What are you canning now?

ducks4you

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What will you do with the green ones?
I keep going through all of the green ones to pull out those that are starting to ripen.
Then, I put those aside in a dish, only 1 row high to keep an eye of them.
Once they ripen enough, I can again.
I keep repeating this until they are all used up.
 

ducks4you

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MORE tomatoes, here before processing. These are the ones left, and I have to go through the bowls, etc., every few days since I never know when a tomato will start blushing. I divide them up and then move them to the dining room table 1 tomato deep, to keep an eye on them.
I am going to hot water bath them in my pressure canner bc it's deeper. Online advice is to put the lid on loose.
I don't like that the hot water bath canner boils over onto the kitchen floor when I can quarts, and quarts are the best choice for our cooking needs.
 

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ducks4you

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I have been ripening then canning end of season tomatoes for several years now. They ALL want to ripen, just no indication of when each one will do so. The pile gets smaller, I toss outside any damaged fruit and I have to keep going through the piles and subdividing. ALL of the orangish tomatoes were dark green 10 days ago, when we harvested to avoid the freeze. Every day I find new ones blushing.
I have new quart jars under the kitchen table, as well as my canners. I tried using the pressure canner for the 5 quarts I put up a few days ago, but I decided to pressure can the rest, since I won't get any real boil over and I only have enough fruit for one canning at a time. It only takes 10 minutes to pressure can tomatoes anyway.
 

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ducks4you

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Having a hard time keeping up. This was Sunday's canning, 6 1/2 quarts. I had to divide the tomatoes after boiling into several bowls bc of the volume. If you are lurking, it is necessary to boil tomatoes for about 1 minute to get the skins to separate from the pulp, and they stay HOT for quite a while, so you need to let them cool, or burn your fingers.
I hot water bathed them in my pressure canner, but this time I secured the lid. It's a lot deeper than my hot water bath canner and there was almost no dripping.
Then I measured out 3 quarts of the leftover canning water, poured out the excess, poured IN the 3 quarts and I pressure canned the vegetable broth that I had been cooking. The canning water was very hot, the Broth was hot, and it didn't take long since they only needed 30 minutes to process.
This was a little bit of spillage, so I made sure to wash all jars in hot soapy water.
I have all of this cleaned up and Now I have 6 plates of tomatoes almost all ready for canning. I am busy until Thursday, but I bet I will have at Least 6 more quarts out of them.
 

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ducks4you

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New year and I am heating up my kitchen canning.
In case you didn't read it on my 2024 thread, my beef lady just sent my new steer to the locker...today!
We will be picking up the meat probably on January 20th.
We Still have a lot of meat from the Last steer left.
And...your freezers are just like your storage space. You FILL it.
I had to come up with a plan. First, I needed to clear out, as much as possible, my 7 cu ft porch freezer.
Today, I pulled up my better crock pot and divided up the last bag of turkey bones to cook down.
I plan to pressure can these tomorrow night, even if the broth is a little bit thinner. I hope to get 5-6 more quarts out of these.
 

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ducks4you

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Found a handful of things to throw away, including very old bags of sweet corn, which will be composted today. I just can't Stand throwing food away to the landfill, if I don't have to.
Maybe some rabbits will stop to eat the corn, and then Eva, or one of the cats, will have a special treat.
Or...it will enrich my garden soil.
I have about 5-6 packages of still good frozen vegetables. I will be pressure canning them this evening.
In the meantime I discovered an old canning rack that fits nicely in my pressure canner, so that when I hot water bath can with it the jars don't move around...which they have been doing. When I clean the canner, the rack is stored in it.
Today I cleaned out the one bag of frozen grapes and 3 bags of frozen cherries that we on the porch. I have MORE in the big freezer, but that's for next week.
I am using my dutch oven in the oven to heat up the grapes. When they cool I will mash up and strain the juice for hot water bath canning.
I am currently cooking down 2/3 of the cherries, aGAIN, the bags only on the porch, more in the garage freezer, which is 14 1/2 cubic ft. I am using my lasagne pan for this.
I promised to measure out, pit enough for a Saturday pie for family. They are expecting it.
House is smelling pretty good today! :drool
 

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ducks4you

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I have thrown away 2 cartons of ice cream and I will clean up the plastic pail that had chocolate ice cream in it, for...
dunno...gardening purposes?!?!?
We have 9 1/2 boxes of frozen pre-made hamburger patties, 18 ct. MY plan is to have the porch freezer cleaned out and have DD's move those boxes to the porch tomorrow.
I have:
one 7 cu ft freezer on the porch
one 7 cu ft freezer in the basement
one 7 cu ft freezer (DD's, in their garage)
and
one 14 1/2 cu ft freezer in My garage
This is the 3rd beef I have bought, and in the last 3 years.
I bought the basement freezer bc I thought it wouldn't all fit in the biggest one. NOW, I realize that one whole cow WILL fit, but I have some other things to move, too.
I was "volun-told" to make the turkey in the biggest freezer for Sunday, but that clears space, so it's a win-win.
I will, of Course, have a new turkey carcass to process, but we use broth for cooking.
I have discovered that I can take empty bread bags, fill them with past-it vegetables, and freeze them to use for broth. Adds flavor.
Can't imagine not being able to CAN!!!
All of the vegetables, ALL of the cherries and grapes will now be stored downstairs.
Freezer are wonderful, but you pay for the electricity to keep them, which is why I am not fond of storing my harvest as frozen. Meat is different.
Just MHO...
I took an accounting of the leftover meat:
35 steaks
6 roasts
1 brisket, 2 ribs, 1 fillet, NO stew meat left from last year
I still have soup bones, oxtail, heart, liver and tongue
All of that meat, plus whatever 2 lb packages of hamburger are left has to be stored somewhere.
I saved the heavy cardboard box that DH's new office chair (for the DR table) and I will be filling IT with last year's hamburger rolls and inside of the biggest freezer. MUCH easier to find than checking every package.
Got my work cut out for me.
 

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