What are you canning now?

I just learned you can freeze basil. So I pulled the one out of my bed and froze the leaves with a light coating of olive oil so it won't turn black. I will be able to use it with my canned tomato sauce when I make tomatoe soup.

This year we ate all of our zucchini and now I don't have any to freeze. I may get some from the farmer's market. It was nice having it shredded and frozen to make fritters with.

Mary
 
ninnymary said:
froze the leaves with a light coating of olive oil so it won't turn black. I will be able to use it with my canned tomato sauce when I make tomatoe soup.
Click to expand...
Two things here!
  • A way to protect the color of basil.
  • Sauce into soup. I've been thinking about doing that with my frozen pasta sauce. Why not?
:D Steve
 
Steve, you reminded me that instead of saying y canned tomato sauce I meant to say frozen roasted tomato sauce.

It's too bad we can't go back and edit.

Mary
 
jbosmith said:
The reddish one is Ba Yi Qi Grain Sorghum (Source: Great Lakes Staple Seed) and grew 7 or 8 feet tall.
The white one is (oddly?) Amber sorghum (Source: Sylvia Davatz who started Solstice Seeds) and was maybe 5 feet tall.

Sylvia also sent me Lesotho which was supposed to be the best for this area but they didn't germinate for me. I'm not entirely sure why but suspect a poorly timed moisture issue.
Click to expand...
That white one is so pretty; I grew a dark reddish one 3 years ago and it was hugely productive. Like you, I didn't know what to do with it! I got nearly 3 very large mason jars of seed from a 6X6 patch. They were very early too, but unfortunately the lady I got them from didn't know the variety, they were more or less just for fall decorating. (We made brooms from them, or tried to - it didn't work out 🤣). I think the thing with sorghum is it is all about the specific variety, and the purpose it was bred for. Many are for syrup, and require the equipment for that kind of processing. I do think you can pop it like popcorn, or make a flour out of it, though removing the hulls would be the tricky part. It is such a productive food plant, but I had difficulty trying to find out about it's potential to cross pollinate.
 
Not exactly "canning." I cleaned out the last eleven 1/2 pints from a botched, Burned, really, strawberry jam attempt. I NEED those jars, so I opened them up and dumped them in a garden spot where I am not growing anything. I will either bury the contents, or cover with straw/barn floor leavings/old stall bedding...Something like that.
I keep a damaged metal trash can in my tool shed for scrap metal, like used lids, so that's where the used lids went, along with the screw tops that were on every one of them. :oops:
Live and learn.
I was watching a gardening program about Jefferson and Monticello. He kept lengthy notebooks on gardening and reported his Failures as well as his successes.
I still have jars of botched beets to get rid of bc I need more jars for canning, and I don't wanna buy any more.
 
Ya KNOW, I owner my Presto 23 qt pressure canner for 3 years before I had the nerve to use it.
I WISH I had come upon This video!
For those squeamish, Please know that my "ALWAYS read the instructions" DD helped me put the lid together, and the gauge and the piece that fits over the vent are packed separately, and to put the rubber washer on the Inside when you screw the gauge on. I also have kept the boxes and manual stored in a ziplock bag which I am now Always putting back inside the canner when I store it.
There is a VENT in the lid, and THAT keeps it from building up too much pressure. The weight that goes on top of the vent (after it has visibly released steam for 10 minutes) regulates the pressure.
You CANNOT walk away from this!
It WON'T explode if you walk away, but you will have to stop, let the pressure go all the way down to zero and START OVER.
I don't have time for this, but I attached the gauge wrong last week and I had to start over. The chili canned just fine. I have been cleaning my pantry and looking at the 7 quarts.
I have been pressure canning with DH's help and sitting in my kitchen monitoring the pressure, while I play on my phone.
Usually up to 11 pounds, can go Over, should not drop below.
First batch, I didn't check at least one of my chili jars screw tops. I had cleaned out the roaster with the leftover chili and refridgerated them and I think that the pressure from warm to cold in the fridge loosened at least one of them and there was chili leakage. 😱
ANYWAY, I had to thoroughly clean the canner and the parts.
Not a real problem, but it takes up time.
When I water bath can, I am able to wear a watch and sit on the porch, then check when my timer goes off.
E V E R Y B O D Y HERE who tells you that you can do this...
is right.
Please pat yourself on the back if you have shared your wisdom.
 
Last edited:
ducks4you said:
Ya KNOW, I owner my Presto 23 qt pressure canner for 3 years before I had the nerve to use it.
I WISH I had come upon This video!
For those squeamish, Please know that my "ALWAYS read the instructions" DD helped me put the lid together, and the gauge and the piece that fits over the vent are packed separately, and to put the rubber washer on the Inside when you screw the gauge on. I also have kept the boxes and manual stored in a ziplock bag which I am now Always putting back inside the canner when I store it.
There is a VENT in the lid, and THAT keeps it from building up too much pressure. The weight that goes on top of the vent (after it has visibly released steam for 10 minutes) regulates the pressure.
You CANNOT walk away from this!
It WON'T explode if you walk away, but you will have to stop, let the pressure go all the way down to zero and START OVER.
I don't have time for this, but I attached the gauge wrong last week and I had to start over. The chili canned just fine. I have been cleaning my pantry and looking at the 7 quarts.
I have been pressure canning with DH's help and sitting in my kitchen monitoring the pressure, while I play on my phone.
Usually up to 11 pounds, can go Over, should not drop below.
First batch, I didn't check at least one of my chili jars screw tops. I had cleaned out the roaster with the leftover chili and refridgerated them and I think that the pressure from warm to cold in the fridge loosened at least one of them and there was chili leakage. 😱
ANYWAY, I had to thoroughly clean the canner and the parts.
Not a real problem, but it takes up time.
When I water bath can, I am able to wear a watch and sit on the porch, then check when my timer goes off.
E V E R Y B O D Y HERE who tells you that you can do this...
is right.
Please pat yourself on the back if you have shared your wisdom.
Click to expand...
You can use a 3 part weight in place of the one-piece that comes with the 23 qt and regulate it to 10 lbs instead of 15. It's waaaay easier than staring at the guage and keeps the temperature more steady. It also means you can get away without having the gauge calibrated every year.

www.healthycanning.com

Presto Pressure Canner 3-piece Regulator Weight

When you buy a new Presto pressure canner, one of the first things old hands will advise you to do is to splurge the 10 to 15 bucks to get the three-piece weights sold separately, so you don't have to watch the gauge.
www.healthycanning.com www.healthycanning.com
 
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