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

[Shelby]

Lots of this going on:

 

 

[ElsieD]

@Shelby  you are an amazing woman.

[Shelby]

1 minute ago, ElsieD said:

@Shelby  you are an amazing woman.

☺️<----me blushing.

 

Nah, I just like tomatoes a lot

 

I had some really good help from my mom.  It goes so much faster with her.  Today I'm back to just me, myself and I lol.

[Smithy]

Just now, ElsieD said:

@Shelby  you are an amazing woman.

 

Amen!

 

@Shelby, how did you treat those beans? I probably shouldn't entertain the idea of canning more than next weekend's salsa, and maybe some chokecherry jelly this week, but I'm tempted.

[Shelby]

2 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

Amen!

 

@Shelby, how did you treat those beans? I probably shouldn't entertain the idea of canning more than next weekend's salsa, and maybe some chokecherry jelly this week, but I'm tempted.

I feel you.  I'm canning almost every day.  I'm thinking of making some Asian type sweet/hot sauce, but it's hard to break away from just canning plain tomatoes to use in different ways over the winter.

 

Beans need to be done in the pressure canner.  

 

I throw my beans in the sink and cover with cold water to clean them.  Break each end off and break bean in half (makes it easier to get in pint jars) and put cleaned beans in a bowl.  Bring a pot of water to boil.  Put beans in and boil for 5 minutes.  Turn heat off.

 

 Place beans in prepared hot jars, sprinkle about 1/4 tsp. or a little less over beans, fill with liquid from the pot of beans leaving an inch head space.  Poke with plastic thingy to get bubbles out. Wipe edge of jar with paper towel.  Place hot lid and screw band on.  Place in pressure canner than has been filled with 2-3 inches of water and the rack placed on the bottom (I like to use hot water so that there is no shock to the jars from cold water).  Turn heat on high.  After the steam escapes from the vent pie for 10 mins., place pressure weight on (my altitude uses 15 lbs).  After first jiggle of the weight, begin counting processing time (20 minutes for where I live for pints). After time is up turn of heat and allow to cool gradually until pressure drops to zero.  Remove weight.  Wait 2 minutes then unlatch lid and remove jars.

[chromedome]

3 hours ago, Shelby said:

 

 Place beans in prepared hot jars, sprinkle about 1/4 tsp. or a little less over beans, fill with liquid from the pot of beans leaving an inch head space.  Poke with plastic thingy to get bubbles out. Wipe edge of jar with paper towel.  Place hot lid and screw band on.  Place in pressure canner than has been filled with 2-3 inches of water and the rack placed on the bottom (I like to use hot water so that there is no shock to the jars from cold water).  Turn heat on high.  After the steam escapes from the vent pie for 10 mins., place pressure weight on (my altitude uses 15 lbs).  After first jiggle of the weight, begin counting processing time (20 minutes for where I live for pints). After time is up turn of heat and allow to cool gradually until pressure drops to zero.  Remove weight.  Wait 2 minutes then unlatch lid and remove jars.

Sprinkle...salt?

[Shelby]

16 minutes ago, chromedome said:

Sprinkle...salt?

No, I have a special magic dust that ensures the cans all seal.

 

 

 

 

Yes, sorry.  Salt.

[IowaDee]

Magic Dust?  Oh yeah I remember that book. Shelby and the (Magic) bean stalk.  

[lemniscate]

@Shelby  Is your pressure canner induction friendly?   I am looking seriously at this Presto for my first go at pressure canning.    It's induction compatible and the reviews are quite high.   Looking for advice from a PC veteran 😀.

[Shelby]

24 minutes ago, lemniscate said:

@Shelby  Is your pressure canner induction friendly?   I am looking seriously at this Presto for my first go at pressure canning.    It's induction compatible and the reviews are quite high.   Looking for advice from a PC veteran 😀.

No, it isn't.  Mine is an All American pressure canner and they are aluminum.  After a little google, I, too, saw good things about the Presto.

 

I am far far far from a PC veteran.  @ChocoMom is waaaaay more advanced than I am.  She might be able to help with any questions too  

[Shelby]

Everything in the garden this year is a bit later than normal.  Thus, I didn't think that we would have many cucumbers.  I was wrong.  Wasn't planning on making any pickles this year because I have some left from last year.  However,  I had dill in the fridge, grape leaves in the field and cucumbers coming out of my ears.  These should be ready in about 3 weeks.

 

 

[heidih]

On 7/28/2019 at 9:26 AM, Shelby said:

Meanwhile, Ronnie was in the garage making me this corn holder thingy to make it easier to scrape the corn off

 

 

 

So do you rent Ronnie out or is he proprietary?  Wonderful corn porn

[MelissaH]

On 8/28/2019 at 9:25 AM, Shelby said:

Everything in the garden this year is a bit later than normal.  Thus, I didn't think that we would have many cucumbers.  I was wrong.  Wasn't planning on making any pickles this year because I have some left from last year.  However,  I had dill in the fridge, grape leaves in the field and cucumbers coming out of my ears.  These should be ready in about 3 weeks.

My husband's family pickle recipe uses leaves from an unsprayed cherry tree.

[ElsieD]

6 quarts of hot sauce made with sugar rush peach peppers.  Note the Frank's hot sauce bottles being recycled.

[Okanagancook]

Holy Hanna, that’s a lotta hot sauce....do you put that on everything!😁😁

[ElsieD]

43 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Holy Hanna, that’s a lotta hot sauce....do you put that on everything!😁😁

 

Nah, we are giving 1 1/2 quarts to my SIL who grew the tomatoes and peppers.

[ElsieD]

@Okanagancook  I forgot to add that she has the peppers and tomatoes in her freezer for 1 more quart should we run out.  I don't use it - John does.  He doesn't put it on everything, but when he does, he uses a LOT.

[Smithy]

We spent the Labor Day Weekend visiting my stepdaughter and her family at their "lake place" in western Minnesota. The nearby farmer's market - Beuhler's Produce - has a beautiful operation with a huge selection of produce, and it was all in full swing of the harvest season. We arrived before the rest of the family, and I went to scope the place out and buy the supplies we needed for our salsa-making weekend.

 

 

This is a dangerous place for me to come on my own. The mind explodes with possibilities! So much good food! So little time to eat or prepare it! I especially like the fact that they have their chile varieties labeled as to Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) so you can see what you're getting into.

 

 

In addition to the lug of tomatoes and the peppers and onions I needed for our salsa, I bought a couple of quarts of cherry tomatoes and rendered them, more or less according to @ElainaA's Slow-roasted cherry tomato sauce. I waited while the proprietors went out and picked the gallon or so of tomatoes I wanted. *That's* the type of customer service they provide at Buehler's.

 

 

 

When my darling's daughter arrived, we set to making the salsa. We finished. "Oh, that was fun!" we said. "Oh, we have to make another batch!" we said. "Oh, we'll need more tomatoes, peppers and onions!" we said. 

 

Did I mention that it's dangerous for me to go to Buehler's alone? It's worse when I go with Lauri.  

 

Between the two of us we made some 20 - 30 pints of salsa...and there were still more tomatoes...and she only took a few of those. Today, back home, I've been making salsa again. 

 

Before...

 

 

and After...

(The darker color is before stirring, where the surface has dried slightly and Maillard reactions have happened.)

 

 

and still, this remains:

 

 

I'm dithering between putting up a quart or two of puttanesca sauce or simply roasting and freezing these beauties. We certainly don't need more salsa for the year!

[Smithy]

Last night's salsa, which recipe usually yields "approximately 10 pints", cooked down so much that I ended up with this:

 

 

and this. I had been contemplating the fact that it's a long time since a jar broke in the canning bath. So I lost my footing and dropped the tray instead. Oh, the irony!

 

 

At least only 1 jar broke. Two of the others may have lost their seal (I haven't heard them pop yet) but two are alive and well.

 

 

 

[Shelby]

Oh shoot!  I HATE it when stuff like this happens.

[Smithy]

10 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Oh shoot!  I HATE it when stuff like this happens.

 

Yah. I THINK it's good that the jar the broke landed on the tiles. That's probably why it broke, but it was easier to clean up than if it had broken on the wood. The one that landed on the wooden floor didn't break. Who knows? At any rate, there are a couple of jars of tomato jam destined to live in the refrigerator and become bruschetta topping (or something similar) soon. I say "jam" because this batch of salsa is really sweet and thick.

Edited September 6, 2019 by Smithy
Trying to straighten out convoluted sentences (log)

[Shelby]

5 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

Yah. I THINK it's good that the jar the broke landed on the tiles. That's probably why it broke, but it was easier to clean up than if it had broken on the wood. The one that landed on the wooden floor didn't break. Who knows? At any rate, there are a couple of jars of tomato jam destined to live in the refrigerator and become bruschetta topping (or something similar) soon. I say "jam" because this batch of salsa is really sweet and thick.

 

Ugh.  Such hard work making it.  I feel your pain.

 

P.S.  "Shoot" wasn't the "S" word that I really said in my mind.

[Shelby]

I, too, made @ElainaA's slow roasted cherry tomatoes.  Good stuff.  I'm letting this first batch cool off and then I'm starting another.  I have a bunch of little 'maters to use up

Had to have some on a piece of bread

 

[Smithy]

I purchased the book Savory Sweet: simple preserves from a northern kitchen last year at my favorite Duluth kitchen store, and am trying some of its recipes. The first recipe up is too simple to call a recipe, but I used their guidelines to oven-dry some of the slicing tomatoes that aren't going to become salsa or tomato jam. (The book actually says to use Roma or cherry tomatoes for this, because the slicers are too juicy, but I made it work anyway.) 200F for maybe 4 hours, maybe only 2. I forgot to time it.

 

 

Some of these will contribute to the puttanesca sauce recipe from this book. I love the idea of making puttanesca sauce now from fresh tomatoes and freezing it for later use.  Even though I'm pretty sure the original is intended to be fresh, barely-cooked, and quick, the frozen version should be just as quick for when I need it.

 

Besides, I still need to do something with all this...

 

 

...and there are eggplants and cucumbers still waiting their turn, hiding in the outside refrigerator.

[Smithy]

Puttanesca sauce from the above-mentioned book. It's short on capers (my fault) and I had to adjust the sweetness to suit myself, but it's going to be good.

 

 

Just think: in order to make room for various toys like Instant Pots and an air fryer, this pot was slated to be given away.

 

 

I hadn't used it in quite some time, but today I realized it's perfect for cooking down sauces like this. It's heavy and heats evenly; it's broad and relatively shallow: better capacity than any of my skillets, and better for this job than any of my deeper pots.

 

I guess I'll have to make room for it somewhere.