What have you canned or preserved today?

[The Mama Chicken]

I have been drying basil for weeks. I have 3 quart jars of dried basil. I also dried onions, garlic, tarragon, summer savory, marjoram, and cherry tomatoes. I was hoping to do more pickles, but the squash bugs are really bad this year and neither my squash or my cukes are doing well.

 

[baymule]

I have been drying basil for weeks. I have 3 quart jars of dried basil. I also dried onions, garlic, tarragon, summer savory, marjoram, and cherry tomatoes. I was hoping to do more pickles, but the squash bugs are really bad this year and neither my squash or my cukes are doing well.

I have a lovely crop of basil this year. How do you dry it? in the dehydrator and do you use the solid plastic disc or the tray with slots in it?

 

[The Mama Chicken]

I just put it on the regular trays in the dehydrator. The solid trays are for making fruit leather.

 

[cityfarmer]

I finally finished the blueberries and apricots today. I ended up with 9 quarts of apricots and 13 half pints of apricot freezer jam. 5 pints of blueberry pie filling, 3 pints of blueberry syrup, and 11 one cup packages of blueberries in the freezer.

 

[ninnymary]

cityfarmer, did you grow all that fruit or did you buy them at a farmers market/or u pick farm?

Mary

 

[cityfarmer]

I can only dream I grew all that fruit. I do have some blueberry bushes, but they aren't producing yet. They only "fruit tree" I have is a crab apple which I save for the robins to enjoy in the spring. A couple of grocery stores put the apricots and the blueberries on sale. It is still too early for fruit at Colorado Farmers Markets.

 

[vfem]

Mama, I need to start drying more stuff!!!

I did manage to get a bunch of peach sauce jarred... and I picked 14 lbs of blackberries to can today. Just haven't had time to jam them yet. BUT I WILL SO HELP ME! hahaha

These temps like today of 106, I just can't bring myself to turn on the oven to do it. :/

 

[so lucky]

I can't believe you were out picking blackberries in 106 degree sun. Unless maybe you got out at dawn? That's what I'm having to do for garden/lawn work now.

 

[vfem]

Hahahaa.... my booty was up and out of this house at 6:30am. But 9am I was inside the house in the AC for the rest of the day!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I took 5 gallons of blackberries out of the freezer yesterday to make room for the tomatoes. I freeze tomatoes until I have enough for a big canning.

But I screwed up on the blackberries. I wanted to can the juice to make jelly later, but instead of following the instructions and boiling them, mashing them, and hanging them in linen or cheesecloth, I ran them through the Squeezo strainer after boiling them. I thought that would make the juice come out faster. Boy was I wrong.

The seeds came out in the Squeezo like they were supposed to and the pulp that came out was really dry. I hung the remaining stuff in linen and set up some cheesecloth and a collander for some more, but after 8 hours, I only had about a quart of liquid. That stuff was like a paste and would not release the liquid.

I finally gave up and canned the stuff. It made six quarts. I'll use it later to make seedless blackberry jam.