What are you canning now?

[N F C]

@rancher hicks I like the yard art idea!

 

[KentuckyMom]

@rides2far I have my husband's grandmother's pressure canner as well. It was made by Steamliner. I bought a new seal for it at Ace hardware a couple of years ago. I have also seen the gauges for sale onlne as well. I have been using it for canning since 2008 without any problems.

 

[KentuckyMom]

Yesterday I canned grape jelly from our own Concord grapes! I only had enough for one batch- seven half pints, but the vines are only two years old and with all the rain I wasn't sure we would get anything. We did though and the jelly is delicious, if I do say so myself! I also canned seven more quarts of green beans. Today I canned six quarts of tomato sauce. I had such high hopes for my tomatoes this year, but with all of the rain I've had to constantly prune off the yellowing leaves. The cucumbers LOVED the rain. I ended up with loads of dill and bread and butter pickles. I fought with the corn too. Some grew well, but I had to replant a bunch of it and ran into the "short" problem as well. There are some people in this area that must have planted earlier than I did and they have healthy cornfields, but I have seen other gardens with short stalks as well. After the last few summers of intense, dry heat, who would've thought we could get too much rain? But after reading many posts on here I 've realized that I am not the only one affected by this craziness.

 

[rides2far]

@rides2far I have my husband's grandmother's pressure canner as well. It was made by Steamliner. I bought a new seal for it at Ace hardware a couple of years ago. I have also seen the gauges for sale onlne as well. I have been using it for canning since 2008 without any problems.

That's good to know. I'm pretty sure the Sears brand is also Presto, so I'm going to look into that for next year. Right now I've been pickling. Jams/jellies are next! Yesterday I made Balsamic tomato/onion compote. We'll see how it tastes.

 

[rancher hicks]

Yesterday I canned grape jelly from our own Concord grapes! I only had enough for one batch- seven half pints, but the vines are only two years old and with all the rain I wasn't sure we would get anything. We did though and the jelly is delicious, if I do say so myself! I also canned seven more quarts of green beans. Today I canned six quarts of tomato sauce. I had such high hopes for my tomatoes this year, but with all of the rain I've had to constantly prune off the yellowing leaves. The cucumbers LOVED the rain. I ended up with loads of dill and bread and butter pickles. I fought with the corn too. Some grew well, but I had to replant a bunch of it and ran into the "short" problem as well. There are some people in this area that must have planted earlier than I did and they have healthy cornfields, but I have seen other gardens with short stalks as well. After the last few summers of intense, dry heat, who would've thought we could get too much rain? But after reading many posts on here I 've realized that I am not the only one affected by this craziness.

What recipe did you use. I've some wild grapes near by. Not sure when to pick them though. Now is good?

 

[shortgrass]

@rancher hicks I love your raised bed garden and that garden fence makes me smile every time! Great way to use what ya got on hand. Hey guys, I failed to inform you of my success with the cherry pie filling! DH tried it and says he'll have to eat cherry pie now. It is delicious, way better than store bought. I can't believe how dark red it turned, I always thought that you had to add red food coloring to get that color (all the store stuff has food coloring added). I got 7 1/2 pints of filling, canned in pint and 1/2 pint jars for use in pudgy pies, as cheesecake topping, on waffles and pancakes, stc. So far straight out of the jar is best! Next year I need to pick more cherries!

Oh that looks wonderful! I got 21 half pints of chokecherry jam out of one bush, and sane thing...the color! Oh my better than anything store bought, ever! I'm looking into expanding the "orchard" now...what kind of cherries do you grow? I had a second question for anybody doing pickles... I ran across these packets of mix for dill and kosher pickles... Never used them, kind of fond of the big dill sprigs and this is just a powder of sorts... Is it good at all? I'm leery of it not having used it before...

 

[KentuckyMom]

@shortgrass I used the Mrs. Wages dill packet this year. They turned out delicious. I have used the Ball dill packet before and could take it or leave it. Not impressed. The Ball bread and butter mix is pretty good, but I made my bread and butter pickles from scratch this year because I happened to have all the spices on hand.

 

[KentuckyMom]

@rancher hicks
My Concord grapes were mostly ripe. There are still a few that are red and green, not purple and they are SOUR! So, I didn't pick them, but there were also some grapes that were starting to dry and shrivel up, so I figured I'd better pick what was ripe while I could rather than wait for all of the bunches to be ripe at once.
I used the recipe in the Sure Gell pectin package. It is 5 cups of juice and 7 cups of sugar. It is a lot of sugar but the jelly was not too sweet. ( must have thrown in enough of the sour red grapes to even it out, huh?)

 

[Glasshen]

Rancher, I don't think the grapes are ripe yet. I usually make a batch in Sept. and another in early october. Keep an eye on the grapes and watch them ripen.

 

[shortgrass]

@shortgrass I used the Mrs. Wages dill packet this year. They turned out delicious. I have used the Ball dill packet before and could take it or leave it. Not impressed. The Ball bread and butter mix is pretty good, but I made my bread and butter pickles from scratch this year because I happened to have all the spices on hand.

That's what it is, Mrs Wages I have some pickles that got too big on me, so I'll try it with some sandwich slices first and see how it works! Thanks!