Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2015 21:32:22 GMT
elaine, What is cheap to you re: blackberry flats? Just curious, as berry prices seem to have gone up a lot in the last few years. Yet, I have no idea what they cost elsewhere. When I lived in Oregon, about 18 years ago now(!), a flat of berries was about $8. A flat was about 8 pints worth. Around here it is more like $8 a quart. If it makes you feel any better, a flat is about $34 here now for conventional, ~$44 for organic. $8/flat - WOW. Picking yourself is cheaper, but not as much less as you might think.
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Montannie
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,486
Location: Big Sky Country
Jun 25, 2014 20:32:35 GMT
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Post by Montannie on Jul 20, 2015 21:34:44 GMT
I haven't had a chance to can any fruit yet...Our lemonade business is exploding and it seems I've canned thousands of jars of lemonade. Today is strawberry basil lemonade and lavender lemonade Can you explain? Are you canning the flavored syrup?
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Post by elaine on Jul 20, 2015 21:43:13 GMT
I went to the farmer's market at bought a large bag of peaches. It's peak season here! I'm giving them a day or so to soften a bit and then I'm doing a freezer peach jam. I'm already looking forward to some peach jam on those cold & dark December mornings. Yum! I went to a farmers market today, not a lot of peaches yet up here. My husband loves peaches, so I will make peach preserves, and maybe try canning halves. Probably not much as I'm really short on time this summer (dang wedding season).... But I'm growing some hot peppers for DH, I bought a trio of plants at the garden centre - jalapeno, cayenne & habanero, two of each kind. And if he doesn't eat them all at once (ha ha) I will do my best to make some pepper jelly, or pickle some for him, or dry the cayenne for the seeds. We'll see! We always end up freezing a lot of habaneros whole - dh always has me put in 1-2 plants, but can only eat about 1-2 per week, leaving lots of leftovers. I have 2 jalapeño plants, but they aren't doing great this year, so far we have kept up and have eaten everything they have produced. My Serrano pepper plant is doing much better and we have a bounty of those. Being busy with work is good though! Strawberry and raspberry please. Lol! Me too! Apricot is my favorite. So far: 9 quarts of pickled beets 21 quarts of tomatoes 46 1/2 pint jars of salsa 12 quarts green beans 18 pints pickle relish. I picked another bushel and a half of tomatoes Saturday! I think these will be spaghetti sauce. I am green with envy here! What a wonderful haul. You must have an amazing garden. And your family is very lucky.
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Deleted
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May 20, 2024 16:09:28 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2015 21:50:15 GMT
I'm so disappointed this year - I have gotten fantastic gherkins from a local farm for the last 6 years and they are the best cucumbers I've ever seen. They make outstanding pickles. Sadly, the farm decided not to plant this year, so I don't know where I'm going to get my pickling cukes!
All I've done so far this year is freezing. I made a lot of freezer jam and have frozen ~30 lbs of whole berries to use through the year. I will freeze peaches too, probably next week. I may can some, maybe not. I have canned them in the past for nostalgia more than anything, but I'm not sure I'm going to continue that.
Tomatoes aren't in full season here yet, but I'll can some tomato sauce and salsa when it's time.
I'm picking up a big box of beans from my CSA today and will make some garlic-dill pickled beans.
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mimima
Drama Llama
Stay Gold, Ponyboy
Posts: 5,020
Jun 25, 2014 19:25:50 GMT
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Post by mimima on Jul 20, 2015 21:50:50 GMT
Elaine - I use the dilly bean recipe in the Ball Blue book.
I have to laugh at people buying blackberries - everyone I know here just picks them from wild bushes around.
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Deleted
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May 20, 2024 16:09:28 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2015 21:53:44 GMT
I don't can anymore once I figured out I can freeze everything we like to keep. I freeze tomatoes, corn and even the salsa I make with our tomatoes. All of it can go in freezer baggies and lay flat in our freezer. Way less of a footprint in my kitchen and freezer.
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Post by elaine on Jul 20, 2015 21:54:58 GMT
Taco pickles are the pickled vegetables that you get at taco trucks and stands. Slice radishes, carrots, red onion, jalapeño. Put in jars with a bunch of cilantro. Boil vinegar, sugar, and salt and pour over vegetables. I found the recipe on Pinterest. This time I added blanched cauliflower and green beans. When the veggies run out, you can just add more crunchies to the vinegar in the bottom of the jar. Thanks! I'm in the Appalachian foothills - no taco trucks here. Sounds similar to giardiniera. I have pickled radishes in my fridge right now; maybe I'll try adding a few more goodies and see how they turn out! It is! I gave up on growing tomatoes. I couldn't seem to get them ripe enough before frost would hit. Our growing season is very short. I grew them in our front yard. I don't dare grow anything in the backyard because of my son. He all ready killed a very small apple tree. I like it to be his place to run free. I also live near farms. One day driving by one, I had an epiphany! Why am I trying to grow vegetables when I'm happy with the prices of the produce the farmers are selling? I should see if I can find the picture I took of one of my tomatoes. Some rodent got to it, and I kid you not, it looked like the tomato was laughing at me! I grow in containers on my deck - and last year there was a squirrel that would help himself to tomatoes and peppers and sit on the rail eating them. It used to drive me nuts because he kept picking habaneros and eating one bite and then, of course, leaving the rest. I would find habaneros sitting on the rail with one bite missing... I have had up and down seasons in the past due to watering issues. This year I invested in a $27 drip irrigation kit from Amazon, and hooked it up to a timer on my hose faucet and they are watered automatically twice a day. The tomatoes are much happier not having to depend on me to hand water them. So far I've only made some strawberry freezer jam. I've never officially "canned" anything (officially meaning using the water bath and making sure that the lid popper thing happens). I'm growing tomatoes & peppers this year so hopefully I can make enough fresh salsa and attempt canning. Might try some blueberry jam when the blueberries are in season. Pam It really isn't hard - try it and see! Walmart has a perfectly fine enamel canning pot with a rack included for $19.97. Although if you start with pints, a large stockpot will probably be deep enough.
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Deleted
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May 20, 2024 16:09:28 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2015 22:01:19 GMT
Elaine - I use the dilly bean recipe in the Ball Blue book. I have to laugh at people buying blackberries - everyone I know here just picks them from wild bushes around. Invasive Himalayan blackberries here have almost completely taken over the native blackberries, unfortunately. And the Himalayans aren't that tasty. We u-pick good, flavorful varieties from farms - both blackberries and marionberries.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2015 22:45:16 GMT
I haven't had a chance to can any fruit yet...Our lemonade business is exploding and it seems I've canned thousands of jars of lemonade. Today is strawberry basil lemonade and lavender lemonade Can you explain? Are you canning the flavored syrup? Montannie I make a lemonade simple syrup out of organic lemon juice (not many fresh lemons in Colorado!) Then I add homemade (usually) simple syrups, whether lavender or basil or whatever. Then I hot water bath them. It's a lot of fun and a new way to get creative. Jalapeno Margarita mix anyone???
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Post by elaine on Jul 21, 2015 0:53:01 GMT
I don't can anymore once I figured out I can freeze everything we like to keep. I freeze tomatoes, corn and even the salsa I make with our tomatoes. All of it can go in freezer baggies and lay flat in our freezer. Way less of a footprint in my kitchen and freezer. I have tons of shelf space in my laundry room in the basement. It is the only unfinished room in the house and is cool year-round with no window - perfect for canned goods. I don't have nearly that much freezer space however, and like to have space to do things like multiple turkeys when they are on sale in November and corned beefs the day after St. Patrick's Day. If I was short on shelf space, but had plenty of freezer room, freezing would be a good way to go for me too!
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Post by elaine on Jul 21, 2015 0:56:11 GMT
My ds#2 and I took a trip to a farm store in a neighboring county today. I came home with fresh green beans and more pickling cukes. I just finished putting up 6 pints of Dilly Beans, per Mimi's suggestion of the Ball Blue Book.
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Post by librarylady on Jul 21, 2015 0:58:02 GMT
Blackberry jam Wild plum jam Wild grape jam I might get some peaches for some peach jam....... I freeze any vegetables, don't can them.
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Post by elaine on Jul 21, 2015 1:00:47 GMT
Blackberry jam Wild plum jam Wild grape jam I might get some peaches for some peach jam....... I freeze any vegetables, don't can them. I am so wanting toast and jam right now....
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Post by evnimom on Jul 21, 2015 1:48:04 GMT
I need to can some tomatoes; I think I have a couple of quarts worth from our garden. I have tons of green beans and snow peas. I wish I could find a way to can or freeze them where I would still like the taste of them. We have tons of slicing cucumbers. They turned bitter so we aren't eating them. It would be nice if we could pickle them. We still have strawberry and strawberry/rhubarb jam from last year.
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Post by mztfied on Jul 21, 2015 2:06:29 GMT
Peaches are just beginning to show up here. I will be canning peach jam very soon.
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Deleted
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May 20, 2024 16:09:28 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2015 4:33:10 GMT
I don't can anymore once I figured out I can freeze everything we like to keep. I freeze tomatoes, corn and even the salsa I make with our tomatoes. All of it can go in freezer baggies and lay flat in our freezer. Way less of a footprint in my kitchen and freezer. I have tons of shelf space in my laundry room in the basement. It is the only unfinished room in the house and is cool year-round with no window - perfect for canned goods. I don't have nearly that much freezer space however, and like to have space to do things like multiple turkeys when they are on sale in November and corned beefs the day after St. Patrick's Day. If I was short on shelf space, but had plenty of freezer room, freezing would be a good way to go for me too! Oh, I have plenty of space in our basement to store canned goods, but we really only use tomatoes, corn and my homemade salsa during the off season and as small as our family is, it just made sense to start freezing rather than the more time and labor intensive canning. I have my grandmother's canning kettle but it's been years since I used it, thought about turning it into a planter. I'm lucky that I have friends that do the jelly, jams and pickles and we trade our stuff.
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Post by patin on Jul 21, 2015 6:40:37 GMT
Did blueberry jam & am going to do canned blueberry pie filling & freeze some whole berries.I got a little carried away with my bountiful baskets order!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2015 7:05:19 GMT
I would like to make some peach chutney. We buy it and I think I can make it better somehow. I have this vision what I want chutney to taste like and in my head I have all these ideas. It just isn't going to happen this summer. Maybe next year. elaine, I love and I mean really love jarred tomatoes (canned). Well, I really like all tomatoes to begin with, but I love the flavour of seasoned canned tomatoes. We can't grow vegetables in your yard because the sun is too bright and hot where we are when plants need less full sun PLUS we have sand for soil as we are near the water. Everything has to be in a container box up on the deck. I have maybe harvested 10 cherry tomatoes (full size ones grew to less than a Roma one) (after spending at least $100 on tomato plants to get 10 cherry tomatoes I think I am better off going to the supermarket and buying really fancy ones...it doesn't pay to grow your own where I live in my yard.) So I have to buy all my tomatoes. I would really like to do this as an activity for us. I think it won't happen this summer, though.
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Montannie
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,486
Location: Big Sky Country
Jun 25, 2014 20:32:35 GMT
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Post by Montannie on Jul 21, 2015 15:17:58 GMT
Can you explain? Are you canning the flavored syrup? Montannie I make a lemonade simple syrup out of organic lemon juice (not many fresh lemons in Colorado!) Then I add homemade (usually) simple syrups, whether lavender or basil or whatever. Then I hot water bath them. It's a lot of fun and a new way to get creative. Jalapeno Margarita mix anyone??? Well, they sound delicious! I may have to try this when we get lemons on sale here. Like you, we are sorely lacking in lemon groves here in Montana!
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Post by elaine on Jul 25, 2015 3:32:25 GMT
I used my pressure canner for the first time today and put up 5 quarts of spaghetti sauce.
It really was about a 10 hour process to make spaghetti sauce, from start to finish, and involved 30 pounds of Roma tomatoes. It will have to be much better than store bought to involve this much work again! (Although I did find all the various steps interesting and educative).
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Post by Scrapper100 on Jul 25, 2015 4:13:07 GMT
Wow so many of you have been busy and productive. I still have jam left from last summer but now I wish I had bought blueberries and made some jam. I have never made that flavor.
The bugs and critters got most of our tomatoes and we didn't plant much due to the drought. I do have several varieties of peppers. I really want to try jalapeño jelly this year.
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Post by Scrapper100 on Jul 25, 2015 4:16:15 GMT
I am curious about your lemonade mixes as we have a lemon tree. I squeezed a lot of lemons this winter but it doesn't look like it was happy this spring though because I don't see any baby lemons now I think it was the drought and not sure what else it needs.
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Post by elaine on Aug 4, 2015 4:16:34 GMT
So far, I've done dilly beans and raspberry jam. Blueberries are here, so I will process them this week Mimi, thank you so much for this post. We broke into the first pint of dilly beans yesterday and the boys and dh finished it in one sitting! I put up another 6 pints this morning. I also just finished 5 12 oz. jars of low sugar peach preserves, because free stone peaches have just come in. Tomorrow will be more spaghetti sauce - I was able to pick up 18 pounds of Roma tomatoes - seconds, so they aren't pretty - for $9! I love farm stands.
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Cara in TX
Shy Member
Trying to pass math class! :)
Posts: 35
Jun 25, 2014 21:54:39 GMT
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Post by Cara in TX on Aug 4, 2015 4:25:44 GMT
I want to try Dilly Beans, I've heard they are yummy!
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Post by tracyarts on Aug 4, 2015 5:31:18 GMT
It's not really canning because they're refrigerator pickles. But a slightly modified version of these Mexican Style Pickled Carrots that I mostly follow the recipe for, but add sliced radishes and lots of thinly sliced red onion rings.
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Post by tarheelgurl on Aug 4, 2015 13:05:36 GMT
So far I've canned
salsa pickled okra tomatoes pickled jalapenos pickled yellow peppers candied jalapenos sweet banana peppers
Today I am putting up pepper & onion relish, sweet pepper relish and tomatoes. I still have lots of pickles leftover from last summer. Good thing, because my cukes didn't do well this year. It's been too hot.
I am thinking of canning some sweet pickle spears.
Last year I froze 22 quart bags of blueberries from my garden. This year the birds got them before they got ripe enough to pick. I covered the bush but they found a way in. Thankfully, I still have plenty in the freezer.
ETA: Today I canned another 11 pints of tomatoes, 10 half pints of dill pickle relish and 2 pints of pickled okra.
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Post by elaine on Aug 4, 2015 13:52:39 GMT
So far I've canned salsa pickled okra tomatoes pickled jalapenos pickled yellow peppers candied jalapenos sweet banana peppers Today I am putting up pepper & onion relish, sweet pepper relish and tomatoes. I still have lots of pickles leftover from last summer. Good thing, because my cukes didn't do well this year. It's been too hot. I am thinking of canning some sweet pickle spears. I'll have to buy the cukes because mine didn't do well this year. Last year I froze 22 quart bags of blueberries from my garden. This year the birds got them before they got ripe enough to pick. I covered the bush but they found a way in. Thankfully, I still have plenty in the freezer. Do you have a favorite candied Jalapeño recipe? I want to try making them - my boys love their peppers. I canned peach jam last night. I forget how time consuming peeling all those suckers can be - it's been around 18 years since I last made it. (G-d, I'm old) The low sugar pectin worked perfectly - I love that stuff.
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mimima
Drama Llama
Stay Gold, Ponyboy
Posts: 5,020
Jun 25, 2014 19:25:50 GMT
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Post by mimima on Aug 4, 2015 13:57:42 GMT
I'm so glad, Elaine! I've done blueberry jam and blueberries in syrup. I've also done blackberry jam. I'll do more dilly beans soon.
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Post by craftsbycarolyn on Aug 4, 2015 16:38:48 GMT
I don't can, but my hubby does. So far he has done green beans and has his cuke's picked for pickles.
He usually does lots of tomato sauce, some tomato juice and sauerkraut.
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Post by STBC on Aug 4, 2015 16:43:14 GMT
I would like to try pickles, because I have TONS of cucumbers this year, but I've never canned before. I have been researching recipes on Pinterest.
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