First attempt at dehydrating herbs

 We dehydrated a bunch of fruit this week. We tried kiwi, peaches, several types of apples, pears, mango... Basically all of the fruit that we could find in a local farmers market store.

The watermelon was attempted, but I'm not sure how good it really is.  A lot of it was still pretty soft even after 24 hours.  I think the oldest will eat it all within a day so at least it won't be wasted completely, and lesson learned.

Tomato Canning 2014

We finally got around to canning again for this summer.  First we hit our favorite produce farm and picked well over 100 pounds of tomatoes. 

Then we dumped it all on the table and waited until the next day to get to work.

Strawberry Jam 2014

We didn't manage to get all 35 pounds of strawberries processed because I've been so busy at my two jobs, but we did manage to get three batches canned.  I think this will be okay as long as we also make black raspberry jam as well.

Amazingly pickled

When I made the next batches of pickles last week, I was a bit nervous.  We hadn't tried the first batch of pickles since they needed to wait four to six weeks, and I'm a bit picky about how I like my pickles.  What if I made this second batch and then when we tried them in a few months, they tasted horrible?  What a waste that would be.

I decided yesterday to crack open a jar from the first batch.  It had been seven weeks since they were made and I figured if they tasted bad, I wouldn't make any more.

I passed a pickle to each of us.

I have to say, they were some of the best darn pickles that I've ever had.  My reaction was "Darn, we should have made more pickles...." and I started wondering where I could get larger jars and more pickling cucumbers.

The oldest agreed with me that we need a lot more jars of pickles to line the basement walls.

Canning peaches, berries, and pickles

A couple days ago I went to a local farm and picked raspberries, blackberries, and peaches.

The next day I got to work on some of the berries and peaches.  I made blackberry pie filling first and then froze a tray of blackberries.

Then I got to work peeling and slicing some of the peaches to can.

I ended up with 2 jars of blackberry pie filling and several jars of peaches in medium syrup.  Amazingly, things went smoothly, all of the jars sealed, and the kitchen was not a complete disaster area.

So today I decided to get to work with the rest of the peaches and berries because they were starting to go bad and to take care of the cucumbers from our garden.

Once I got the peaches and cucumbers sliced up, I realized that there were probably a few more cucumbers that had grown so I went outside to get the few I should add to my batch.

Twenty minutes later, I had pruned the tomato plants and collected all of the produce that was ripe.

Finally another zucchini, and those are yellow tomatoes :)

I ended up making a bunch of jars of pickles and three jars of peaches in light syrup.  I also got the rest of the raspberries and blackberries frozen in trays and I poured the left over peach syrup juice frozen in ice cube trays because I heard it can be used to make drinks later.

The small jar is a gift for someone

I just can't figure out why my back hurts more from working in the kitchen all day than it does when I work outside all day.

A day in the kitchen

The forecast said hot and sunny today so I promised the kids we'd go to the water park.  Then I woke up this morning to feed the animals and clean the coop and it was raining.  The weather report said rain and scattered thunderstorms all day and the waterpark actually posted to say they were closed for the day.

The only option was to swap our plans for later this week and try the water park another day.

So it was time to make some dill pickles.

We had picked up pickle size cucumbers at the farmers market last week but hadn't had a chance to pickle and can them.

The dill liquid

 We haven't tried them yet, so I can only hope they taste as good as they look.

We bought peaches at the farmer's market yesterday and while peeling them was easy one I did the boiling water dip, getting them off the seed and slicing them wasn't.

We only ended up with two quart jars, although I have enough peaches to make 2-3 more quart jars.  I was getting tired.

And then I made some biscuits from a new recipe I found.  These are all for the freezer and can go straight in to the oven when we want to eat them.

I may or may not have eaten a raw biscuit....

I was as tired as Faith looked

Another Strawberry weekend

We did it again.  Saturday morning we went to the farmers market and then we drove out to pick strawberries.  We came home with 4.5 gallons of them, again.

Strawberry stained doesn't count as "dirty"

I managed to get about a gallon of them frozen and dehydrated, but the last 3 gallons are screaming my name.  I have to get them hulled and cooked into jams tonight or they'll be bad before I have time again.  Wish me luck.

Strawberry Projects, Take Two

I knew I had to get these strawberries taken care of before they go bad so I got in the kitchen and started washing and cutting this morning.

One gallon of strawberries

One gallon after they've been hulled

The parts the chickens will be thanking me for later

 I decided to start off with the jams.  My first batch was going to be a four-berry jam.  I found a recipe for triple berry, but the bag of mixed berries that I bought to go with the strawberries had three in it (blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry).

I had to mash up the fresh strawberries first.

And then mash up the mixed berries.

 And then the cooking got started.  The jam only has fruit, sugar, and pectin.  Pectin is what makes it turn into gel.

You're suppose to fill the jars up and I had this tool that had a cool way to measure how full the jar was.  The math teacher in me was all excited when I noticed it.

Things did get a little messy.

But things turned out well.

It tastes great.  The only issue was that some of the jars didn't seal.  This was my first time canning and I was doing the hot water method.  I have a few theories as to why they didn't seal so hopefully the next batches won't have the same issue.  This just means we have to eat the jam sooner than I planned.  I can't complain about that.

The youngest son declared it good.

I started another batch of strawberry-rasberry jam and my fingers are crossed that the jars will seal.  We've already tasted it, and it's just as good as the first batch.

 The dried strawberries were also done so I peeled them off the screen.

And sealed some for saving.

Then I made some fruit roll ups.  I made strawberry-banana flavored ones and I'm about to make 4-berry ones as well.

Last, I made some strawberry-lemonade concentrate.  I froze them in ice cube trays and later I will transfer them to sealed bags for storage.  I'll just have to add some water and it will make a great summer drink.

I'm tired, and it was a lot of work, but I'm so glad that I did it.  I need more practice to make sure I can seal the jars properly and find more counter space to work with, but hopefully by this summer I'll be a professional.

We still have a gallon of strawberries left so I'll be drying more of them tonight and then I'll be done.

Until we go picking again.