What I have been up to

It's been crazy here in the garden and kitchen. It's been really hot and humid too, which bothers my RA a ton, so I didn't venture out to the garden much. The crazy weeds show my lack of attention too.

I've also been canning beans up like crazy too.

This is when the bush beans were almost ready to be picked. A few days later, I was snippin n snappin them.

My small but productive bush bean plot. Got tons of beans from this little bit of plants. Jade bush beans are wonderful.

Abby inspecting the beans after they were cleaned. She likes to take one and bat it around the living room. This was part of the first days worth of beans. I pulled just shy of a 5 gallon bucket that day.

56 pints of green beans all ready for winter suppers.

Pole beans are now starting to come in, so I will be canning even more beans. Tomatoes are starting to ripen as well. I freeze them as I pick them and can my sauce when it is a bit cooler out.

Homemade tomato sauce

Normally, by this time of year, I am all done with canning all my tomatoes into sauce, but this cool summer has made the tomatoes take forever getting ripe. I still have a bunch of tomatoes on the vines to pick today and have a bunch that I picked 2 days ago to can. Lots of them have cracking thanks to the wet spring and summer we had, but the fruit is still good.

This year I tried a new tomato instead of my normal roma tomatoes. Burpee has a Super Sauce tomato that I decided to try out. I ordered 9 plants (I can never get them to grow by seed for some reason). I also got 3 of their new Steakhouse Hybrid tomato. It was okay. It didn't grow fruit as large as they said it could. I had bigger and more fruit from the regular Big Boy tomato plant that my neighbor gave me. But the Super Sauce I will be doing again. The fruit is HUGE. I mean look at it compared to my hand. And this wasn't even the biggest one picked. They are full of meat, very little seed. I have my dad and sister adding these babies to their to buy list for next year.

I don't do anything special or put anything into the sauce, it is just tomatoes. I add seasoning and other veggies to it when I am making a pasta dinner. Last year I had to freeze up my tomatoes because we had them coming in sporadically all summer. This year, they are coming ripe in huge lots, so it is making it easier to process.

First thing I do is peel the skin off. I have a seed/skin strainer that I can use, but it caused me issues last year, so I just skipped it. Instead, I just put the tomatoes, 4 or 5 at a time because they are so huge, in a pot of boiling water for 3 minutes. The skin starts to crack that that point.

Once this is done, I put the tomatoes into ice water to make them cool enough to handle. The skin comes off really easy. I trim off the tops and slice the tomatoes in half. I have had both my crock pots going at the same time full of tomatoes to cook down.

I cook them over night on low and then smash them with a potato masher. Then I leave the crock pot lid off a crack to let the extra water cook off. I like a thicker sauce. Once the tomatoes have the right consistency for me, I puree them using my immersion blender. Then the canning of them starts.

I can them in pints. I add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to each jar and fill the jars up with the sauce leaving a 1/2 inch head space. Then I water bath can them for 30 minutes. Easy peasy.

Putting up some corn

Last year we had a wonderful crop of corn. This year, I decided to try a heirloom variety, however, the plants are much smaller and not as many grew. I am not expecting to get much from it this year.

While the hubby and I were out going to some yard sales on Saturday, we passed by a farm with a huge corn field and a little roadside stand. They were selling corn that was just picked 30 minutes before. The hubby and I grabbed 3 dozen ears. Yes, we paid 6.00 a dozen, but the quality was superior to any grocery store. I don't mind paying that much to help support the local farmers.

It was nice and cool out while I shucked the corn. It took me like 2 hours to do it. My hands were sore and I didn't want them to stay closed, so I took my time. Darn RA.

Yummy butter and sugar corn. I could have just eat the corn raw. I use to do that all the time growing up.

I parboiled the ears for a few minutes and then threw them into ice water to stop cooking. I used a knife to cut all the kernels off the cobs. Much faster than using my normal cutter thing. The hubby and I ate some corn just like this. So yummy!

I don't like the taste of canned corn, so I freeze all our corn. I managed to get a little over 5 quarts of corn. We will be going back to the farm and getting more in a week or so and doing the process all over again.

Canning green beans

My bush beans and pole beans both came in at the same time this year. I have been snipping and snapping beans pretty much every night. Both of the cats have been helping too, Abby the most though.

Yes, she was chewing on the stem. I snapped a good portion of that bean off for her to play with.

Checking out the stems and bad beans.

Checking out the snipped and snapped beans. She is so noise. Has to know everything that is going on.

All snipped and snapped and cleaned. I had three big bowls full of beans the first night.

Spending my nights snippin and snapping while watching the news. Weather was on at the time. hehe

I was able to find another pressure cooker (the one on the left) at a yard sale for 10.00! She only used it once to make jam. I bought new rubber gaskets and over pressure plugs for both canners, just in case. I know she put the lid on wrong to store the canner (it was not upside down like it is suppose to be when stored). Plus mine could use a new gasket and plug. It's been a few years or so since I got the canner. Having the extra canner made the process of canning veggies so much faster.

First load of beans done. 14 pints barely dented one bowl of beans. I have three bowls total to go and more still on the poles. Good thing we love green beans.

Dehydrating Apple Slices

This past summer I was able to buy myself a dehydrator. A 5 drawer Excalibur. The hubby said I should have got the 9 drawer model, but I didn't think I would need it. Well, I kinda did with the apples.

I started out peeling and coring my apples using my little corer peeler thingy. I don't know what else to call it. hehe

I filled up a huge bowl with the rest of the apples we had from apple picking. I attached the peeler to a wooden tray table and peeled them while watching tv. Abby kept reaching up and pulling the peels down so she can play with them. She never ate any, thankfully. She seems to hate the smell of the apples.

Once they were all peeled, I cut the apples in half so that my apple pieces were half. Some of them broke into smaller pieces, but that is ok. I also mixed up some Fruit Fresh Produce Protector to help prevent the browning of the apples. It will also help the apples keep their white color.

Then I lined the trays up with all the pieces of apple slices. I tried to get most of the slices onto the trays while leaving a little room between each. Sorry for the blurry picture.

As you can see the apples had already started to turn brown before I put the fruit fresh on them. I put them in for 6 hours at 135°.

As you can tell from the picture, not all the slices got the Fruit Fresh on them. I was trying to mix the slices while not breaking them too much, so I missed getting it on some. You can see how much they shrink down. They are a little bit chewy, the way I like them. You could always put them in for longer if you like chips.

I store them in mason jars with some oxygen obsorbers. When I put the slices in the jars, they were filled to the top. Over night they kinda settled down a bit. So yummy for a cheep snack. Think I might have some right now.

Canning Talley

Canning and Harvest Talley 2013

20 pints tomato sauce
2 quarts potatoes
8 pints corn
6 pints dill pickle spears
5 pints bread & butter pickles
21 pints green beans
7 pints apple sauce
5 half pints apple butter
5 quarts frozen bell peppers
2 quarts frozen summer squash cubes
4 quarts frozen zucchini cubes
5 quarts frozen zucchini slices
3 quarts frozen shredded zucchini
1 1/2 gallon frozen strawberries
2 quarts frozen fruit salsa
1 quart frozen loose corn
2 single serving frozen snap pea
1 1/2 quart frozen cubes of parsley
1/2 pint dehydrated parsley
7 packs of 6 frozen ears of corn
1 quart frozen blueberries
1 quart frozen broccoli
3 quarts frozen shredded cabbage

Homemade Crock Pot Apple Butter

Ahh, the smells and foods of fall are all I smell and see at my house right now. The other day, I made some apple butter in the crock pot. It smelled sooo good in here while it was cooking.

I sliced, peeled and cored about 2 dozen apples. It was enough to fill up my 7 qt crock pot. I then added some spices:

1/2 c brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice (I didn't have any so I just used nutmeg instead).
1 c water

Mix the apples and the first three items together really well and add to the crock pot. Then add the water and turn the crock pot on low to cook over night.

When I got up in the morning, not only did my house smell heavenly, but this is what the apples looked like:

Look how much they have cooked down and how lovely and dark the apples look. I then grabbed my handy dandy stick blender and blended up all the apple yumminess smooth.

I then put the lid half on half off of the crock pot to cook the water out and make it much thicker. I never really paid any attention to the time I had it cooking, I just knew when it was ready.

When it was ready, I added it to already prepared 1/2 pint jelly jars. This made 5 half pints and a little bit more that I just added to a small jar and put in the fridge to eat right away.

I love how dark it is! Looks sooo delish, and it is. I processed the 1/2 pints in a water bath for 10 minutes and let it cook over night. Now I have plenty to enjoy for the rest of the year.

Shared with More The Merrier Monday

Homemade Apple Sauce

I love this time of year. Fall is my all time favorite season. I love the crisp morning air and the warm afternoons. I love the colors and the smells and all the food. Last weekend, we went apple picking with the family, so I knew this week would be full of preserving all the apples into yumminess that will last us all year long.

First thing I did was make my homemade apple sauce. I don't do anything fancy to it. I don't add any sugar or cinnamon or anything. Just apples and a little water.

I saw on Pinterest (love this site) that if you fill your sink up with cold water, add 1 cup of vinegar and add your apples, it will make them all sparkly and clean. I decided to try it.

Ya, it did not do what it said it would do. That cloudy film was still on the apples. The picture above the sink one was after they were "cleaned". Thankfully the apples didn't smell or taste like vinegar.

I filled up the other side of my double sink with cold water and added lemon juice to it. As I peeled the apples, I put them in this lemon water to help prevent the apples from turning brown. Honestly, if they turn a little brown, I don't care. It makes the apple sauce a little darker color but doesn't affect the taste.

I peeled and cored my apples using my handy dandy peeler corer thingy. Makes fast easy work of the apples. I filled two large pots about 2/3 full of apples slices and added 4 cups of water to each pot.

Cook the apples until they are smooshy and slightly transparent. Because the apples are sliced so thin, this does not take a long time at all. Don't boil, but let it simmer.

Once the apples are cooked, I used my stick blender (best tool ever!) to make the sauce smooth. You can also use a potato smasher if you don't have a stick blender. The sauce is more lumpy with the potato smasher. I like my sauce smooth.

I continue to cook off the water until it is the thickness that I like. Then it is time to can it up. While the sauce is cooking off the water, I am getting my jars and water bath canner water ready. By the time the water in the canner is ready and the jars are sterilized, the sauce is usually done or pretty close to it.

Fill your jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space, processing 20 minutes for both quarts and pints. Wash the jars once all cooled and then put away or enjoy.

I usually add some sugar and cinnamon to my serving of sauce. Sometimes I don't want anything added. That is why I didn't add anything to the apples while it was cooking.



Shared with More The Merrier Monday

Canning Tomato Sauce

This week, I decided to make room in my freezers and can all my tomatoes. I had a ton of work a head of me. Tomatoes were good producers this year in the garden.

This was most of the frozen tomatoes. I had like 25 quarts, 1 gallon, a grocery shopping bag and a large container full. All this made 24 pints of sauce.

I don't so anything fancy to make the sauce. I cut up all the tomatoes and throw them all in my food mill to get the seeds and skins off the tomatoes. This was of course after I thawed and drained all the liquid out of all these bags and containers.

Then I add the tomatoes to my 2 crock pots and cook on low for about 24 hours with the lid off. Or in my case, with the lid half on half off. Once they are all cooked down, I use my stick blender to mix and finish blending all the tomatoes together. I like a thick sauce, the hubby likes more of a marinara sauce. I add some basil and oregano, but nothing else. I do not add any sugar. I hate sweet sauces with a passion. Not to mention the hubby is diabetic.

I cook it a bit longer while I get the jars and water bath canner ready. I use pints for my sauce. I hate having my pasta smothered in sauce, so it is pointless to can it in a quart jar. I use a tablespoon of lemon juice per pint to add a bit more acidity. Then when the water in the canner is at a rolling boil, I can the jars for 20 minutes. Once done, I take the jars out and get to listen to the musical pings of the lids sealing. Let cool over night then was the jars in warm soapy water and rinse.

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