I didn't can one thing last year. I just put everything in the freezer. But this year I have canned:

Tomato sauce-6
Stewed tomatoes-8
Kosher pickles-6 (my first attempt)
Salsa Medium-6
Salsa Hot-10

I hope to can chow chow later on. I don't know how you do it Dawn. My garden isn't nearly as large as yours ( maybe one tenth the size) and yet my little bit of canning kept me hopping. Your amazing!!!

Teresa

Teresa,

It is sort of an addiction. Once I start canning, I can't stop. Or Tim will say he'd like some cranberry jelly (and he doesn't want to wait until cranberries are in season either...so thankfully there's bottled juice) or DS will mention that one of his coworkers has a serious attachment to Blueberry-Lime Jam because it tastes just like the kind his grandma always made.

Really, the canning started as a way to deal with all the tomatoes once the freezer filled up about 15 years ago and then snowballed from there. Nowadays, summer isn't complete until we've made lots of salsa, canned some tomato sauce for winter pasta dishes, and canned peppers and made lots of jam and jelly. I also freeze a lot and love cooking in winter with previously frozen tomatoes.

In a summer tha'ts got lots of cool and pleasant parts like last year, I am sometimes torn between rather to work in the garden or in the kitchen. In a hot, miserable summer like this, I just try to harvest as quickly as possible and then get inside to the kitchen to do some canning, dehydrating or freezing. No matter how hot and steamy the kitchen becomes, it still feels better than being outdoors in this insane heat.

We give away several hundred jars of goodies every year to pretty much everyone we know. This year, because of the fruit tree's prolific crops, everyone's getting peach and/or plum jam, jelly, etc. for Christmas, and I'm sure they know it because all I did in June was can peaches and plums.

Dawn

I haven't had enough produce from my garden to do anything with it. I love to dehydrate so I've been buying produce. I've dehydrated spinach, red and white onions, carrots, mushrooms, bell peppers, apples, cantaloupe, and celery. We picked 1 1/2 bushels of Arkansas peaches and nectarines last week, but they were too sweet to dehydrate. I froze them. The kids want to make peach jelly so we'll do that; hopefully, after vacation. I'd like to dehydrate tomatoes too if they don't all get ripe while I'm gone.

We found a little doggy on the side of the road on our way back from picking peaches. He was injured and hadn't eaten for a few days so we brought him home. We haven't found his owner. He had his eye removed and was neutered today. He'll be staying at the vet while we are on vacation and then we're bringing him home to live.

What do you do with the persimmons?

Sweet pickles 8 qts
Dill pickles 8 qts
Squash bread and butter pickles 12 pints
Marinara sauce 6 qts
Salsa 24 pints
Stewed tomatoes 16 pints
Yellow Pear Tomato-Apricot-Jalapeno Chutney 8 half-pints

The 100+ heat is finally giving me a break and I need it. The above is from 18 tomato plants, six cucumber plants, and two squash plants. Froze squash and green beans also, but my freezer space is limited to one freezer and I use it for freezing a lot of bulk purchases like oatmeal, coffee, flour, etc.

I love summer.

Marcy

Marcy,

I love summer too. It looks like you've been busy pickling. I made enough pickles last year to last two years, but was hoping maybe to plant cukes for fall and make more in late autumn. With the grasshopper invasion, that idea flew out the window.

I started out with one freezer, then got a second 3 or 4 years ago and a 3rd one last year. I never intended to have three, but we like frozen corn, green beans, etc. better than canned ones. As we begin to empty out the freezers by eating the frozen stuff, I move everything to one freezer in the winter and unplug the other two. We also have two refrigerators, but the extra one out in the garage generally only holds bottled water, Gatorade and Tim's beer in the summer months although I can put produce in it temporarily when I have harvested a lot and am processing it. I try to get it emptied by winter so we can unplug it too.

I used to laugh at my uncle and aunt after they retired and moved to their lake cabin in east Texas. First they bought an extra lake lot to garden on....then 2 lots, then 3 lots. Then they co-bought a tractor with their best friends, and co-built a big metal barn for the tractor and all their gardening tools and food storage. They filled up the metal barn with freezer after freezer and with racks to hold sweet potatoes and other stuff. I remember them showing me one freezer 8 or 10 years ago that had nothing but berries in it, and it was packed! Now, I'm become very much like them....

Sometimes, because I can/preserve so much, I joke that I'm turning into my grandmother. Really, though, I'm turning into my east Texas aunt and uncle....although we don't have a tractor.....yet.

Dawn

Dawn,

I only do the pickle thing every 2-3 years. Other than that, I try to plant just enough cucumbers to eat fresh and make cucumber/onions in vinegar. Cukes are my favorite summer vegetable. I'm afraid if I HAD to choose between tomatoes and cucumbers, I would choose cucumbers.

We also have an old drinks/watermelon refrigerator beside the freezer in the garage. I have worked really hard trying to be more energy efficient and I know those two old monsters are just eating electricity this time of year. But at holidays and in the summer, they are well used.

In this house, the tractor/land negotiation went like this: "You want to buy what land next to us? I'll have to have a tractor to keep it looking good." And the insanity began. A tractor for Mother's Day. It's a godsend. But you have to be careful, it makes your plans so much bigger! And as you're looking to slow down and downsize, as am I, it's a delicate balance. ;-)

Marcy

We're addicted to Annie's Salsa! We love it so much that we may end up having to buy extra tomatoes to supplement ours. I'll be starting a lot more plum/paste varieties next year.

Annie's Salsa - 22 pints
Honey Peach Jam - 15 half pints

We're going to try to can 14 pints of Annie's Peach Twist this evening to use up the last of the peaches we picked last week. I also made thirty peach hand pies to freeze this morning and have been freezing roasted tomatoes all month. I'm hoping to do pickles this week, too, but have just been able to do fridge pickles so far.

Megan,

I've been waiting to see how you liked it. Isn't it good? Did you do the honey substitution?

Our son and his coworkers at the fire station love Annie's Salsa but had a few requests for the next batch I send them:

(1) Eliminate the sugar. Well, that's easily done since it is for taste only and not a preservative in this particular recipe. They thought it was too sweet as made (and it probably was because the tomatoes I used were pretty sweet and I didn't eliminate the sugar although I could have).

(2) Make it hotter. So far, I've made it where I subbed in one habanero for part of the jalapenos, and another batch where I subbed in 2 habaneros for part of the jalapenos. After tasting that last batch, DS and DDIL want me to try one where I sub in 4 habaneros for some of the jalapenos, so I'll try that in the next batch. All the pepper subs are OK as long as the total amount of peppers doesn't exceed the amount specified in the recipe. Apparently the firefighters won't be happy until I get it hot enough that it hurts them.

I've never made Annie's Peach Twist, but did make her Cherry Obsession (Cherry Hananero Jelly).

I'm staying busy this week with tomatoes and peppers. If I run out of tomatoes before I run out of peppers, which is likely, I'll just buy more paste tomatoes so I can make salsa until the peppers and onions are gone.

DS has a nice meat smoker and has offered to smoke my jalapenos in it so I can make him some Annie's Chipotle Salsa. Where does it end?

Dawn

My freezers are full and it is getting tough to find any room at all. I prepared almost a gallon of tomatoes on Sunday afternoon before I left and they are still in the refrigerator. I have canned 77 jars of things with the majority of it being salsa. I haven't looked at the garden today, but DH said the tomatoes need to be picked. I will probably start picking them and taking out the vines. Many of the leaves have just turned crispy brown.

I made a quick trip down to visit with my mother on Sunday and Monday and after seeing her a few minutes this morning I drove the 300 miles back home. She is very ill so I'm sure I will be returning soon. As I drove passed all of the peach stands on the way home, I really wanted to buy some but since I don't know what my immediate future holds, I didn't buy anything. I will try to keep up with whats left of the garden, but I'm afraid to add anything else. Until I see a break in the weather, I'm not sure I want to plant much more anyway. I'll keep watering the pepper and melon vines, and my one bean tower, but that may be all I try to save. This heat is brutal.

Mother is in a nursing home and is getting excellent care. My daughter is there today, and my sister lives nearby and so do all of her children so someone visits her everyday. She still knows everyone, and yesterday when her two Physician Asst' came to visit she sang a countty song for them and didn't miss one note or one word. Her mind is amazing, but she is very weak. She turned 99 this month.

With serious family responsibility closing in, I thank this years gardening is probably drawing to a close, but it has been very productive.

Carol,

I am sorry to hear about your mom's declining health. At her age, things can happen so quickly. Please know that you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.

The heat and/or the grasshoppers are about to get most all of our gardens, aren't they? 'Brutal' is a great word to describe what we're experiencing with the weather this week.

I was just watching the KXII news and our daily highs here will remain in the 100-103 range for another week.

I'm just counting the days until autumn now, I think.

Dawn

Carol,

Prayers for the burden you've got on your heart right now.

Marcy

Carol - you are in my thoughts and prayers!

I am thinking of learning to can. The real big producer this year, my white scallop squash has over flowed my freezer. Same with my bush beans. We ate tomatoes as they came off the vine, :), and same with the cucumbers. Not knowing how to can I couldn't save the cucumbers. :(, so this winter I am taking the time to learn to can. I hear it is not as hard as I think it is.

My peppers did miserably! URG....

I am a horticultural student now, so maybe after this semester I will know more and get better peppers. And a cutting garden, maybe....

Carol---- I am so sorry to hear about your mom! I know how hard it is to watch your loved one deteriorate and become fragile. I've went thru it 3 times now and don't wish that upon anyone!! So, I send God's strength and loving arms your way!!
Isn't it amazing how your tomatoes are doing so great!! My tomatoes aren't doing so good. They look good but just aren't producing. Now, the sungold plant and the black cherry tomato is the only ones that have given me any tomatoes. I have one plant that keeps getting the blossom end rot on every single tomato. Very frustrating. But, I've fed my plants and keep them watered. I just don't know what is going on. The only thing that is doing very well this year is my okra.

And to all of you who have canned the heck out of your gardens this year------ you are amazing!!! I just canned some salsa the other day. But, not sure if it's going to be good. See, I completely forgot to add the canning salt to it. So, if you can advise me of whether it's good or not I'd appreciate it!!

Anyway, did plant some more things for the fall garden and hopefully they'll come thru.

Hoping all my fellow gardeners here are staying cool and keeping hydrated while gardening.

Blessings,
mspriggs

First, let me say congratulations to all. You have certainly done yourselves proud. Second, let me say, it took me three tries to read through everything, and now I need a nap. Whew. Ya'll just wear me out!

Seedmama

Ezzirah,

Canning is so simple. I'd suggest you buy yourself a copy of the Ball Blue Book on the canning aisle at Wal-Mart while they have it in stock. It is less than $10.00 and they only have it during canning season. Once they sell out, you can't find them anywhere. I know our local Wal-mart still has them so hopefully yours will as well. If you can't find a copy locally, you usually can order it from Amazon, but it is easier to just get it locally during the canning season.

Canning is so simple that after you've done it a few times, you'll wonder why you haven't been doing it forever.

Mspriggs, Which salsa recipe did you use? Without seeing it, it is hard to know if the salt was part of the preservative process or just for taste, but in salsa it usually is just for taste and can be ommitted entirely. So, show us the recipe or, at least tell us how much salt was in the batch and how much vinegar or lime juice or lemon juice. After seeing the recipe, we ought to be able to give you some sort of advice.

Seedmama, Well, some of us have our child-rearing days behind us, which leaves us a lot of time for canning and gardening and other things. If I had small children, I probably wouldn't have canned but maybe 25 or 30 pints of anything by this point, and would be happy to have that many done considering how much time kids require.

Dawn

Seedmama - you just wait until you start using your new canners! Your DH is going to have to build you another pantry!

So far for me:

24 pints Bread & Butter Jalapeno Pickles (I bought the peppers because I had sooo many cukes)
12 pints dill spears (DGD fave)
11 half pints purple hull jelly

But I've frozen 6 gallons of tomatoes, 10 quarts of corn, I quit counting green beans @ 16+ quarts, 12 quarts of wild plum juice, 14 quarts of purple hulls and already 10 quarts of breaded okra. We're eating the sugar baby watermelons and the Ambrosia muskmelons as fast as they ripen. The squash bugs got all my winter squash and pumpkins. I'm only a little sad because this harvest mixed with this heat is wearing me out.

Paula

I went out today to pull some dead squash plants off of the fence and they had 3 big winter squash plants hanging there with the rind hard and looking just right. So make that a grand total of four winter squash from my volunteer plants. Now I have to figure out what kind they are. LOL

I can't believe that I hadn't posted before about how much we liked Annie's Salsa. We've already eaten two pints and I'm not going to let myself open another one for a while!

I think the honey tastes great in it. I leave out the cilantro, though. We like it a little hotter, too, so we used 1 c. of unseeded jalapenos and 3/4 c. of mixed bells to make up the 1 and 3/4 c. of peppers. It gives it a nice spice, but I've been thinking about adding in some habaneros for a hotter version.

Tonight we canned Peach Twist with yellow tomatoes, yellow peaches, orange habaneros and red bells. It looks pretty, but I wish we'd thought to leave out the black pepper.

Paula,

I was out harvesting okra tonight and thinking that it would be OK with me if everything dies because I am so hot and tired. I know, though, that I really, really, really don't actually want for the sweet potatoes, peppers and okra to die. It'd be alright with me if I could push a 'hold' button and have everything freeze in place for a couple of weeks until the weather cools. I'm going to try to get outside early tomorrow to pick peppers and green beans before it gets too hot.

Carol, Do they look like anything you grew last year or the year before?

Megan, I'm doing a lot of experiementing with the amount of hot vs. sweet peppers in Annie's Salsa trying to crank up the heat enough for the firefighters at DS's fire station without making it so hot it actually starts a fire. Tomorrow I may try a batch with a combination of jalapenos, habaneros and serranos or bird peppers. So far I haven't made a batch that's too hot for me, which means that what I've made isn't nearly hot enough for them.

Did you sneak a taste of the Peach Twist before you bottled all of it? I've been trying to imagine the blend of peach/tomato flavors and I just can't imagine how they taste together. I probably wouldn't have thought about cutting the pepper either, for what it is worth. Those are often the kinds of things you think of "afterwards" every single time.

Dawn

Dawn, Last year I gave the seeds to the grandchildren and told them they could plant in each hill. Well they did! When I came back they had planted every seed in every package. I had squash running everywhere, but none looked like these do.

They are dark green with lighter green speckles. The shape is close to a spaghetti squash shape, but slightly longer. Last year I had acorn, spaghetti, and butternut. Do you suppose a seed would stay dormant for an entire season and then come up. I have never bought squash that looked like this so it must be something I got in a trade and planted last year. It's the mystery squash. LOL

Carol,

As large as the squash family is and as much as they cross, we may not be able to figure it out.

However, your description of a spaghetti squash type shape but somewhat longer reminds me of a squash from the spaghetti squash family called 'Faenza' or 'Bolognese'. I haven't found a photo of 'Bolognese' that is as clear as I'd like, although there is one in Amy Goldman's book 'The Compleat Squash'. However, I found a 'Bolognese' image on the website of Seeds From Italy (www.growitalian.com) and have linked it below.

Oddly, we'll have a better chance of identifying your mystery squash after you have harvested a mature one and know what the flesh looks like. The seeds, too, may help ID it since different groups within the squash family have different types of seeds in terms of shape, size, color and the presence of (in some) a seed margin in a slightly lighter or darker color.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Cucurbita pepo 'Bolognese'

Dawn,
We like it hot, but not extra hot, so that ratio works pretty well for us. We did make a batch with seeded jalapenos for family members that like it medium. I think the next batch we will make with some habaneros and maybe a couple of thai peppers just because we have so many. That way, we'll have some for those who like it REALLY hot. We are surely addicted!

We had enough Peach Twist left for a little bowlful to eat with dinner last night. It's really good! I was a little anxious about the idea of peaches and tomatoes together, but it's really not as strange as it sounds. I saw a few other recipes for peach salsa without tomatoes, but we have so many tomatoes right now that I loved the idea of half peaches/half tomatoes. Of course, it wasn't too much of a risk since I have a canning partner that is less discriminating and would gladly eat it all if I didn't like it.

Dawn,

Here is my recipe that I used for salsa. Let me know if you think they are still good. That way my husband doesn't throw them out for no good reason!! lol

24 c chopped tomatoes
2 c white vinegar
2 c diced jalapeno peppers
2 c diced bell peppers
2 c diced onion
2 sm cans tomato sauce
3-6 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp canning salt
Bring tomatoes & vinegar to a boil. Turn down heat & simmer 1 hr, stir often. Add remaining ingredients & cook another 1-2 hrs till desired consistency. Then put in jars & process as usual.

So, there it is. But, I do think next time I will have to try Annie's Salsa recipe. I should've anyway, but had this one handy.

thanks,
mspriggs
(melissa)

Dawn,
I haven't tried Peach Twist. However, I regularly purchase Mrs. Renfro's Mango Peach Salsa. I can taste the tomatoes and peaches, may or maybe not on the mangoes? It is not at all hot. In fact I first purchased it so my oldest could participate in our Saturday-afternoon-on-the-front-porch salsa eating ritual. Now it's a favorite of mine. I don't know how it will compare to Peach Twist, but it might give you an idea of whether or not you like peach and tomato together.

Seedmama

Melissa, That recipe would be safe for eating without the salt, which is true of every salsa recipe I've ever seen, but I always hate to make that statement without seeing a recipe first for fear the person asking it will have the one recipe in the world in which the salt actually functions as a preservative. Since you accidentally left out the salt, you could just add some salt to each jar as you open it, or you may find you don't miss the salt.

Seedmama, Thanks for the idea. I like the idea of trying the Mango-Peach to see if I like the fruit salsa type thing before making a whole batch. We've eaten Mrs. Renfro's products since I was a small child and they sold their Mrs. Renfro's Chow-Chow Relish at Farmer's Markets or under a different name, Dixieland Relish, at local stores. I haven't tried a lot of their newer stuff, including the Peach-Mango and their Raspberry Chipotle. They still have their manufacturing facility in Fort Worth, I think, although they're no longer mixing it up in their converted garage like they did when I was a young child.

Dawn