What are you canning now?

[Raech]

I bought tomato plants this year and some are not what they're supposed to be. Others not doing as well as the ones that came up on their own.

Also bought another Red currant bush to stick in the ground. I figure I'll need it if I'm to get enough for one batch of jelly. This year I got just about enough from one bush but should have gotten more. They're in the freezer for now.

The Crandall blacks won't yield enough for a batch either. They're a late variety and have a few berries on them. Anyone know how to take cuttings? I've got a bush that did well but I'd need more to get enough berries. I have about a cup or two in the freezer but need at least four for the recipe.

Anyone here dry herbs? I wonder how to dry them so I can give them as gifts. Anyone have a recipe of herbs they like to do?

I dry basil and oregano, sometimes if I get enough parsley. You can either put it in the oven for a day or 2, depending on how wet they are then run though a coffee grinder(super quick and I love it) or you can use a dehydrator then grind or rub between your hands(this way hurt my hands and I lost some to spilling). Since we eat so much peanut butter I use the containers with the herb written on the top and keep them in the cabinet. So far those three herbs have stored well for me. Going to see if i can get my chives and sage to work again, they didn't dry well last time i tried. I like to add my dried herbs to a Loaded Baked Potato Soup recipe I found on Pintrest. I use parsley, oregano and basil in it and I get rave reviews, provided I do it right.

 

[NanaKat]

I dehydrate thinly sliced onion, garlic, roasted peppers, tomato, pimento pepper, and then seal whole or grind in the coffee grinder for powders. I add gel packs to help keep the powders dry rather than add salt.
For sage, basil, rosemary, oregano, parsley, cilantro and chives...dehydrate and then use my food processor to chop the herbs.

Put 9 pounds of marinated beef rump roast in the dehydrator yesterday and removed 3.5 pounds of finished jerky this morning.

Today, I'm processing elderberries for juice to can for jelly making this winter.
This morning, I canned two half gallon jars of blackberry juice for jamelly this winter too.
Just finished 7 pints of salad peppers (Banana peppers sliced thin with a piece of onion, a 1/2 clove garlic and 1.2 tsp salt per jar.) Thanks to hubby doing the slicing on the peppers...love help in the kitchen!

 

[G-Dragon]

Lets see so far we have canned:

Salsa
Simple tomato sauce
Peaches
Spiced peaches
Peach jam
Strawberry jam
Peach Butter

You can see pics of all those in our blog (link in sig. line).

peace
josh

PS. We just tore out the spring garden and are putting in the fall garden.

Great! Thank you!

 

[G-Dragon]

I dehydrate thinly sliced onion, garlic, roasted peppers, tomato, pimento pepper, and then seal whole or grind in the coffee grinder for powders. I add gel packs to help keep the powders dry rather than add salt.
For sage, basil, rosemary, oregano, parsley, cilantro and chives...dehydrate and then use my food processor to chop the herbs.

Put 9 pounds of marinated beef rump roast in the dehydrator yesterday and removed 3.5 pounds of finished jerky this morning.

Today, I'm processing elderberries for juice to can for jelly making this winter.
This morning, I canned two half gallon jars of blackberry juice for jamelly this winter too.
Just finished 7 pints of salad peppers (Banana peppers sliced thin with a piece of onion, a 1/2 clove garlic and 1.2 tsp salt per jar.) Thanks to hubby doing the slicing on the peppers...love help in the kitchen!

blackberry juice is cool! I like it!

 

[rancher hicks]

I didn't get any wild black berries this year. I have been clearing the area they grow in, but I think that the birds got to them first. No wild grapes this year either.

 

[NanaKat]

Yesterday Hubby was cutting hay for a neighbor and came in to tell me that there was a huge elderberry patch around a pecan tree and along the creek edge. The neighbor wasn't going to do anything with them.

I already have 6 quarts of juice put up so far this summer....but the MIL told me years ago to make all the juice I could of a fruit crop because next year there might not be a harvest.

So we picked two 5 gallon buckets of berry clusters and picked the berries off the stems last night. We had about 3 gallon of berries at 11:30 pm.


Once they were rinsed they were just barely covered with water in a 4 gallon pot and boiled at 200 on the heat scale for 5 minutes. I then put on the lid and let them poach until morning. The pot was still warm when I got up at 5:30 am. Two bags hanging dripping into containers so there is no seed or pulp in the juice. I use 30 inch square 100% cotton cloth, tie knots and hang from the cabinet knobs.



The drained juice was then brought to 190 degrees


and poured into jars to seal. Going to have lots of juice for jelly this year......


but there are more berries to process

 

[rancher hicks]

I am jealous.

We were given a jar of grape jelly by a friend but DW doesn't like and won't eat it. It's not that bad. I know it sounds vain but mine with the four cups of wild grapes is better. More grape flavor.

My grape vines are doing well and there will be a few clusters of grapes if the birds don't get to them. Do birds eat grapes? Do I need to cover them? Get one of those ugly plastic owls to scare them away? Might cause the chickens to freak out?

Right now I'm dealing with a ground hog. I hope to catch it soon.

What do you do about mice in the garden?

Those darned hornets are still here but not as numerous. I will keep spraying til they are gone.

 

[Raech]

Found a recipe for canning apple and pear butter, is it safe to can? I know some things you cant because it is too thick, my concern is will butters be too thick? Recipe says to process for 10 minutes in a water bath canner.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Butters are safe to can. I have made apple, peach and pear butter, not really something I will do again on the apple or pear butter. too much spice for me, i'll just stick with applesauce. The peach was pretty good, but I like it with rum or southern comfort in it best. We call it Peach Comfort and it is the bomb on ice-cream.

 

[NanaKat]

My grape vines are doing well and there will be a few clusters of grapes if the birds don't get to them. Do birds eat grapes?  Do I need to cover them?  Get one of those ugly plastic owls to scare them away?  Might cause the chickens to freak out?  

Right now I'm dealing with a ground hog. I hope to catch it soon.  

What do you do about mice in the garden?  

Those darned hornets are still here but not as numerous. I will keep spraying til they are gone.   

Yes, birds eat grapes....cover them!

For mice in the garden...I use a cottage cheese container...cut a I inch hole in the lid....place TomCat bait in the container and place it on its side where the mice are frequenting. You can drape some straw or a weed across it . This bait trap keeps the cat, chickens, and dog from getting into the bait. I make the hole in the lid a little bigger for the voles and field mice.