What are you canning now?

[baymule]

I canned tomatoes and tomato sauce yesterday. I had tossed tomatoes in plastic bags until I got enough to can. 5 pints of Cherokee Purple and 7 pints of tomato sauce. Since the tomatoes were frozen, as they thawed, lots of water was in the pot, so I drained it and got 2 1/2 quarts of "tomato water" I canned it too, to cook beans in. Draining off the water made the sauce thicker.

 

[journey11]

Less time on the stove and less heating up the house. I hate waiting on sauce to boil down!

 

[baymule]

I think I accidently hit on the best way to make thicker sauce in a fourth of the time. Freezing bursts the cellular walls, releasing the water as the tomatoes thaw. I just dumped the frozen lump in a big pot and poured off the water as it warmed up. It sure beat standing over the stove in a cloud of steam, stirring and stirring and stirring......

After they thawed and got into a nice simmering, bubbling low boil, I strained them in my ancient funnel strainer, returned the juice to the pot, heated again and jarred them up. Pressured the jars--done!

 

[Beekissed]

Not canning but that peach tree finally ripened~sort of~ and I tried to save as much fruit as I could from the dog and the chickens, who suddenly discovered the peaches after all this time. I got the same amount as I did from the yellow cling peach tree right next to it~4 qt for the freezer , but this one was a white, noncling variety...very sweet and pretty under the skin.

Here's a pic to show the relative size of the peaches...took a pic of a few next to a Sharpie...

And a pic of the green peaches...I had placed them between linens to ripen/soften prior to processing them.

Very sweet, very good and fresh tasting....no pesticides, herbicides or fungicides use on or even near this land, so these peaches are good eatin'. Will use them in fruit salads or pies this winter.

 

[baymule]

I love peaches. I bought a half bushel just so I could make peach jam and can some for cobbler. You have some awesome trees!

 

[Beekissed]

Thank you, Bay! You know what? Those trees didn't produce a decent crop for over 20 yrs until I came back here to live and pruned them, then fed them something good. Presto! Peaches. Big ones.

Even then we wouldn't have gotten a single peach if the dogs were not up there, as any peaches that they produced before that were taken by the squirrels before they were even golf ball size.

I'm sure hoping they continue to produce like this...last year they didn't grow a single peach. Lots of pretty green foliage but no peaches.

 

[Beekissed]

Canning up the last of the tomato soup tonight...started late so finishing late. Glad to have the tomatoes done. Also have the corn done.

A pic of that tomato soup...makes for a pretty jar. Salsa in behind that. Ended up with 12 qts and 6 pts of tomato soup. And that stuff is really GOOD. I'll be using that recipe again, for sure.

 

[Nyboy]

LOL I guess squirrel for dinner, left peaches for dessert

 

[seedcorn]

Recipe please...

 

[Beekissed]

http://www.food.com/recipe/moms-best-tomato-soup-canning-recipe-44058

I tweaked it a little...not too much...and it still came out delicious. I didn't measure the salt and sugar, but added to taste. I also added a handful of baby carrots to the veggies in the recipe.

I also will not be adding baking soda when using it later...all reviews of the soup said that made it taste nasty and I can believe it. I ruined a whole batch of tomato sauce this year by adding making soda, per recommendation on another recipe.