Preserving Your Harvest

[BirdsBeesTrees]

I canned 9 1/2 Jelly Jars of Peach Jalapeno Jelly this afternoon.

 

[NanaK]

Friday I did 12 more pints of tomatoes.

 

[Sally PB]

Tiny pie pumpkins and acorn squash, too.

I'll be surprised if I get any butternut squash. They used to be my no-fail crop. Not for the last two seasons. This will be the third, and maybe the last time, I try if they skunk me again.

I have enough tomatoes on my table to can tomorrow. And I need to pick beans and freeze them. I saw little tiny beans, and then BOOM! They all got big! We had some grilled with dinner tonight.

 

[Sammster]

I'll be surprised if I get any butternut squash. They used to be my no-fail crop. Not for the last two seasons. This will be the third, and maybe the last time, I try if they skunk me again.

I have enough tomatoes on my table to can tomorrow. And I need to pick beans and freeze them. I saw little tiny beans, and then BOOM! They all got big! We had some grilled with dinner tonight.

I'm bummed about the pie pumpkins and squash. They are a favorite. Every year I make savory, stuffed pumpkin and squash for the family. It's a tradition. I'll have to buy the produce, this year. ::sigh::

 

[TooCheep]

I'll be surprised if I get any butternut squash. They used to be my no-fail crop. Not for the last two seasons. This will be the third, and maybe the last time, I try if they skunk me again.

I'm bummed about the pie pumpkins and squash. They are a favorite. Every year I make savory, stuffed pumpkin and squash for the family. It's a tradition. I'll have to buy the produce, this year. ::sigh::

Check into Tromboncino squash. It is a long, thin squash that is really tough, reliable and productive. I experiment with 1-2 new plant varieties each year. Some fail, some are okay, but I consider this one a home run that I will keep growing every year from now on.
Upsides:

• Highly resistant to vine borers and disease.
• Produces a summer squash (like zucchini and yellow squash) if harvested when younger and can be used in the same types of dishes.
• Produces a winter squash (like butternut) if allowed to grow to maturity and form a harder/tougher skin. It then lasts for months on a shelf. I've personally eaten them up to 6 months after harvesting.

Downsides:

• Grows as a large vine: 20-30ft. I have a small garden area, so I get around this by starting them at the base of one of my trees in my mini-orchard and letting them grow into the canopies. The fruit matures earlier than the squash, so I end up getting two harvests from the orchard- first fruit and later squash.

Picture of my current vine with 2 young tromboncinos (sorry, not a great quality pic). They are currently 1.5-2ft long and can be harvested now and used like a summer squash. They grow to 3-4ft when fully mature. The seeds are in the bulb at the bottom, so the majority of the squash is actually solid, seedless flesh. Mature seeds can be roasted/eaten like pumpkin seeds.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Got 17 baggies of 2 1/2 cups each sweet corn today. Did 5 rows of the 9, hopefully finish the rest tomorrow.
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How do you get the corn off the cob?

I tried to cut it off. Had a lot of waste and mess. Most of the time, it cut the kernels in half so I lost half. It's hard to judge how "deep" to cut

Looking for a better way to do it.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I'm only 24 pages into this thread and I know this question is quite old so I don't know if anyone ever answered, but essentially a glass top stove can vacuum seal to the bottom of the pot and shatter the glass. You can use certain pots I believe but they have to have specific bottoms so that they don't create a seal. And I believe in some cases the heat transfer isn't effective enough to properly heat the jars, but it's been a very long time since I researched that, so I don't know if that's accurate.

I have a glass top stove. It's probably 10 yrs old or so but a good brand. I checked on the manufacturer's website to ensure canning wouldn't break the glass. Most manufacturers will speak to this in some fashion.

Needless to say, your canner bottom (or any pot/pan for that matter) should not be concave or you will get a vacuum problem. You want it to be flat to evenly transfer heat.

I have canned on my glass top many times with no problems getting things to seal. The only downside is that it DOES take longer to boil a giant stockpot of water than a normal gas oven. Because of this, I rarely water bath my canning unless it's something like jelly. Pressure canning on a glass top stove makes me feel more assured because I get direct feedback from the dial and pressure indicators versus questions on whether the water is boiling "enough". In a really big stock pot, I don't get the typical full rolling bowl like you see in a smaller stockpot. It does boil (and seal lids) but it's more like a gentle boil than a full rolling boil.

 

[Sally PB]

Check into Tromboncino squash.

I certainly will! Thank you!

That's what I love about b-nut: Lots of squash, not a big seed cavity. I would eat a zucchini-type squash once or twice a summer, so not enough to warrant planting any.

I looked, and I have ONE butternut squash forming. Sigh.

 

[tripletfeb]

How do you get the corn off the cob?

I tried to cut it off. Had a lot of waste and mess. Most of the time, it cut the kernels in half so I lost half. It's hard to judge how "deep" to cut

Looking for a better way to do it.

I know this was not directed at me, just thought I would share what I use. I use this tool, got it at Lehman's but I'm sure lots of other stores carry it. And yes, it's dirty because I did another ten cups of corn today

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

How do you get the corn off the cob?

I tried to cut it off. Had a lot of waste and mess. Most of the time, it cut the kernels in half so I lost half. It's hard to judge how "deep" to cut

Looking for a better way to do it.

I just cut it off, there is some waste, but I feed my cobs to my mulefoot hogs so it's like saving on the feed bill. The chickens probably would have taken it too though.
I put my ears of corn in boiling water for up to 5 minutes and then cool them a bit and cut it off with a serrated knife.
My mom says cream corn is made with the cobs... I've never tried to do that before.