Preserving Your Harvest

[WIchickMama]

I have made sour cherry jelly, dandelion jelly and strawberry jam so far this season--30 1/2 pints total. I have canned mock pineapple using summer squash, dill pickles and bread and butters-15 pints of each. will do salsa, spaghetti sauce and just plain tomato juice (use in hot dishes) in the up coming weeks.

 

[WthrLady]

the yellow kernals you chomp off the cob

 

[Sally PB]

Ooh, what’s yogurt jerky?

Spread yogurt about 1/16" thick on the dehydrator shelves. If you don't have some kind of silicone sheet, you can use plastic wrap. Dehydrate until it's firm. I think I do it at 125 degrees? It takes a few hours... 8? Can't recall. It's chewy tasty goodness.

I'm using the dehydrate setting on our "Instant" (Instapot brand) air fryer oven. It has two racks just so I'm hoping it's fairly fast at dehydrating. We haven't used that setting yet.

I doubt I'll use this setting, but I'm interested in what you think of it.

 

[muddy75]

Alright, new question here...

How the heck can I can pickled banana peppers without them getting soft? I have been having mixed results. Pickling them isn't a problem and I certainly could make a refrigerator pickle batch, but I want to store them long into the Winter and Spring and I am running into limited fridge space, so I would prefer to keep jars on the shelves in the pantry over the fridge.

Anything with a ph less than 4 is shelf stable. refrigerator pickles is basically a technique
You should fill all the way to avoid air exposure, and i would probably not store longer than 6-8 months and refrigerate once open. We choose to store many items in our walk-in but sauces and marinades have been shelf-stored for nearly a year now without pressure or water bath sealing.

 

[muddy75]

View attachment 2794435
First batch of Serrano peppers fermenting

First fermentation fail….mr muddy forgot to put water in the lids

 

[21hens-incharge]

Today will be processing tomatoes. I don't do ANYTHING fancy, just canned tomatoes no salt, no spices nothing but tomatoes.

Green beans need done up for freezing....and likely more need picked.

I may load the dehydrator with apple slices again. Those are a handy snack for grab and go.

 

[WthrLady]

9 pints of corn yesterday
5 pints of white potatoes for DS and DH in the canner now

I feel like the tomatoes are in their final push, and I can't decide if I'm happy about that or not.

 

[BReeder!]

9 pints of corn yesterday
5 pints of white potatoes for DS and DH in the canner now

I feel like the tomatoes are in their final push, and I can't decide if I'm happy about that or not.

I feel the same way about my tomatoes. I hope they keep producing into September though. I want more. It's amazing how for trays of tomatoes (filling my typical-sized oven completely) turn into only 3/4 of a gallon of salsa. I haven't made any sauce at all yet because I'm eating salsa rapidly and want to make sure I have some until the next harvest. I do want to get some sauce going though, but the tomatoes need to keep producing to make that happen.

 

[WthrLady]

They've been such a battle this summer.
Either that, or it's been so hot and humid and smokey I don't want to be out there with them. We haven't even had ONE meal outside this summer and I haven't moved my office to the deck at all this summer, which is odd. It's going to make for a LONG winter.

I just commented to DH we haven't had ONE hornworm this year. NO idea where they are, but I don't care. Maybe it was the marigolds. Maybe it was the sunflowers? NO idea. The swallowtails found the dill just fine (it's planted for them).

 

[vall]

I still have too many cucumbers. Its just one plant at this point, but I might have to try the dehydrated pickle chips posted in the garden thread. And probably more relish, since I'm already halfway through one of only two jars I made.