It's been a good year for the gardens! This is what I put up so far and there is more to go. My husband is the "farmer" and I'm the "farmer's wife":

CANNED IN BOILING WATER BATH
45 quarts of tomato puree
27 half pints of raspberry jam
22 half pints of apple butter
6 half pints of peach jam
3 quarts of peach slices in light syrup

DRIED IN DEHYDRATOR
2 quarts of "sun dried" tomatoes
2 quarts of apple slices
1 quart of peach slices
2 quarts of italian beans
2 quarts of hot peppers (cayenne and match box)

IN FREEZER SHRUNK WRAPPED USING "FOOD SAVER"
4 trays of breaded and oven fried eggplant
3 quarts of raspberries
9 loaves of zucchini bread
3 dozen zucchini muffins
6 dozen peach muffins
(some of baked goods eaten already)

PICKLED, ETC
4 half pints of eggplant condite in olive oil

GARTOPF 10L PICKLING CROCK
This morning I put 8 lbs of cucumbers into my new Gartopf pickling crock. This is my first try at fermented pickles!

My semi retired husband has over 150 raspberry bushes and has been selling 25 - 40 half pints each day at a farm stand for $2.00 each!

Lisa, what a great pantryful of goodies you've got! You sure became a serious canner fast. Congratulations.

judydel, impressive list, and GREAT photos---thanx for sharing them! (If you're the farmer's wife, do you have "Judydel" as your user name 'cos you are the "Farmer in the Dell" ? ;-p )

I did my pearsauce finally; as planned, I put in a few drops of vanilla and simmered it with some ginger, but it seemed still a little lacking in something, so I added a little cinnamon as well. Lovely.

2 pints
8 half-pints

I also did another double batch of Annie's salsa with what might be the last good picking of tomatoes:

4 pints
16 half-pints
(one of them really a 3/4 pint, straight into the fridge so a) we could eat some soon and b) I could fit the rest into the canners!)

That's 20, so I'm up to.... 149!!!!!!!!!!!

Gotta can at least one more tomato thing to get past 150!!!!!!!!!!!!

I still have about 8 lbs toms from this last picking, some sitting out to finish ripening but some going into the freezer while I go out of town for a few days....

Z
P.S. Oh, and I put up two two-cup bags of frozen corn. I never put up enough of it, somehow, but I'm glad I'll have a little at least

The tomatoes have slowed down. We are still getting a few, and a lot more ripening on the vines, but we just eat them as they ripen, so no canning. So unlike Zabby, I only have 30 some jars, not 150! I am not sure I would have storage space for 150 jars!

However, the figs are starting to ripen. Two large very old fig trees and they are so late this year. So I am drying figs. I have 1 quart already, hopefully will get many more. We found out drying is our favorite way to preserve figs. We dried over 30 lbs lat year, this year I am hoping for more since I ran out sometime in the spring.

I'm really fortunate that my dh built a room in the basement that is for food preservation. It holds hundreds of jars of canned good, a couple of freezers, and our dehydrator. I've canned lots of vegetables from the garden, made some relishes (my favorite is a pepper relish to which I add a few jalapenos), pickled green beans and pickled lots of other things. One of the most popular new-to-me things I've put up this year is candied jalapenos. The guys at my dh's workplace can't get enough of them, and lots of family members are preserving them, too.

Our tomato crop has been good this year, so I've canned salsas, juices, sauces, etc., but pretty much my favorite way to can tomatoes is to simply crush them and pressure can them. Then I can use them as I see fit.

I haven't got into dehydrating vegetables so much (I'm thinking about using it more), but I do love me some jerky!

I have a few gallons of kraut fermenting in the basement. And I've made gallons of juices (steam juicer) which my husband intends to use to make wine this winter after all the outdoor stuff slows down.

Yesterday I canned 6 pints of crushed tomatoes, 11 pints of applesauce (really more like crushed apple stew), and 12 pints of green beans. The garden is starting to slow down except for the fall stuff like the mustard, collard, and turnip greens, and although I miss it when it does, I also look forward to other things during the late fall and winter -- like knitting and sewing!

I really like to can "convenience foods" and put up lots of meats, stews, etc. One of my favorite things is to can quarts of chicken/turkey soup (with carrots, celery, and onions) and then on a rushed day I am able to open the jar, whip up a batch of dumplings and voila.

Well, I've rambled on enough. But thanks for listening. :)

Judi

Things are just about finished here,so except for some various small batch things here and there my final total is.
52 quarts green beans
12 quarts yellow beans
28 pints corn
9 pints potatoes (some older ones that were stating to sprout)
14 quarts tomato juice
25 pints tomato sauce
27 pints pizza sauce
26 pints & 15 half pints annies salsa
16 pints &2 half pints ketchup
11 pints carrots
7 pints pickled beets
6 pints sauerkraut fermenting
7 pints pickle relish
7 quarts & 2 pints pie cherries
7 quarts peaches
7 pints blueberries
5 pints stawberry applesauce
7 pints peachbutter
8 half pints currant jelly
6 half pints raspberry jelly
8 half pints strawberry jam
13 half pints blueberry jam
4 half pints blueberry jelly
I have snap peas, broccoli,peppers and whole tomatoes in the freezer and Ive dehydrated, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, bananas pineapple,oranges herbs, and brocolli.
with all we had left from last years we're sitting pretty good.

Z . . . wow that's a lot of tomatoes! I wish I put up salsa, something to do for next year I suppose : )

And no, judydel isn't for "farmer in the del" . . . although that works too!! Del is part of our Italian last name.

I must say I'm SO IMPRESSED with everyone's tally of food "put up". It's so great to find a forum doing the same stuff I do : ) I've been posting photos of what I can, etc. on my FaceBook and by the comments I get it appears I'm the only one in my network of friends that makes this part of their lifestyle. It's so important, in my opinion. Especially since big agri-business is becoming more and more powerful and less and less nutritious ; (

MADE IT!
To my 150 jars of tomato stuff, that is.

Last night I canned the roasted tomato sauce from Ellie Topp's book. We ate some with pasta before I got as far as canning; I only ended up with

2 pints
1 half-pint

But that puts me over my 150-jar goal.

And it looks like there's actually one more good picking of tomatoes out in my garden still --- if it stops pouring long enough for me to harvest them.

Also put up last night

4 jars pears & peaches
3 jars just peaches

(I was very excited as it's been several weeks since you could get peaches around here, other than imported from California, but a friend visited a few days ago from a slightly warmer region of Ontario and brought me a big batch of a late variety, bought right from the farmer!)

cabrita,

I'm very lucky in that the old home we bought when we moved to this small town about 6 years ago has a pantry off of the kitchen! It's also the laundry room, so much of it is taken up by the washer and dryer, but up above there is still quite a bit of shelving. I love it so much! Not only does it give me a place to store my preserved goods (and the empty jars as we use the goods), but it gives me a place to keep my canner and other equipment (giant stock pot, boxes of rings & lids, etc.) where it's not taking up a lot of room in the kitchen but is near to hand when I want to use it.

I am really hate hauling out and putting away that kind of thing; when I had to go down to the basement for both canner and canned goods in our old townhouse it did make a difference in how likely I was to get around to putting up a batch of something, or using it!

Those dried figs sound great. Drying figs to preserve them is a tradition going back literally thousands of years---think of it, you're doing the same kitchen chores as ancient Egyptians did! Cool.

Judydel,

My 150 jars seems like a lot of tomatoes to me, too (and I keep finding excuses to walk past the pantry door and peer in to admire them!) but I read some of the other posters' lists and I am just in awe! Luckily, it's not a contest LOL.

I gotta say, salsa isn't something I went through a lot of before I started canning. I'd get the odd jar when planning Mexican food, and the leftovers would go mouldy in the fridge. Then I discovered this forum, which led me to Annie's great recipe, to my whole family falling in love with said recipe and demanding jars of it every year, AND to my learning the great tip that you can turn the salsa into a last-minute meal by adding a can of drained black beans --- instant Mexican-style soup! I also often add fresh or frozen corn, maybe a little extra tomato sauce to soften the tang of the vinegar. It's been a life-saver meal for me on many an occasion---homemade soup in an instant even without a pressure canner!

Z

Well I'd love to do more, but I'm thankful I was able to carve out some time to do some salsa.
8 1/2 pints of plum tomato salsa - extra yum!
6 1/2 pints banana jam - yum!
5 1/2 pints carrot orange marmelade
6 1/2 pints mixed fruit chutney (not so yum)

I can't remember if I mentioned the 6 1/2 pints peach salsa I made or the 4 1/2 pints mixed pepper salsa, 6 1/2 plum walnut jam and I have a little bit of blueberry lime leftover from my canning classes.

I think more tomatoes for sauce or salsa is just a pipe dream, but I might be able to get some applesauce done before the end of the season. I have a lot of things competing for my time this year, sadly.

7 quarts Bartintosh Sauce - Bartlett Pears and MacIntosh apples. If I call it pear-apple sauce, my daughter won't ear it. But if I call it Bartintosh Sauce, she will gobble it up - just like she gobbles up Strawpple Sauce!

In addition to my previous list . . .
My husband brought in the last of the Speckled Roma tomatoes so I ended up making 4 pints of Annie's Salsa after all. And Z, my son suggested I add corn off the cob and black beans like you do to the salsa. So I added the corn and beans to the recipe and then froze the pints.

Our second planting of Italian beans are ready now so I continue to dehydrate them. I am also continuing to dehydrate and freeze apples. I get to the bottom of the basket and my husband fills it right back up again.

Last night I also froze 5 cups of chocolate raspberry sauce!

Ciao all-

My goodness, I'm always so impressed at the organization and love of inventory in this thread. I haven't counted jars and I got started rather late this season.

Freezer Produce in FoodSaver bags

Mixed Asian Vegetables for Stir Fry
Kale, LOTS of Kale
Succotash Mix
Shredded Zucchini
Chard Leaves
Chard Stems
Diced Chilies

Tomatoes

Ketchup
Paste
V-8 Juice
Whole Tomatoes in Water

Pickles

Dilled Romano Beans
Whole Chilies
Chile Pepper Rings for Nachos
Garlic

Basil

Purple Petra Jelly
Magical Michael Jelly
Pepper-Basil Jelly
Genovese Pesto - in tubs in freezer

Eggplant

Baba Ghanouj - in tubs in freezer
Caponata

Fruit in Freezer Tubs

Golden Plum Halves
Blackberries
Blackcurrants
Redcurrants
Golden Raspberries

Entrees Pressure-Canned

Caldo Verde Portuguese Soup (good use of kale)
Minestrone
Jambalaya (using broadleaf thyme)

Sauces

Lasagne Sauce
White Tomato-Lemon Sauce for Seafood
Roasted Tomato Sauce with Sausage
Marinara Sauce

Savoury Jellies

Roasted Garlic Jelly
Peach Habanero-Golden Raspberry Jelly
Red Pepper-Balsamic Jelly

Vinegar

Magical Michael Basil Vinegar
Tarragon Vinegar

That's it right now. Still on deck are these if the season allows:

Mexican Beef and Beans
Chicken Marengo
Pressure-canned Whole Chilies in Water
Pressure-canned Roasted, Skinned NuMex Chilies
Potato-Leek Soup
Italian Tomato Sauce using Last Year's Puree (fresh herbs being the only question here)

frozn corn: 3 more two-cup bags
[I always mean to put up more corn, this year included. Sigh]

chicken stock: a two-cup container and a half-dozen 1/3-cup "pucks" made in the muffin tin pan
[nothing makes one feel ready for winter better than having stock put up in the freezer!]

Hey, Sorellina! I've been wondering how you were doing. You are looking very well provisioned. As you can tell, my tomato garden did very well this year despite my late start, thanks to the weather and to your lovely seedlings!

Judydel, oh, that'll make a lovely southwest-y salsa! (And both those things are easy to add after you open the jar, if you want to can it.) Remember, you can use it as an emergency soup, too. I call "Southwestern Style Tomato Soup" and nobody knows it's just salsa thinned out a little. ;-)

lpinkmountain,
mmm, plum-walnut! Are there pieces of walnut in that jam or is it walnut flavouring?

Cheers,

Z

6 pints of Billbird's Roasted Garlic Salsa (love the smokey flavor!)
1 gallon bag of chiles in the freezer

I think I'm done w/ 'mater products this year. Now it's on to apples...

Sorellina I see you freeze your swiss chard. How does it come out? Do you blanch it first? We have a bunch that will start to jump again now in the cooler weather.

I also seperate my chard and chard stems for freezing like Sorellina - I blanch the chard and the stems, and we find they turn out beautifully but darken like chard tends to do when cooked. Delicious chopped into your canned tomatoes for soups and pasta sauces all winter. We use the chard stems in soups - and even as the soup base. Once well cooked we puree them for a thicker soup base. It's so tasty and healthy!

I was just looking back over the calendar and wanted to share my canning list. Here's my count for September.

7 pts blackberry cordial
8 1/4 pints pimentos
4 pts dilly beans
7 1/2 pints carrot cake jam
9 pints Ball 3-bean salad w/lima beans
8 pints " " " w/ kidney beans
16 pints green/yellow beans
9 pints USDA 3-bean salad recipe
5 pints bread & butter pickles
7 quarts carrots
7 quarts peach applesauce
16 1/2 pint & 5 pints cucumber relish
9 pints strawberry applesauce
12 pints pickled beets
41 quarts of "grape" juice regular and lower sugar
4 pints of grape jelly
4 1/2 pints grape jelly w/o pectin added
6 pints of spiced peach syrup

All I can say is amen Caboodle and I'm jealous of your basement! :)

Zabby the plum walnut "jam" has real walnuts in it and frankly the recipe was so NOT worth the trouble it took to make it. It was a long cooked jam, extremely high in sugar content, so the end results, while good, just taste like caramel sugar with a bit of plum flavor to me. Is very good spread on whole wheat toast and in PB&J's too. And, to make things worse, all the walnuts settled to the top when I was canning it, so I inverted the jars hoping the walunt pieces would slowly ooze down into the warm jam. Well, instead it set up really hard with a 1/2 inch empty space at the BOTTOM of the jar and now the jam refuses to settle back down there, so it doesn't make for a good "gift" jam either!! I can only hold out hope that I will have time for a batch of italian plum jam with orange, which is what I love. I used the red skinned plums for that other jam, and their canning flavor is just "meh" IMHO.

lpinkmountain,

LOL! I have to chuckle imagining your jams "floating" a half-inch above the bottom of the jar! Maybe you can make some specialty labels and give it away as "magic jam"! ;-)

Thanks for the review of the recipe. I saw a recipe for a concord-type grape conserve with raisins & walnuts that sounded like a fine thing for serving with fruit and cheese and crackers, and I was imagining something like that. I guess I'll hold out for next year's grape season!

berrybusy,

You have lived up to your user name! Busy indeed. Congratulations on your impressive list....

Z

Plum jam with orange sounds interesting, not that I have anymore plums left.

I'm finally to the jam/jellies (though do still have pears, green tomatoes and potatoes to deal with).

Last night it was Apple/Maple jam and Cinnamon Anise Jelly. With the first, it seems to taste "funny" until you identify the flavor as Maple. I think it would be great on pancakes though. I really like the other one.

I've got about 8 more jam/jellies to make with fresh produce, and then I can start on the fruit I froze earlier this year. Most of this is for gifts, DH and I rarely eat jam.

The figs from the two old trees are really coming in now!

So I keep drying them, but have the larger dryer taken up by herbs and the little Ronco is smaller than I need. I made fig jam - first time for us - because some were going to go to waste otherwise. So:

So far, 4 quart bags dried figs, and
19 half pints fig jam

The peppers are also coming in, so:

1/2 pint jar powdered smoked and dehydrated pepper mix: mostly pequins with some sweet peppers to tame it a bit.

I have done this before but I am always amazed that a whole tray of peppers now fits into a little 1/2 pint jar!

More peppers and figs will be coming in. The chayotes (mirlitons) are next! (they pickle really well).

Nothing to compare with most of you, but I'm proud to report

30 half-pints of blackberry jam (used/gave away about half of these already)
1 pint of apples in light syrup (for NCHFP course - ate them already)
1 pint of raw-packed whole tomatoes for NCHFP course (ate them already)
1 pint of hot-packed whole tomatoes for NCHFP course (ate them already)
20 pints of Annie's salsa (but we've eaten 8 of those)
6 halfpints of Annie's salsa for gifting
4 Classico jars and 4 pints of Ellie Topp's Chunky Tomato Basil sauce (used/gave away the pints already)
6 pints of tomato juice (none left)
4 half-pints of Ellie Topp's Fiery Yellow Pepper Salsa (used hot red peppers though, sweet yellow pepper)
7 pints of kosher dills (plus multiple jars that went straight to family refrigerators, at least 6 pints I'd say)
3 quarts of Linda Ziedrich's Really Quick Dills (pasteurized)
7 pints of Linda Ziedrich's Bread and Butters My Way (plus 3 pints that went straight to fridge)
multiple jars (maybe 8-9 pints) of my own bread and butter fridge pickles - my dad took half of these
1 quart of Linda Ziedrich's Half-Sours (the best!)
6 halfpints of apple butter
6 half pints of low-sugar apple butter

1 pint of wild blueberries (bad year), 9 quarts of blackberries and 4.5 quarts of shredded zucchini in the freezer

More apple butter (our apples aren't pretty enough for apple pie jam) and maybe a couple pints of Cowboy Candy coming soon (I have a pound of jalapenos I bought specifically to make this).

Up to 162 jars of tomato stuff!

Some years we have frost by now, but so far so good, and the 'mater plants are still churning out.

This morning I did

3 pints
7 half-pints

Roasted Vegetable Pasta Sauce from Ellie Topp's book.

There was about another half-pint's worth leftover but that was all the jars I had so we ate the leftover for lunch with some pasta and spicy sausage. Yum!

I've decided I really like this sauce. It's easier to make than the Chunky Herb Pasta Sauce (it takes as long or longer total time because you roast the veggies for 45 minutes, but there's no chopping; just peel the peppers (easy to do after roasting), then throw it all in the blender. I find chopping tomatoes such a mess! And to my taste the flavour's better.

The sauce also comes out a nice, thick texture even with no cooking down (you cook it 15 minutes only, with the lid ON).

The balsamic vinegar the recipe calls for came on a bit strong, I found, in the first batch (1/4 cup in a 3 1/2-cup batch), so for this quadruple batch I used a combination of mostly red wine vinegar and lemon juice instead, with just a splash of balsamic. I liked the result much better.

So much that I think this will become my main go-to pasta sauce.

I might need to make some more! Better get some more jars....

Z

169!

Just did more crushed tomatoes:

6 pints
1 half-pint

Also apple-pear sauce:

7 pints
1 half-pint

Clearly I've had a busy season because I've been hurtin' for jars. Got some more pints this a.m. but the HW store was out of half-pints; will try grocery tonight.

Picked all the tomatoes that had any hint of colour on them to ripen on the porch. I think that's the last serious tomato picking of the year.

Z

Ooh, I'm going to have to try the Roasted Veggie sauce next year.

I picked *everything* out of the garden tonight before it freezes. Made 2 pints and 2 halfpints of apple butter yesterday, made pectin with the peels and cores, let it sit in the fridge overnight but it really didn't get any clearer. So canned 12oz of pectin today, used 8oz plus 1 lb frozen strawberries (and 1C sugar) to make jam, canned 12oz of that and put about 3 oz in fridge.

Pickles tomorrow!

froze

6 quart bags broccoli
4 pint bags corn

Z

This last weekend was mostly jam and jelly

Apple Pie Jam
Carrot Cake Jam
Cinnamon Pear Jam
Apple Conserve
Ginger Pear Marmalade
Apple Jelly
Tomato Basil Jelly
Hot Tomato Jelly
Habenaro Gold (turned out really hot)
Apple Maple Jam
Cinnamon Anise Jelly

And to finish off the last of the harvest -

Green tomato mincemeat
Pear Mincemeat
Apple Relish
Apple Pie filling
Enchilada Sauce

Got a few more bags of chopped green pepper for the freezer too.

And because I found mangoes on sale while picking up some ingredients for the jam.

Mango sauce

At this point, I'm about done with the canning for the fall harvest season. But I've got a bunch of frozen berries, fruit and tomatoes in case I get the desire to do more.

Cathy

4 half pints of tomatillo salsa are in the canning pot right now. I had bought some of those cute decorative wide mouth half pint jars. So that is what the salsa verde is in!

Just finished dehydrating 4 trays of Columnar Basil. Love that variety for powder and flakes. Bred to never flower or go to seed and propagated by cuttings. Does really well indoors during the winter and outdoors in my low light jungle garden in summer.

I don't use much in my cooking, but is fun to mix with tomato powder, vinegar powder etc and sprinkle on maybe chicken breast or pizza.

Interesting comment about the roasted tomato sauce Zabby. I debated on whether to make it or not, but I'm going with the chunky basil for the last of my tomato crop since I already bought the basil. If I have any tomatoes left, I've been sick all day and the toms are molding.

4.5 pints of italian style tomato sauce from the Ball Book. Four hours, four and a half pints. It was SO NOT WORTH it! And two pints didn't seal after all was said and done so went into the freezer. I hate frozen sauce, because I can't spoon a dab of it into anything as I cook. The jars ended up covered with hard water dust. If I ever do tomato sauce again, it will be AFTER I get a food mill. I have a press/sieve type one and it wasn't up to the task.

> The jars ended up covered with hard water dust.

I add some vinegar to the canner water and it does help with the residue. 4 hours is a long time though. I'm thinking you already know abt vinegar.

Yeah, I FORGOT to add the vinegar. I didn't process them for four hours, it just took me four hours start to finish. My canner is getting pretty grody too. I hate that! I've already soaked it in Lime-Away.

What an inspiring thread to read! Congratulations Zabby on achieving your tomato goal. I never did get back to canning salsa, roasted garlic tomato basil soup or chunky basil tomato sauce. The salsa and soup were the most critical and I just never was able to get tomatoes when I was able to can them. Between my DH and FIL, I ended up canning things they requested. I have used all of my pint jars and only have quarts and half pints left.

To add to my previous list:

10 quarts beets
9 pints 4 bean salad
20 pints apple butter
20 pints spiced pears (I used pears instead of apples as my FIL gave me a bushel of pears from his tree)

Can anyone explain why you cannot use quart jars for the spiced apples (or pears in my case)? With 12 cups of sugar and 1 1/2 cups of vinegar, I thought that would be sufficient for quart jars. My only other guess is density.

Put up about 2/3 bushel of sweet red peppers.

Roasted about half and froze them in 6 not-too-full-so-they-don't-all-mush-together one-quart Ziplocs.

Chopped the other half into strips and froze them in another 6 pretty-darned-full one-quart Ziplocs.

Was left with about 6 peppers, so I'm ready to make another batch of roasted veggie pasta sauce with the 'maters that have ripened since I picked the lot.

afeisty,
You are a good soul, canning the requests from your family. (I've given away a few jars of salsa, etc., but mostly I've been canning for me, me, ME! ;-) ) Of course I only reached my 150+ jars of tomato sauce because I can mostly in small jars! But it feels good to know I will probably get through the year w/o having to buy tomato products. We're trying to eat more beans and vegetables, and everyone knows you need a lot of tomatoes to make them taste good!

lpinkmountain,
The roasted tomato sauce preference over the chunky basil in the Ellie Topp book is of course just my personal taste. But if others on the forum make both I'd be interested to hear what they think!

With me what gets grody is the rack in the canner. It's a cheap cake-cooling rack, NOT stainless steel, and if I forget to take it out of the water (or pour out the water) as soon as the jars come out, it rusts a little and the canning water gets icky and... yuck. Gonna splurge on a KitchenKraft ss one soon! But foodsaver first....

john,
I love columnar basil, too! I haven't gotten it to last through a whole winter, but I can nurse a pot of it well into January, which is more than I've ever managed with any other variety. Alas, I don't have your skill with propagating cuttings. And it's not that easy to find around here; a few years ago there was a bit of a fad for it, you could get seedlings at the big grocery chain in the spring, but the garden fashionistas seem to have moved on to other varieties, alas.

Z

Hi Zabby,

> Alas, I don't have your skill with propagating cuttings.

Columnar basil is a piece of cake. It is the easiest to root cutting ever and doesn't require 'over the counter' rooting hormones or natural ones such as 'willow water'. A really tough one is Mexican Oregano (Lippia graveolins) I'm lucky to get 60-70% success. Seed germination is 1% at best and why I go with cuttings.

Pretty sure I still have your mailing address someplace and will be happy to mail you some rooted cuttings next spring.

Rooting, air-layering, grafting same species to great rootstock and interspecies grafting are so much fun to mess with.

j

zabby - I had been putting off "splurging" on a stainless steel canning rack. But then I found that I could get one on amazon for $15. So it really wasn't a splurge at all. I know you are in Canada, so not sure how pricing would work for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Stainless Steel Canning Rack

john,

Indeed, you were good enough to share some Mexican oregano seedlings with me once---DH still talks in awe about your seedling packaging job! ;-)

I'll bug you in the spring about the basil, thanks for the offer! If I can find some here, I'll ask for advice on rooting a few new cuttings myself. If I can't find any maybe you can ship me some via an American relative or something....

Pixielou,

Thanks for the link! I guess that's a splurge compared to the $1 I spent on my cake-rack-substitute one, and considering the canner itself cost under $20. But it's probably within reach, esp. if I need something else from Amazon and can reach the free shipping threshold. Shipping sthg like that to Canada isn't usually worth it but I can have it shipped to my American SIL and pick it up when visiting....

Z

3.5 pints of Chunky Tomato Sauce with fresh Basil from "Small Batch Preserving." I actually made about 4.5 pints but didn't have a jar ready for that last pint so I froze it. I like the chunky style sauce so much better than the sauce that gets put through a sieve! I also don't mind some seeds in my sauce. This stuff not only was way easier to make than the Ball Blue Book Italian style recipe, it tasted better too. I had to cheat and use canned San Marzano tomatoes for the last two cups! I lost quite a few of the tomatoes I picked to mold. But I totally love canning with romas!
I think that is going to have to be it for me with tomatoes. I would love to do more but I need to get a life. Well actually I need to get a job! "I don't want to work, I just want to bang on the jars all day!" I have a serious problem, my canning is interfering with my life! I think I need "Canners Anonymous." I'm just addicted to that good tasting homeade stuff!
About the only thing left I will allow myself is maybe some applesauce! I already bought the apples . . . Just back away from those plums Lpink!

5 more quarts dried figs.

14 1/2 pints more fig jam.

7 half pints Habanero fig jam - Like Habanero gold jelly made with figs and without pectin. It came out reddish from the red peppers, so I am just calling it habanero-fig jam.

1 gallon bag sauteed sweet potato greens in freezer.

Couple of boxes of sweet potatoes curing....can't wait to eat some!

lpink,

I love canning with romas too! I've been growing a huge mix of heirloom types since I started gardening---it's wanting to try a big variety of tomatoes that got me growing so many plants, and having a lot of plants for a small household that got me canning in the first place. But this year I didn't have time to start seedlings, so just I bought a big flat of roma seedlings from a nursery, and also a dozen San Marzano ones. I did get a dozen or so heirloom seedlings from a specialty place.

Well, I really love how easy the paste tomatoes are to handle, peel, and thicken up! Next year I think I'll go for something like half and half roma types and heirlooms.

Good luck with that life thing, though I hope you don't get so busy with a boring job that we don't hear from you....

Z

Hi everyone, I am new to canning this year and having a blast!!! I hope everyone is welcome to join here?
I started canning as a way to take the preservatives from my sons diet. ( He has ADHD)

This year I have put up
23 pints salsa
7 quarts salsa
17 pints sweet relish
5 half pints sweet relish
8 pints cinnamon pickles
4 quarts tomato sauce
3 pints tomato sauce
12 pints peach butter
5 half pints peach butter
11 pints peach sauce
11 half pints papple butter (not misspelled, don't ask you wouldn't believe me. lol)
3 quarts papple sauce
2 pints papple sauce
11 pints triple berry jam
7 half pints triple berry jam
11 quarts apple sauce
9 pints apple sauce
5 pints strawberry preserves
7 half pints strawberry preserves

Thank you for such a great forum to find information on. The lady at the extension office knows my voice already! lol

2010 so far... may do some potatoes, not sure yet, definitely going to PC some venison and maybe some duck/goose

PRESSURE CANNED
36 pt creamed corn
24 pt kernal corn
17 pt diced or coined carrots
12 pt frenched green beans

BWB
32 pt kosher pickled green beans
5 pts bread and butter beans ( experiment)
4 pts bread and butter green tomatoes (experimental)
19 pt dill green tomatoes
6 pt kosher dill green tomatoes
6 pt kosher dill green tomatoes with garlic
11 pt dill pickles
6 pt kosher dill pickles
9 qt dill pickles

dogwood star,

You bet everyone is welcome to join in!

Congratulations on what looks like a great pantryful of goodies, which I'm sure you son will appreciate.

So, what's in "papple" sauce? Pear/apple? Peach/apple? Pineapple/apple? All of the above?

Cheers,

Z

Z,

Like I said you will not believe me, lol. A close friend of mine's great G-Pa grafted a pear and apple tree together a very long time ago and it worked. I know it is not suppose to but these things a GREAT! They have the crispness and meat of an apple, but the taste, core and skin of a pear. We have told a few people about them but they don't believe us and say it is not possible, they must be Asian pears. But they are not, lol.

Jamie

Jamie,

I have no trouble believing you that it's a fruit that combines features of both pear and apple! Though I admit I'm jealous I don't live nearby so I can't try it. Very cool!

But are you sure it was grafting? I think grafting two kinds of tree produces a tree that is part one kind and part another---you can graft a branch of a pear tree onto an apple tree and that branch will bear pears while the rest bears apples. In fact, most commercial fruit trees consist of a variety with sturdy roots and trunk grafted with a variety that bears tasty fruit. I would guess that friend's ancestor in fact created this fruit as a hybrid, which is pretty darned cool.

In any case, congrats on your canning accomplishments, and welcome to the forum!

Z

12 pints of Annie's salsa
(with tomatoes from the freezer)
(up to 181 jars of tomato products for the season!)

5 four-ounce jars of hot sauce
(three red, three green)

more peppers in the freezer with my new FoodSaver

Z

Z,

You may be correct, I have no clue, lol. He passed away many years ago.

We know it will not be the exact same, but we are going to plant a few seeds and see what happens. And if it doesn't work, well we know where to get fire wood in several years! lol

Jamie

jamie,

However it came into being, it's a really neat inheritance to have!

Z

added 13 half pints of saurkraut to the pantry. Still have tomatoes in the freezer for salsa for Christmas, dandelion water, blackberry juice, and beet juice canned for jelly. Then I want to try pineapple jam.

applesauce with honey and cinnamon
4 pints
10 half-pints

My intention was to can apple slices.
Oh, well. ;-p

Z