Preserving Your Harvest

[WthrLady]

I have a lot more freezer space (1 big chest freezer, 2 smaller freezers) than I have shelf space, so I've been chopping mine up and freezing them in gallon sized ziploc bags. The only down side to this is that it isn't easy to separate out what I need without thawing out the whole bag.

We did can some salsa and make some jelly. I'm not completely against canning, but simply didn't have enough stuff to can. Also, I have a glass top stove which limits what I can do. I can do a water bath, but not pressure canning. We have a turkey deep fryer so I was thinking about putting a pressure canner on that, but there's some question about whether it can maintain heat properly and consistently for the purposes of pressure canning. Especially for something like meat or tomatoes which must reach a certain internal temperature to kill botulism spores and other nasties.

I am working on collecting enough hot banana peppers to make some hot mustard. I'm about halfway there. Still up for debate whether I want to can the results of this effort or simply pour it in a mustard bottle.

The new Presto digital pressure canner is electric and a game changer!

 

[WthrLady]

This thread isn't notifying me. That was a LOT to catch up on
I have so many allergies/dislikes and DH doesn't eat enough of some things for me to bother putting up.
He LOVES peaches, but I'm allergic to them.
I'm allergic to peppers and can't stand relish and pickled things, but I used to put that up for him, but there was too much waste at the end of the year.

I've been canning (water, steam (no longer), and pressure(gas and electric)), and dehydrating for 35 years.
I love the convenience of canned meats and soups on a busy night, and the taste of REAL tomato product.

We have a giant freezer, but honestly we do have a lot of power drops, and things get buried in there, and so I keep a balance of frozen foods and canned.

I need to start up some more meats, as the shelves are bare.

Instead of growing the things I'm not good at, I buy from other local farmers that are, and they from me. I buy their beans and sweet corn, and they buy my eggs and tomatoes.

In fact I'm buying corn tomorrow.

What's your labeling rotation system?
I have a canning shelf that is slanted and the next jar slides down when you take from the front. As for labels, they are color coded by the year that the item is best by - same as the dry pantry- and then the packed on and used by date are both on the top of the lid.

Pantry foods are color coded by year of expiration and then the month of expiration is written on that colored dot. That way I don't need to search each box with my reading glasses for trips the the pantry.

 

[Sally PB]

@WthrLady, wow, I'm impressed with your labeling.

I mostly can tomatoes. I write the year and the variety on the lid. This year, I have several varieties, so it'll be interesting to see which are worth growing again next year.

For the tomatoes I buy, I just write the name of the place I got them.

I have had issues with mold growing on the outside of the jar, down in my cool, somewhat damp, basement. One thing that helps is to wipe the outside of the jar with a rag soaked with vinegar. Let it dry, then put them away. I still find some mold after a year, but much less than before.

 

[WthrLady]

@Sally PB thanks. The color coding has only been in the past 12 months. I found that too many things were getting passed over and expiring. DH and DS have NO idea how long things are supposed to last in jars, so this helps my rotation and their learning curve. I have always found the best by date on there handy.
I figure you have to label them anyway, may as well slap a color label on there. I was using sharpie before which was fine, but had no color option that worked with the pantry system as I use blue, red, yellow, green as my rotation colors. I buy the labels bulk on amazon. They wash off easily if I want to re-use the flat lids for dry storage.
I also wash all my jars after canning and wipe down with vinegar to knock off any hard water spots the vinegar in the canning water didn't catch or that are left behind from hand washing.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Going to watch this add if I have a good recipe

 

[Banana01]

I try to grow plants, but the chickens get it all. I plan to chicken proof later, but the only things I can harvest in abundance right now is hot peppers.

I make my own hot sauces using hot peppers, apple cider vinegar, and salt. I let it ferment a while, and then cook it and strain it. Sometimes I mix garlic and sugar and other flavors during the cooking. Then I filter it and bottle the liquid sauce, and save the solid peppers.

There are some really good recipes here in Peru for using corn to make chicha too that I make 20 liters or so per month of maiz and maiz morado chicha.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I'm like Wthrlady. Been canning ( pressure and water bath) for 49 years . Freaks me out to say that out loud . I learned from Mom. I LOVE home canned peaches ! I've froze them but they're not as good to me. I have more shelf space than freezer room. My Mom made jelly from her raspberries YUMM I can still remember how that stuff tasted. I water-bath can all my tomatoes, peaches, pears, and pickles. I do freeze sweet corn after blanching and cutting off cob.
I've pressure canned green beans , (hot and cold pack)style, white potatoes, chicken breast, beef chunks, ( both raw pack) homeade veg soup base, beef stew, ham in juice for dried beans, swedish meatballs, chicken soup base , I tried meat loaf last year but too much fat.. I will send recipe for soup base. I've made it twice it's great to have on hand for leftover roast or even cook up hamburger and add to it, or add the canned beef it's soon tender. My Mom's rule was always boil everything for 12 minutes before tasting if pressure canned. I've only had one jar go bad and it was jammed on a shelf that popped the seal after inspection. I even made strawberry rhubarb pie filling (without thickener) in water bath this year. I had fun last year trying out pickles with some free cukes given to.me. And I've made sauerkraut twice in a big ol glass jar ( about 18"tall) bought at $ general. Just used a zip lock bag filled with water as a weight. It worked great.
My hints: use a splash ( 1/3 c. vinegar in water canner if hard water. Always use canning or sea salt. I also use filtered water in jars as well. I've never used acid in tomatoes and never have had a problem. Sterilize all jars and lids well for water bath. DO blanche food before freezing as it stops ripening and preserves flavor. Have pressure gauges tested at local extension office ( it's free) .
Get jars out of canner once done ( there's a thing called ??? sour if you let's them sit in there too long like overnight) Don't put hot jars in cool drafty place. They will crack. Do mark them you think you'll remember what it is BUT YOU WONT.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I'm like Wthrlady. Been canning ( pressure and water bath) for 49 years . Freaks me out to say that out loud . I learned from Mom. I LOVE home canned peaches ! I've froze them but they're not as good to me. I have more shelf space than freezer room. My Mom made jelly from her raspberries YUMM I can still remember how that stuff tasted. I water-bath can all my tomatoes, peaches, pears, and pickles. I do freeze sweet corn after blanching and cutting off cob.
I've pressure canned green beans , (hot and cold pack)style, white potatoes, chicken breast, beef chunks, ( both raw pack) homeade veg soup base, beef stew, ham in juice for dried beans, swedish meatballs, chicken soup base , I tried meat loaf last year but too much fat.. I will send recipe for soup base. I've made it twice it's great to have on hand for leftover roast or even cook up hamburger and add to it, or add the canned beef it's soon tender. My Mom's rule was always boil everything for 12 minutes before tasting if pressure canned. I've only had one jar go bad and it was jammed on a shelf that popped the seal after inspection. I even made strawberry rhubarb pie filling (without thickener) in water bath this year. I had fun last year trying out pickles with some free cukes given to.me. And I've made sauerkraut twice in a big ol glass jar ( about 18"tall) bought at $ general. Just used a zip lock bag filled with water as a weight. It worked great.
My hints: use vinegar in canner if hard water. Always use canning or sea salt. I also use filtered water in jars as well. I've never used acid in tomatoes and never have had a problem. Sterilize all jars and lids well for water bath. DO blanche food before freezing as it stops ripening and preserves flavor. Have pressure gauges tested at local extension office ( it's free) .
Get jars out of canner once done ( there's a thing called ??? sour if you let's them sit in there too long like overnight) Don't put hot jars in cool drafty place. They will crack. Do mark them you think you'll remember what it is BUT YOU WONT.

Sorry I got windy here

 

[MountainWoman73]

Didn't read all 5 pages, so I don't know if someone already suggested these, but a couple of my favorite tricks:

1.) Make a ready-to-go peach pie filling by adding your sugar/flour/cinnamon/butter and freezing in a Ziploc inside a pie plate.

2.) Freeze pesto in ice cube trays. Then pop them out into a Ziploc, and you can grab them as you need them.

 

[muddy75]

I have frozen jam in the past (it doesn't really freeze solid in a household freezer or even our standup deep freezer. So it leaked after succumbing to the weight of things being placed on top of it. Oops! What a mess that was. I also froze corn this year as we were gifted a whole case by a guest to our 4th of July BBQ. We blanched it first and then froze it. Do you blanch vegetables first? Are there any other techniques you use to ensure quality when freezing produce?

last year we were blanching and freezing squash. this year we skipped the blanching and froze in water. i put all the bags in a 5gal bucket that went into the freezer in case of leaks. once frozen, mr muddy moved the bags out of the bucket. it will be interesting to see the difference