What are you canning now?

[jerryse]

Well I ordered some sand plum seedlings . It all your fault !

Our local wild plums seldom set a good crop . Not sure why . I did find a plum thicket while hunting . They had a lot of dried fruit still hanging on . Have seeds of those stratifying and some beach plum seeds . I really do like plums .

 

[wyoDreamer]

We have a guy near here that does grafting of apple trees. He has classes on it and sells all the supplies. They have an orchard, but I think grafting is his main focus. You can buy apple trees from him, but I don't recognize any of the apple types. He has plums also. According to his website, he will do custom grafting to order also. I am thinking of seeing if he will make me a plum tree with a couple of varieties of plums. We don't eat a lot of plums, but I would like to grow some for making plum sauce. However, I don't want to loose too much space in the orchard to plums. I want apples, cherries, pears, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and peaches. Peaches are going to be iffy, not sure we are in the right zone, we are close and get lake effect, but it will be iffy. A friend of ours has a couple of peach trees, but we are north of him.

 

[rancher hicks]

We have a guy near here that does grafting of apple trees. He has classes on it and sells all the supplies. They have an orchard, but I think grafting is his main focus. You can buy apple trees from him, but I don't recognize any of the apple types. He has plums also. According to his website, he will do custom grafting to order also. I am thinking of seeing if he will make me a plum tree with a couple of varieties of plums. We don't eat a lot of plums, but I would like to grow some for making plum sauce. However, I don't want to loose too much space in the orchard to plums. I want apples, cherries, pears, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and peaches. Peaches are going to be iffy, not sure we are in the right zone, we are close and get lake effect, but it will be iffy. A friend of ours has a couple of peach trees, but we are north of him.

I have some nice recipes for Plum jam and folks love it.

As for peaches? I'm in zone 5, now zone 5-6 with global warming. We can grow peaches okay here. Chose the right variety for your area.

Apples? There are hundreds of varieties. Some don't grow good in the South, others the north. I've a catalog that will start trees of special varieties but you'd have to order it this year and won't get it til NEXT! They're also $49 a tree.

 

[erinszoo]

We have a guy near here that does grafting of apple trees. He has classes on it and sells all the supplies. They have an orchard, but I think grafting is his main focus. You can buy apple trees from him, but I don't recognize any of the apple types. He has plums also. According to his website, he will do custom grafting to order also. I am thinking of seeing if he will make me a plum tree with a couple of varieties of plums. We don't eat a lot of plums, but I would like to grow some for making plum sauce. However, I don't want to loose too much space in the orchard to plums. I want apples, cherries, pears, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and peaches. Peaches are going to be iffy, not sure we are in the right zone, we are close and get lake effect, but it will be iffy. A friend of ours has a couple of peach trees, but we are north of him.

Peaches are dicey even in peach country. We routinely loose our entire crop from late freezes. They are very sensitive to temperature change and will leaf out and bloom with a nice warm day in spring, even if it is a month before last frost date.

There's a big peach orchard about an hour from our house where we try to pick in summer for canning peaches, but the last three years they've lost all of their peaches in the same way as ours. It's maddening.

There are tons of apple varieties out there. I really want some Cox's Orange Pippins which are almost non existent in the US.

 

[WthrLady]

Arbor day foundation sells great trees!

 

[Peep_Show]

DH loves Pippin apples, so we put in a couple in the cider orchard: An Albemarle Pippin (a/k/a Newton) and a Ribston Pippin, which supposedly is a parent tree to the Cox's Orange Pippin.

 

[rancher hicks]

Peaches are dicey even in peach country. We routinely loose our entire crop from late freezes. They are very sensitive to temperature change and will leaf out and bloom with a nice warm day in spring, even if it is a month before last frost date.

There's a big peach orchard about an hour from our house where we try to pick in summer for canning peaches, but the last three years they've lost all of their peaches in the same way as ours. It's maddening.

There are tons of apple varieties out there. I really want some Cox's Orange Pippins which are almost non existent in the US.

That's why you gotta can a lot in the good years. We get a late frost and these apple guys jack the price sky high. If I'm making sauce cold storage apples will be just fine.

I keep asking DW how much of this or that do we use in a year. With just the two of us, we should be fine.

I know why folks used to have a garden kitchen. Cuz then everything was right there to prepare stuff for the winter months.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I need to start with a spreadsheet to track what we use. It is hard because DH is so picky about what he will eat. He likes everything I make but never wants to have it for supper. "not hungry for that" or "not in the mood for that" whenever I suggest something. Soon, he will be making his own supper because I will give up. I will buy something to make for supper, and he say not in the mood for that so I will make something else and then what I bought will sit too long in the fridge and I will have to toss it.
As soon as I get a job, things will change around here. there will be a lot more crock-pot meals or things I can prep the night before and just toss in the oven when I get home.
I have canned baked beans and ham, chicken stew and just plain chicken in the past, so there will be a lot more of that going into the pantry this summer. it was nice to be able to dump, heat and eat. I hope to raise some meat chickens this summer.

I am looking for a good Green Enchilada Sauce recipe, so if anyone has one they would like to share, my DH would really appreciate it. Not a green chili recipe with pork, but the Enchilada sauce. we are getting spoiled by our favorite Mexican restaurant, and the canned stuff isn't so good anymore.

 

[WYNot]

"Easy" fix for the picky folks. Quit giving them the option. What is on the table is what is for dinner. Eat or go hungry. Complain enough and you get to do the cooking. Did the first one early with our kids. We'd try to make things they liked on occasion but we didn't let that dictate the menu. Meals were prepared, they either ate it or they didn't. If they didn't it was in Tupperware till the next meal and back to their plate it went. Yeah, they'll whine a lot at first (they are kids, they tend to do that) but eventually they'll figure out it does no good. They are the children, you are the adult. When they move out and pay their own way then they can eat what they want when they want.

 

[Beekissed]

"Easy" fix for the picky folks. Quit giving them the option. What is on the table is what is for dinner. Eat or go hungry. Complain enough and you get to do the cooking. Did the first one early with our kids. We'd try to make things they liked on occasion but we didn't let that dictate the menu. Meals were prepared, they either ate it or they didn't. If they didn't it was in Tupperware till the next meal and back to their plate it went. Yeah, they'll whine a lot at first (they are kids, they tend to do that) but eventually they'll figure out it does no good. They are the children, you are the adult. When they move out and pay their own way then they can eat what they want when they want.

Amen! That's how it's always been in our family as well, though I didn't save their food...they just had the option to eat or starve, but no alternatives would be offered. My parents made us kids eat it or we would get a whipping. If we gagged and threw it up, we would have to eat that too. I didn't go that route with my kids and they were given the option of not eating anything at all.