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.

A little Gardening and a little Canning, or a lot

Our basil and tomato plants have gone crazy.  The tomato plants are growing all over the garden and in my flower beds, where I didn't plant them.  The basil plants are huge.

So I finally cut the bunches and hung them up to dry in the kitchen.

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.

Apples are done

It took me a couple weeks, but we finally got all of the apples that we were planning to preserve taken care of.

We bought 5 bushels of York, Granny Smith, and Ida Red apples from a school fundraiser.  The apples came from a local farm.  Five bushels was a lot more than I originally pictured.  

One bushel

 We couldn't even fit them all on the breakfast table.  We had three on the table and then the bags were on the benches with the other bags we had left over from our previous canning experience the week before.

Peeling by hand wasn't so bad once I set up a system like the week before.  I would peel a large pile into a big platter and then go take care of those apples.

I started with apple pie filling.  I had to order more of the cornstarch-like product that is needed for canning and I was sure to order a lot so that I'd always have some on hand and then I got to work.

Sweet Potato Pie

We've had frost the last two morning and the tops of all of the sweet potato plants had turned black.  I knew I had to harvest the sweet potatoes soon so I went out and dug them up today.  I've never grown sweet potatoes before and have never seen them harvested, so this was a learning experience.

We managed to get a 5 gallon bucket full of them.  Many were small, but there were some large ones too.  Next year I'm going to plant more of them and I'm going to find a way to contain them from spreading so much as I'm sure there are many still in the garden that I didn't find since they'd spread so far.

I think this only makes me want a root cellar even more so that I can properly store these long term.

Apples and Storage

I woke up this morning knowing we had to get those apples taken care of.  It turns out that making apple sauce is really easy!  Luckily a neighbor loaned me a sieve to attach to my mixer and we ran to Target to buy a grinder so this made it even easier.

The first recipe that we tried only had us core the apples before tossing them in a pot for awhile and then tossing them through the sieve.

The first batch was a little thin compared to what I like, but man it tasted good.

This was the stuff that the sieve filtered out.  It was all the seeds and peels with the juice squeezed out.  Pretty interesting.

I even realized that I could sit in the living room and peel while I watched the football games.  The oldest snapped a picture of me hard at work, with Faith just waiting for me to toss her some apple peels.

We put a lot of peels in the dehydrator with a sprinkling of sugar and cinnamon and I'll slice up the rest of the apples and dry them as well.

We managed to get through a full box of apples (40 pounds) and about 15 pounds from the second box.  I already told the woman that we bought them from that I think I want another box before our order from another source comes in next week.

Once we had all of that done, I finally enlisted the boys' help to carry the boxes of jars down to the basement storage room.  Last week, the oldest and I built this shelf.  It's not quite done yet because I need another 2x4 to finish the lowest shelf, but we were able to fill one shelf with all of the tomato products and we put the jams and peaches on the top shelf.

Then I moved another shelf into the room to fit all of the other jars.  I'm not sure if I realized just how many things I had canned this summer until I started filling the shelves.

Peaches

Pickles 

Some of the apple sauce and canned apple chunks

Pie Fillings 

I plan to can a lot more apple slices and then to do some apple pie filling with the next batches.  It may look like we have a lot, but really it doesn't seem like it would last very long with these two boys and considering how many cases of jars I purchased during a recent clearance sale, I have a lot of work to do still.  We'll be building a couple more shelves in that room soon.

Apples coming out of our ears

Apples are the next thing that I planned to can, and probably the last thing that I would have a chance to can before all of the fresh produce is gone.  I ordered 4 bushels of apples from a fundraiser at the youngest's school but they won't be coming in for another week or two.  Then I heard about an apple festival fundraiser that was happening about thirty minutes away from us, and when I asked if they had apples, they confirmed that they did.  

So off we went.

The oldest was not happy when we got there and I told him what we were getting.  He was more unhappy when I told him that we would be canning all of these apples this weekend.  

We bought two boxes like this, a foot deep.

This will be the practice round for when the other orders arrive.  Wish us luck.

Finishing Tomatoes

It's been a rough week and I rushed home tonight to finish canning the tomatoes.  There were about 50 pounds left.  The boys helped to peel them and get the seeds out and then I got to work.

I made a bunch of jars of stewed diced tomatoes, 3 jars of tomato paste, and then started another huge pot of spaghetti sauce following a different recipe.

Tomato paste

3 small jars of the tomato paste

A bunch of jars of stewed tomatoes

I'm hoping that Friday morning I can can the spaghetti sauce that is cooking now and then will be able to take a break from canning until we get into apples.


This post was shared on The Homesteaders Blog Hop

Family Canning Event

Yesterday we picked 95 pounds of tomatoes.  

Yes.  95.  Ninety-Five.  NINETY... FIVE.

It was a busy day so when we got home in the afternoon I took a nap and just didn't have the energy to start working on them.  So this morning I woke up and started getting things organized.

Luckily, the boys were more than willing to step up and help.  I decided not to question their motives and we had an assembly line across the kitchen counter. 

I dropped the tomatoes in the pot to boil for a minute and then dumped them into the cold water in the sink.  The youngest would pick them up and peel them, then I would cut the cores out, and then the oldest would scoop out the seeds.

We got about 40 pounds of tomatoes done this way.

Add caption

 I was able to start the pot for spaghetti sauce.



Then I realized we had a lot of seeds, juice, peels, and core pieces that were going out to the chickens.  Too many.  So I did some research and saw that I could dehydrate the seeds and peels and use them in recipes later so I started doing that.




I was also reminded that I could dehydrate tomatoes to make sun-dried tomatoes so I decided to use a bunch of the small ones for that purpose and I sent the oldest out to the garden to grab the few small tomatoes that I'd seen growing.

The youngest got one tray organized in an artsy pattern while the oldest disappeared outside.

 And then the oldest walked back in.  I guess we didn't just have a couple tomatoes in the garden.

We ended up with three trays of tomatoes to dry, some were peeled and some weren't.

We ran out of space in the dehydrator and I didn't want to waste anything so I poured the tomato juice and seeds into jars and put them in the refrigerator.

We also have two containers of tomato peels waiting to be dried.  And even with the plan to find ways to use those parts of the tomatoes, we still had 8 cups of core pieces that we blended up and took out to the chickens.

And that is only from about half of the tomatoes.  I estimated that we used about 40 pounds of tomatoes, which leaves 55 pounds to still work on this week.

What's left for this week

 The tomatoes look almost done in the dehydrator and the spaghetti sauce looks and smells great since I ran out to the store to buy the other ingredients to add to it and it's been cooking all day.

Once I had the spaghetti sauce completely ready to cook all day, we took off to spend a few hours at the pools.

I'm excited to get this canned this week and to finish with the rest of the tomatoes, but the task does seem a little daunting as well.


This post was shared on The Homesteaders Blog Hop

I may be a real canner now

I have been determined to can and have things for this winter so on Sunday we went to a you-pick farm about an hour away.  This farm had the biggest selection of produce to pick, but wasn't the friendliest place.

We ended up picking over 20 pounds of roma tomatoes, a few zucchini and squash, less than a pound of string beans, 2 pecks of asian pears, and 4 pecks of peaches (3 yellow and 1 white.)

The veggies

 We still had the 20+ pounds of tomatoes from Saturday's farmers market visit as well.

So, Sunday night, I got to work and the kids helped to boil and peel the tomatoes.

Boiling

Icing

Peels and seeds from the first few tomatoes

Peeled and coring  

 Once the tomatoes were peeled and cored, the boys disappeared and I scooped out the seeds and squeezed out as much water as I could.  Then I mixed them up in a big pot to make spaghetti sauce.

The start to the spaghetti sauce

 It smelled so good, even our new renter kept stopping by the pot to smell and comment on it.  I felt like the tomatoes weren't breaking down enough so I chopped them up with some special scissors that I got from Pampered Chef a few years ago and decided to let it cook overnight.

This picture doesn't do it justice.

 It smelled so good then next morning, and then I canned it.  I only got 3 quarts and one pint.

Spaghetti Sauce

I almost don't want to eat them since we only have three jars.

Then I got to work on the peaches.  I found a new recipe last night that sounded much easier and faster.  I simply had to peel the peaches, slice them up and then drop them into the jars.  I added about a fourth to a third of cup of sugar part way in the jar, and then filled it with water.

Filled with peaches and a little sugar poured in

Added the water and got the air bubbles out

There were a LOT Of peach peels.  I used the food processor to chop up a lot of them and then send the oldest out to the coop with treats for the birds.  I did try finding an idea on using the peels, but all I could find was peach peel jelly and I didn't think I had the energy to attempt it.

Just one of the two bowls of peels

This was definitely easier and quicker and I wasn't as worried about making things fit in a complete jar as I just stopped peeling and slicing when I knew I didn't have enough left to make another full jar.  I ended up with 13 big quart jars.

Canned Peaches

Then I got to work on the salsa.  This time I was going to make my own seasoning from a recipe I found online.  I left the jalapenos out since I don't like spicy food.  I managed to get the boys to come peel the tomatoes while I diced them up.

Again, this smelled so good.  (At this point, things got too messy and I got too busy to remember to take pictures of everything.)

Salsa in the pot

 As soon as this finished simmering for thirty minutes, I canned it.  I managed to get 10 pints and then two half pints that I wanted to use for gifts.  There was another pint jar that was about 3/4 full, it wasn't enough to can so I happily put it in the fridge to eat soon.

Mild Salsa

 I still had another 12 pounds of tomatoes left so I had the boys peel them and I sliced them up to make canned quartered tomatoes in their own juice.  The only thing that surprised me about this was how long they had to sit in the water bath.

We got 8 pint jars and one half pint jars of canned tomatoes.

Canned tomatoes in their own juice

Now I just have to cook the green beans and squash as I don't think there is enough to can, and decide what I am doing with the Asian pears.

 He insisted on being Vanna White in at least one picture.

In other good news, I wore my tennis shoes the entire time I was working today and my back wasn't killing me like it did the last time I was canning, and was barefoot.