered down a bit - as were a bit salty. The taste is fabulous.

Hope the watering down won't make them turn soft.

Bejay

12 pints of Katie's Roasted Tomato and Garlic Soup (have I mentioned how much I love my All-American Canner?)
12 pints of dill relish (used my electric meat grinder--much easier than the food processor)
8 pounds of mixed snap beans in the freezer
12 quarts of tomatoes
17 pints of spicy tomato juice
2 quarts of okra in the freezer

Leigh (and DH and wonderful stepsons and not-so-much the two little guys, just 2 years and 7 months old, LOL, but THEY thought they were helping. . .)

No it should not affect the quality much if they are stored in the fridge. Not sure how much vinegar you used. Mine was only about two tablespoons per half gallon after the room temp fermenting and that 'boil' of bubles and foam when they were opened to add teh vinegar. I was wondering where my last empty half gallon jar was. As it turned out, I found yet another half gallon jar of pickles I had made last summer. They were way in the back on the bottom self hiding behind some other things. These will be enjoyed right now and they had no 'boil' of bubbles when I opened them to check to see if they were still ok. They will be a little softer, but not as soft as a regular processed vinegar based pickle. They can stay in the fridge a year, as thats what these 'hidden' ones are now. Great with a sandwich, especially a tuna fish sandwich, or with a cold pasta salad in the heat of summer. Might even eat some with my BBQ chicken breast.

Today I added:
9 half pints of apple pie jam (my 7 year old pronounced it delicous, and begged me to make more).
4 pints of dill pickle pieces.
6 half pints of pesto (I'm not counting the extremely large amount I ate as my dinner . . . .yummm!)

Zabby, I wonder if you have a different version of the blue book. All the pie filling recipes in the one I have require freezing. I was hoping to find some not requiring freezing (I'm limited on space).

Nanahanna,
What is confetti jelly? I'm curious because I love confetti cake (grin).

Frozen
40 lbs yellow beans
30 lbs green beans
15 green peppers

Jam
4 pints blueberry
5 pints strawberry

Canned
5 quarts b&b pickles
6 quarts red cabbage

Tomatos are next, I have 18 huge plants and I think I will be looking up Annie's Salsa recipe!

I want to try pineapple jam too.

Maiaa,
I use this site for many of my canning & preserving recipes.

The adjustments I have made to this recipe are:
Use 4 cups of blueberries per qt. When you parboil the blueberries, put in a strainer with a dinner plate on top and use the liquid that drains out plus enough water to make qty needed for recipe. This way I don't need food coloring. I also added a heaping 1/8 t ground nutmeg for 3 qts. Also, I canned the filling in pints instead of quarts because I wanted it for turn overs & breakfast cakes instead of pies.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blueberry pie filling

Got those last tray of appricots from BJ's and made them into a mango apricot preserve. Used a whole box of Pomona pectin, as well as a whole big bag of Splenda, and just a little honey to add some 'stickyness'. Because they tend to darkem and oxidize, I also added some ascorbic acid to help retain the color. Just hear the last 'tink'. Made 7 pints and one half filled pint jar for the fridge. It set up very well and I was able to also save a few bits of the firmer apricots to add at the end, before they were poured into jars. Like to see a few pieces of real fruit in there. Next will be red raspberries, but I need to give them a few more weeks to ripen.

4 pints of spiced crab apple jelly.

We were suppose to have rainy weather all weekend. So I though it would be perfect for canning. We are having a nice sunny day. So much for that Doppler effect thing! I canned anyway.

I did make apple pie jam (14 half pints) and 7 half pints of roasted red pepper spread. I have some zukes and onions prepped for zucchini relish.

Right now I have the last of the zucchini relish in the BWB. It'll be 4 half pints and 3 pints when this round is out.

4 pints of spicy plum sauce - my own recipe - whee I'm getting a bit bolder - but used BBB as a guide - sort of.

Drying burgundy onions, celery seeds, ripe peppers (ristraus hung on the side of the house). We finally have some sun (at last), so dried a few plums and cherry toms - wish I had some more tomatoes now. There just wasn't enough heat - so chickens got most of them.

Picked another 20 or more Anna apples - that sauce was so tasty, perhaps I can keep them more solid this time. (hope burns eternal?). Will do tomorrow, as I promised GD some home made pizza and still have frozen dough to thaw.

The garden is slowing down - mostly zukes and peppers left, with a few bunches of Thompson grapes trying to ripen. Nice to have a rest! Someone over on the Fruit Forum mentioned making raisins - good idea.

Bejay

Picked 10 more pounds of yellow waxed beans today. Will trim off the stems, and cut, then blanch and freeze. That makes about 20 pounds of beans so far, and there are more coming.

8 pints of dilly beans
7 half pints Honey Lemon Jelly
14 half pints of Raspberry Mango Jam (thanks for the recipe)
18 half pints of Blueberry Jam

Rob

Not much.

Fermenting 3 pints of Datil peppers
2 days into drying 1 tray of Sungold tomatoes
ditto 1 tray Chocolate Habanero peppers
abt 1 pint bag of Biker Billy jalapeños in the freezer

Picked some ripe Fatalii and Bhut Jolokia pods today and plan to dehydrate them for powder.

Going to taste test the Bhut tomorrow. Put a case of Millers in the freezer just in case.

jt

Here is a link that might be useful: Hot

31 more pints of Annie's salsa
5 pounds of burgandy beans (freezer)
10 pounds of long beans (freezer)
20 quarts of tomatoes

I discovered that if you go on a business trip and no one picks the long beans, they turn into pretty good black-eyed-pea-type beans when shelled. Although the yield isn't great, the flavor is.

I've started using my Vita Mix for making Annie's salsa--that way I don't have to peel or seed the tomatoes, which saves a lot of time and effort--great with two little ones around. I let them drain in a mesh colander for a little while, to get some of the juice out. The final result is a little more pureed, but I chop the peppers and onions in the food processor and leave them a little chunkier for texture.

Leigh

Finally, something to post!

10 pounds of blueberries for the freezer, and I might pick more for jam.

11 quarts of Royal Burgundy beans, not fun but a necessity, and I had help snapping them anyway.

7 pints of Grandma's sweet relish, with the cucumbers going crazy pickles will be next.

Annie

5 batches of strawberry freezer jam(already 1/2 gone :(
1 batch of nectarine freezer jam
3 batches peach freezer jam
6 pints peach preserves
1 quart nectarine preserves
6 quarts sliced peaches
4 quarts tomato sauce (frozen)
4 quarts tomato juice (frozen)
5 quarts frozen whole tomatoes
3 trays of dried cherry toms
4 pints annies salsa

I think thats it so far. We are almost done with the peaches . I was going to pick the rest today and can them as halves. We go through a lot of jam (pb&j sandwiches for three kids and one kid at heart! ) The frozen jams will only last a couple of months especially wince we also use them on pancakes and waffles.

Whoo-hoo...you guys have been busy. I can see I have some catching up to do.

I'm just getting started. But I'm actually going to have my own tomatoes this year, and I'll have habaneros and jalapenos. Next year we're doubling our greenhouse. Green beans are blossoming, too.

I just packed the first of my Christmas gifts away...maybe 30 jars in all:

Two batches of strawberry jam
A batch of strawberry rhubarb jam
A batch of Rasp-Huckle jelly
Two batches of Strawberry Preserves with Black Pepper and Mint (better than I expected)
Two batches of Two Kinds of Apricots with Vanilla and Gewürztraminer (both those are from Mes Confitures...she likes long titles, hehe)

I added some zucchini to the frezer last night, 4 bags with 4 cups per bag, all grated and ready for zucchini bread. I had a bit left over so I made Ashley a Texas Sheet Cake with zucchini too, it was pretty good but certainly won't be "put up". LOL

Annie

Funny thing - just about the time everyone else is going full steam, we are beginning to slow down. Kind of looking forward to my "seed catalog time" just as others do in the winter.

But for now -

4 pints apples - looking better, I heated them, then got them into the jars fast, and they stayed a lot more firm - good!

1 pint apple sauce frozen.

4 pints pickled plums - may get a few more.

1 pint dried raisins.

2 pints zucchini puree freezer.

1/2 pint frozen salsa.

Cooler today, so will refresh sour dough starter, and give my new "bread enhancer" a chance to make a better loaf. The last one spread out too flat, but tasty.

Peppers ripening - must refresh my reading of the posts on JT's powdered peppers. Can't wait. Have several ristraus hanging.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

I think you summed it up well, Bejay. Today I made bread & butter pickles. I'm still waiting for the flood of tomatoes. They have been trickling in from my garden, but not enough to can yet. Have fun looking at the seed catalogs!

Maybe I'll make a zucchini cake tomorrow if I can find the recipe.

Guess I am getting to be very good at knowing how much stuff to use in making a jam. Today, I finally got to the rest of the blueberries the birds seemed to miss. I added a small bag of frozen wild blues, as well as a bag of dried blueberries. This, along with a single box of Pomona pectin, a little honey and Splenda as a sweetener, the consistancy was a syrup even before adding the pectin. The batch came out great and was even setting up on the ladle while it was being poured. The batch came out EXACTLY to 10 pints, with not a drop more left. Also found a site where Pomona pectin is on sale this month for $2.83 a box..

18 more Pints of Dilly Beans
7 qts yellow wax
18 pints Sweet Dill pickles
15 pints Sweet Chunks
numerous frozen beans, snow peas and sugar snaps.

I've been canning after work, so last night I canned 10 pints of bread and butter pickles, 7 pints of Dilled Beans and 7 quarts of green beans. One pint of the Dilled Beans broke in the canner, a "chunk" broke out of the side of the jar so it must have gotten clunked against something.

Tonight I have more beans to snap, and zucchini to grate for the freezer, as well as cucumbers for more sweet relish. Tomorrow night I plan to pick blueberries.

Annie

Zucchini, zucchini! My garden is putting out a lot of zucchinis this year. Like Annie I'll be grating zukes to put in the freezer for future use. I think I'll also be making more zucchini relish.

I seem to have been accident prone this week while cooking dinner and have a number of burns on my hands fingers and arms. Ouch! Nothing major - just some booboo-ouies to remind me that I'm a clutz. I'd like to wait for them to heal up a bit before I do more canning but don't think the garden will wait.

Anyway, I picked 3 zukes out of the garden yesterday and two more will be ready today or tomorrow. Broccoli will be blanched and put in the freezer tonight.

Happy canning!
Boo

Is that where BOOberry comes from? LOL

I didn't post my weekend work here yet:
7 quarts of corn in the freezer
17 quarts of Chase's Dills
7 pints of Sweet Pickle Spears (BBB)
5 pints of Linda Lou Sweet Chunks

Last night:
3 more quarts of wild blackberries frozen (3 or 4 previously)

Tonight I make the double batch of syrup for more Linda Lou's!!

Peaches and green beans this weekend with my mom!!

Deanna

So far this week,

10 qts crushed red tomatos
10 pts Honeyed Yellow Tomato Sauce (Ball Book)
7 pts Cantalope Preserves
7 pts spiced pickled carrots
3 pts roasted tomato pasta sauce

Susan in NC

LOL Deanna! I'm glad I wasn't cooking dinner when I read it. Now it shredding zukes!

14 1/2 pints of five pepper apricot jalapeno jelly,
41 quarts of cream corn and 40 ears on the cob,
31 quarts of black eye peas,
18 pints of black eye peas.
Salsa Thursday or Friday and okra every other day and I am tired already!

Add me to the drowning-in-zucchini club (and I'm the one who didnt' even PLANT any; it is all from two volunteer plants).

I think since I posted last it's 10 more loaves of zucchini bread in the freezer (cut into portions for winter breakfasts), two pints of shredded zucchini and a cup of pureed zucchini.

Yesterday I pulled one of the plants; it was getting sad looking at the base, was blocking a path and totally smothering the leeks in the next bed, and had no new female flowers on it at the time. It was time for it to go, and I figured it was slowing down anyway (they do tend to go nuts for a few weeks, then poop out). The other one is still going. It'll probably last till the Scalloped squash I planted July 1 start producing in a few weeks....

Zabby

Wish I had noticed the blues that were left next to my shed. They are the smaller sweeter ones, and would have been good to use in the bluberry preserves. Guess no one noticed the post I made about the low cost of Pomona, I got on sale.. Found some regular jar lids for 50 cents a box marked as clearance.

I noticed the post Ken.
I bought the big bag last year, so have LOTS left!
Where did you find it on sale? Online or locally? The lids? Same question!!
Deanna

4 pints blueberry lime jam, 2 pints tart cherry jam, 3 pints strawberry lemon freezer jam (lots of lemon zest -- yum!).

I like to make jam for flavoring my homemade yogurt. Hope to squeeze in some peach, apricot, & plum jam before resuming work in 2 weeks.

The lids were from supermarkets at the reduced shelves. The Pomona was from Frankferd Farms in PA. They offer quite a huge variety of organic foods, and shipped to me in 3 days. Their web site had the PDF catalog of foods, but they haven;t set up a secure site to order from on the internet. I called them by phone and placed the order instead. The cost for shipping was quite reasonable, but I did order 10 pounds of bread flour as well. The company is similar to another I found in upstate New York. Where else can you find sugarless angle food cake mix in bulk. Sale price on the Pomona is only for August.

Here is a link that might be useful: Frankferd Farms

14 quarts of roasted veggie/tomato sauce (pressure canned)
3 gallon bags of mixed peppers, frozen

Baby food (pureed and frozen)
-Sweet potatoes
-chicken
-peaches

4 quarts vegetable soup (frozen)

Leigh

Second year canning - I couldn't do it without you!

6 pts. sweet pickle chunks - Linda Lou
9 pts. marinated peppers - Linda Lou
10 pts. hot hungarian pickled peppers (2 recipes - 5 ea.)
29 qts. and 19 pts. Annie's salsa
17 1/2 pts. 5 pepper jelly

Yum! My first year for the pickles and they are good. My cucumbers did terrible and I can't make any more. I made 16 1/2 pts. of 5 pepper jelly last year and ran out half way through the winter so I'm making more. People are asking for Annie's salsa all the time so I have to make more of it too. I am so thankful for this site and these tried and true recipes that make me look like an expert canner. Thanks!

5 pints Chow Chow
7 pints Pickled Beets

20 lbs saurkraut fermenting

Not too bad for a sorta beginner I think!

Previously:
8 pints of dilly beans
7 half pints Honey Lemon Jelly
14 half pints of Raspberry Mango Jam (thanks for the recipe)
18 half pints of Blueberry Jam

Today I made 6 & 1/2 pints of zucchini relish and right now I'm cooking down some tomato basil sauce. I have another round of tomato basil ingredients chopped up and ready to cook down too.

I have lots of tomatoes at the moment. So I'll be making Annie's Salsa and maybe some chili sauce tomorrow.

It has been DILL PICKLE MADNESS lately at my house! I managed to put up 20 quarts and a leftover pint. My recipe (which I once won the Utah State Fair with, thank you very much!) comes from a dear friend's grandmother, and it is just the best. I wrote a whole long post about it on my blog if anyone wants to check it out. The recipe is there and a picture. Here's the link:
http://lindseysluscious.blogspot.com/2007/08/pickle-party-and-everyones-invited.html

--Gina

Here is a link that might be useful: Lindsey's Luscious

Hmmm - I thought it was all about to come to an end, but - here's a few more - (addicting for sure).

6 qts. pinto beans.
2 pts. pumpkin puree (freeze).
1 qt. chunky tomato (freeze).
2 qts. zucchini (freeze) for bread.
4 half pints cooked salsa (freeze).
2 half pints macadamia nuts - hulled/frozen.

Peppers, peppers - pimento, Thai, Anaheim, habaneros - drying for enchilada sauce and powders later.

4 bunches red onions dried/braid.

Bejay

8 pints apricots
47 pints peaches
14 pints green beans
47 quarts green beans
9 pints Linda Lou Sweet Chunks
4 12 oz. jars of pickled cherry tomatoes
25 ears corn (freeze)

Ain't life grand??!!?!?!?
Deanna

Gee, here is just starting. I will have a lot of apples and soon the tomatoes will be getting riper. I just planted another crop of peas and hope these grow well for the fall crop.

bejay, I see your zukes are still keeping you hopping, too!

I am about to pull my second volunteer plant up, as it's pretty much pooping out, just as the plants I actually DID plant myself --- two Sunburst scallop squash --- are starting to bud....

Congrasts on the busy time to you and everyone!

Zabby, who spent the last two weekends in the garden --- tying up tomatoes, managing her six compost piles (didn't buy any manure or compost at all this year!), and rescuing weeding some pretty far-gone neglected areas from weed heck --- and is ready to get back into the kitchen now the tomatoes are starting to pour in....

10 qts butternut squash in the freezer today with about 30 more to go! Yes, I over did it with the butternut planting. I have eight perfect specimans that I didn't cook cause I want to enter them in the Fair. I have about 30-40 more out in the garden ripening.

Making another batch of cantelope preserves tomorrow.

Harvested my first ever Indian Corn, they are gorgeous. I will try and post a picture of them in the next couple of days.

Only got 3 pie pumpkins off a huge patch of pumpkin planting, have no idea what happened but the plants grew but never made flowers?

Planted cabbage, turnips, rutabaga, beets and broccoli this morning at 6:30 am. Don tilled for me yesterday. Starting my therapy for my accident injury this week so no tilling for me. I am still out of work.

Ok, now I am just rambling....

Susan

Susan,

That is odd about the pumpkin, because they tend to like similar conditions to the butternut squash, so it seems odd the latter is happy and the former is a dud this year! Go figure. (SOmetimes lots of green but no flowers/fruit is a sign of too much nitrogen --- I don't know if there was anything that fertilized the pumpkins but not the squash that might've been nitrogen-heavy? Just one possibility.)

But the harvest sounds great nonetheless. And good for you for planting those fall veggies. I rarely can get my head back into a planting space by mid-summer so I often don't get much more than a quick crop of lettuce in. I am just in harvest mode!!!

But I saw Ken planted a fall pea crop the other day and with you getting all those goodies in maybe I"ll be inspired to do a bit of fall planting....

Hope your recovery is swift!

Zabby

Thanks Zabby, I love my cool weather crops. Here in North Carolina we can get 2 plantings of cool crops. My Spring crops were devoured by a woodchuck-groundhog. We now have an electric fence so I hope to get a good harvest this time around. I am way done with tomatos! They are getting tilled in this weekend, I always plant them too close and end up with a jungle.

I planted the pumpkins in newly turned over ground that had grass in it so you could be right about the nitrogen, the squash was planted in previously gardened ground.

I will be putting spinach in in about 2 more weeks, we are still in the mid 90's here and I think it is too hot to start spinach.

Susan

I just added 18 quarts of peaches in light syrup, six half-pints of peach jam, and 8 quarts of shredded zucchini (frozen).

I'm trading away half of the peaches to a neighbor in exchange for use of some of her freezer space (I think I am going to have to just go get a freezer of my own and find somewhere to stick it). I already have 30+ lbs of blueberries in there and now I need somewhere to put all the zucchini.

Tomorrow I will tackle peach salsa, peach chutney and perhaps some more pesto.

Maiaa, I give you permission. Go buy yourself a freezer. You deserve it. You've earned it. It is best for your family and yourself. You will save money.

9 and 1/2 half-pints of wild Maine blueberry jam. I used only sugar and blueberries per the BBB recipe, and it came out perfectly, unlike last year's blackberry mishap. As soon as it gelled on the spoon a tiny bit I stopped the cooking, and it gelled perfectly in the jars. Hooray!

Should we start a new thread for this subject? Its getting quite large and looks like it could go on a lot longer? Someone take the ball (or canner) and run with it??