Whatcha harvesting/making?

[LIBRA]

Hey all, what is everyone doing with there harvest?

Any good recipe, ideas, canning or freezing tips?

So far Ive got Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries frozen, peach jam, strawberry jam,canned peaches, frozen peaches. Corn frozen, green beans done. Peppers frozen.
Ive got to buy tomatoes this year and havent yet, all mine got blight, except the cherry tom they are fine.

So Ive got to make sauce and I found a recipe for roasted veggie sauce, I will find it and post it. Sounded good!


Still to do hot pepper jelly, tomatoes, more corn, butternut squash, eggplant I slice and bread then freeze. Elderberry jam/syrup. Im sure there is more but I cant think of right now. I did alot more freezing this year then canning, its so much quicker and I just havent had the time for canning much.

[Gaston]

Just put up a dozen pints of kraut-stuffed hungarian wax peppers, there are probably enough peppers left to can a dozen more. I cheated and bought the kraut, I hope next year to have made our own.

It's a simple recipe, just cut the top off the pepper, core and seed it, stuff it with kraut and cram in jars. Cover with a boiling mixture of 2 parts vinegar, 1 part water, and put the lid on it. 11 out of 12 sealed and we didn't have to go through the hassle of a water bath and all that, just use clean jars and lids and be sure the rim of the jar is clean. Use your hottest peppers as the kraut mellows them a lot over time. I have one that I stuffed a pasilla oaxaca inside, that jar should have some smoky almost-bacony goodness in it when it's opened.

We didn't really garden this year, just a row of stuff along the fence. I did get a volunteer plant that I first thought was a bitter melon, turned out to be a sun, moon and stars watermelon. I trained it on the fence at first, but since it isn't a bitter melon I had to tie the one watermelon that grew to the fence inside a netting bag so it doesn't fall off before it's ripe.

Weird year for tomatoes, almost none of them made it. We had beaucoup eggplants but they were the little Japanese type, hardly worth the trouble to roast them for babaganoush.

Next year will be better, I'm putting the lasagna garden back.

[LIBRA]

That sounds good Gaston, thanks for the recipe!

My maters all died too. :( I did save a few but not enough to can.

Im going to pick up a bushel to can this week.

[Hippie Staff]

Gaston ,

Kraut stuffed peppers..that sounds awesome!

I have my big ol' glass jar - going to try my first batch of sauerkraut. Any tips? Do you cover it completely? Or just w/ dish towel?

I just made boatloads of blueberry, blackberry, and combo jam w/ huckleberries.

:) M

[LIBRA]

elderberry tinctures, a cough/cold syrup and some jam this week.

Tomatoes on saturday. How much are they going for in your neck of the woods? its anywhere from 30-60 a bushel here!! Thats crazy!
Im buying some roma's and they are 30 a bushel and I bought some bruised up larger tomatoes for 10 a box. Still its alot of $.

Grapes are being harvested too Niagra and Concord, I soooo badly want to buy some. Make juice and or jam. Yumm!

Apple picking time is near also..

Sometimes I cant wait for winter lol

[StellaBlue]

I was kind of lame this year. All I have done so far is can green beans. Lots and lots of beans. I didn't get enough tomatoes from my garden to can. We will be picking apples soon, and canning lots of applesauce. That's always my favorite one...

[Gaston]

Gaston ,

Kraut stuffed peppers..that sounds awesome!

I have my big ol' glass jar - going to try my first batch of sauerkraut. Any tips? Do you cover it completely? Or just w/ dish towel?

I just made boatloads of blueberry, blackberry, and combo jam w/ huckleberries.

:) M

I have a 1-gallon straight-sided crock, and another in 5-6 gallon size. I've used both.

Just pack the shredded cabbage in about one inch layers, and lightly salt each layer. When you're near the top, find a plate (or cut a board) that's slightly smaller than the inside, place it on top, and weight it with something. If you use enough weight the juices that the salt brings out of the cabbage will be enough to cover all of it, but if that doesn't happen in a week I add enough water that the plate is barely covered. Then, a cloth draped over the top to keep dust etc. out of it. Check it every couple of days. You may need to add some more weight, or a little more water to cover. Sometimes a layer of mold will grow, I scoop it off but some folks call it the "mother" of the kraut and leave it. The kraut around the edge of the plate will spoil and turn dark and soft, scoop that off, too. The tighter your plate fits, the less that happens. A little bit of bad cabbage doesn't hurt the rest of the kraut if you take it off.

It's wonderful stuff, you can eat it even when it's only half finished and it's still good. There's just no comparison between homemade kraut and that stuff you get in the store, even the coldpack kraut. The great thing is that in late fall cabbage prices usually drop drastically, so you don't even have to bother with raising your own cabbage.

You can pickle corn (even on the cob) the same way, and it's delicious, too.

[LIBRA]

I need to try this sometime. So once its done, what do you do with it all? Can it? Or just eat it as needed. Cause thats alot more then I could eat, and Kris eats most everything but kraut not so much :) I love it though.

[poppy]

I was kind of lame this year. All I have done so far is can green beans. Lots and lots of beans. I didn't get enough tomatoes from my garden to can. We will be picking apples soon, and canning lots of applesauce. That's always my favorite one...
Ummmmm Applesauce Yum!!!!!

[StellaBlue]

Picking apples and making applesauce is one of the many reasons that fall is my absolute favorite season!

[LIBRA]

I agree Stella!!! How is that baby anyways? :hb:

[StellaBlue]

Libra, he's great! Almost 3 months, 16 pounds, and just over 25 inches long. He's kind of huge...and pretty perfect.

[LIBRA]

Thats great! I love chunky babies :D

[Hippie Staff]

Ok, I'm making 'Gaston Kraut' this week!

Think I'll take pictures, especially if mold forms lol

[LIBRA]

Oh ya picts please, nothing better then the mother mold :)


Made grape jam last night. And am freezing up a ton of breaded eggplant tonight...

Tomorrow its hot pepper jam....lots of it. I picked a laundry basket full of peppers last night!!!

The garden is almost done though, butternut squash and honeybear squash are all that is left. A few more eggplants if they make it.

[Gaston]

If you just make a gallon, you'll eat it and wish you had made more. It is sooooo much better than the store kraut. You'll see what I mean when you make some.

I never canned any, when I did the 5 gallon crock I gave the "excess" away. We still ran out of kraut before we ran out of appetite, as did the people we gifted.

[yugogypsy]

See my post on Libra's pitting peaches thread, I'm drowning in tomatoes:confused: I have lots of recipes, but not many canning jars so a lot will get frozen. Luckily the squash don't need any special keeping, but I'm going to have to make some pickles out of the cukes.

I'm planning a better garden next year and hoping to add 6-8 more raised beds.

Take Care All

Happy Harvesting

Lois

[StellaBlue]

Going to pick apples this afternoon. The orchard said it's a great year for apples, and at 69 cents a pound, there will be a LOT of applesauce in my pantry this winter! I think I may even have to go buy more pint jars.

[Unkle_John]

With me working hard on my business and JuJu working and studying, we haven't had a chance to grow anything. That will change though. This winter we are going to prepare the area for tilling this spring.

[yugogypsy]

CATSUP-Two batches of Amish Catsup so far, Best tomato Catsup tomorrow and green tomato catsup just for the heck of it because I have so make danged tomatoes!

Going to can some tomatoes this evening too and make Tomato Jam and Salsa soon.

:) Lois

[Gaston]

With me working hard on my business and JuJu working and studying, we haven't had a chance to grow anything. That will change though. This winter we are going to prepare the area for tilling this spring.

Ack! Don't till it, do the "lasagna gardening" (i.e. sheet composting) method. It's about the same work to put it in the first year but doesn't require machinery, and miniscule work thereafter.

[yugogypsy]

Frozen tomatoes now.
We finished the catsup exercise by making the yellow catsup.

Otherwise I'm knitting a scarf and plan on knitting more scarves and toques.

:)Lois