ChocoMom

@andiesenji Thank you so much for posting that recipe!!!! Its good to know it can be used with other squashes, as I found an abnormally large Hubbard in my garden and was pondering what to do with it. The recipe sounds simply delicious! Thank you!

I grow the New England Sugar Pie pumpkins (from heirloom seeds). They are lovely! I used to cook them, several at a time, scrape the pumpkin out, puree it, measure and put into ziplock bag in 2c portions, then freeze and use for pie or pumpkin bars. Now, with the wonderful pressure canner....I shall can it! With canning, its preferred to cut into chunks, raw, add water and a tad but of salt, top off with water, then pressure can. I am giddy about trying this!!!

@kayb.... I found this online, in case you'd like your own private orchard. https://www.starkbros.com/products/fruit-trees/apple-trees/starkspur-arkansas-black-apple For the low, low price of $27.99.

Back to the blessed apples again today. Made apple pie filling. Canned it in the waterbath canner. One exploded, 4 of the 5 others oozed but sealed anyway. The unsealed one got used in an experiment to test a Pinterest recipe hack. Pillsbury cinnamon "rolls" get smashed into muffin tin cells. Filled with apple pie filling, bake for 15 mins, then drizzle with the icing. Tested it out on the kids after school.... excellent use of pie filling. I'm going to leave more headspace for the next round of pie filling. That's all I can think of that would cause the oozing.

Over the last two years....probably the enormous pressure canner (which I use quite a bit nowadays); and the miniature Rapala fillet knife. I had many more cool kitchen toys before the house fire. I've been slowly prioritizing things that I actually need, then get them when its affordable.

Canned 6 full quarts of ...yep. You guessed it: APPLESAUCE! and one of those almost-quart jars. Had the little bit extra for dessert tonight. If we run out of every other food I've canned or dehydrated....we will have still applesauce.

7 more pints of apple sauce canned and stored in the pantry. I sweetened it with honey and brown sugar. Added cinnamon, cardamon, and cloves. Now, what do with the other 200+ apples I've got here.....

This, not such a feat....zucchini bread #1 and #2. Had two large zucchini in the garden. Gave one away, and made use of the other. =) #1 is of the plain variety, which hubby appreciates. #2 is of the fun variety with milk chocolate chunks, chocolate chips and nuts....which my daughters and I appreciate.

@ElsieD Yeah! I love that!!! The Northern Spies are typically pretty large, very dense, good for pies because they hold their shape well. A little on the tart side. The Wolf River apples are enormous, fairly soft and good for apple sauce, apple butter and pie- but I mix them with the spies. They're more on the sweet side. My Mom loved Northern Spies. But, in lower south east and south west parts of Michigan, it became increasingly difficult to find them- I think they were dying out or something. Mom was tickled pink when she found out we had those trees up here. When she passed away a few years ago, I adopted her love of that apple. I think of her every time I'm out picking them.

Apples, apples and more apples! This weekend was pretty nice here. After we tied the calf up outside of the pen, I hauled in the ladder, apple picker and some 5 gal buckets then got to work on the Northern Spy tree, and the unknown tree. Once done, I got hubby to lure Red Bull back into his pen, and I was able to get in outer pen and gather apples. Much to my dismay, the Wolf River tree had dropped all the apples except 2- during the last hard rain storm. =( But, I found another tree that seems to be a hybrid of the wolf and another type I do not know the name of. The apples were pretty big, nonetheless. So, combined with the 2 - 5 gal buckets of Northern Spies, and a bucket of these, plus some from the farm....its apple time here. I'm quite giddy over the size of these apples. Im posting a couple pics, with a medium sized chicken egg so you can see how big these are. I love fall!

I'm so glad this thread exists!!! I was contemplating what to do with the overabundant supply of soup bones we've got here. Butchering 2 cows this fall gave us WAYYYY more soup bones than needed. And, having fallen absolutely in love with my pressure canner, me thinks that is the way to go in dealing with the stock from all the soup bones. The meat that comes off the bones will get diced up into some beef-barley soup and beef-veggie soup, then pressure canned. But, there is usually so much broth left. Might anyone happen to know how long to pressure can broth? Quart jars---maybe 20 min at 10#? Thank you all for posting about this.

@kayb he he....no, we have full-sized deer here. White tail, and some Piebolds. Because of our farm, we are sent applications for additional deer permits from the DNR. This year, we ended up with 7. Yes, its a lot of venison, but we freeze it, can it, make sausage, and give it away to friends and relatives.

@Shelby YOU are one super-organized hunting guru!!!! Deer season will hit here soon enough, and I can already guess the best I will muster up to feed the crowd will be jelly donuts and apple fritters from Econofoods. And coffee. Must have coffee. I was re-reading the thread and noticed you made venison meatballs. Might you have a recipe you'd care to share? It got me thinking about canning meatballs. I wonder if that would work? I may have to go experiment with some beef and see what happens. (We've got permits to take 7 deer this season, so there may be ALOT of venison to process and experiment with. )

We have been so busy here, working and trying to the house completely finished...my memory was shot. So, while struggling to recall how its been done other years, I decided the quickest way to refresh my memory as to how I had off'ed them previously was to visit Youtube. After searching... I found that, apparently, the PETA -recommended humane way to kill a chicken is to make a gas chamber. Using a 5 gal bucket, you put the chicken in, using the lid- cut a hole for a hose to snugly fit through, and connect the other end to a Co2 tank. put the lid on tightly, and crank the gas. In 2-3 min....you have killed the chicken. Part of me thinks it was a joke, but I really do wonder.... Doesn't matter....I don't have a tank like that sitting around. My next thought was was to pull out my dear, Mrs. LC9s Ruger. But, ammo for that is too expensive to spend rounds plinking their heads off. So, after contemplating for a bit, I formulated a tidy, quick method. I hold the chicken upside down while moving to an area away from the other animals, wait a few minutes for it to get dizzy and almost faint. Head and wings fit neatly into a nicely-fragranced trash bag, and I just step on the neck and yank the legs. Breaks the neck and pops the head off in a jiffy. No mess, no cleanup. I cheat incredibly while butchering, too. First, I skin the portion Im going to fillet...then pop the thigh/hip joint, pull out the ole Rapala fillet knife (think: miniature Sword of Isildur), and carve the thigh-leg quarters right out, and immediately put into ice water. Then, I carve the breasts out, and into the water. After all that, I carve off all kinds of meat scraps that go into a ziplock bag setting in ice water. Thats the stuff I use for soup. It is the neatest, most expeditious way I can manage to get the job done-solo. Between 11am and 5pm yesterday, got 10 done- with a 1/2 hour lunch break, and 1/2 hour round trip to pick the peanut up from school. Once I get the tiling done on the front porch, I can spend a bit more time in the kitchen and get some chicken soup pressure canned, then move over to the chocolate kitchen and start cranking out goodies for the holidays. So much to do, so little time! Argh!

Host's note: this post and the responses were originally in What Are You Preserving, and How Are You Doing It? No pics, because its just plain ugly. But, I had two days of killing/processing chickens here, as I posted on another thread. Today, I finished doing the last 10 chickens. I've got them all in the freezers now, except for one that we BBQ'd last night. I cut all the scraps off and bagged them for the freezer too. Those are the pieces that will go into pressure canned chicken soup later on. I'm tired, but a good tired. Nice getting all the buggers done in two days!

Forgot to take pics before I put the leftovers away....but I fixed HOMEGROWN chicken-BBQ'd; HOMEGROWN Sweet corn; and HOMEGROWN potatoes. Today was one of two chicken killing' days here, so I did up a whole chicken for dinner. =)

I just realized I posted this backwards. Weighted is 15 pounds; Dial is 11 pounds. I have not finished my morning coffee yet....these things happen.

AH! Yes, above 1000 feet sea level, the pressure needs to be increased, but how much depends on the type of canner you have. If its a dial-gauge canner - which is what I have, then you increase to 15 pounds; but if it is a weighted gauge canner then 11 pounds. The time stays the same, regardless. I hope you have great success with it! Can't wait to hear how it went!!! =)

The taco meat is easy. Brown the ground beef, though it doesn't have to be entirely done. For every pound of ground beef, add in a scant 5 TBS of taco seasoning. Pack the ground beef in the pints, use the leftover beef juices to fill the jar with a 1" headspace. Its going to be salty, but you can always drain and rinse a bit before using. You'd have to pressure can pints for 75 minutes, at 10 pounds. I double stacked them in the pressure canner, and did 14 all at once. =)

I forgot to take photos while I had everything out, but the list of canned/preserved foods is ever increasing: pressure canned: ground beef with taco seasoning.....14 pints ground beef with peppers and onions (the base for Uncle Carl's sloppy joe)...8 quarts ground beef with onion and Italian seasoning for spaghetti sauce or lasagna.7 quarts stew meat.....7 pints or more. I lost count there, too. waterbath canned: Blueberry/blackberry jam-7pints Blueberry jam- 7 pints smooth applesauce...7 pints Blueberries in simple syrup....I lost count. Today, I'll do chunky applesauce. Next week, I am butchering the 14 meat chickens- some of which will end up being canned. The turkeys are not nearly ready for butchering.At this rate. I'll likely end up dressing them Thanksgiving morning. :+/

Pressure canned these green and yellow beans this afternoon. Might had canned more, but we've been eating them like crazy with dinner

Picked blueberries Sunday morning (before doing hay), and ended up canning a good portion of them. I think this batch has 14 pints, 1 pint and half, and 2 quart jars. Just added some lemon, and simple syrup.

Cashew Chicken. Served with white rice. It felt good chopping things, and cooking again (especially after the Funions and Redbull last night.)

Not the Sunday dinner I had planned, but when there is rain coming and the hay bales need to come in off the field, one does what one must do. So, dinner this evening came from the nearby gas station: 1/2 bag of Funions, 1/2 can grapefruit Redbull, and for dessert....an almond Snickers bar. Gobbled it up while driving the truck/trailor through the hayfield. I feel waaaayyyyy better confessing these atrocities to you all, as opposed to my doctor. Everyone here is far more understanding.

Never wishing to be accused of thwarting the creativity of a budding chef....I indulged my 4 year old granddaughter's "Cooking" whim this evening, and allowed her some freedom in the kitchen (and garden). She picked ALL of my peas, shucked them, mixed them with hardboiled eggs that she peeled and crumbled, and topped it onto sloppy joe. She called it "Sloppy Joe Salad". As she is sitting right here next to me, I will indulge her further and post her creation here on the dinner thread: Yes, she and Grammie shared this delicacy.