What have you canned or preserved today?

[journey11]

Mickey, here are several recipes I saw on Chickens in the Road today.... http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/a-passel-of-pear-recipes/

If I can get my hands on some pears, I will definitely be making some of that Pecan Pear Butter for Christmas gifts (and for me too!)

 

[Mickey328]

Wow! Thanks for the link journey. There's some good eatin there!

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

Another 5 quarts of chicken stock!

 

[Mickey328]

Oh yum! My stock stock is nearing depletion, so I've got to get some done as well.

Got 6 pts of sliced beef for hot chicken sandwiches and 3 quarts of browned stew meat, 14 half pints of salmon, 8 quarts and 8 pints of potatoes. Still have about that many more spuds to go, and about 10 lbs of sweet potatoes, and 3 bags of pears. I think I may be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel now...just hope it's not an oncoming train!

 

[so lucky]

I am drying herbs today, in my new dehydrator. The basil burned up before I could get it picked (In the ground) but I have sage, rosemary, oregano and parsley. Almost Simon and Garfunkel. I have not been very impressed with dehydrating yet. The okra was terrible, the apples --mmm--ok--kale, odd; greenbeans, odd. I do like the tomatoes I have dried, tho. Even the ones I dried last summer in my car.

 

[Mickey328]

It does take a while to get the knack for what works and what doesn't. While you can dehydrate almost anything, some things just aren't as good preserved that way. Most veggies for instance need to be partially cooked before dehydrating or they just never re-hydrate. Most herbs take almost no time to dry, even on the lowest setting, so I've learned to only start them when I can check frequently. Fruits do well, and meat does great (it has to be fully cooked unless you're making jerky) Larger chunks need to be cut up some...everything that goes in should be about the same size so it all dries at the same time. I use mine mostly for meat, herbs and trail mix type stuff. Most of my veggies are canned.

 

[journey11]

Vacuum packed a bushel of greens (mustard and kale) for the freezer.

So Lucky, try fruit leathers...we gobble those up pretty quick. They're fun and easy. I like dehydrating fruit bits like apples and peaches to toss in our oatmeal. Peppers and onions are also really handy to dehydrate, chopped fine so they can be easily added to recipes. Saves a lot of time chopping later when you just want to make dinner really quickly.

Here's an excellent website on dehydrating: http://www.dehydrate2store.com/ They have extensive detailed info on just about everything, as well as recipes using dehydrated foods and instructional videos.

 

[Mickey328]

That's a really informative site, journey. Thanks for posting!

 

[vfem]

I haven't canned or preserved much lately (still need to do the apple butter, I'm running late).

But... I am picking up my entries from the NC State fair today. My Blueberry Jam won 3rd place, our Hot Pepper Jelly won 3rd place and our Vanilla Pear Butter won 2nd place again this year. I'm REALLY thrilled about the Blueberry and Hot Pepper... those were really saturated categories. When you go look and see like 20+ jars entered in each one of those display cases, you have to be over the moon with a place at all!

So glad I didn't do the apple butter though. Wow, there were 3 packed shelves of people who entered that flavor. I bet whoever won that was in complete shock!!!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Congratulations. Placing at a county fair is something, but placing at a State Fair is really something. You have a right to be proud.

My fall greeen beans have finally kicked in. Green beans have been a challenge this year, first with rats eating the plants as they sprouted, then the grasshoppers killing the pole and bush beans in the drought, and finally rabbits eating what I planted for the fall crop as they sprouted. I permanently took 16 rabbits out of my garden before they quit eating the beans as they sprouted. They were eating other stuff too but I could live with that. The sprouting beans was what got me. We've already had a killing frost, but I covered the Blue Lake Bush beans with sheets and they made it through.

With all that, I put up 10 pints of green beans yesterday. I managed about 11 pints of green beans before the grasshoppers hit this spring so I'm not desperate, but I'd really like to get one or two more cannings to get me through.