Canning Talley

I have been doing some canning and wanted to make a list of what I have done. I was hoping to keep track of amounts but I'm not that organized and I am too lazy to go count the jars that we have from this year. I love to preserve our own food! I think I have mentioned this before but is it just so extremely satisfying to me. This is mostly for me but a blog seems like a good place to keep track of things like this. What I have done so far:

Canning:
Jams- Strawberry, raspberry, raspberry peach, apricot and possibly a few other combinations.
Green beans
Green chili peppers
Pickles- Dill, Bread and Butter
Apricot Puree
Green Enchilada Sauce


Freezing:
Green beans
Jam- Strawberry, and 1 other combo (I already forgot what it was)
Zuchini
peppers- bell and chili
strawberries (I froze them in the spring and we have already gone through all of them in fruit smoothies, I really need to finds some more strawberries soon)
Raspberries


Dried
Zucchini
Basil
Fruit Leather- appricot and banana




Things that I will be doing soon:
Peaches - bottled, jam, puree, fruit leather, frozen
Pears - bottled, dried (dried is so so good!)
Apples- sauce, juice, dried and maybe pie filling
Tomatoes- salsa, soup, sauce, dried, and anything else I can think of to do with tomatoes
Plums- fruit leather, jam
Blackberries- jam
Veggie Soup of some sort (I need to figure this one out still)
Winter squash- bottled, frozen 


This winter I plan on bottling a bunch of dry beans. I am excited to have the convenience of having these ready make with out the preservative and $$ of buying them in the can. I think I will also try making re-fried beans.

When ever we pick some of our broccoli Heber wants us to take his picture while holding it. He is such a funny boy. The broccoli we have grown is so tasty but we have had mixed results. Some of it has been perfectly good with no bugs at all but another plant had so many bugs we couldn't eat it. Strange indeed.

I love having yummy food without strange ingredients and saving money. The exchange is a lot of work. I mostly enjoy it though. The exception to that is the end of September when it feels like I have been canning non-stop for weeks and weeks. I am sick of canning by then but there is usually still lots of tomatoes to do. Anyone who wants to come and can with me is quite welcome! I would love to have company and canning is better with someone else.


 

How to can (or not to can) green chilies

I just finished canning a lot of green chilies. It was fun. I wrote a how to or how not to

• When you order your bountiful basket add the 25lb bag of green chilies for $12.50. Who doesn't need 25lbs of green chilies right? Besides, it's only $12.50. That's a great deal!    

• Spend the weekend trying to figure out what to do with the chilies. Wonder why in the world you just bought 25lbs of green chilies when you only ever make 1 dish that uses green chilies. 

• By the beginning of the week the chilies have started to go bad. It really is time to do something with them and you should start right away. (I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with them but I found out you have to roast and peel them first so I started there). 

Image Source here

• Roast the chilies. We used the grill outside. Be careful not to char them to a crisp. You just want to blister the skins on the outside. Don't let your husband take over, this part is very enjoyable. He may try several times to do the roasting but don't let him. After roasting, place the chilies in a lidded container (with the lid on) and let them steam until ready to peel.

• Let your 2 year old fall asleep and take a nap at a ridiculously late hour for a nap. 

 

• Peel the chilies. Remove the stems and seeds.  

• Give little girl a peach, cucumber, shoes... anything to try and keep her entertained so that you can keep peeling.

•   Take a break for peeling to can pickles that have been waiting for a few days now.

•   Continue to peel chilies. Invite grandma, grandpa, and Aunt Jen over to keep kids entertained so that you can keep peeling. Send kids out to the garden to play.

• Peel chilies late into the night. Have your husband stay up even later to finish peeling after you and the kids have gone to bed. ... Ok enough peeling but this does take a long time. Put the peeled chilies into the fridge to finish tomorrow

• Next night, de-seed the chilies in the living room while watching a movie. This takes a long time. (note the messy house and Heber's quite book on the floor, also being used as a pillow in a previous picture. We obviously neglect all other duties while trying to get the canning done. If I had more money maybe I would hire someone to come a clean. But probably not really.)

• Pack chilies into jars, pour boiling water over them, put lids on, and processes in a pressure canner. 13 lbs for 35 min. 

• Post info on your blog and sigh at your terrible picture taking abilities. Someday I will learn to take decent pictures (or at least get a better camera) and my blog will be full of beautiful pictures. 
 

I froze some chilies to use in salsa once we have ripe tomatoes. I am also going to use some to try and make a green enchilada sauce using some of my green tomatoes. I'll let you know how it turns out. I feel like all of my extra time is spent canning and we haven't even got to all the tomato stuff yet.

I'm not sure if all of this work was worth it. I guess we will see when I actually come up with some good recipes that use green chilies other then creamy chicken enchiladas. Any ideas? 

not much

Not much going on around here. ... at least not much in the way of blogging. I want to write stuff but I feel like I need interesting pictures to go along with it and I haven't got any. I need to take more pictures. While I haven't been taking pictures, I have been:

• Loving my babies (Even though he is 2 1/2, I still count Heber as a baby... probably will always consider my children my babies) and trying not to feel too grumpy or irritated when they need me all the time. Trying not to yell at them when I am feeling grumpy. Trying to give extra hugs and kisses when they cry when I leave for work. I hate when they cry, it makes it too hard to leave.
  
• Picking food from the garden, lots of it. There is something so extremely satisfying about making a meal that consists (almost) entirely of food that came from your yard. I can't get over that feeling! We have been harvesting:
• Raspberries, strawberries (only a few as the birds get them before we do), zucchini (lots and lots), peas, cucumbers, basil, green onions, bell peppers, some other kind of pepper that was supposed to be hot peppers for salsa but isn't, lettuce, spinach, green beans, and eggs from our chickens although not many. We are anxiously waiting for corn, potatoes, winter squash, and tomatoes especially. * picture here lots of beautiful pictures of stuff from our garden 
• I need to plant new lettuce and spinach as well as some cilantro for salsa
• Getting food from the garden really is exciting. I am sure it is something we will always be doing. I am working on canning and preserving our food for the winter. I have dried some zucchini to use in soups and casseroles, we eat it almost every meal, and I have made a lot of zucchini bread (I will probably also freeze some to make zucchini bread later) but does anyone know what else to do with the stuff? Also I am trying to find a good recipe for dill pickles, one that stays crunchy.

• Working on the house, cleaning, organizing, fixing, and moving stuff. Ok I haven't been doing much of this but Ben sure has. He has also been great at washing the dishes. We are trying to get it ready so that we can rent out the upstairs as a separate apartment.

• Reading interesting things about food, real food. It is making me even more determined to grow and make more food for ourselves. 

• Writing my babies birth stories and try to decide what to post or not