Preserving Your Harvest

[BReeder!]

I do have a lot of jalapeno's (not nearly as many as habaneros, but a lot still). I'm thinking about making chipotles. Anybody use a pellet smoker for this? I have an offset smokers too, harder to control temp when burning wood/charcoal but I imagine I could keep the heat pretty low. So if you have experience using the offset to smoke peppers, I'm interested in hearing about that too.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Don't forget to make jalapeno poppers for supper before you dry all of your peppers. My B-I-L makes poppers on the charcoal grill and they are very good - although I can only taste test them. To much peppers makes me sick to my stomach

My understanding for chipotle peppers (how a friend does it) - clean and trim top off the peppers, place in smoker at low temp ~200 degrees and smoke for 2-3 hours until the smokiness that you desire. Then into the dehydrator to finish the job. Store in cool dry place. He says he is too lazy to let the smoker dehydrate them completely, so he pops them into the dehydrator to finish when he goes to bed, lol.

 

[Sally PB]

Last batch of tomatoes in the canner. It's nice to sit down!

 

[BReeder!]

Don't forget to make jalapeno poppers for supper before you dry all of your peppers. My B-I-L makes poppers on the charcoal grill and they are very good - although I can only taste test them. To much peppers makes me sick to my stomach

My understanding for chipotle peppers (how a friend does it) - clean and trim top off the peppers, place in smoker at low temp ~200 degrees and smoke for 2-3 hours until the smokiness that you desire. Then into the dehydrator to finish the job. Store in cool dry place. He says he is too lazy to let the smoker dehydrate them completely, so he pops them into the dehydrator to finish when he goes to bed, lol.

That's my plan. They are in the smoker now. I'll keep them in there long as I can (at last 3 hours, but possible longer) and finish then off in the dehydrator. Trouble is keeping the smoker low enough. It's holding around 200F now, but was certainly too hot at first as it was near 400F - I was burning wood and needed to let it get down to coals.

 

[BReeder!]

I added a bunch of habaneros to the smoker earlier. They smoker went down to just 100F or so while I was out shopping, but it's back to 200F for a while now. I'll pull these off and dehydrate them to finish them off. Then I pan on making adobo to can them in. I might keep some dry and stored in vacuum sealed packs.

 

[WthrLady]

Did up 8 pounds of apple chunks and the whole lot didn't work in the canner. It was a brand new case of KERR jars with lids, but they were weird from the get go. The glass is all rippled, which is no big deal, but the lids felt odd and they had sealant on the tops of the flat lids like they had been stacked with other lids at some point and got hot, but the seal in the ring was fine so I used them.
BUT when I opened the canner the jars had sealed enough NOT to let the apple air out, so every single jar was floating in the canner. UGH.
Then when they fully sealed ( I was cleaning and letting them cool down before I opened them) they didn't POP they just barely cracked, like someone popping their knuckles in another room.
I dumped them in a cast iron pot and seasoned them up and made apple butter and processed that.
A two hour job, turned into a whole day thing.
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Dehydrated stuff is put away. I want to do up a lot more onions.
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Tomatoes need sorted and wrapped for cold storage and ripening.
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Tomorrow or Monday I have a batch of tomatoes to process.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I hate it when you open lid and find floating fruit! BUT THE WHOLE BATCH! ! I'm glad you salvaged them.I love apple butter.

 

[WthrLady]

I hate it when you open lid and find floating fruit! BUT THE WHOLE BATCH! ! I'm glad you salvaged them.I love apple butter.

No jars broke, the JARS were floating. Never have I EVER seen that.

 

[Sally PB]

JARS were floating. Never have I EVER seen that.

Me either! Where'd you get the lids?

 

[pennyJo1960]

I got mine on Amazon if that can help