Annie,

I'm very impressed! That is a whole lot of work. I'm still gearing up to getting my canning done. I'm not nearly so ambitious, just some tomatoes and fruit preserves.

Do you can enough to last a whole year?

Cheryl

Annie, WOW! no doubt you can can.

Very impressive indeed.

dcarch

As ever, I am impressed with both your gardening efforts and your canning. I intended to buy a pressure canner this year but that hasn't happened yet.

Blueberry jam, be still my heart.

Eileen

cheryl, I can enough for the winter, but both my girls like to raid the basement storage, LOL. makayla only likes chili made with homecanned tomatoes and neither of the girls or their kids will eat store bought jam, only homemade.

Amanda raids the beans, beets, tomatoes and 3 bean salad. Ashley goes for the peaches, sauerkraut and jam. Elery likes anything spicy. And, of course, I have to have enough stuff left for fair entries next year. 9grin)

I just like to can, I like to try all the new and different recipes and then see how I can turn that into a meal.

dcarch, I should be able to can, I've only been doing it for....um.....50 years or so, and I prepped tomatoes for canning while I was still so small I had to stand on a chair to reach the sink.

Eileen, the blueberry jam was good, it's my brother's favorite so I had to make one batch. The blueberries were doing well here, then we had a small derecho, winds only reached about 65 MPH so not a lot of damage, but it took down some oak trees, left me without power for two days and blew the blueberries right off the bushes! The 9 week blueberry season became 3 weeks long and then was over, just like that.

I'll do less canning this year than usual. The local fruit got hit with a late frost, then a hot and drought stricken summer and then the derecho. I could buy fruit from other states to can, I guess, but that's kind of pointless, IMO. if I have to buy it from somewhere else, I'll just buy it when I need it...

Annie

Wow, Annie, That's a lotta work and they're beautiful. I felt like I had done quite a bit, but mine would pale in comparison and of course I have no pictures.-)

Question: How did you process your green beans? I've only canned them where you bring them to a boil, before you put them in the jars and then add the liquid.

That's going to be some might good eating!

jude

I got to say you ladies put me to shame! So far all I have canned is mustard pickles and pickled jalapenos this week.And not a lot of them either! We have been eating all the wax beans we pick(just planted a small row). I still have a lot of tomatoes that are still green, just waiting for them to turn. I have used up the small onions and still have a few leeks to pick. The cabbage is Wayne's to do. We have had coleslaw, Kolekannin(sp?), Bangers and mash, and will be making Golumpki later on. All from his cabbages. I have got to get started canning more! NancyLouise

Haven't been able to have a successful garden in years... the local critters (squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks and GROUNDHOGS) decided I was running a FREE salad bar and wreaked havok! Have been buying great tomatoes from a little mom & pop roadside stand since they started showing up... from their own garden. Next time I stop there, might ask if we could do some kinda deal on tomatoes that might not be picture perfect but great for canning. I don't have the patience to totally make sauce, but would can some just squashed/chunked or cook till soft and run thru food mill to make sauce to doctor up later.

Nice. And way ahead of me. Even the corn at the upick is late.

As for my garden, I can only hope it doesn't freeze for awhile. I've done one batch of dilly beans, two quarts of experimental fermented beans (dilly and basil w/ garlic and peppercorns) and a half canner load of green beans. The horticultural beans are just filling out. I think I've picked six ripe tomatoes, not counting cherries. Peppers and eggplants are loaded but small and I just dug the last of the garlic last weekend. Something tells me I'll be making salsa with ripened-in-the-house tomatoes.

Even the zucchini came on late. It's making up for lost time, though.

Great job Annie. I too am wondering how you can your green beans as I always hot pack mine and fill one quart at a time in a hot jar and then process them all in the pressure canner. I have never filled them all and then put them in the canner.

Sue

Jude and Marilyn, I do something called "raw pack" in the Ball Blue Book. The hardest part about beans is snapping them, so I get Elery to do it. If you don't have one of those "handy gadgets" then you're stuck, LOL.

Anyway, wash, drain, snap the beans. Pack them into clean hot jars I do 7 quarts at a time, which is a canner full. Add a teaspoon of salt to the top if you wish, cover the beans with boiling water. Run your wand or whatever down the side of the jar to release air bubbles and top the jar off. Add a hot lid and a ring, and put it into the hot water in the pressure canner. Vent, then process 25 minutes for quarts, 20 minutes for pints. Don't forget to adjust if you're at a high altitude. I do a canner full at a time, pack in all the beans, then add all the salt, then add the hot water. Release the bubbles in all 7 and then add the lids. Put them all into the canner. I have the water in the canner at a simmer, so there's not a big temperature difference, I don't seem to have a problem with thermal shock that way.

thatchairlady, I have voles, bunnies and moles. I guess I just share. The only problem is that the blasted voles know the difference between tomatoes. They only chew the bottoms off the Great White and the Mortgage Lifter, they leave all the rest, they won't touch the SunGolds, go figure. I've got pounds of those. My farm cat is pretty good about keeping the rodent population down, but he can't keep up all the time!

KatieC, my tomatoes were way late this year, cucumbers just gave up and died, too many days over 100 and no rain, I couldn't sprinkle enough to keep them alive. We'll have a few winter squash, but they didn't do as well either, it was a weird year.

I have to tell you, though, I made your Smoky Chipotle Catsup. Now THAT'S a keeper. I'm a heat wuss and I love the stuff. I didn't quite make the first batch thick enough and I'm already seeing it over chicken like mole suace, or with burritos. I'm definitely making more, so thanks.

Annie

What a wonderful bounty of canned goods, Annie! Our co-op has been canning and freezing a lot this summer but my preferred job is food prep rather than the canning and/or packaging.

I think I may try that method next year, Annie. My beans are gone for the season but we have a new crop of tomatoes coming in. I pray "Lord, don't send me another carload of tomatoes". I just want enough for daily use and sharing.

I counted the jars I've canned, today and I was surprised I didn't have more but I've put a bunch of soups etc. in the freezer.Especially Roasted tomato Garlic Soup.

I only have 2 20' raised beds and I've given away lots of eggplant off my 1 plant. This is the first year I've been resonsible for planting and caring for the garden as well as putting up the harvest. My jalapeno peppers have turned red and I still don't know what I'm going to do with them. Tried giving them away with no success. I do have red and green sweet peppers that I will probably cut up and freeze, maybe roast the red ones.

I had:
Peach Jam for a Cold morning...17 jars
Green Beans ...6 qts 10 pts.
Annie's Salsa.... 11 pts
Chunky Tomato Pasta Sauce.... 11 jars
Chase's Italian Sauce ....4 jars
Chase's Herb Soup (too thin for sauce) 3 jars
Blueberry Peach preserves....15 jars

jude

Looks to be harvest time! :)

In addition to teaching canning classes and volunteering with the local Master Food Preservers, I've been busy canning for our personal use too.

A batch and 3/4 of Annie's salsa this morning (don't ask, it's just how many tomatoes I had).
13 quarts of Chase's Dills
8 qts. of fermented dills
6 pints of bread and butters
a few 12 oz. jars of dilly beans and dilled asparagus
24-ish half pints of various jams
6 half pints of Plum Rhubarb Chutney
8 pints of apricots
14 pints of pears
5 qts. of asparagus
10 qts. of carrots
22 quarts and 14 pints of green and wax beans
9 pints of applesauce

Peaches tomorrow afternoon.
Roasting anaheims probably tomorrow or Sunday.
Tomatoes are all still green here (I think Katie is even ahead of me, we've eaten 4, not counting cherries and even those are slow, just 4-5 per day).

I sure wish you could preserve zucchini so it actually tastes and behaves like fresh. Overwhelmed now and I'll refuse to pay $2.99/lb. this winter. Will. NOT.
Oh well, enjoy them now and then wait for next year.

Good eating all!
Deanna

I am canning green beans today and have more waiting to be picked as well as more tomatoes. Everything I canned came from our garden. Here is my list so far for this year.

4 quarts of Kosher Dill Pickles
4 quarts of Bread and Butter Pickles
7 quarts of tomato juice
25 pints of salsa
20 quarts of salsa
48 jars of zucchini jam
64 quarts of green beans

We still have lots of green beans coming on as well as more sweet corn will be ready soon. I let my daughter freeze the sweet corn. I hot pack all of my green beans as I like to put them right in a hot jar, seal them up and put in the pressure canner.

Sue in Central Indiana

Wow Annie! It's a good thing you retired. Just how did you manage doing all that before? Impressive!

I just got done doing a marathon canning session yesterday of your salsa and the Chunky Tomato Basil sauce. I was planning on doing some jams over the weekend too, but we lost power for most of Saturday do to a big wind/rain storm.

I'm always impressed and overwhelmed by how much people can. I think what I did yesterday will be enough to get the DH and I through the winter and of course some of the salsa goes as gifts.

People love your salsa, Annie. I always have to tell people the story behind why it's "Annie's Salsa."

thanks, booberry, I'm glad everyone likes that salsa so well. I seldom eat any of it, it gives me horrible heartburn from the tomatoes and onions, go figure.

I made some sauce to go with fish and chips tonight from a combination of mayo and KatieC's chipotle catsup, I've got to make another batch of that stuff, I love it.

I still have beets, lots of kale and tomatoes, tomatoes, more tomatoes. Potatoes and sweet potatoes too, but I don't can those.

It seems like jam gets used less than anything else I can.

Annie

Great job Annie! Canning season was a bust for me this year. No salsa, no tomato sauce. We bought a new house over the summer and just moved into it 2 weeks ago, so I'll have to make do with jellies and jam from the fruit in our freezer. We did go sour cherry picking earlier in the year, so I have several pounds of pitted, beautiful sour cherries ready for jam in our freezer.

I did manage a batch of pickled asparagus and sauerkraut this past spring, some bread and butters over the early summer, and some peach wine and hard lemonade that still needs bottling. When apples are at their peak (soon), I will go to town!

I'm hoping that next year I'll get to do some actual veggie gardening, but first have to have a few trees taken down in the area I want for a garden. Sigh.

Dare I ask....for Annie's salsa recipe? I'm sure it's been posted a million times, but I can't seem to find it.

TIA

Sure, dreamhouse, here it is. The problem is that the recipe got changed a couple of times before it was "approved" and so many people have made so many changes, it's nearly impossible to tell which recipe is the right one! the only changes that I'm aware of that are "safe" is subbing lemon or lime juice for the vinegar, changing the type of peppers, but not the amount, and leaving out the tomato paste or sugar if it's too thick or too sweet. You can also leave out the salt if you wish, or the cilantro. Hmmmm. Well, I guess there's a lot of leeway here, LOL. This is pretty mild, BTW, you can make it hotter by cutting down the sweet peppers and adding more hot ones.

ANNIE�S SALSA

8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained
2 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 cups chopped green pepper
3 - 5 chopped jalapenos (to your taste)
6 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar, use at least 5%)
16 oz. tomato sauce
16 oz tomato paste

Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil, boil 10 minutes. Pour into hot jars, BWB 15 minutes for pints or half pints. This is too thick to can in quarts, there could be a "density" issue and no salsas have been approved for canning in quarts that I'm aware of.

Makes 6 pints

Annie

Annie, I was asked for a more garlic-y version. Could I reduce the amount of the onions and add more garlic?

Eileen

Thanks, Annie.

This is the first year I've attempted a garden and I never dreamed I would have more tomotoes than I could eat before they went bad. Nice problem to have. ;-)

tp

You all are amazing!

What little canning I do, I do in the Spring; that's when my brother's Mercott's are ready to be picked and marmaladed (is that a word?).

Yum, Cathy, I love marmalade, that looks delicious! What's a Mercott? Part Apricot?

Eileen, I don't see any reason why you could not reduce the onion and add more garlic, since it's chopped, not whole and doesn't create any type of density issue. One low acid veggie swapped for another. Now remember, you make ANY changes and it's no longer "approved", even if common sense tells you it's OK. (I gotta say that or I get arrested by the "canning police", LOL.)

tp, it's a great problem to have, isn't it? I picked another 7 buckets of tomatoes today. Those would be 5 pound buckets. The picnic table is filled with tomatoes. Again. I gave away three bushels last weekend and have already canned salsa, tomato basil sauce, crushed tomatoes and KatieC's chipotle catsup!

Happy canning.

Annie

Next year I'll make an extra garlicky version. I am DONE with salsa for this year. I am looking for some wine grapes to make jelly, though.

Eileen

Eileen, I'm probably done, but I just picked another 7 buckets of tomatoes. Those at 5 gallon buckets. Sigh. A combo of Great White, Mortgage Lifter, Golden Jubilee, Rutgers and about a zillion Sungold. I don't know what I'm going to do with them all. Just keep canning, I suppose.

Maybe the white ones would make some nice tomato jam or tomato butter.....

Annie

It's good to be prepared. :)

LOL, Eileen. I wonder if zombies like kale? I have a bunch of that too, maybe it's an undiscovered zombie repellant. I know it works for kids. (grin)

Annie

I suspect kale will act as a great zombie repellant. :) I find it pretty repellant! I like so many other leafy greens, though.

Eileen

Annie, leave your kale in the ground and pick it after the first frost/freeze. It mellows the flavor and can be wonderful.

My toms crapped out just as they started to turn red as they were hit by whiteflies. They sucked the life out of the Romas that then collapsed so we have 2 bushels of green ones in the basement. Oh well, on to next year!

Peppi, I'd sure share, this is my THIRD picking:

I've canned and I gave away about 3 bushels because I was in Ohio with Elery's Dad and had no time to deal with them. Now I'm canning again, I'd be happy to share.

I'm definitely saving seeds for more of those Great White tomatoes, they're beauties:

Annie

Beautiful tomatoes Annie. We gave up on the garden cause the soil is so acidic. Just turned it into a perennial bed. I bought a bushel of tomatoes to make my pasta sauce and canned tomatoes. Then I did a few dilly beans, and that is all I did this year.
Peppi, the tomato crop here was not very good this year. Must have been better a little further north where Annie lives. Glad you are still canning Annie. It is an art form. LOL

Maybe I just got lucky, but my tomatoes did better than anything else in the garden, many things just dried up and blew away. Even acorn squash only yielded 5 squash, where I'd normally have dozens.

Kale did great, I just canned 12 pints with Madison yesterday, and right now 6 pints of KatieC's Roasted Garlic and Tomato soup is in the canner, I think I'll do another batch tomorrow.

Oh, and I have beets, which I'll probably pickle on Wednesday. All in all, though, it's not been a very good garden year for anything.

Annie