Canning Update...

My garden is tiny this year.  In fact, so tiny that I'm sure the local tour guides who pass by in cars with tourists, use it as yet another way to distinguish an "English" garden from an "Amish" one.  Years ago when my garden was big (by my standards) it was regarded as small by said local tour guides, so I can't imagine how it's regarded now!  (yes, it ticked me off a little bit when I found out, can you tell?!  :)  Oh well...)

It's also very overgrown with grass right now, and I will be the first to admit that an Amish garden would NOT look like mine in this regard.  In my defense, the 10" + of rain that we had in the past month did nothing to help with weed control!

Regardless...I'm happy with the results of my canning efforts this summer!

First came the pickles... 

I only got two batches of banana pickles processed before my cucumber plants wilted, but these will hold us over for a while!  The  pear butter on the top shelf is from last fall...

Next came jellies...

Raspberry jelly, blackberry jelly and white grape jelly.  I like to give these as gifts, and we'll still have plenty leftover for ourselves...

Then came tomatoes...

I have four tomato plants this year, and they were doing great until the monsoon season hit.  Now they're suffering from blight, although there are still enough tomatoes out there for a small batch of sauce now and then. 

I made two batches of salsa so far this year...eleven jars each, and I still hae several jars left from last year.  I'd like to do another batch if I get enough tomatoes at once, because I like to gift these jars as well.  We eat a lot of salsa ourselves, so I want to have plenty!

This year's salsa is on the top shelf, the second shelf is several batches each of pasta and pizza sauce.  I use Mrs. Wage's mix for those sauces.  It's quick, easy, and we like the flavor!  My go to Sunday lunch lately has been french bread pizza.  Just slice a loaf of french bread horizontally, spread some sauce, cheese and toppings of your choice, bake it in the oven for about 15 minutes at 400*, and you have a quick lunch!  Bake it on a stone, and the bottom even gets a little crispy.  Mmmm...

Our white grape vine overachieved this year, and I got what I feel like is a huge amount of grape juice on top of the jelly that I made!  I have sixteen quarts of juice on the bottom shelf that I made "the old way", and twelve quarts of juice concentrate on the middle shelf that I made using my friend's steamer.  THAT, friends, is a nifty way to make grape juice! 

The other things on the shelves are things from last year that I need to use up!  I don't have any canned beans, and that disappoints me, but it's my own fault!  We won't be starving anyway this winter, that's for sure!

What kind of canning/preserving do you do?

Still Canning Tomatoes...

It's been a few weeks since I posted...and guess what?  I'm still canning tomatoes!

I made three batches of salsa, one batch of spaghetti sauce (I have some left from last year) and I'm on my second batch of tomato soup today!

Oh...and in there, a friend came and picked several buckets full of tomatoes when I was gone taking Jenna to college in Kansas.  They just keep growing and ripening...yay for those of us who like tomatoes!

Yesterday when I got up, I was planning to make a fourth batch of salsa...but I read a post on face book by a friend who made soup, and so I changed my plans.  I think she froze hers, but I found a recipe that looked good that was for a pressure canner, and so I gave it a try.  I think the kettle full of veggies looks so pretty!

Such an easy recipe...and I got ten pints, plus enough for our supper last night...

Normally, a pint jar of soup concentrate wouldn't be nearly enough for our family...but I'm having to retrain myself to think in terms of cooking for two, not four.  Both kids are away at college, so it's a season of change here in many ways.

Here's the recipe, if you'd like to give it a try...

TOMATO SOUP CONCENTRATE

8 lbs ripe tomatoes, unpeeled, quartered

1 cup celery, diced

2 cups onion, diced

1 cup fresh parsley

6 bay leaves

3/4 cup clear jel

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 1/2 Tbsp salt (optional...I used less)

1/4 cup sugar (optional)

Place tomatoes, celery, onion, parsley and bay leaves in a large stainless steel pot.  Cook gently, uncovered, until tender, stirring as needed.

Press through a food strainer, or sieve into a large stainless steel or enamel cast iron sauce pan.  

Set aside 2 cups of puree to cool.

Whisk together clear jel, and cooled tomato puree to form a slurry.

Bring soup back to a boil and stir in the slurry.  (This is when I added the salt, pepper and sugar)  Continue to boil for about two minutes, until it thickens.  *Soup will not resemble commercial soup concentrate, but rather a slightly-too-thick tomato soup.

Ladle into pint or half pint jars and fill to 1" head space.  Wipe rings and set two piece caps.

Process in pressure canner...at 10 lbs pressure for a weighted gauge and 11 lbs pressure for dial gauge...for 25 minutes.  Do not use quarts for this recipe

When ready to make the soup, just heat with equal parts liquid such as milk, water or chicken broth.

I kept some extra out for our supper last night, and we were pleased with the taste!  Grilled cheese sandwiches and fresh lima beans from my Mom's garden made a tasty meal!  

2015 Canning...

It feels so good to be filling up my canning shelves again!

At the beginning of this summer, my shelves were almost bare.  There are a few jars on the top two shelves that are left over from last year...some pickles, apple pie filling, a few tomatoes, some relish and applesauce.

I'm thoroughly enjoying my small garden this year, but I'm still finding things to can.  I bought several baskets of tomatoes for salsa and plain canned tomatoes, my sister gave me some peaches, Jim's cousin has a couple of pear trees that gave more than she needed, and a neighbor also had some extra tomatoes that she didn't want to go to waste.

All of my cucumber plants died, so I didn't make any more pickles this year, but our raspberry bushes are out doing themselves, so I've made several batches of jelly with plans for more.  The jars in the front are sour cherry jam, made with cherries from Jenna's violin teacher's tree.  I picked them while Jenna had her lesson...

The fun thing about preserving is not only seeing how the shelves fill up, although that's fun...but remembering where everything came from!  In years past, most of it came from my garden, but I'm finding it just as rewarding to do it this way...

...and I'm thankful for my friends who have shared in their abundance!

Winter and My Canning Shelves...Where Did It All Go?

Oh my...I get sad when I go to the basement this winter and look at my canning shelves.

Most winters, they're still mostly full!  Jars and jars of tomatoes, salsa, pasta sauce, applesauce, green beans, grape juice, etc.

This is what happens when you lose a couple of months over gardening/canning season.  The shelves get empty really fast.  There are about six jars of applesauce...a dozen or so jars of green beans...a dozen jars of grape juice...a dozen pint jars of tomatoes, and a few jars of pasta sauce, thanks to my Mom who canned some for me in September...

We'll be eating plenty of pickles...

...and I have an abundance of empty jars ready to go for next summer!

No...we are not about to starve or come anywhere close!

We are blessed beyond what we need or want, and we have a freezer full of good home grown beef and some frozen veggies (thanks again to my Mom and my sister for picking, shelling and blanching my lima beans this summer!)

The store bought stuff just doesn't taste nearly as good, and it makes me sad to see the shelves so empty at the end of January.

It's An Applesauce Kind of Day...

Today was what I call and applesauce kind of day...rainy and chilly.

Last year I tried two kinds of sauce...a combination of Cortland /Macintosh, and a combination of Ida Red / Crispin.  Both kinds were sweet enough for our taste buds that I added very little or no sugar to the sauce.  The consensus here was that the Ida Red / Crispin combo was the best.

Both of these varieties ripen in late September or early October, which is great for my schedule.  I can wait until after the fair is over, and the kitchen is much cooler this time of year.  So, yesterday I headed to the fruit farm and picked up four bags of apples.

I cut them into small chunks, mixing both varieties in my kettles.  No need to peel or core them, because I use a handy Victorio strainer.  These are the Ida Red, with white flesh and dark red skins.  They make a pretty pink colored sauce...

The Crispin were gigantic this year.   Each apple was at least twice the size of the Ida Red...

Cooked, and in the Victorio strainer...

Applesauce!

I got a total of twenty four quart jars from these four bags of apples...

Last year, I must have had a higher ratio of Ida Red to Crispin, because the sauce was much more pink, but it tastes good all the same.  No extra sugar added.

Now I think I can officially put away my canning supplies until next year!

What kind of apples do you use for sauce?