I broke 100!

[signseeker]

So I counted up how many jars I've bottled so far this year and right now it's 127!! Yehaaw! That may sound totally pathetic to most of you hard-core canners out there, but since this is my first real year of canning, I think I'm doing pretty well. :l0 (6):

I hope to get to 350. :l0 (39):

[waif69]

When I read the title, I thought you were talking about your golf score.

[signseeker]

Actually bowling, but...

[waif69]

That's my score too... on a good day.

[signseeker]

...and gutter guards. :w00t:

[prairiemom]

Wow! For your first year that is really good! I just love to go look at all my shelves full of jars. In fact I even take pictures of them. :blush: They are so pretty, colorful and filled with the best food. Such a feeling of satisfaction.

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g275/prairie_chuck/Summer08052.jpg

[waif69]

That looks great! Are all those home grown?

[signseeker]

Thanks, prairiemom! You are like, the goddess of canning! I was going to take a picture when I got all done... but maybe not now. :o My neighbor came over - an older widow - and she saw me out peeling fruit, etc... she said canning was the one thing where you can stand back, look at your stuff, and really feel like you've accomplished something. (As opposed to vacuuming, laundry or other stuff that needs doing every 5 min. it seems.) I gave her a jar of my Spiced Plum Jam and she gave me a dozen quart jars the next day. :thumbsup:

[signseeker]

What are in the jars in the lower right corner? Below the apple pie filling shelf?

[prairiemom]

What are in the jars in the lower right corner? Below the apple pie filling shelf?

Peaches and in front of the peaches, Green Tomato Mincemeat. Yes, most of it is home grown, except for the peaches. And the V8 Fusion (although I do have some jars of homemade V8 juice.)

This was my successful year (last year) where we produced about 85% of the fruits and veggies that we needed for a year. Which is why I took a picture--it might never happen again! This year won't be as good.

I hope you DO take a picture--it's so good to see all the pretty jars.

[signseeker]

Green Tomato Mincemeat..... huh. Okay, that sounds... interesting. :)

So my neighbor brought me some "Plum Sauce" - she was shmoozing me for my Mirabelle Plum Jam recipe - and I asked her what she eats this stuff with. She said, "With a spoon! Like your Plum Jam!" :rofl:

[prairiemom]

Have you ever had mincemeat? This tastes exactly like mincemeat at a fraction of the cost. And uses green tomatoes. A good deal all around.

[signseeker]

Have you ever had mincemeat? This tastes exactly like mincemeat

You're JOKING!! :l0 (62):

Yeah, it's one of those things I've heard of but have no clue what is really is. Is it for pie? :l0 (10):

[prairiemom]

Yeah, I guess they make pies with it. But I usually do cookies--just plain sugar cookie dough with mincemeat in the middle, then another sugar cookie on top, pinch the edges and bake. Sort of a filled cookie. Or muffins with a spoonful of mincemeat in the middle.

But if you've never had mincemeat, go buy some in the store. You can get a box of dehydrated mincemeat that you add water and let it soak for a while. Or you can buy a jar that's ready to go. I think it's in the section where they have pie filling.

Not everyone likes mincemeat. Dh doesn't (but part of that is because I like to add nuts to it and he hates most nuts.) But I like it. The cookies are a family tradition--we made them every Christmas Eve when I was growing up. They smell very Christmassy--raisins, spices, orange peel. In olden days it was a way to preserve meat with spices and alchohol, that's why it's called mincemeat. But today's versions are all fruit and most are alchohol-free.

See if you like mincemeat. It's very rich. And the home-canned version that I make is very healthy and is a good way to use up the green tomatoes. It has green tomatoes, apples, raisins, spices, vinegar, sugar and orange juice and peel. It also calls for some wine or brandy, can't remember, but that's optional.

[signseeker]

I don't think I've ever had mincemeat in my life. It just... sounded weird. Narrow-minded, I know.

Anyway! With the plums and pears in the canner right now I'm at 204 jars! Wheee! :w00t:

[LEVE]

We've just done 100 jars of peaches and another 100 of pears. Then we drove 300 miles to do another 100 jars at our Daughters house. Driving 300 miles with all those peaches in the car was a delight. The car never smelt so good....

Now it's on to apples.

That's the way I invest my money, in gold!

[signseeker]

I wouldn't mind doing more peaches - they are a snap. Pears are waaay more time-consuming. I just don't want to buy the produce. We have two baby peach trees is all and were just amazed that we got 31 quarts out of them. They did awesome!

What do you do with the apples, leve?

[thomasusa]

When I saw your photo of all the bottles, the first thought that flashed into my mind was "EARTHQUAKE!"

If I went to all that work, I'd make a plan to have them stay on the shelf. How about putting the bottles back in the boxes with cardboard dividers?

[prairiemom]

Wow--200 jars of fruit??? That's impressive!

You can't really see it in the picture, but we have wire around all 4 sides of the shelf, about 5-6" up. There's never been an earthquake here in written history. It's a lake bed, so pretty stable. But I do worry about someone getting reckless and hitting shelves. If I had to take jars in and out of boxes I would not can so much--too much work, if you can't see the contents something's bound to get missed. It's already a big job just to keep track of all the jars, sort them when they're empty, etc.

[mirkwood]

A ward member just lost most of her jars after her shelves collapsed. They were the same shelves you are using. Food for thought.

[signseeker]

I saw the wire in the photo and thought I need to tack up some wood or something on mine... most my jars stay on built-in wood shelves. Yeah, it would be pretty hard to whip up some mason jars during a SHTF scenario.

[Buffie]

Oh, those jars are beautiful! I've been freezing beans for the past month. I know the danger of relying on an electric freezer, but I dearly love to eat lady peas, white crowders, purple hulls, black-eyed peas, limas, fordhook limas, and butterpeas during the winter. In all I think I washed, blanched, and bagged about four bushels. Enough to keep us eating all winter. Now I need to do squash. Someday I'll learn to can; Hubby says no pressure cooker, he's convinced I'll blow up the house.

[signseeker]

So you freeze beans that aren't green beans? (Yeah, I'm a novice.) Cuz I don't know all those beans, but I know black-eyed peas and I didn't realize you could freeze those, I guess.

But if we lose power in the winter, at least our freezer stuff will be okay! :thumbsup:

[Buffie]

Hi Signseeker. All those beans I mentioned are Southern beans, and I'm not sure if they're eaten or grown in other parts of the country. We have two others that I occasionally freeze, speckled limas and October beans, but I didn't do any of those this year. Unfortunately green beans, which I love, don't freeze well. My mom tried every freezing trick she heard about that might work for green beans, and they still thawed out mushy, gross, and not good. In the winter I either get imported green beans or have to use canned.

[signseeker]

Hi Buffie. So, you blanch the hard beans first? I mean, they're really hard, right?

Shouldn't this method work for all shelling beans?

[Buffie]

Sorry I wasn't clear about this process. I buy fresh beans, by the bushel, at a local farmer's market. Some of the women there tell me to just put the beans in a sack and stick them in the freezer, but I do it the old-fashioned way, as my mom did it. First, I pick through the beans, discarding anything with a worm hole, tiny bits of bean vine, etc. Most of these beans were shelled by a machine, and that kind of stuff does get in.

Next I put the beans in a big colander and wash them thoroughly.

After they're clean and drained, I turn on all 4 of my stove burners and fill four pots with the cleaned beans. They stay on the heat until they reach a good boil.

When they are boiling, I take them off the stove and pour them into a collander in the sink while cold water is running over them. It's important to cool the beans as quickly as possible. After I drain them in the collander, I put them in big plastic tubs filled with water and ice. I'll leave them there until they are thoroughly cold, sometimes as long as half an hour.

After the beans are cool, they are drained again and put in another tub, ready to bag. I bag them in quart freezer bags. Once the bagging is done, they're stacked in the freezer.

Actually it's quite a lot of work, but I enjoy it. I have no idea why green beans won't freeze well, except maybe it's because they're in a pod; the beans I freeze have been shelled.

[Earthling]

I freeze green beans every year and they turn out ok. I follow the recommended guideline of taking off the blossom end & string (if any). You can keep them whole of snap them in half. Then put them in boiling water for 3 minutes, drain, cool down with cold water & ice. Drain and freeze in ziploc bags. The biggest problem is they take up a lot of freezer space. I might be needing two freezer the way things are going . . .

[signseeker]

Okay, with the concord grape jelly and the white grape jelly, I'm up to 311 jars! The white grape jelly looks cool... I used some of the juice from last fall for that. If my tomatoes had come on better (if I hadn't planted so many stinkin' Brandywines) I'd easily be over my 350 goal by now. As it is, I don't know if I'll make it... I'll try to make a couple more batches of jelly...

I'm also anxious to clear out all the canning paraphernalia that's taken over the kitchen for the last many weeks.

And I'm ready to move on to something else... probably trying out this new sourdough start I just got. :) And get back into the Amish Bread groove... and cookies for the freezer...

[signseeker]

We didn't get one single green seedless ("white") grape either. Last year we had tons. :confused:

[prairiemom]

I'm also anxious to clear out all the canning paraphernalia that's taken over the kitchen for the last many weeks.

And I'm ready to move on to something else... probably trying out this new sourdough start I just got. :) And get back into the Amish Bread groove... and cookies for the freezer...

Oh man, I'm with you! I hope I can wrap everything up this week because I am sick of it and tired with how the canning equipment has taken over the kitchen.

[Earthling]

I agree with you all. I have finally put away all the canning stuff . . . so I am good unless there is another good sale on chicken. I want to can more chicken - that turned out well. It is just like canned chicken when you use it.