You've all inspired me to get back into canning and attempting pickling again (I've never been a pickle fan but I have friends who will eat pickled anything :-)

This weekend I canned
1 qt Tomates-Cerise
6 half pints Banana Nut Bread Butter
7 half pints Dutch Apple Pie Jam
3-1/2 pints of Holiday Fruit & Nut Jam
11 pints of pickled cauliflower
4 pints of dilly beans
3 pints of Persian sugar pickled garlic (I don't think I'll make this one again until I either get a better exhaust fan or a gas mask)

Thank you all for the inspiration and recipes

Jen

> Where do you get your seeds?

Michelle,

I got the Trinidad Scorpion seeds from my friend below. It's my favorite new variety this year so far.

booberry,

I like the colors too. The Black Scorpion's Tongue from a friend in France go though some incredible color changes. BSTs from 2 other sources are not so dramatic. The colors in my pics are quite true to life. Some very dark reds this year.

jt

Here is a link that might be useful: JohnF

13.5 pints of Dilly Beans, using my own garlic (sadly, my dill died).

I plan to make dilly beans too, but will be using a huge batch of yellow waxed beans instead of green ones. I have no fresh dill left, so I plan to add a little store bought dill weed. Most of the dill flavor will come from a mix from Mrs Wages and/or Ball. I was also considering doing some in fresh tarragon, but that herb has a somewhat unusual flavor not favored by some people.

7 pints of Apple Maple Jam (turned out to be ice cream topping...)
12 pints of applesauce
One BIG zucchini baked into 3 full-sized and 3 baby loaves of Zuke Bread.
Last of the plums baked into a dozen large muffins and a 9x12 coffee cake.

My new nickname (from DH) is Rocky....

Rocky the flying squirrel. Because I "fly" around gathering up stuff for winter! Silly boy........

Deanna

I used half yellow wax beans and half green beans (Indy Gold and Provider, both bush beans, respectively). They make a very pretty jar.

I also use those 12 ounce jars (3/4 pint) because they're longer and you can put longer beans in them. So I really had 3 pints and 14 3/4 pint jars.

Now to wait several weeks for them to cure... d'oh!

Out of the 12 waxed bean plants I started from seeds, so far, I have picked over 7 gallon sized zipper bags full of them. This last picking yielded me about another 2 more gallon sized bags. I need to pull up these bean plants, as I am running out of space. I must say that this year I uave had a really good year for bush beans. Even for that, not a single mexican mean beetle has been seen on these plants.

Mulberry syrup
Mulberry spread
Annies salsa
gazpacho salsa
fiery yellow salsa
Chipoltle lime salsa
bruchetta salsa
Roasted tomato sauce
Chunky tomato basil sauce
pizza sauce
fermented cukes in process
asian plum sauce
hot n sweet confetti jelly
Strawberry jam
red rasp currant preserves
seedless rasp jam
grape juice
wild grape jelly

More tomato sauce:

RED
8 pints
1 half-pint

YELLOW
4 half-pints (looks SO pretty in the jars!)

Prepped the toms & onions for another double batch of salsa. WHOA, tomatoes, SLOW DOWN, please!

Zabby

Zabby, you're supposed to be getting ready for a wedding for Pete's Sake! When is it again???

If your toms all ripen too soon, you'll be serving salsa instead!!

Deanna

12 half pints of huckleberry jam

To add to my tally:

4 more qts stewed tomatoes
7 more pts Annie's Salsa
6 qts sliced peaches, frozen
2 half pints Rose Hip Butter
2 half pints and 3 quarter pints Rose Hip Jelly which did not set so it's now Rose Hip Topping ;)
2 more pints dried tomatoes
2 1/2 pts marinated yellow peppers

Michelle

28 pints dill pickles
18 pints sweet pickles
14 quarts sauerkraut
26 quarts tomato puree
16 quarts green beans
14 pints extra thick spaghetti sauce
10 quarts mixed tomatoes with eggplant and peppers
I haven't made any salsa or tomato soup yet, I've just been too busy. I didn't really need any more salsa anyway, but I thought I'd do some more grilled to give away at Christmas.

Well this years canning fest is much smaller than last years 350+ jars of treats. We had a little boy in the end of July and was on bed rest for 6 weeks before and then no lifting from c-section for 6 weeks afterwards. But I did get the following done. Add to the fact we have a 4 and 2 year old, canning was tough going this year.

14 pint annie's salsa
12 quart Chase's dills
10 pint roasted tomato garlic soup
14 quart tomatoes
9 quart of green beans.

Still have more cukes for pickles and beans. Will prob get another dozen quarts pickles, and a 10 quart of beans. Now to find the time to get them canned....

Stacie

3 half-pints seedless wild blackberry jam (aka elixir of the gods - it is so good I could hardly bring myself to wash the pot)
9 pints red-fleshed apple sauce (such a pretty ruby red color) That is less than half the apples we picked. I also am supposed to call a gal that has more apples in her yard than she needs and get some normal ones.

This week is the first time I've canned in many years. What ALOT of missteps I took, but no one was hurt,the kitchen survived, and only one jar broke (not due to any actual canning activity). Seemed like alot of time and mess for what I got but I'm sure things will go much quicker if I do some more soon. And I won't have to keep running to the computer to check on the current approved methods :)

The counter now holds:

6 quarts of quartered tomatoes (one is yellow varieties, my husband wondered what happened to that one!) The 7th jar had some issues and is in the refrigerator.

5 pints of applesauce

Most of the produce was given to me by a dear friend and coworker who lived for years on a Centennial farm. We visited it together and her son, who lives there now, sent us home with lots of produce. So fun to can applesauce made from her husband's favorite Wealthy apples and "glean" from other trees the pickers had recently been through.

This forum gave me the push needed to try canning again after a long break. Thanks to all of you!

8 quarts of yellow wax beans pickled in a dill pickle brine. Kind of like dilly beans but with a lighter color and flavor. The plants were so productive, I had to pull them all out of the ground, as I am running out of space for storing waxed beans.

5 jelly jars grape jam.

I harvested the grapes on the vine that grows over our fence from the neighbors yard. It was planted by the previous resident so the new ones don't use them anyway. I used the recipe from the blue book that uses the skins. Oh my what a lot of work to squeeze the pulp out of the skins and cook them separately. I did it because there weren't that many so wasn't going to make as much without the skins, and because I like substance to my jam. I chopped the skins before simmering them. I threw in a handful or blackberries chopped up one of the funky red fleshed apples and added that to the pulp to soften before putting through a strainer to get out the seeds. I thought the apple pulp might give it a little more body, plus increase the yield. I had some under-ripe ones in there so I didn't have any problems with it jelling. And as a bonus, the skins suspended themselves.

Then I went out to get the tail end of the blackberries. I have ant bites, thorn scratches and stinging nettle injuries, but I managed to get about 4 more cups. There a few red ones left so I might be able to get one more small picking. I plan to divide them up into batches with the red apples and freeze them for apple blackberry crumble.

Finally, I'm back and my tomatoes are ripe. Yesterday I canned:

18 pints of my own Annie's Salsa
14 half pints of Grandma's Apple Butter
2 half pints of seedless concord grape jam (yeah, I know, but my vines are 3 years old and they were the FIRST grapes. They HAD to be jam, even if it was only two jars!)
6 half pints Habanero Gold
13 half pints Apple Maple Jam

And, last but certainly not least, into the freezer went:

5 half pints of RobinKate's Nectarine Raspberry Jam with Drambuie and Cointreau.

You all know that RobinKate won second prize, a year's worth of Ball canning supplies, from the Jardin company for that particular recipe? And it's darned yummy, too!

Annie

Naturegirl,

Congratulations and welcome back to canning!
You are right, it goes much faster once you get a bit more used to it. And what a feeling of satisfaction, eh?

LOL about your husband and the yellow tomatoes. I like to separate mine out and can some yellow sauce -- makes such gorgeous jars, and fun to put on a pizza or in a soup.

Now, of stuff I've actually canned since last post, there is only

Annie's Salsa (medium)
6 pints
4 three-cup jars

Hmm. Had actually meant to make it mild, for use at the wedding BBQ (hence the three-cup jars; usually we don't use anything bigger than a pint). Must've been some zippy jalapenos because I only put in four for a double batch! Tastes great to me but has a wee bit of zing, not kid friendly.

Made another batch of yellow tomato sauce, and a wee pot --- three cups --- of orange tomato sauce, all from a lovely variety called Earl of Edgecombe. I've had really bad luck with this particular variety and have never gotten more than a few tomatoes from it --- either it gets eaten by critters, or knocked over, or, in one case, the seedling actually got LOST. But I'm glad I didn't give up on it because this year it has produced TONS of big, lovely fruits in a GORGEOUS colour; there were 8 or so all ripe today so I just HAD to do them on their own to capture the colour. Bonus: the sauce has an AMAZING flavour. I could barely remember I hadn't put any salt or anything into it yet!

Of the red toms that were ready, I only picked about half of the full-sized ones, selecting the really meaty varieties to make some Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce and some crushed toms tomorrow. Got them washed and peeled tonight, phew, got to get off my feet.

Deanna, YES, I'm getting ready! Wedding is in 10 days, GULP! Gotta do a few more hours' worth of paying work tonight and then that's IT for two weeks, no more editing, just organize and clean my house because 100 people might come to see it!

We're having a casual BBQ here the night before the wedding and we'll be serving Annie's salsa, with pride (see above).

Everyone, cross fingers that I still have some good toms!

Zabby

Zabby I'm impressed with you. I got married last September and I hardly got a thing done between July and October.
Annie could I have the recipe for RobinKate's Nectarine Raspberry Jam with Drambuie and Cointreau? That sounds fantastic.

I know I've posted before but I want to make a list for future reference. :)

10 pints homemade BBQ sauce (using commercial ingredients, but it's yummy) - 4/29/07
4 3/4 pints strawberry jam - 6/30/07
5 pints blueberry jam - 8/5/07
13.5 pints dilly beans - 9/3/07
17.5 pints bread & butter pickles - 9/12/07

I'm 1/4 way thru the cukes I bought, gotta make more B&Bs and some dills. I also hope to make salsa next, if the tomatoes cooperate. :)

It was perfect canning weather today and I did not even have to put on the AC!

To add:

3 more qts Peaches, frozen
4 half pints Zinger Plum sauce
6 half pints Apple/Pear Chutney
8 half pints Plum-Kissed Pear Butter

Michelle

Waiting on a double batch of chunky basil pasta sauce (renamed chunky herb pasta sauce, since I was short on basil and so used a mix of herbs, came out v. tasty!):

6 pints
4 half-pints

Previously did some crushed tomatoes:

6 pints
2 half-pints

And before that, canned the pretty sauces I mentioned making. Got:

3 half-pints orange tomato sauce (SO gorgeous in jars!0
3 pints and 5 half-pints yellow tomato sauce

Phew. I am going to bed very soon.

Probably my last chance to can before the wedding. I have not got any peaches up this year, which is a shame; maybe I'll have a chance to throw a few in the freezer this weekend before they're gone. That's where any more tomatoes I pick are going at this point, to be dealt with once I'm an honest woman.

Zabby

Zabby you are amazing.

4 jelly jars apple mint jalapeno jelly
7 jelly jars sour cherry amaretto jam

The apple juice was made from the red "not so" delicious apples from our yard. The mint went a little crazy with our cool damp summer. I used the recipe for apple mint jelly from the blue book. Then I added a quarter cup of jalapenos and a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar. Needless to say it is quite mild.

I had the apple juice and the cherries in my little freezer and needed to free up some room. We had a heat wave yesterday, it went up to 70. Ha ha.

Oh, and I did that around taking a sick 6 year old to the doctor. She felt bad enough that she pretty stayed on the sofa and didn't get in the way. Its just a nasty virus though.

Whew.....I think I am pretty much done for now. And I can finally give my kitchen a good scrub!!

7 pts Nancy's Cherry Wiz Salsa (DELICIOUS)
9 half pts Apple Maple Butter
2 more qts sliced peaches, frozen

Michelle

Zabby! Go get married! Be happy! Canning can wait!

I'm jammin' today. Right now I have a batch of grape jam cooking down. I have another batch of grapes prepped to make into jam and after that, some spirited peach jam. I'm glad Melly & Annie ventured into grape jam - not difficult, just time consuming. You'll never go back to store bought.

"Honest woman." Zabby, I hope your wedding becomes one of the great memories of your and your DH's lives.

Melly, I hope your little girl is feeling better.

Well, I am finally back in the preserving game. The picture is nothing to shout about. The windows are covered with plastic for painting. (If the weather ever cooperates so we can finish.)

I made 5 pints and 6 12-oz. jars of salsa. Pie crust for 12 pies for the freezer (2 pies per bag). And the little pan is just an "extra" for me now that I have an oven. Toasted almond shortbread. It rests in the fridge overnight to meld before baking.

{{gwi:919824}}

Not pictured, 2 quarts and 5 pints of gazpacho in the freezer and I have 7 trays of tomatoes drying. We don't have Italian tomatoes, so it's less than optimal, but they'll still be wonderful in focaccia this winter. These are for the freezer: peeled, cut into wedges, seeded, lightly basted with EVOO, pinch of sugar, fresh-ground salt and pepper, sprinkle of marjoram or herbes de Provence.

Carol

Today we made 8 half-pints of Fire Roasted Pickled Sweet Red Peppers from the Small Batch book. (That was a double batch.) We bought a big bag o' imperfect peppers at the market yesterday.

Thanks Carol, she is on the road to recovery. I think she's milking it a bit now.

We ate the last of my home-grown cabbage made into kraut - so decided to buy at my local market. Would you believe, one head of lettuce and one cabbage cost $7.00.

So it made about 5 pints of shredded cabbage, which was fermented with 1 tsp salt and boiling water, as per usual recipe. This batch, I noted, came out a bit softer - but still OK - I think the warmer weather during fermentation. (although not enough salt may have been a factor - I used Kosher this time).

As luck would have it, one pint suffered thermal shock in the canner, perhaps a bad jar, but out of 5 starters, got 3 pints. That will be enough for our small family until harvest time.

I now have 8 little cups of cabbage and other seedlings doing nicely under lights, waiting for cooler weather to plant outside. ($7.00 indeed!).

My peppers are ripening well - including the aji flore (seeds from Garden Lad). It was a nice surprise, and cute as a "bugs ear." It tastes like a regular bell, but it's shape is a joy.

I have quite a few nice hot Thai's and I thought my habs had left me, but found two late comers that are "hotter than - whee!" So now I will be able to do some hab jams - and I froze some apricots just in case.

My last 2 weeks were on the disabled list - from a bad allergy reaction (? not sure what - Bermuda grass, soaps, insect bite). Was very uncomfortable - but back to gardening. May need to get an epi-pen - just in case - or give up bee keeping - but I don't think that was the culprit.

Waiting for October, to plant - when weather cools - we had a really hot summer here. Wanted to pick up some pears and more fruit from our local mountain area - but note some wild fires raging there - so will wait another week.

Bejay

Carol, I'm sure glad you are back to canning, that kitchen remodel was beastly, wasn't it? It makes me happy to just keep my "retro" orange formica counters....

Zabby, I'm counting down for you. Saturday you become an "honest woman". I'm wishing you all the happiness in the world.

Boo, I never make grape jam or jelly because I don't have grapes and for some reason I can't even buy concord grapes here. My stepmother got one jar of the grape jam, I got the other!

Melly, I hope your daughter is all recovered now. I thought of you Tuesday night, I babysat the Monkey Princess and her Bruvver and we had toast with chocolate sprinkles.....

Last night some areas around us got a first frost of the year. My garden was untouched, thank goodness, my tomatoes have been a little behind. I picked five 5 gallon buckets full, and have that many more ripening by next weekend and this week it's in the 80s. Hooray! So, last night I canned 14 quarts of tomatoes, and I have 3 times that many in varying stages of ripeness on the back deck and my picnic table. It's tomato canning all week, in between preparing for several members of the Cooking Forum who are coming to stay for the weekend, hit the farm markets, shop the Fresh Market and Penzey's in Grand Rapids and various other activities, including celebrating my recent engagement and another member's 39th wedding anniversary. We're having a Michigan wine tasting in there somewhere, I think. (grin)

Annie

Bejay, I'm so glad to see you online and well. I was just thinking about posting a thread to see if anyone had heard from you. I'd missed your presence and was concerned.

$7.00??? Isn't extortion a crime, LOL?

I'm doing a second and final batch of salsa - 20 pints, which is plenty for me and gift-giving (if I don't mention it to too many people, LOL). DH doesn't "do" salsa, so that really reduces the consumption. He likes it just fine, but it doesn't like him, unfortunately. Or I should say the peppers don't. Sad, since stuffed peppers are one of his favorite dishes.

I wish, Bejay, that I had your peppers. This is a terrible garden year and I've had to use frozen peppers to fill out from the garden. A few pathetic jalapenos, a cherry bomb or two and some rather stunted bells and that's it for us. Tomatoes are almost gone, it's in the 60's and pouring rain. September and October are usually beautiful, but not this year. And here we are trying to finish painting the house.

Annie, you are the canning queen. I'm sure you're finding all kinds of ways to fit in the processing, even with everything else going on. Of course, now you have that great new "kitchen assistant" and that makes things easier (and more fun).

Carol

Bejay,
I almost bought cabbage this weekend, but didn't want to fool with it yet. I giant head (at least a foot in diameter) was 1.50 euros (just about $2). I'll probably take the plunge next time. I bought two containers of beautiful small strawberries (almost 2.5 pounds) for 2 euros. They are macerating in sugar now to become jam. The third container (another euro) has been eaten. We had such a cool summer that some of the crops that should be finished are still harvesting.

Annie, That sounds like a fun weekend. I thought of the monkey princess tonight when I was rummaging in the pantry and came across my bag of sprinkles. The wee one's throat has finally stopped hurting and she just has the cough left. She's going back to school tomorrow!
Melly

I managed to get about 12 lbs. of tuna frozen
4 half-pints of Brandied Plums
7 half-pints of Brandied cherry preserves (made from plums-LOL)
8 half-pints of Black Forest Preserves (made from plums).
It's a long story.........
But they all taste good!
Deanna

This is my first year canning. I keep saying putting down jars and my friends laugh.

I have put up:)...
10 pints of bread and butter pickles
20 varies sizes of strawberry jam
12 pints of grape jelly (tastes great- looks horrid)
11 half pints of carrot relish
6 quarts of piccallilly (sp?)
20 pints of salsa
6 quarts of apple pie filling
3 pints of apple butter
39 varies sized jars of pear butter, pear honey, pear jam
8 pints of canned pears.

I have a huge apple tree with hundreds of apples- any ideas beside apple butter and apply pie filling?

I have to say that I have met more wonderful ladies of all ages canning this year than through any other source in my 40 years. Great fun and the results are sooooo yummy.

Readinglady -

Haven't had a chance to catch up with all of the activities with this forum yet - I must say, it is a real inspiration to read about all of the goodies that are being preserved. Especially like the idea of freezing the pie crust dry mixings in your recent post, Carol.

Yes, I had a fair crop of peppers. My goal was to see if I could dry them outside, as I fashioned 2 window screens, extending just outside my kitchen window. At first, the weather was too damp, but with the latter ones, it worked fairly well, though had to cut the larger Anaheims in two to expose the inside. The smaller sizes - Thai's, etc., dried whole without mold, however.

Sooo- now that most of the ancho types are done, I plan to do the enchilada sauce recipe (that you or Annie helped me with last year on the processing). Hopefully, I can find the print-out that I made. It was a winner and keeper.

Melly - gee what a sight to see a cabbage that big. Never could hope to achieve that size here - the weather is just too variable - size wise, to grow them that big. But - I will take what I can get. Mainly, now, I'm striving for variety and things to eat daily, and when it proves to be more than that, well - that's why I came here for all of your sound advice, to preserve the excess.

I know that we all have different challenges - and I've changed my thinking about preserving in colder climates - because that was what I grew up with. Thankfully, with my age, I can now putter around with small garden growing - doubtful that I could produce the quantities that the gals on this forum are doing - I truly stand in awe of what they are accomplishing - truly amazing.

About the rising cost of food here. Melly - sounds like the economy where you are, is much more stable. Over the years, our area has seen so many changes. It is noteworthy to see that many folks have taken to raising their own fruits and veggies - if lucky enough to have a parcel of land and water to do it. I'm one of the fortunate few.

Bejay

Newgarden, try the Maple Apple Jam. I made it this year but I made butter and only used 2 c. sugar and a mixture of Granny Smith, Cortland, Honey Crisp and MacIntosh Apples. I chilled a half pt and I just tasted it this morning and it is outstanding!!

APPLE MAPLE JAM (Nancy)

12 C finely chopped apples (about 6lbs) I used the food processor
6 C sugar
1 C Maple syrup (grade B if possible)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp Allspice
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves

Combine all in a large deep pan. Slowly bring to a boil. Cook to the jellying point. Stir frequently, so it doesn't stick.Pour into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust caps. Process 10 min in BWB.

Yields about 8 half pints. I double this recipe and it works fine.

Michelle

2 quarts & 1 half pint of tomato sauce
1 pint tomato juice for soup
4 pints & 1 half pint Katie's Roasted Garlic & Tomato Soup
4 half pints of sugar free Linda Lou's Apple Pie Jam
6 pints & 1 half pint & 1 quart of bread and butter pickles
2 cooked rolled rump roasts in the freezer
2 quarts beef broth in the freezer

We start eating the Apple Pie Jam shortly after its done. Can't get enough of it. Have to get out to the storage building and bring in some more pint jars to prepare for more canning.

I was a busy kid today. I made 27 half-pints of grape jam today (the last of the grapes from the yard) and 6 half-pints of pomegranate-raspberry jelly. I still have tomatoes in the freezer to make into sauce but it'll have to wait. I'm out of town next week for work.

Finished 8 pints of fine enchilada sauce from my Anchos yesterday. All went well - and according to the print-out I made from last years effort, processed 35 minutes in pressure canner, leaving out the olive oil, which I can add later when preparing.

Still have quite a few peppers in various stages of growth - some habanero, Thai's, paprika types - all hoping for a bit more heat to ripen. I may have to pickle them afterall, if mother nature doesn't cooperate with a bit more sun heat.

In spite of my severe allergy flare-up - managed to plant my fall spinach/lettuce crop, and have some cups of broccoli, celery, bok choy, and cabbage seedlings doing fine under lights in my pantry. If the weather holds, they may not need too much hardening off.

I have 9 planter boxes that have served me well these past 5 years or so, but now they are all in need of some type of rejuvenating - adding cardboard under the soil - as a water conservation measure, and replacing worn out compost/soil. Fun, fun, fun.

At least we had a nice rain last week - the first good one in over a year's time. The plants loved it - more, more, more. LOL.

Bejay

Everyone is making some delicious sounding things!! I have to catch up!

To recap and add...

10 pints homemade BBQ sauce (using commercial ingredients, but it's yummy) - 4/29/07
4 3/4 pints Strawberry Jam - 6/30/07
5 pints Blueberry Jam - 8/5/07
13.5 pints Dilly Beans - 9/3/07
17.5 pints Bread & Butter Pickles - 9/12/07
7 quarts Kosher Dill Pickles (BBB recipe) - 9/15/07
7 quarts Hamburger Dill Pickles (BBB recipe, added ingredients to make them "Kosher" flavored) - 9/15/07
16.5 pints Bread & Butter Pickles - 9/18/07

DH went apple picking with his family this weekend, and now I have half a bushel to process. I think I'll freeze a couple of apple crisps (we like that better than pie), and make a batch (give or take) each of the Apple Maple Jam and the Apple Pie Jam I've read about here. Last night I whipped up some Apple Fritters - he was thrilled! I'll probably end up with a whole bushel next year...

I'm also finally getting enough tomatoes to make salsa (I've been keeping the super ripe ones in the freezer), and my 3 tomatillo plants look like they're going to give me a good crop for salsa verde. I should even be able to make hot pepper jelly from my own peppers this year! I will soon have enough summer squash to make a big batch of my Granny's zucchini casserole for freezing, which really hits the spot in the winter. (And I'm really hoping for just one homegrown Eggplant Parmesan dinner... they are getting bigger!)

Another week of decent gardening temperatures is forecasted, hooray! I lucked out and, although we had a few nights where the temp ducked to 36-37 degrees F, we didn't get a frost. I'll gladly take the 80-degree September weather. :)

Been busy getting ready for the craft fair. I have at least a partial jar of all these in the fridge for sampling that day. Sam's Club and Costco know something about marketing.
11 jars Shirley's Red Pepper Relish
13 jars Habanero Gold Jelly (some of the jars are small)
5 jars Jalapeno Jelly
4 jars Sweet Red Pepper and Garlic Jelly
4 jars Inferno Wine Jelly (will be renamed since it is rather mild)
4 jars Balsamic Pepper Jelly (tasty but unappealing to look at)

A couple of ladies will come over later to help make more pepper jelly (and to learn how). We picked apples at a neighbors so I have about 40 pounds to play with. I plan to make apple pie jam for the craft fair and apple sauce for us. And I have three batches of strawberry preserves on day two in the fridge. I also have 3 quarts of quince juice thawing in the fridge (needed to reclaim the freezer space). They will be teacher gifts and for us. If I feel super generous, the craft fair might get a jar or two. Still for later in the freezer are half of a gallon ziploc of red currants for raspberry red currant jam, half of a gallon ziploc of plums, and almost two quarts of white currant juice.

We had our first (and second) frost this weekend. Not hard, but enough to take out most of the 'maters, squash and cukes.....
Guess I'm in salvage mode now....

Except the chard.....it's like the Energizer Bunny....keeps going....and going...

I didn't put up anything this weekend....feels weird..,like Fall, I guess.

Deanna

Melly, could you share the recipes for the Sweet Red Pepper/Garlic Jelly and the Inferno Wine Jelly, they both sound so interesting.

Add to my total:

3 1/2 pts Apple Maple Butter
4 half pts Robin's Nectarine Raspberry Freezer Jam

Michelle

Melly, I found the recipes by googling but no need to bother posting the recipes.

Michelle

daria - I would be interested in your recipe for Granny's zucchini casserole, if you wouldn't mind sharing.

There is an abundance of grated zucchini in my freezer, and we like the zuke bread OK, but another recipe would be welcome, especially as we are cutting our sweets in recent years.

Bejay

6 pints, 1 half-pint quince jelly
8 12 oz jars apple pie jam
8 12 oz, 4 half-pint, and 1 4 oz jars strawberry preserves

Hi Bejay!

I'd be happy to share the recipe. I won't guarantee that it's healthy, but it's definitely not sweet. You could tweak it to make it less salty and fatty, but it wouldn't be quite as good. I'm using zucchini in the vernacular, to describe all summer squashes.

When I asked Granny if she had a measurement for the crumbs and oil, she basically said "as many as you want". I usually use about a cup of crumbs. Butter is a good substitute for oil, since it's yummy. Also, I pretty much always double this recipe. Any can of cream of whatever soup will work. Well, maybe not cream of shrimp...

You can also steam the veggies if you don't want to boil them - the point is that they should be pretty soft so they make a yummy creamy mixture with the soup and sour cream. I'm pretty sure this recipe originated back when folks thought it was a good idea to boil veggies to death. Perhaps it was developed to best deal with the baseball bat zucchini that sneaks by us in the patch! If you decide to use THAT zucchini, peel it first - I've tried this with tough zucchini and the skin just doesn't get soft enough even with the boiling. Little summer squashes won't need as much precooking. Maybe your shredded zucchini won't need much of a boil at all - it should work here anyway, it's pretty free form.

Enough babble - here's the recipe:

Zucchini Casserole

6 cups sliced zucchini
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrots
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
Bread Crumbs
Salad Oil
Black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 2 quart casserole dish.
2. In a large saucepan boil zucchini, carrots, and onions 10 minutes (or until tender). Drain well
3. In a small bowl, mix together bread crumbs and salad oil until crumbs are barely moistened.
4. Spread half of the crumbs in the casserole dish.
5. Mix vegetables, soup, and sour cream together. Add pepper if desired. Spread in casserole dish.
6. Cover top of casserole with remaining crumbs.
7. Bake for 20-30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top is golden brown.

Here's my list (doesn't include stuff in freezer):
9 quarts applesauce
7 half pints + 2 pints Linda Lou's Apple Pie Jam
3 pints "smoked" salsa (dh made this)
15 pints + 11 quarts tomatoes
2 pints + 5 quarts tomato sauce
4 half pints bing cherry jam
10 half pints plum jam
9 pints curry pickles (MIL helped with this one)
5 pints Heinz dill pickles
7 pints zucchini salsa (not sure about this one)
5 half pints zucchini relish
11 pints + 10 half pints salsa
3 half pints grape jelly without pectin
5 half pints + 2 pints grape jelly with pectin
3 half pints seedless raspberry jam
7 half pints roasted pepper spread
3 pints barbecue sauce
3 pints green tomato salsa
9 pints piccalilli

I still have wild black raspberries to turn into jelly (they're patiently waiting in the freezer for me). I plan on giving some of this away for Christmas gifts.
Astrid

daria -

Appreciate the zucchini recipe, and am hoping to try it soon. I agree with your description of the era of "boiling veggies to death" and I've found I prefer steaming whenever I can.

Yesterday, I planted a lot of tiny seedlings of broccoli, bok choy, cabbage and some garlic cloves in one of the refurbished planter boxes - with new compost, bone meal, etc., and fashioned a nice Remay cage over them to - hopefully - thwart the cabbage butterflies still flitting about. When colder weather arrives, I can remove the covers, but for now the little tads are safer.

We had some more RAIN last night. Gee, I hope this bodes good things to come, we are so thirsty here. I'd hate to see water rationing, but the powers that be - keep talking about it. Many stories about reclaiming/desalting ocean water, reclaiming waste water, etc., (signs of the times here).

Still have lots of jams from last year's bounty, so my pantry and freezer give a lot of variety to my everyday meals - really look forward to my "gourmet-style" meals these days with so much to cook with.

My canning has slowed down because of the bounty, so now I can concentrate on the vacancies. Still want to do more apples, pears from the mountains, but until my recently planted fall/winter crops come in, I think summer has been pretty well taken care of.

Again, thanks for the recipe - appreciate your taking the time too post for me.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay