Author Topic: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)  (Read 108366 times)

Cressida

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #100 on: June 13, 2016, 12:10:04 PM »
This year I'm pressure canning salsa for sure, because I find the water bath recipes are always too vinegary.

So true. Unfortunately no one else seems to agree, or at least not people who write canning resources. If you have a pressure-canned salsa recipe you like, I'm dying to hear it. I've been on the lookout for a while.

horsepoor

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #101 on: June 13, 2016, 01:13:21 PM »
This year I'm pressure canning salsa for sure, because I find the water bath recipes are always too vinegary.

So true. Unfortunately no one else seems to agree, or at least not people who write canning resources. If you have a pressure-canned salsa recipe you like, I'm dying to hear it. I've been on the lookout for a while.

I will probably just start out with the Annie's Salsa recipe and omit all/most of the vinegar, add more chiles and can it according to the crushed tomato pressure canning times in my Ball canning book.

I'd like to smoother molcajete style salsa too, but will need to do some experimentation to try to replicate one that's sold locally.

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #102 on: June 13, 2016, 01:43:10 PM »
Join the Rebel Canners group on Facebook.

QueenAlice

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #103 on: June 13, 2016, 04:00:57 PM »
Join the Rebel Canners group on Facebook.

Thanks for sharing this group!

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #104 on: June 13, 2016, 04:25:17 PM »
Join the Rebel Canners group on Facebook.

Thanks for sharing this group!

You're welcome :) There are some awesome educational Facebook groups out there. I learn way more on there than I do here.

pekklemafia

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #105 on: June 13, 2016, 10:56:29 PM »
Following to read for later. I've got high hopes for the garden this year and want to get into canning.

horsepoor

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #106 on: June 14, 2016, 07:22:38 AM »
Join the Rebel Canners group on Facebook.

Thank you!  I've knocked, and hopefully they will let me in. :)

I think it's about time for this thread to have some love for fermentation.

It's actually incredibly easy, and a nice way to do small batches of things without a big production of canning equipment and steaming up the kitchen.  Plus, you get the benefit of the probiotics if you eat your ferment raw.  It will keep in the fridge for months.

Right now I'm getting low on Kimchi and will be making another batch this week.  It consists of Napa cabbage, daikon radish, green onions, garlic, ginger, chiles, salt, kombu and fish sauce.  It's about as much effort as making a coleslaw, and then packing it into a 2-quart jar and waiting.  Pack it all down into the jar, wait for the salt to draw moisture out of the vegetables, and add a little extra water if needed to cover.  fill a 1 qt. ziploc with briney water and put it in the top of the jar to hold everything down.  Put it in a dark, coolish place or cover with a towel and check it every few days.  When it tastes good, it's done (about 10 days usually).

Kombucha is also an easy one, and kombucha mother is easy to come by these days.  Make a big jar of tea, dissolve sugar in (I like 2/3 cup per gallon), and when cooled, add the mother and cover the top with a coffee filter or other breathable thing to keep stuff from falling in.  Kombucha likes light, so this can live on your counter, and will be ready in about a week.

Fermented pickles are also out of sight, as well as pickled

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #107 on: June 15, 2016, 04:33:05 AM »
Horsepoor:  be careful about deleting all the vinegar in a salsa recipe.  Tomatoes are not acid enough to canned successfully so there may be a safety reason for the vinegar in this particular recipe. I am going to try some salsa recipes this summer from my small batch canning book.  I haven' t done salsa before but everything else in the book that I have tried is amazing.

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #108 on: June 15, 2016, 05:58:21 AM »
Horsepoor:  be careful about deleting all the vinegar in a salsa recipe.  Tomatoes are not acid enough to canned successfully so there may be a safety reason for the vinegar in this particular recipe. I am going to try some salsa recipes this summer from my small batch canning book.  I haven' t done salsa before but everything else in the book that I have tried is amazing.

She specifically said she's doing the salsa in the pressure canner so she can get away from the vinegar necessary in a BWB recipe.

RE fermentation - Definitely talk about it! I like the idea of it but haven't done any fruit/veggie ferments yet so I haven't brought it up personally. Main ferments I do are bread (6 loaves and 4 large pizzas a week), yoghurt (not much right now as only one of my kids likes it and she hasn't been asking for it lately), and cider (out right now but waiting until next month when we get back from vacation to start a batch just in case something would go awry if I do a batch to ferment while we're gone).

horsepoor

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #109 on: June 15, 2016, 07:39:58 AM »
Lizard - thanks for the warning, but yes, as GC says, I'll be pressure canning, so no need to up the acidity.  It's not the tomatoes that are the problem so much as I want to add more chiles and onions, and they are not acidic, so lots of vinegar is required for a safe water bath recipe.

GC - you've GOT to do a batch of fermented pickles when your cukes come in this year.  You'll never look back if you're canning them in vinegar now. Whole, smaller cukes work best for this. Green tomatoes make a good pickle, too.  In fact, I like to just kind of make a melange with small onions, peppers, okra, etc. as well as jars of straight dill cucumber pickles.

Oh, and fermented hot sauce is also amazing!  This stuff keeps forever in the fridge.  The bit of sour like a vinegar based hot sauce, but more complex because the tanginess comes from the ferment instead.

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #110 on: June 15, 2016, 11:45:16 AM »
Not a pickle person but do plant on attempting hot sauce next year. I have some Hinkelhatz seeds, which is an heirloom pepper that's supposed to make amazing hot sauce. Didn't have time to get them started this year.

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #111 on: June 15, 2016, 12:06:26 PM »
Not a pickle person either-- have to watch salt intake--but I do make lots of dilly beans with not much salt.  First jars get opened at thanksgiving for the pickle tray.  I've made lots of hot sauces-- fun to name them, ie, "snow melt"--but my favorite is sriracha, which I have not tried to preserve but it does have some vinegar in it.

I am low on/have run out of most of last years stocks of frozen greens, roasted tomatoes, canned applesauce, tomatoes and jams/preserves, blueberries etc; good thing it's almost our strawberry season. 

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #112 on: June 15, 2016, 12:09:43 PM »
We're going strawberry picking Friday unless something comes up. Our patch is mostly done for the season already but the commercial patches are just opening this week. Trying to get some before we leave on vacation, then will hopefully catch the tail end when we get back. I don't think I want to plan long vacations in the summer anymore.

pekklemafia

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #113 on: June 15, 2016, 07:55:44 PM »
We're going strawberry picking Friday unless something comes up. Our patch is mostly done for the season already but the commercial patches are just opening this week. Trying to get some before we leave on vacation, then will hopefully catch the tail end when we get back. I don't think I want to plan long vacations in the summer anymore.

We went on a "long" (ten day) vacation last summer - had some friends come over and tend the garden/eat from it while we were gone... But they totally forgot about the beans, so when we got home a whole bunch of them were way too old and lumpy to eat. My heart broke a little, but we saved the seeds at least.

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #114 on: June 16, 2016, 04:19:42 AM »
We're going strawberry picking Friday unless something comes up. Our patch is mostly done for the season already but the commercial patches are just opening this week. Trying to get some before we leave on vacation, then will hopefully catch the tail end when we get back. I don't think I want to plan long vacations in the summer anymore.

We went on a "long" (ten day) vacation last summer - had some friends come over and tend the garden/eat from it while we were gone... But they totally forgot about the beans, so when we got home a whole bunch of them were way too old and lumpy to eat. My heart broke a little, but we saved the seeds at least.

Yeah, last year I came back to tons of baseball bat zucchini because they forgot about one patch.

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #115 on: June 16, 2016, 08:52:09 AM »
G-dog:
I have a recipe book for small batch canning because often I don't have the quantity or the time to do large batch either.  It is:
The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving: Over 300 Recipes to Use Year-Round
by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard


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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #116 on: June 16, 2016, 03:58:09 PM »
Frugal Lizard:
I have found a few recipes recently, both for rhubarb, that were small batch.
I often do pseudo-canning - I boil sterilize the jars, lids, rings (if needed), pill them out onto clean towel, face down to drain. Ideally the product and the jar is still hot, fill the jars like for canning, put on lids and tighten, set on counter to cool. The lids usually develop at least a partial vacuum.
Once cooled to room temp, store in fridge.

So far, so good. I may have to go to the next level and actually can. But I need to get a jar gripper to do that!

GoConfidently

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #117 on: June 16, 2016, 07:30:48 PM »
Re: Melons - freeze them for the best smoothie ever. Blend small frozen chunks of cantaloupe, vanilla yogurt, plain almond milk, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Nothing else needed.  It's so so good.

horsepoor

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #118 on: June 17, 2016, 09:35:53 AM »
Re: Melons - freeze them for the best smoothie ever. Blend small frozen chunks of cantaloupe, vanilla yogurt, plain almond milk, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Nothing else needed.  It's so so good.

Great idea, thank you!  My husband hates melon and I can't always eat it all myself, so this will keep them from going to waste if I'm lucky enough to get a good crop this year!

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #119 on: June 18, 2016, 05:45:30 PM »
Have put up 60 pounds of strawberries in past 2 days. Mix of frozen, dried, and two different jams.

horsepoor

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #120 on: July 09, 2016, 06:25:05 PM »
This thread needs a bump!

This weekend's them is apricots.  A coworker gave me a big bag of them that were not so pretty, so they are turning into chutney, dried apricots and apricot butter.  The farm stand had some beautiful ones for .98/lb, so I picked up about 6# of those this morning, and canned them in a light syrup.  The apricot butter got a flavor bump from some vanilla and anejo rum (the alcohol burns off, but it lifts the fruit flavor).

I'm also upping my game with kombucha.  Picked up some new loose teas and have lots of flavoring ideas to try out.  Current batch is in secondary fermentation right now.

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #121 on: July 09, 2016, 06:35:25 PM »
Have made some cherry, raspberry, and gooseberry jams. Excellent local fruit and little need for sweetener. My favorites so far have been cherry-rhubarb and raspberry-gooseberry.

Froze a bunch of berries too, including local blueberries I'm so glad we decided to pick. It was a peaceful early morning and picked 10 pints with my kids in a bit over an hour.

Today we picked 20 gallons of cherries so that's this week's preservation project.

Seriously looking at buying a pressure canner.

Rural

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #122 on: July 09, 2016, 07:43:40 PM »
Didn't get to it today, but I've got to harvest some basil tomorrow. It'll be freezer pesto this time tomorrow night. I should probably work on using up last summer's pesto...

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #123 on: July 10, 2016, 07:54:55 AM »
A note to Rural and others in basil overload:  consider making basil salt.  It makes a great gift!

GoConfidently

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #124 on: July 10, 2016, 10:24:04 AM »
Does anyone have good suggestions for oranges, other than marmalade? My mom has a tree that is positively loaded this year. They don't harvest until October-November but I've already been warned that I should get more jars for marmalade. Problem is, I can't eat more than a few jars a year and while I love giving them as gifts, I was hoping I could get some other ideas as well. Frozen concentrate for juice I suppose. Any better suggestions?

horsepoor

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #125 on: July 10, 2016, 11:37:12 AM »
Citrus keeps pretty well if you wrap each fruit in newspaper and keep in a coolish spot.

Dried or frozen  orange zest is nice for cooking.  Flavored vinegar would also be good.

Maybe instead of marmalade, an orange syrup would be more versatile?

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #126 on: July 10, 2016, 01:21:44 PM »
Does anyone have good suggestions for oranges, other than marmalade? My mom has a tree that is positively loaded this year.
Rhonda-Jean has a post on Down to Earth about processing the lemon harvest which includes details for how to make cordial (and mentions it works with oranges too).
Is orange curd a thing? If you want a change from marmalade. Lots of recipes out there for lemon curd. And there's always candied peel, I've never made it but I like eating it - especially orange dipped in dark chocolate.

Getting itchy fingers now to be preserving but need to wait another while until I've finished unpacking and settled a bit more so I've resigned myself to only doing a little bit at the end of the season. But, I have already met someone here who's involved in the local foodsharing group so I may have a good connection to get decent quantities of veg or fruit for free in the future. And yesterday I met someone whose dad is clearing out the attic and looking to get rid of a load of jars. So I might get some great new (to me) jars soon. I do like my little town.

Cranky

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #127 on: July 10, 2016, 01:40:50 PM »
We always just drank a lot of orange juice when the oranges were ripe - you don't have to pick them all at once. Otherwise, you might try to trade them for something else, if you really have more than you can drink/eat.

I made blueberry jam this morning. I'm putting a bag of raspberries every day into the freezer. I've dried a ton of oregano and thyme so far.

GoConfidently

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #128 on: July 10, 2016, 03:41:23 PM »
Does anyone have good suggestions for oranges, other than marmalade? My mom has a tree that is positively loaded this year.
Rhonda-Jean has a post on Down to Earth about processing the lemon harvest which includes details for how to make cordial (and mentions it works with oranges too).
Is orange curd a thing? If you want a change from marmalade. Lots of recipes out there for lemon curd. And there's always candied peel, I've never made it but I like eating it - especially orange dipped in dark chocolate.


Ooh, I love lemon curd! Never thought to try it with orange. Off to find recipes. Thank you!

Tris Prior

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #129 on: July 10, 2016, 09:01:32 PM »
I've been going a little nuts with the canning this year. Well, for me, anyway. Just did a round of peach slices in honey. Before that did a batch of salsa. I still have 8 quarts of strawberries and, I dunno, a few pounds of raspberries I think, in my freezer waiting to be attended to. And this week I have 10 lbs of blueberries coming to me from my blueberry CSA!

horsepoor

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #130 on: September 03, 2016, 10:32:35 AM »
What is everyone putting up this harvest season?

I went and picked all this last night:



So it's time for another  batch of salsa, roasting and freezing green chiles, experimenting with a cucumber kim chi, and cooking down greens to use in Green Soup.

The tomatoes aren't as plentiful this year, so I'm wondering if it would be worth it to buy a bushel or two so I have more to can.

choppingwood

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #131 on: September 03, 2016, 11:23:25 AM »
The tomatoes aren't as plentiful this year, so I'm wondering if it would be worth it to buy a bushel or two so I have more to can.

Your countertop of produce looks great! It makes me fantasize about gardening.

I find it is worth buying tomatoes, to supplement what people are kind enough to provide me.  The summer taste is always better than hothouse tomatoes or commercially processed products. I freeze packets of tomato and red pepper sauce and fresh salsa. I never get tired of either, and use the sauce and the salsa in all kinds of dishes.

Rural

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #132 on: September 03, 2016, 04:26:13 PM »
Oh, horsepoor, you have pattypan squash! I haven't had any in years.


 Plus you have all the other things, of course.

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #133 on: September 03, 2016, 05:46:44 PM »
@Horsepoor - I am constantly amazed and impressed by your gardening prowess, and cooking! You always list dishes that sound totally high end, exotic, and / or gourmet.

What a great haul and variety!

I don't can, but have been processing our tomatoes as they accumulate - oven roast to make sauce and then freeze. I'll dry down cherry tomatoes or small tomatoes - but hardly getting any this year.

horsepoor

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #134 on: September 19, 2016, 08:06:46 AM »
Aww, thanks G-Dog!  We eat pretty well around here. :)

Last week people in my building brought in masses of Italian plums, grapes and apples. Also my aunt brought me pears.  I wasn't shy and loaded up on enough to do some canning projects.

Made raisins and prunes, pear sauce, Asian habanero plum sauce and plum BBQ sauce.  Also have started sweet pickle and kim chi ferments.  Fun watching the sweet pickles bubble like mad with the extra sugar added to  that jar.

The stock of peppers destined to become paprika and chile powder is building up, and I'm hoping to get enough red jalapenos to try making chipotles this year, but they don't seem to want to ripen.  The precious few habaneros are going straight into the freezer for winter use, and I might make a fermented hot sauce out of the long yellow ones on the one remarkably prolific plant.  The chiles in my last pic were roasted, skinned, chopped up and canned.  Also canned a couple batches of salsa that we've already cracked into.  Must make more!

Tried making dehydrated watermelon, but didn't care for it, so the horse will get a treat (apricot fruit leather is his favorite thing in the world).

QueenAlice

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #135 on: September 19, 2016, 08:36:30 AM »
...

Tried making dehydrated watermelon, but didn't care for it, so the horse will get a treat (apricot fruit leather is his favorite thing in the world).

How did you go about dehydrating the watermelon? I did some recently where I cut the water melon into ~1 cm x 1 cm rods that were probably 2 inches long (hows that for unit mixing). They took a long time to dehydrate, probably ~15 hrs for a fruit snack like texture, but everyone went crazy for it. I decided to try it because the watermelon wasn't actually that flavorful, so I figured the dehydration would help concentrate the flavor.

I have one more giant watermelon from the garden sitting on the table that needs to be cut up and dehydrated, but it just feels so daunting I keep putting it off. I have most of next weekend to myself so I plan to process the remaining peppers (green chile, pablanos, jalapenos, and bells), butternut squash, spaghetti squash, and tackle the watermelon then.

horsepoor

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #136 on: September 19, 2016, 09:20:03 AM »
I cut it about 3/4" thick, which is about the thickest that will fit in my dehydrator, and let it go for about 20 hours, I think.  It could have stood to get flipped over and go a couple more hours, but since I didn't really like it, I pulled it out at that point.

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #137 on: September 20, 2016, 04:27:56 AM »
My dad loves growing asparagus. He buys crowns off ebay through different sellers.

First year: no harvest, if you do it will negatively effect the following years. It'll grow into a shrub which if you have a riding lawn mower you can drive over with your tires in the furrows or a weed eater.

Second year: begin cutting with a long handles tool with a short blade at the end. You'll want to cut the stalk about an inch underground. The knife makes this much easier.



he plants about 50 crowns so he has to cut it everyday, but it's therapeutic for him.

Forget what month, but I believe it's in the fall when he stops cutting again and lets it grow to a shrub again.

He's started planting different patches so he can take one out when it stops producing and not have to wait another year to harvest again.


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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #138 on: September 27, 2016, 09:45:52 AM »
I love this thread!  May I suggest an additional category?  Meats and Eggs?

We (really my DW) make our own sun dried sausage, salted eggs, and various other types of dried and salted meats.  If there is interest I can get the recipes and post them here.  Most are not "official" but are old family techniques.

horsepoor

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #139 on: October 23, 2016, 08:57:56 PM »
I think I'm almost done for the year.  Just have about 40# more tomatoes ripening and broccoli, leeks, cabbage and dent corn to harvest soon.  Need to remember to harvest Rosemary and thyme as well.

New experiments this year were smoking chiles and making prepared horseradish.  I wanted to make chipotles in adobo, but a) I have two huge cans I bought in New Mexico this spring and haven't opened, and b) not enough jalapenos made it to red to justify the effort.  So I smoked a bunch of different ripe chiles, dried them the rest of the way in the dehydrator and ground to a powder.  I also did a regular hot chile powder and a facsimile of Aleppo peppers.  I did the horseradish two ways:  preserved in vinegar and lacto-fermented.  Both pretty damn hot; looking forward to slathering it on roast beef this winter and clearing out my sinuses.

This afternoon I pulled all of my canned goods out and organized them since I really need to figure out a sturdier shelving system that won't give out under the weight.  It was kind of stunning seeing it all in once place (disclaimer, some of this is from previous years).  Now I just need to remember to shop the pantry every week before heading to the grocery store.


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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #140 on: October 23, 2016, 09:10:39 PM »
Following for next year.

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #141 on: November 01, 2016, 09:08:57 AM »
I had a glut of hot peppers this year so I made sriracha.  Easy, delicious, quite hot with a mix of red jalapenos, serranos, cayennes with garlic, vinegar, sugar salt.  I also froze some bags of the fresh peppers which can be used when a fresh chili is called for.  Crabapple jelly came out well, gelled!  I have done a few bags of blanched kale this week to add to soups/stews; after cooling, I chop it up and bag in pint bags. 

stashgrower

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #142 on: November 06, 2016, 12:13:12 AM »
Any suggestions for mandarins specifically? (I've noted the citrus suggestions above, thank you.)

Another one is orange peel in vinegar for cleaning.

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #143 on: November 12, 2016, 06:28:31 AM »
Hey, sorry I haven't had the time to be around the forum much this year. I'll try and keep up with this thread and maybe update the first posts with the additional ideas posted here.

I went a little crazy with jam making this year so a lot of my preserves will be given away as presents.

Had really mixed results with veggie preserving. Finding that I don't like many preserved summer veggies in any form other than peppers (chili, fajitas, etc) and tomato sauce. In the winter we tend to eat a lot of potatoes and carrots for veggies and greens purchased from the excellent winter farmers market.

I froze and canned a ton of green beans and don't love them. We'll eat some but some will get fed to the chickens and rabbits

BuffaloStache

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #144 on: December 11, 2016, 08:58:09 PM »
Commenting to follow- there is so much excellent information in this thread! thanks!

stashgrower

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #145 on: December 27, 2016, 07:58:03 AM »
MMM-ers. Here's a quickie. Beans: freeze fully cooked or freeze raw? I just need to get this surplus through another week before their destined use, but they won't make it in the fridge.

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #146 on: December 27, 2016, 08:01:18 AM »
MMM-ers. Here's a quickie. Beans: freeze fully cooked or freeze raw? I just need to get this surplus through another week before their destined use, but they won't make it in the fridge.

I'm assuming green beans? Trim, leave in longer pieces for best quality. Blanch in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Cool as rapidly as possible (either ice bath or under running cold tap water). I freeze on a baking sheet and then pack into a big freezer bag so they dont freeze in a solid block.

stashgrower

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #147 on: January 05, 2017, 05:26:28 AM »
Sorry for the slow follow-up. Thanks! Yes, blanching seemed to be the key. Love the baking sheet solution for not ending up with a solid block.

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #148 on: January 05, 2017, 05:32:46 AM »
Sorry for the slow follow-up. Thanks! Yes, blanching seemed to be the key. Love the baking sheet solution for not ending up with a solid block.

Yep, freezing that way works for everything. Much better than taking a hammer to it later :)

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Re: Preserving the Harvest A-to-Z (WIP)
« Reply #149 on: January 06, 2017, 07:35:34 AM »
Sorry for the slow follow-up. Thanks! Yes, blanching seemed to be the key. Love the baking sheet solution for not ending up with a solid block.

Yep, freezing that way works for everything. Much better than taking a hammer to it later :)
In my experience, it's also worth the effort to pat or air dry the fruit/veg after blanching and before freezing them on trays. The final product is crisper and seems more like fresh. YMMV.

 

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