What Are You Preserving, and How Are You Doing It? (2016–)

[Shelby]

8 hours ago, scubadoo97 said:

Yes too juicy if cooked.  I tend to freeze raw and have not had an issue doing that. Thawed it’s like fresh 

 

hope those cobs didn’t go to waste Shelby. Lots of flavor in those cobs. 

I made a broth out of a lot of them   You're right, great flavor!

[kayb]

I may perhaps have overshot the mark at the farmers' market this morning. 

• A bushel of corn (lucked into some late corn, as corn was coming in right before we went on vacation, when I didn't have time to do anythng with it).
• A quarter-bushel of peaches, to be cut up and frozen, and some more peach puree made and canned.
• A quarter-bushel of purple hulled peas, to be shelled and frozen.
• Almost a quarter-bushel of cucumbers, which will make half-sours. My cucumbers have just quit, and are turning yellow.  

I overslept and got there too late for figs. The fig man was sold out. I'll hope he has some Tuesday afternoon. 

 

Looks like my next couple of days are cut out for me.

 

[blue_dolphin]

You certainly will be busy, @kayb!

27 minutes ago, kayb said:

I overslept and got there too late for figs. The fig man was sold out. I'll hope he has some Tuesday afternoon. 

And you're killing me with the figs.  I paid $5 for a tiny basket of Black Mission figs the farmers market. First of the season.  

I am savoring them one by one with some crusty bread, blue cheese and red wine. 

They'll be more abundant later but even then I'll never be able to afford a bushel!

[chromedome]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

You certainly will be busy, @kayb!

And you're killing me with the figs.  I paid $5 for a tiny basket of Black Mission figs the farmers market. First of the season.  

I am savoring them one by one with some crusty bread, blue cheese and red wine. 

They'll be more abundant later but even then I'll never be able to afford a bushel!

LOL Up here, on the infrequent occasions we can get 'em, they sell for $1.50/ea. That's Canadian dollars, I'll grant you, but still...

[kayb]

2 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

You certainly will be busy, @kayb!

And you're killing me with the figs.  I paid $5 for a tiny basket of Black Mission figs the farmers market. First of the season.  

I am savoring them one by one with some crusty bread, blue cheese and red wine. 

They'll be more abundant later but even then I'll never be able to afford a bushel!

 

Figs were $3 a quart. I figured to get four quarts. Got two quarts last time, and that made a pint of puree that'll be cooked a bit more and made into jam.

 

When I lived in Hot Springs, they were free. Had a friend with a BIG tree.

 

I just wish the season were longer.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

11 hours ago, kayb said:

I may perhaps have overshot the mark at the farmers' market this morning. 

• A bushel of corn (lucked into some late corn, as corn was coming in right before we went on vacation, when I didn't have time to do anythng with it).
• A quarter-bushel of peaches, to be cut up and frozen, and some more peach puree made and canned.
• A quarter-bushel of purple hulled peas, to be shelled and frozen.
• Almost a quarter-bushel of cucumbers, which will make half-sours. My cucumbers have just quit, and are turning yellow.  

I overslept and got there too late for figs. The fig man was sold out. I'll hope he has some Tuesday afternoon. 

 

Looks like my next couple of days are cut out for me.

 

 

The library where I work has a table at the local farmers' market.  This morning In the middle of a line of thunderstorms our personnel showed up and were told to go away...and that they were insane.

 

Not sure what this has to do with preserving, except sanity.

 

[Shelby]

A crock of pickles was done yesterday.  I think upthread somewhere I mentioned that my crock pickles are always cloudy.  I don't mind it, but in the interest of trying something new, I decided to make new brine to put the pickles in and can them.  I was starting a new crock anyway, and I always have a lot of brine left over so why not.

 

They turned out very pretty.   We will see if they taste the same as the ones canned in the original brine.

 

 

And, because I feel I should show the bad, along with the good, I had a catastrophic failure

 

 

About one minute after I lowered the jars into the pot I heard the dreaded "BOOM"  I always ALWAYS carefully inspect my jars but I missed this flaw --if there was one.  Some of my jars are very very old.  This was one of them.  I think I should stop using them.

 

At least it was a clean break.

[kayb]

Haven't had that happen in a long time. Knock on wood.

 

Put five quarts and a half gallon of what will become half sours  in about a week in the jars to ferment. Except two of them went into plastic containers, because I ran out of wide-mouth jars. They can stay in the fridge after they ferment.

 

Having two fridges is a good thing.

 

[naguere]

Last week in 'Malinka', a Polish shop in Cheltenham  i bought two large Cabbages  (hard as cannon balls) 3Kg each, next week i will shred them and make saurkraut.

 

My last batch, made in August 2017 has just run out, it stayed i fine condition to the last drop.

 

Photographs to follow, only this time i will use the gizmo  on the slicerr to operate it, my finger tip has just healed by the way.

 

Photos to follow.

Edited August 5, 2018 by naguere
Grammar (log)

[Okanagancook]

Pulled a couple of basil plants and made two batches of Hazan’s food processor pesto.  Vac sealed them in bags of the right size so I could flatten them out so the frozen pesto can be broken off in pieces.  It is amazing how quickly it oxidizes and changes colour...gotta work fast.

[SLB]

I took a class on canning safety this past weekend, and now I'm fit for canning with gusto!

 

The training projects:

 

 

 

Peaches; tomato blender salsa; zucchini relish; peach ketchup; plum jelly; low-sugar apricot jam; regular apricot jam; sauerkraut.  We also did a peach butter, some non-fermented pickles, dehydrated stone fruits, and pressure-canned beans, but I had to leave before those projects were done.  

 

If you're using a tested recipe, none of it is rocket science; but I did want to make sure I was understanding the safety precautions with precision.  And it was nice to just go through the motions over and over with someone correcting/reminding.  I've learned a lot from books, but this seems to be getting harder as I get older.  A whole 'nother topic . . . .  

 

On the home front -- I admit, my resistance to air conditioning may fail in the face of late-summer canning.  I know that my grandmas canned without air conditioning, ruthlessly.  My cousins still talk about the wonders to be stolen out of the pantry in my paternal grandma's house.  But it seems like some serious suffering.

 

Anyway.  Squee! 

 

[Please do ignore that backpacking Charmin roll back left on the junk plate.  I promise there is no toilet-anything in my kitchen, that was an extra NEW packet which for whatever reason didn't make it into my pack for my last hiking trip -- where it was missed, natch -- but it's not something that's ever got near a toilet scene before it landed on my countertop.  Just wanted to reassure folk . . . 😳]

 

[kayb]

2 hours ago, SLB said:

 

 

On the home front -- I admit, my resistance to air conditioning may fail in the face of late-summer canning.  I know that my grandmas canned without air conditioning, ruthlessly.  My cousins still talk about the wonders to be stolen out of the pantry in my paternal grandma's house.  But it seems like some serious suffering.

 

Anyway.  Squee! 

 

 

.

Squee, indeed! It will become addicting.

 

I went in search of figs and tomatoes today. Scored figs. Did not score canning tomtatoes. That is not my last option. But tomorrow will be taken up with making fig jam and caponata, which I believe I can can, and I have enough tomatoes to do that.

 

Once I score the tomatoes, I need to can some plain tomatoes (peeled, cored, quartered, cooked) for soups and stews and all such, and some tomato relish (a sort of sweet, not-hot salsa that I grew up on; I do not believe one can eat field peas without it, and my stash is getting seriously low). A couple of 35-pound boxes should take care of me quite nicely. (We eat a LOT of tomatoes over the winter.) 

 

I can tell you how we dealt with the no a/c issue when I was a kid. We would throw the No. 2 washtub in the back of the pickup, go to town to the icehouse, and get a 50-pound block of ice. Mama and I would carry it inside, put down newspapers, and set it in the kitchen floor. Set the box fan on a kitchen chair, behind it. Voila -- instant a/c. Saved us many a day when we were canning or freezing veggies and fruit.

 

Me, I'm a wuss in my advancing years. I turn the central AC down REAL low, and still use fans.

 

 

Then she would threaten, laughingly, to beat me for sitting on the rim of the tub and blocking the cold air. 

Edited August 7, 2018 by kayb
to fix typo. (log)

[HungryChris]

On ‎7‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 2:13 PM, Shelby said:

I just put the beef tongue that I had brining in the smoker.

Shelby, I bet I am not the only one waiting, patiently (until now) to hear about the results. Has the cat got your tongue?

HC

Edited August 8, 2018 by HungryChris (log)

[kayb]

Update:

 

This week, I've

1. put half sours in to ferment; I'll can those tomorrow.
2. frozen 12 pints of corn
3. yesterday, made 12 half-pints and 2 pints of fig jam
4. also yesterday, canned eight pints of sweet-hot-dill pickles. These are the pickles, I believe, that @Kim Shook referred to where you do, in fact, make pickles with pickles. You take a gallon jug of kosher dill chips, dump them in a colander to drain, then layer them back in the jar  with sugar and hot sauce. Marvelous on a burger, or a pimiento cheese and bacon sandwich! They sit in the gallon jug and age, and then, if you wish, you can move them over to smaller jars and process.

Today, I'm going to try my hand at caponata, and see if the peaches are ready to work up. Tomorrow, I'm going to go get some tomatoes, and can a few more jars for the winter, as well as make the tomato relish.

 

Then I'm through until late September, when the pears and the Arkansas Black apples come in. Pear preserves and apple butter will round off the preserving season.

 

[Shelby]

19 hours ago, HungryChris said:

Shelby, I bet I am not the only one waiting, patiently (until now) to hear about the results. Has the cat got your tongue?

HC

 

😳I swear I thought I posted about it.  I've lost my mind, I guess.  Thank you for asking  

 

I liked it.  I need to work on my smoking skills, though.  I think it needed longer.  But, the meat tasted good and it was tender.  I made sandwiches out of it.

 

I don't have time right now to do another , but I will do another, rest assured--there's a lot of this going on over here that is occupying my time:

 

 

 

[kayb]

OK, pickling peeps. I have a question. I have just thrown away the SECOND batch of half-sours I tried to make this summer. I put them in jars, with the air-lock lids, to ferment on Sunday. Went to change them out today for regular lids and process them, and they were all moldy on the top, so i pitched them. Had the same thing happen earlier in the summer, and thought that was because I forgot them and left them to ferment too long. 

 

I was meticulous about sterilizing jars and air-locks, because I thought I might have gotten careless last time. 

 

Any ideas what the problem is? The same recipe worked perfectly last time.

 

@HungryChris, it's the same recipe I gave you. Did you try it, and did you have any problem?

 

In other news, the eggplant caponata came out wonderfully. 

 

[HungryChris]

12 minutes ago, kayb said:

OK, pickling peeps. I have a question. I have just thrown away the SECOND batch of half-sours I tried to make this summer. I put them in jars, with the air-lock lids, to ferment on Sunday. Went to change them out today for regular lids and process them, and they were all moldy on the top, so i pitched them. Had the same thing happen earlier in the summer, and thought that was because I forgot them and left them to ferment too long. 

 

I was meticulous about sterilizing jars and air-locks, because I thought I might have gotten careless last time. 

 

Any ideas what the problem is? The same recipe worked perfectly last time.

 

@HungryChris, it's the same recipe I gave you. Did you try it, and did you have any problem?

 

In other news, the eggplant caponata came out wonderfully. 

 

I did try it and it worked well. The only surprise was that in 3 days, they were ready. I was expecting it to be a week or more.

HC

[Shelby]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

OK, pickling peeps. I have a question. I have just thrown away the SECOND batch of half-sours I tried to make this summer. I put them in jars, with the air-lock lids, to ferment on Sunday. Went to change them out today for regular lids and process them, and they were all moldy on the top, so i pitched them. Had the same thing happen earlier in the summer, and thought that was because I forgot them and left them to ferment too long. 

 

I was meticulous about sterilizing jars and air-locks, because I thought I might have gotten careless last time. 

 

Any ideas what the problem is? The same recipe worked perfectly last time.

 

@HungryChris, it's the same recipe I gave you. Did you try it, and did you have any problem?

 

In other news, the eggplant caponata came out wonderfully. 

 

Are you keeping the jars in the same place as you usually do?  Could the sun possibly be hitting the jars?  Is the house warmer than normal?

[kayb]

2 hours ago, Shelby said:

Are you keeping the jars in the same place as you usually do?  Could the sun possibly be hitting the jars?  Is the house warmer than normal?

 

I don't remember where I put them last year. And I don't think the house is any warmer...

[Shelby]

2 hours ago, kayb said:

 

I don't remember where I put them last year. And I don't think the house is any warmer...

Hmmmm.... I can't think of anything else.  I guess if I were you I'd check them a lot sooner since Chris' were done in such a fast time?  I know how frustrating it is to have to throw out such good veggies.

[HungryChris]

Let the sauce making begin.

HC

[Shelby]

Canned  and preserved all day yesterday and I didn't hardly make a dent.  But that's ok .

 

The poblano plants are packed full--they don't get very big, though...maybe because they are too packed lol.  And, O M G they are SO hot.  Anyway, picked a basket full and steam broiled them in the CSO to get the skins off.

 

 

Luckily Little League baseball was on to keep me occupied during the tedious peeling.

Then I got to use my VacMaster

 

 

On to the mountains of okra and jalapeños 

 

 

 

 

[ElsieD]

You preservers are amazing.  I'm very, very impressed.

[Auspicious]

Most of what we do is prepared: my pasta sauce, my wife's tomato-basil soup, my vegetable soup, refrigerator pickles (water bath only), as well as a few basics (tomatoes and beets mostly). My wife is making her first foray into jellies. We had some left over small jars and thought they would make nice gifts. We carefully measured the capacity (2 oz) and went looking. Lots of 1.5 oz jars with one piece lids. No lids and bands. Gave up and bought Ball 4 oz jars. Brought them home and they are exactly what we already had. *sigh* Not quite sure what the 4 oz is a measure of but we're happy. A little confused, but happy.

[SLB]

13 hours ago, ElsieD said:

You preservers are amazing.  I'm very, very impressed.

I KNOW RIGHT???   

 

It's such an inspiring thread, it's been a long time since I've been so excited to take on a new angle on food.