Sunday, August 7, 2011

Preserving


I've been busy all week getting things preserved this week. I canned tomatoes Monday and Friday. So I have 13 1/2 pints of sauce already.

I made a very small amount of plum jam. Hmm too lemony. Next time less lemon juice.

I dehydrated all the parsley I'll need. I even had extra so I'm sending it along to my CSA friends.

And I froze eight large Alicia Craig onions. The above is half of them. I cried all the way down to the freezer. And these are supposed to be sweet onions.

Oh and I rescued one head of Lemon Queen sunflower seeds from the birds. Mostly I just let the birds eat them, but I'll eat a few.

14 comments:

  1. Your shelves and cupboards are going to be so full of bounty.
    Very satisfying!

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  2. Preserved foods are so pretty that they're soul-satisfying as well as belly-satisfying.

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  3. Looks like you are harvesting up a storm over there! Everything looks so good!

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  4. Every time I visit your blog I wonder to myself how I can be the age I am and know so little. Soooo...you just chop up the onions and freeze for use all winter? Freezing doesn't change the flavor? How do you package them? (You teach me something new every day).

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  5. My Lemon Queen hasn't come through yet. Maybe it has, but it's in the Meadow so maybe it's covered by all the coreopsis in bloom right now. I've never canned anything in my life. Lord knows I don't have the crops to do it this year, but someday. Maybe. We'll see.

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  6. Beautiful, beautiful. And they will be so satisfying this winter!

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  7. It's that time of year. I made tomato sauce yesterday, bread and butter pickles today. The birds got all my Lemon Queen sunflowers, but I have two Evening Sun plants that I'm hoping to save seed from. They haven't started blooming yet.

    The plum jam is beautiful. Too bad about the lemon taste. I had the same problem with fig preserves last year. They wound up tasting more like lemons than figs. I cut back on a later batch.

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  8. It's that time of year for sure! I thought that I had everything under control and then I went to the plots this morning!!

    I don't think we will go hungry this year!

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  9. You've been busy! Good looking preservation efforts :)

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  10. Tomorrow I will be pickling my heart out. Where did you find the plastic can lids? I have seen them on Lehman's website but I have a hard time paying double the cost of the item just for shipping.

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  11. Sue, I'm hoping.

    Stefaneener, I love the look when the pantry is full. Some days I wish I had a pantry of just my stuff, but it is easier to mix it all up.

    Mrs. Pickles, thanks

    Gayle, yes I just chop up onions and freeze them. Some things that I freeze I'll blanch beforehand, but not onions (or celery or peppers or grated zucchini). Freezing doesn't change the flavor. It changes the texture. Things tend to get softer and mushier in the freezer, but no big deal. These will be used in cooking so texture isn't an issue. Once they are frozen I toss them into a ziploc bag. I freeze them on the cookie sheet first so they will be separated in the bag. ie not one big lump.

    Wendy, I've canned on and off since I had my first house. Some years I've canned a lot and some not as much.

    HolleyGarden, thanks

    villager, I need to get some pickles canned. I've made a lot of refrigerator pickles, but no canned pickles.

    Robin, lol I know how you feel.

    foodgardenkitchen, tahnks

    Vanessa, I buy them from my local hardware store. The one I usually go to always has a lot of canning things. I can buy just about anything I want there.

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  12. You've been busy! I've never dehydrate herbs before, I gotta try it someday.

    If you turn on the stove exhaust fan and cut the onions there, the fan pulls the fume away from you, and you won't cry ;)

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  13. I love to see it all come together like this! Beautiful jars.

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