sparrowgrass

Come to my house--all the purslane you want, absolutely free. RG, I might just try the pads. Can you use them any time of year? Are the old ones tougher than the new ones? (I just had a run-in with a domesticated prickly pear type cactus. It was in the living room, in front of a window, and growing crooked. I rotated the pot, but as I turned away, the pot began to fall towards me. I saw, as if from a great distance, my left hand going up to catch the plant--I shouted, "NO, NO" at my hand, but it did not listen. Took me the better part of an hour to get all the spines out of my palm, included one that had gone clear thru the web between my little finger and my ring finger. So I am a little gunshy.)

I promise to never again leave a warehouse size bag of chocolate chips on the counter next to the pressure canner full of jars of salsa. I have now have a warehouse size bag of chocolate chip. One BIG chip.

Well, don't just tease us, hummingbird--recipe, please. (I have another bucket of tomatoes on the porch awaiting their fate.)

So far, I have 25 pints of roasted tomato sauce--cut tomatoes in half (no peeling), put them on oiled sheet pan with a chopped onion, stalk of celery, garlic cloves, 400 for an hour, then puree with stick blender. 14 quarts and 4 pints of tomato vegetable juice--same ingredients, with a little water to prevent sticking, simmer for 20 minutes and then put thru the tomato press. About 30 pints of a sweet, hot salsa. 4 quarts green beans. I use the roasted tomato sauce on pasta, as pizza sauce, on meatloaf. I drink the juice, or use it in veggie soup. Salsa goes on chips or on sandwiches. More tomatoes to come, so totals may be updated. I think some more sauce would be good--I know my son will take some off my hands.

Maybe I will just buy a jar of nopalitos at the grocery store, instead.

Sorry, double post. Too much lycopene, no doubt.

That is roasted tomato sauce and V-8 type juice. I have canned 35 pint jars of salsa and 7 more quarts of juice since I took that picture. (I plan on getting more than the RDA of lycopene this winter.)

We have them here in Missouri. I am wondering about eating the pads--any recipes?

25 pints of roasted tomato sauce, 5 quarts of green beans, 7 quarts and 4 pints of tomato vegetable juice. (And 30 pint bags of sweet corn and 5 roosters in the freezer.) And the adventure will continue--I picked these yesterday morning. Green zebras, striped caverns, German pinks, a yellow, romas, Amish paste and jellybeans. Lots more green tomatoes still on the vine, so salsa will be in production soon, as well as more juice. With temps in the mid nineties, I am very thankful for air conditioning and a nice gas stove. My grandma canned everything her family of 12 kids needed on a woodstove. No electricity, so she didn't even have a fan to cool the kitchen.

I can a lot of things, and I use mason/kerr jars with 2 piece lids. If I was doing pickles or jams, that is to say high acid or sugar products, I wouldn't worry too much about the glass lids. For anything else, I am going with USDA recommendations. I use the pressure cooker instead of waterbath canning for just about everything, just to make sure I don't kill anyone.

Maggie, send me one with pockets and one without. I will report back. I use an apron from time to time, and have never felt a need for a pocket. I am in the kitchen--the pens and paper and thermometers are in the mason jar on the counter when I need them. I do like the idea of a loop for a clean towel to hang on.

I have the hopper type. Quick and easy, except for the cleanup. And that is not too bad, if you leave the whole works to soak for an hour or so in cool water. Whether it makes the "right" kind of spatzle, I don't know--I have only had mine, never in a restaurant.

Oh, johnnyd, I wish you lived closer to me--I have $50 worth of eggs in my fridge right now just waiting for you. (When I sell mine, I get $1 a dozen. Usually just give them to friends.) I vote for fried rice or egg drop soup. Or a couple of nice over-easies, with homemade toasted bread.

annecros, I just posted to another thread this link for canned lemon curd. The recipe calls for bottled lemon juice --I used real juice, squeezed out of real lemons and limes. And I didn't die.

Your wish is my command. This looks bloody, but it was painless. For me, anyhow. Sliced open. With the "guts" removed.

For prettiest, these Striped Caverns win in my garden. They are hollow, like a bell pepper. I have plans for stuffing them with a tabouli salad. Tastewise, I will take the German Pink, which you can see just a bit of in the upper left corner.

The zucchini plants in my garden are trying for world domination. At least the chickens like eating them.

With butter.

I use a salt pig, and have never noticed any foreign objects in my salt. I keep a plastic tablespoon in the pig, because seems like my hands are always wet when I need some salt. No clumping in the salt pig, even with our Missouri humidity.

Raisins at my house are "zee-zees". The child who named them so is now 6'4" and 28 years old. But they are still zee-zees to me.

Don't encourage me, heidi--I just got a new camera.

My garden is growing so fast, so luxuriously, that I am almost afraid to go out there. Never mind spiders, never mind copperheads--there could be wild boars or bears or Sasquatches out there.

On the positive side, my grapes are producing like mad.

Thank you, Nathan, for a sensible reply. I have neighbors who swear that the Air Force has banned diet sodas from their cafeterias because it makes pilots go blind. I *think* that would have made the news if it was true.

Apples. I love good apples, and if I find good apples, I buy a ton of them. Of course, the last half dozen get wrinkly before I get to them. If I buy apples that turn out to be less than perfection, I still leave them in the fridge until they get wrinkly. Luckily, I have a horse next door who takes care of this problem for me. She also likes flabby carrots, but refuses celery.