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General Discussion => Share Your Badassity => Topic started by: SimpleCycle on August 24, 2018, 12:21:07 PM

Title: What are you preserving?
Post by: SimpleCycle on August 24, 2018, 12:21:07 PM
It's preserving time, whether it's garden produce, a farmer's market haul, or a good deal from a discount produce market.

What have you preserved so far?  Any plans for more?
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: SimpleCycle on August 24, 2018, 12:26:54 PM
Monday we went peach picking and picked a half bushel of peaches.  I'd never picked peaches before, so I wasn't totally sure if I was picking ripe ones and they needed a few days to ripen a bit more on the counter.

Tonight I'm going to try this recipe:
https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2013/08/simple-honey-cinnamon-canned-peaches.html

I made 6 half pints of peach jam from the Sure-Jell recipe.

Last night I made spicy dilly beans from store bought sale beans.  I love fancy canned goods, so these will get me through the winter.

I also plan to make this recipe because I ended up with an extra cauliflower:
https://www.finecooking.com/recipe/pickled-cauliflower-with-carrots-red-bell-pepper

Our determinate tomatoes have been slow to ripen this year, so I expect next week we'll be canning a bunch of salsa and tomatoes.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: thd7t on August 24, 2018, 12:30:34 PM
We grow a lot of figs and have made a bunch of preserves and jam.  Frozen lots of tomatoes and tomato sauce.  Frozen a bunch of green peppers.  It's been a while since my wife and I put a lot of produce by, but this is a good year!
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: rachellynn99 on August 24, 2018, 03:59:08 PM
Where I'm at it's crazy hot and our garden is about spent. But I'm doing pickled okra right now. So. much. okra. I've done about 20 quarts and about that many pints. And I'm also pickling and freezing peppers- primarily pickled jalapenos and then chopped peppers I am freezing to add to fajitas, pizza etc. this winter when I don't have fresh peppers.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: HPstache on August 24, 2018, 04:00:56 PM
Does making wine count as preserving?  Haha... should make about 10 gallons of finished wine this year.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: SimpleCycle on August 24, 2018, 04:31:38 PM
Does making wine count as preserving?  Haha... should make about 10 gallons of finished wine this year.

Yes!  The best kind of preserving!

What kind(s) of wine have you made this year?
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: krmit on August 24, 2018, 04:44:28 PM
Oh man, it's been a banner year for me for preserving.
Far more jam than we eat in a year. At least I'm set for last minute gifts.
Salsa, tomato sauce, and canned tomatoes. Got enough for 1 pint salsa and 1 quart tomatoes per month - hoping to do another round of tomatoes before winter.
Lots of cucumber pickles - slices, whole, and lacto-fermented.
A load of peaches - those were a huge pain so hopefully they'll be tasty.
Cherry chutney and cherry mead (with homegrown honey!)
Loads of applesauce.
Dried apples and tomatoes. Tomatoes are so great on homemade pizza! The dried tomatoes are the only produce from our garden; everything else we bought or picked in bulk.
And my freezer is overflowing with berries, shredded zucchini, and not nearly enough corn.

Today mr. krmit is bringing a bag of pears home from a coworker. I made a ton of pear jam last year that we're still working through, so I'll probably dry any we don't eat fresh.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: HPstache on August 24, 2018, 04:54:53 PM
Does making wine count as preserving?  Haha... should make about 10 gallons of finished wine this year.

Yes!  The best kind of preserving!

What kind(s) of wine have you made this year?

I make a German variety that is not well known, but it grows well in our pacific NW climate.  The variety is called "Regent" it's a red wine.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: rdaneel0 on August 24, 2018, 04:58:10 PM
@rachellynn99  Could you post your pickled okra recipe?
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: rachellynn99 on August 24, 2018, 06:38:50 PM
Not much to post :) I use two parts water to one part vinegar. I also will put a sprig of fresh dill or two in each jar. Sometimes I also put a sliced jalapeno in it just for flavor and heat. My husband likes those a bit more because of the spice. But literally, it's just vinegar and water and dill. After washing and drying the okra and packing them in sterilized jars, you pour the hot mixture over it, then seal then place in a hot water bath for about 7-10 minutes for a pint and 15 minutes or so for a quart.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: OrangeSnapDragon on August 27, 2018, 08:54:40 AM

Really focusing on canning and preserving this year, started in early June and still going strong

Pickled yellow beans
Cucumber pickles (bread and butter and spicy garlic dill)
Relish
Blueberry brown sugar jam
Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
Honey Plum Jam
Asian plum sauce
Corn salsa
Whole peaches
Cherry salsa
Corn cob stock (pressure canned)
Potatoes (pressure canned)
Roasted Ancho Salsa
Whole Tomatos
Tomato ginger sauce
Peach Salsa

All together about 130 jars so far, probably cross the 200 mark this year :)

Still to go is tomato salsa, pears, apple butter, apple sauce, and want to up my pressure canned beans, meat and potatoes this year over the winter.

Also froze a ton of strawberries, peaches, blueberries, sautéed leeks, yellow beans, sautéed fennel, roasted peppers

I have a 16x36 garden and a lot of the produce comes from there, some fruit from my father in laws little orchard, or local bulk.

This Christmas will probably be 80% homemade canned goods which will help a lot with the budget :D
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: krmit on August 28, 2018, 08:52:18 PM
This week: had a bunch of tomatoes and beets to use up, so I decided to try some new recipes! This weekend I made Choice Salsa from the National Center for Home Food Preserving. My initial taste was that it's pretty bland and acidic, but worst case scenario I'll shred up some chicken in it for tacos.

As for the beets, I'm currently cooking down the Beet Horseradish relish from one of the newer Ball books. Not usually a relish person (I have some dill relish from 2 years ago still languishing) but I'm loving what I'm smelling!

EDIT: It tastes really good! I cut the sugar in half but there's still a good balance of sweetness from the beets, acidity from the vinegar, and bite from the horseradish.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: MissNancyPryor on August 28, 2018, 09:07:13 PM
My new little house has a nice berry patch which I weeded and tended and staked and it has paid off nicely.  I did 21 jars of raspberry freezer jam.  I have given away a bunch to my new neighbors and will use the rest slowly out of the freezer to remind me of this summer.  I froze a lot of whole berries as well which I use to flavor my home-brewed kombucha during secondary fermentation.  There must have been about 3 gallons of berries all told and there are lots of new shoots in the berry patch which should produce well next year and keep the cycle going.     
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: Goldy on August 29, 2018, 07:09:12 PM
We have harvested a lot of mushrooms this summer and wild rice season is starting soon. 
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: BrightFIRE on August 30, 2018, 01:45:55 PM
(Strawberries were terrible this year with all the spring rain, so nothing with strawberries.)

So far:

Drinks:
Rumtopf - this has been building all summer. So far, dark cherries, nectarines, blueberries, apricots, peaches. Will add plums, grapes and pears before I close it up.
Blueberry-peach shrub with peach vinegar I made last summer
Dark cherry shrub with homemade cherry vinegar
Peach shrub with the other half of the homemade peach vinegar, sweetened with brown sugar

Canned:
Plum jam
Pickled grape tomatoes
Sliced peaches in brown sugar syrup
Whole tomatoes in their own juices

Frozen:
Half-dried cherry tomatoes (oven-dried until they shrivel but are still a bit juicy, hence freezing)
Rhubarb
Rasbperries
Blackberries
Blueberries
Apricot halves - I hear apricot-blackberry jam is the shit, so I'll be canning this at my leisure later this fall.

Planned:
Plum halves
Pear halves
Apple slices
Probably peachsauce and applesauce, because it's soooooo delicious. Gingergold apples make a great unsweetened applesauce and I'm picking up a half bushel this weekend.

Still have a bit of jam and chutney left over from last summer, so I don't want to go overboard, but it is indeed nice to have impromptu gifts available in my basement. The peach chutney I made on a whim last year was the surprise hit with goat cheese all winter. Maybe a plum or pear chutney this year.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: sparkytheop on August 31, 2018, 06:28:02 PM
I help my parent's with their garden, since I'm horrible at growing anything.  I'm good at helping with preservation though!

This year we've done/will can:

Cherries (whole, as well as jam, and ice cream topping)
Salsa (17 pints this afternoon)
Ketchup (we'll make more tomorrow)
Tomato Sauce (more tomorrow)
Diced tomatoes (tomorrow)
Pickled peppers (hopefully Sunday night)
Dilly beans
Button mushrooms (I really want to find a good source next year and make several jars full)
Applesauce
Apple Butter

Have/will freeze:
Diced peppers
Diced celery
Cantaloupe (It all ripens at once.  I'm the only one who doesn't like it by itself, but I love it all cut up and added to smoothies)
Peaches

Drying:
Various herbs, including mint

I'm sure I've left out a ton.  We usually do zucchini relish and green tomato relish, but we still have a lot left over (and my mom's zucchini didn't grow this year).  We may still do the green tomato relish if we end up with a bunch of green tomatoes at the end of harvest.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: SimpleCycle on August 31, 2018, 07:47:16 PM
Today I did 4 quarts of honey cinnamon peaches and froze another 3 quarts of peach slices, so I'm finally done with peaches.  I also made 3 cups of basil pesto for the freezer.

Still have cauliflower, beets, and carrots to pickle.  Also just picked tons of hot peppers from the garden so when we get back from our labor day travels I'll start some lacto-fermented hot sauce.

I definitely over planted hot peppers in the garden, so I need to figure out what to do with them all.  We use a lot of hot sauce, but not gallons!
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: mountain mustache on August 31, 2018, 08:11:41 PM
I wanted to do so much more than I did! I made some wild plum jelly/sauce, and froze a ton of peach slices for pie in the winter. I roasted/cleaned about 10 pounds of green chiles, which are in the freezer for adding to soups, and I made 2 huge mason jars full of pesto (frozen in cubes).

Next year I really want to learn to can. We have a decent amount of good produce available in the summer, but it's honestly not super cheap. We don't have much fresh produce at all in the winter because I live in the mountains, so it's such a treat to even have amazing, seasonal fruit for the 2 short months that we get it. The best thing here are stone fruits, peaches, plums, etc. Also pears and apples do really well. Next year I want to pick a ton of those fruits at the orchards that are a few hours away, and spend a weekend canning, freezing, and drying them for the winter. Winter gets so dull with almost no local, fresh food.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: sparkytheop on August 31, 2018, 10:33:02 PM
I wanted to do so much more than I did! I made some wild plum jelly/sauce, and froze a ton of peach slices for pie in the winter. I roasted/cleaned about 10 pounds of green chiles, which are in the freezer for adding to soups, and I made 2 huge mason jars full of pesto (frozen in cubes).

Next year I really want to learn to can. We have a decent amount of good produce available in the summer, but it's honestly not super cheap. We don't have much fresh produce at all in the winter because I live in the mountains, so it's such a treat to even have amazing, seasonal fruit for the 2 short months that we get it. The best thing here are stone fruits, peaches, plums, etc. Also pears and apples do really well. Next year I want to pick a ton of those fruits at the orchards that are a few hours away, and spend a weekend canning, freezing, and drying them for the winter. Winter gets so dull with almost no local, fresh food.

I always recommend seeing if your local Extension Office offers canning/preserving classes.  The ones we have here are great.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: Teachstache on September 01, 2018, 04:15:33 AM
Where I'm at it's crazy hot and our garden is about spent. But I'm doing pickled okra right now. So. much. okra. I've done about 20 quarts and about that many pints. And I'm also pickling and freezing peppers- primarily pickled jalapenos and then chopped peppers I am freezing to add to fajitas, pizza etc. this winter when I don't have fresh peppers.

29 cups of chopped, frozen red & green bell peppers from our garden for use this winter, a quart of dehydrated seasoned yellow summer squash chips from our garden, 4 quarts of dehydrated sweet dark cherries from fire sale produce, 6 pints of plum jam from 10 cents per pound plums, 3 pints of peach jam, 12 pints & 10 quarts of canned garden tomatoes, 50 lbs of packaged ground beef when it was 98 cents a pound at a local meat locker & it's now in our deep freeze, 40 lbs of chicken breasts for 98 cents a pound from Zaycon fresh (sadly no longer exists) in our deep freeze, 12 bottles of blueberry Mead, 12 bottles of hard cider.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: BAM on September 06, 2018, 05:48:55 PM
24 pints of plum jam
35 quarts of applesauce so far - still going on that one and should get another 20 or so.
1 1/2 gallon bags of frozen plum halves for use in kefir shakes through the winter
that was all from free picked fruit

3 1/2 gallon bags of frozen apricot halves for use in kefir shakes. Free fruit from a friend.
4 gallon bags of grapes from super sales - taste like mini-popsicles so my kids love them.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: Frugal Lizard on September 07, 2018, 01:51:48 PM
wow - y'all are inspirational.

I went to the tool library at lunch and borrowed a tomato mill.  My brother and I are canning 5 bushels of romas tomorrow.  This heavy duty beast will speed up the process no end.  Last year we bbq'd the tomatoes first.  The water steamed out so there was way less cooking required to thicken the juice.  We are hoping to get 28 one quart jars and 54 pints.  Last year we did 6 bushels and hated tomatoes by 8pm.  Hopefully doing 4 loads of bigger jars will shorten up the processing time some.

I have already canned pizza sauce, salsa, dill pickles, bbq relish, peach jam and a mixed stonefruit jam.

I also borrowed a dehydrator so will be trying that out next week.  We can borrow stuff for a week.  It costs $40 a year for the membership.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: rivendale on September 07, 2018, 03:33:32 PM
I finally finished harvesting all our grapes. I made about 15 pints of jam, and then froze 6-gal bags filled to the brim. I was so over plucking grapes one by one from their stems by the time I was finished!

Frozen grapes are sooo tasty.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: sparkytheop on September 07, 2018, 10:05:56 PM
A tool library would be handy!

My brother didn't do a cow this year, so I'm going to have to settle for grocery/Cash and Carry beef (C&C is called something else now though.  It's good meat, but you have to butcher it into usable cuts yourself).  Fortunately I still have a ton of ground beef, but I bought a lot of sirloin steak while it was on sale ($2.77/lb) and am portioning that out for the freezer.

Tonight I'm making more cheese stuffed, bacon wrapped peppers to put in the freezer.  I already have a lot of peppers pickled and canned, or chopped and frozen, so this gives us an easy snack/dinner for later.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: Frugal Lizard on September 11, 2018, 08:25:37 AM
I have 32 jars of tomato sauce - some huge ones and some smaller.
I also bbq'd peeled and then froze a case of red peppers in tiny jars.  I love peppers so I have been buying them by the jar from the grocery store.  I open the jar, eat half and then a month later discover half a mouldy jar in the fridge.  I have 13 - half cups now.  If I need more than half a cup - I can open two!
I am loving the dehydrator.  It has been cold at night so we are enjoying the warmth of the dehydrator in the dining room during dinner.  All the basil that didn't go in the tomato sauce is getting dehydrated.  Going to try mint and tarragon once the basil is finished.  Also drying calendula flowers at the moment.  Have always grown them, never used them in anything before.  Going to try making a lip balm this year.
Got 6 pints of sweet gherkins this year.  The recipe is a pain - as any recipe that starts out as Day 1 to 4 and goes on to day 8 and 9 is.  But man those pickles are good.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: Fomerly known as something on September 15, 2018, 08:10:25 PM
I've been drying this summer.

So far cherries, u-pick blueberries and now working my way through Gala and Honey Crisp 2nds.

Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: fuzzy math on September 16, 2018, 07:23:44 AM
Made a lot of pasta sauce to freeze this summer.
Also made a lot of "lazy fridge canner" pickled carrots, onions, peppers etc. I use clean old jars, fill them when extremely hot stuff, and put them in the fridge. They seal like the regular canned jars but without all the extra work. Not sure if I have the fortitude to ever learn real canning.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: Frugal Lizard on September 17, 2018, 04:58:55 AM
We dried stone fruits during last couple of days of the dehydrator loan .  They are little pieces of candy those nectarines and plums!
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: BrightFIRE on September 17, 2018, 11:41:24 AM
Made a lot of pasta sauce to freeze this summer.
Also made a lot of "lazy fridge canner" pickled carrots, onions, peppers etc. I use clean old jars, fill them when extremely hot stuff, and put them in the fridge. They seal like the regular canned jars but without all the extra work. Not sure if I have the fortitude to ever learn real canning.

Honestly, real canning is super easy. It's the same time-consuming prep work, but then you drop a bunch of jars in boiling water for 15-30 minutes so you can fee up your fridge space for other things. *However* fridge pickles are still better than canned, because they stay crunchier. If you're into pickled carrots/sweet peppers, I made this on Labor Day and it is my new favorite pickle recipe - so much flavor from the cilantro and crushed coriander seed (skip to the bottom for the recipe). http://foodinjars.com/2014/02/sponsored-post-complete-knife-skills-craftsy/ (http://foodinjars.com/2014/02/sponsored-post-complete-knife-skills-craftsy/) I also added the sliced hot pepper she says she forgot.

This weekend, I used up the last of my peach seconds and an equal amount of diced honey crisp apples to can 2 quarts of... let's call it apple/peach compote. These fruits go really well together, along with some lemon juice and sugar. The peach gets soft, but the apple stays a bit firmer, for a nice contrast.

I also canned a small batch of mixed stone fruit jam: 2:1:1 ratio of peaches, Italian plums and Bartlett pears, spiced with cardamom and nutmeg. I pureed it with my immersion blender, and it's a gorgeous russet color (reminds me of guava paste in color). Only 1.25 pints, but I am finally peachless!

Next up: plum halves
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: Cgbg on September 20, 2018, 09:23:26 PM
Spring:
Strawberry jam (hood berries!)
Blueberry jam

Summer:
Spicy dill pickles

Late summer: (now!)
Pickled pepper slices (generally jalapeńo but my brother brought over additional peppers for me to try)
Applesauce (honey crisp apples)

We ate all of our tomatoes and plums. I still have frozen tomatoes from last year to use up. This was the first year that our plum tree really produced- we just picked the last couple of dozen tonight. Not quite enough to dehydrate (we will eat them fresh) but maybe next year.

Pear drizzle will be my last canning effort in early winter.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: Linea_Norway on September 21, 2018, 03:33:35 PM
So far in spring I have dried some green plants from both my garden amd from the wild. I drink it occasionally as green tea. I have also made a liter of sirup from spruce shoots. I use it on ice cream and such. The lunch in my oatmeal porridge.

This autumn I have dried lots of mushrooms. Lots and lots of Penny Buns and a few other species. Just today I posted an add to sell the penny buns online. I already sold one bag after giving a course in mushroom picking.

DH froze his grapes. He has enough for maybe half a bottle of wine. Not sure he will use those few grapes for wine. We also picked and froze some blueberries. And we have selfcaught fish in the freezer.

Sometimes I preserve leftover fruit at my office. Last time I made a pot of jam from a bunch of kiwis. I have many times made apple sauce or apple cake from leftover apples.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: Raenia on September 29, 2018, 11:13:56 AM
So far this year:
 - 3 pints strawberry jam + 1 pint strawberry rhubarb jam (pick-your-own)
 - 2 quarts poached plums + 3 pints plum sauce (farmer's market seconds)
 - 7 quarts poached peaches (farmer's market seconds)

Still to come:
 - pickled beets
 - applesauce
 - apple butter
 - pear butter, poached pears, and/or brandied pears
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: Cranky on September 29, 2018, 12:43:53 PM
I've got a million raspberries in the freezer. Some time this winter I'll pull them out for jam.

I've made grape jelly with the backyard grapes. Dh will have to eat more pb sandwiches for lunch!

I've dried a lot of herbs... dill, basil, oregano, thyme. I really need to make some more pesto and freeze it.

The tomatoes were nothing spectacular this year, as the weather veered between very hot and dry, and absolutely deluges, but I've been freezing some tomatoes and will probably dry some this week.

I've pulled the onions.

I've got 14 or 15 butternut squash downstairs. I need to start baking and freezing those.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: Rosy on September 29, 2018, 02:45:38 PM
Right now - plums and apples and lemon verbena.

On my recent trip, GF showed me how to make real homemade German potato pancakes from raw potatoes. They freeze very well - so I can make some extra for my son to take on the road - he's a long haul trucker and I plan to pair them with homemade apple slices, sugar/butter/a sprinkle of cinnamon.

The plums will be used in baking goods and as filling in a sweet dumpling made from grits.

I'll harvest and dry the lemon verbena - one batch for tea and another to use for cooking - chicken and fish and served with ice cream.

Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: HAPPYINAZ on October 03, 2018, 09:22:39 AM
Pomegranates!  My husband picks about 1500 lbs of them every year.  He juices them and then makes wine or freezes the juice so we can drink it.  He also gives a bunch away.  People in our city have tons of pomegranate trees, but they don't like to eat them!!
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: Linea_Norway on October 04, 2018, 12:20:07 AM
On my recent trip, GF showed me how to make real homemade German potato pancakes from raw potatoes. They freeze very well - so I can make some extra for my son to take on the road - he's a long haul trucker and I plan to pair them with homemade apple slices, sugar/butter/a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Is that rösti? Or is it something thinner?

I make rösti regularly as an alternative for normally served potatoes, usually a few cms thick.
Never thought of serving them with sweet things.
Title: Re: What are you preserving?
Post by: jnw on October 05, 2018, 04:54:04 PM
I'm preserving meat as of late.  Making both "bacon" and "ham" from some  pork butt I bought for 99 cents per pound (bought 65 lb worth).   Also preserving some beef for pastrami.   Both dry rub cure for 2 weeks.

Hrm.. I wonder what cured venison tastes like?