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

[chromedome]

10 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

Will it have any flavor left, once the juice has been squeezed out?

I've tasted it, it's definitely still got some zing and some apple-y goodness.

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Apple habanero jelly trial 2:

I made the same recipe using the crab apples I foraged a few days ago.

The crab apples worked much better. I still had to boil the sieved apples for about 50 minutes to reach the gel stage. Ended up with 500 ml. of jelly (4 125 ml. jars) with a much more vibrant red colour and as a bonus when I filtered the finished jelly through cheesecloth I saved the 'habanero applesauce', about 300 ml., filtered out.

 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2023 by Senior Sea Kayaker (log)

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

This is something I've been making for many years. It was originally celery pickled with fish sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar and lime juice.

At the time I was looking for a way to utilize chard and beet stems and used this recipe. My only addition is a finely julienned green Thai chili.

The red colour is from red chard and beet stems bleeding into the liquid.

It's a nice pickle to accompany rice.

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Air dried oregano and summer savoury. 

 

 

 

[Smithy]

Our families got together for Labor Day weekend, and combined the fun of a first birthday party for great-grandson with the fun of making and canning salsa. This year my DIL and I canned 4 dozen pints of salsa on 2 separate days, with the birthday party in between. In past years there have been three or four of us family and friends doing the washing, chopping, measuring, roasting and then canning. This year it was just DIL and me. We actually worked more quickly than when there were three or four of us in that kitchen: in the time it took her to do the tomatoes, I did the peppers, onions, seasonings, vinegar and sugar. We were also quite pleased with the discovery that blitzing the tomatoes in her new Nutribullet blender, then draining in a colander, was as effective as cutting the tomatoes by hand and draining them. I tell you, we've got this down to a science! Each day's batch made 12 pints plus some extra. From start to cleanup, we did each batch in under 4 hours.

 

We also had fun, as we also do, varying the recipe a bit. Our husbands prefer more heat, so we added more hot peppers to one batch. She wanted more onion and salt in another batch. We went all-out on the "extra salt" batch and added a whopping 1/3 cup of salt rather than the 1/4 cup of salt called for. To a 26-cup batch of salsa. 🤣 (Nope, we can't taste the difference. Nope, we didn't do the math ahead of time.)

 

She gave me some of hers, because they don't use quite as much as we do and don't have friends counting on this year's crop. Here's my haul:

 

 

And here's the money shot, from tonight's "we aren't very hungry" snacking dinner.

 

[Deephaven]

Quick run to the farm and a result made about 30 lbs of applesauce, 14 freezer bags of 6 cups of apples for pies, a kimchi maker full of jalapenos fermenting, a pint of pork nam pla although I used red serranos, some zucchini bread for the freezer and a choc zucchini cake for the stomach.  Still have some tomatoes to roast and freeze, some more Chiles and a bunch of large cucumbers.  Think I am going to make some chopped, salted and drain baggies for quick tsatziki and of course some fridge pickles.  

[heidih]

48 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Our families got together for Labor Day weekend, and combined the fun of a first birthday party for great-grandson with the fun of making and canning salsa. This year my DIL and I canned 4 dozen pints of salsa on 2 separate days, with the birthday party in between. In past years there have been three or four of us family and friends doing the washing, chopping, measuring, roasting and then canning. This year it was just DIL and me. We actually worked more quickly than when there were three or four of us in that kitchen: in the time it took her to do the tomatoes, I did the peppers, onions, seasonings, vinegar and sugar. We were also quite pleased with the discovery that blitzing the tomatoes in her new Nutribullet blender, then draining in a colander, was as effective as cutting the tomatoes by hand and draining them. I tell you, we've got this down to a science! Each day's batch made 12 pints plus some extra. From start to cleanup, we did each batch in under 4 hours.

 

We also had fun, as we also do, varying the recipe a bit. Our husbands prefer more heat, so we added more hot peppers to one batch. She wanted more onion and salt in another batch. We went all-out on the "extra salt" batch and added a whopping 1/3 cup of salt rather than the 1/4 cup of salt called for. To a 26-cup batch of salsa. 🤣 (Nope, we can't taste the difference. Nope, we didn't do the math ahead of time.)

 

She gave me some of hers, because they don't use quite as much as we do and don't have friends counting on this year's crop. Here's my haul:

 

 

And here's the money shot, from tonight's "we aren't very hungry" snacking dinner.

 

Your yearly communal salsa making reminded me of this Serious Eats piece on Kimjang - the yearly kimchi communal event.  Yours sounds like fun!  https://www.seriouseats.com/kimjang

[MaryIsobel]

My two sisters and I had a salsa weekend too. Back story; I am the eldest, my youngest sister is a great and intuitive cook, our middle sister is a brilliant teacher, world traveler, woeful cook. My younger sister and I enjoy cooking together and have made some memorable meals but she has never canned anything so I said "let's make salsa and I'll teach you the hot water bath thing." To be kind we invited middle sister. To say she is not intuitive is an understatement. We tried to give her easy jobs ie. "you chop up all this cilantro, just a rough chop is fine."  "Do I wash it first?, Do I take the stems off", what is a rough chop?... For context, as the eldest, I am 63, middle sister is 61, baby is 57, so we are not twently somethings. I really tried to break things down into baby steps but it would have been so much smoother with just baby sis and I. Middle sis was proud of herself for having "made salsa." We ended up getting her to measure the things that needed to be precise measurements; salt, cider vinegar, cumin. black pepper, etc. All in all it was a greating bonding day and we canned 52 - 1/2 pints of salsa in one day. Normally our household is just three people so the 1/2 pints work well.

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

I've been harvesting a lot of green beans and purple filet beans. Freezing 50%, eating and giving to my sister.

As another form of preservation I started a lacto-fermentation (5%w/v) of purple filet beans with garlic and dill.

 

[FauxPas]

27 minutes ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

As another form of preservation I started a lacto-fermentation (5%w/v) of purple filet beans with garlic and dill.

 

Maybe these are stupid questions but these purple beans turn green when cooked, right? Do they stay purple when lacto-fermented? 🙂

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

1 minute ago, FauxPas said:

 

Maybe these are stupid questions but these purple beans turn green when cooked, right? Do they stay purple when lacto-fermented? 🙂

 

 

This is the first time I've done these with purple beans however my guess is they'll turn the usual drab olive green when the pH drops during the fermentation process.

 

[chromedome]

We were gifted a large quantity of crabapples from a friend's tree (I don't know how large, because we never weighed them, but it was a full Rubbermaid tote).

 

The tally so far is:

 

Crabapples canned in light syrup: 10 pints, 4 quarts

Jelly w. Thai chilies: 4 jelly jars

Jelly w. warm spices: 6 jelly jars, 1 1/2 pints

Plain crabapple jelly: 10 jelly jars, 1 1/2 pints.

 

I also have a pint jar of the frothy foam skimmed off during the cooking process, which I'll eat up over the next month or two on my toast.

 

May post a picture later if I'm not too tired; have some rabbits to harvest tonight so I'll be busy for a while.

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

On 9/10/2023 at 11:48 AM, FauxPas said:

 

Maybe these are stupid questions but these purple beans turn green when cooked, right? Do they stay purple when lacto-fermented? 🙂

 

 

Two days into fermentation the purple beans have all turned green.

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Four days into fermentation. My opinion is the anthocyanins from the purple beans leached out into the brine and, as the pH dropped, regained their purple colour. Dependent on what anthocyanins are present and how pH labile they are.

 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Senior Sea Kayaker (log)

[blue_dolphin]

I'm looking for some tomato ideas.  A local farm does pick-your-own Roma tomatoes for 40 cents/lb.  It's usually over Labor Day weekend and it's usually blazing hot but this year, the tomatoes were late, there are still some on the plants and it's cooled down nicely so I'm going to get some today.  I'm aiming for about 25 lbs, nothing compared with what most of you work with, but I'm just cooking for one.

 

I'm going to make a batch of @Suvir Saran's Tomato Chutney and I want to put up some jars of Vivian's stewed tomatoes from Deep Run Roots, which I'll process without the breadcrumbs. 

I'll put some into a batch of Red Weapons from This Will Make It Taste Good, though that only uses a few pounds. 

 

Seeing @Smithy & @MaryIsobel's recent salsa posts makes me think I should try a small batch, even though I'm not usually a fan of cooked salsas unless I doctor them up with a lot of fresh stuff.  

 

I can alway just make some basic tomatoes in jars although I'm more interested in stuff I can't easily buy. Any other ideas for me to try?

Unfortunately, since my fridge died and was replaced with a small one, my freezer capacity is nil and I don't have a pressure canner so I'm looking for things that can be waterbath processed. 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

58 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

I'm looking for some tomato ideas.  A local farm does pick-your-own Roma tomatoes for 40 cents/lb.  It's usually over Labor Day weekend and it's usually blazing hot but this year, the tomatoes were late, there are still some on the plants and it's cooled down nicely so I'm going to get some today.  I'm aiming for about 25 lbs, nothing compared with what most of you work with, but I'm just cooking for one.

 

I'm going to make a batch of @Suvir Saran's Tomato Chutney and I want to put up some jars of Vivian's stewed tomatoes from Deep Run Roots, which I'll process without the breadcrumbs. 

I'll put some into a batch of Red Weapons from This Will Make It Taste Good, though that only uses a few pounds. 

 

Seeing @Smithy & @MaryIsobel's recent salsa posts makes me think I should try a small batch, even though I'm not usually a fan of cooked salsas unless I doctor them up with a lot of fresh stuff.  

 

I can alway just make some basic tomatoes in jars although I'm more interested in stuff I can't easily buy. Any other ideas for me to try?

Unfortunately, since my fridge died and was replaced with a small one, my freezer capacity is nil and I don't have a pressure canner so I'm looking for things that can be waterbath processed. 

 

One suggestion would be to do a batch of @ElainaA oven roasted tomatoes (her recipe used cherry toms but romas work fine). It can be used in many ways and it results in considerably less volume than other methods.

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

6 minutes ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

 

One suggestion would be to do a batch of @ElainaA oven roasted tomatoes (her recipe used cherry toms but romas work fine). It can be used in many ways and it results in considerably less volume than other methods.

 

 

 

I do really love those!  Never tried with Romas but I will give it a try.  Also, I've always just stored them in the freezer.  Do you just ladle them into jars and waterbath process?  Do you need to add anything to acidify?

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

2 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

I do really love those!  Never tried with Romas but I will give it a try.  Also, I've always just stored them in the freezer.  Do you just ladle them into jars and waterbath process?  Do you need to add anything to acidify?

 

I just pack them in jars and freeze. No need to acidify, unless for taste, if they'll be stored in the freezer.

[heidih]

@blue_dolphin This recipe or sun/oven dried tomatoes inolive oil uses water canning. I don't can so have not done but looks like low efort tasty  https://philosokitchen.com/sun-dried-tomatoes/

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

 

I just pack them in jars and freeze. No need to acidify, unless for taste, if they'll be stored in the freezer.

 

Sadly, I have no freezer space but while I have you here, when you use Romas for this, do you peel them and cut them up or just throw them in whole as with the cherry tomatoes?

 

54 minutes ago, heidih said:

@blue_dolphin This recipe or sun/oven dried tomatoes inolive oil uses water canning. I don't can so have not done but looks like low efort tasty  https://philosokitchen.com/sun-dried-tomatoes/

 

Thanks!  I'm sure I could fit a jar or two of these in the fridge!

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

9 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

Sadly, I have no freezer space but while I have you here, when you use Romas for this, do you peel them and cut them up or just throw them in whole as with the cherry tomatoes?

 

 

I don't peel them. Depending on size I cut them into 8-12 pieces, removing the stem part, and then mix them with the other ingredients.

I prefer smaller pieces as I usually use this to 'divet' focaccia, as a pizza topping or as a quick pasta sauce.

 

[Shelby]

4 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

I'm looking for some tomato ideas.  A local farm does pick-your-own Roma tomatoes for 40 cents/lb.  It's usually over Labor Day weekend and it's usually blazing hot but this year, the tomatoes were late, there are still some on the plants and it's cooled down nicely so I'm going to get some today.  I'm aiming for about 25 lbs, nothing compared with what most of you work with, but I'm just cooking for one.

 

I'm going to make a batch of @Suvir Saran's Tomato Chutney and I want to put up some jars of Vivian's stewed tomatoes from Deep Run Roots, which I'll process without the breadcrumbs. 

I'll put some into a batch of Red Weapons from This Will Make It Taste Good, though that only uses a few pounds. 

 

Seeing @Smithy & @MaryIsobel's recent salsa posts makes me think I should try a small batch, even though I'm not usually a fan of cooked salsas unless I doctor them up with a lot of fresh stuff.  

 

I can alway just make some basic tomatoes in jars although I'm more interested in stuff I can't easily buy. Any other ideas for me to try?

Unfortunately, since my fridge died and was replaced with a small one, my freezer capacity is nil and I don't have a pressure canner so I'm looking for things that can be waterbath processed. 

For the past few years (when I have enough tomatoes to can sigh) I've been doing a batch mixed with hot peppers--like Rotel canned tomatoes.  Peel your tomatoes and chop your peppers.  Put in a huge pot.  Cook down a bit.  Put in jars and process like you would just a regular jar.  You'll have spicy tomato juice left which I also can and use for spicy tomato juice/bloody mary's etc.  

[Shelby]

I use jalapeños btw.

[blue_dolphin]

18 minutes ago, Shelby said:

For the past few years (when I have enough tomatoes to can sigh) I've been doing a batch mixed with hot peppers--like Rotel canned tomatoes.  Peel your tomatoes and chop your peppers.  Put in a huge pot.  Cook down a bit.  Put in jars and process like you would just a regular jar.  You'll have spicy tomato juice left which I also can and use for spicy tomato juice/bloody mary's etc.  

I like that idea a lot. I've got a lot of jalapeños, cherry bombs and Fresnos so I'm set for that option!

[Shelby]

24 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

I like that idea a lot. I've got a lot of jalapeños, cherry bombs and Fresnos so I'm set for that option!

I also add a bit of garlic and Lawry's salt.