Who does Canning here? (marinate, brown sugar, dressing, sauce)

[Ohiogirl81]

So with all those tomatoes I had some juice leftover and canned four pints of tomato juice -- OMG, it's so much better than the stuff you buy in the store.

So far I haven't canned much -- my garden has tanked! Pickles, peach salsa, and tomatoes and that's about it, after canning a boatload of blueberries earlier this season.

Off to the farm stand today to find more cheap produce.

[nmnita]

We are wrapping everything us as well. I think I will have enough tomatoes for us to enjoy for the next few months but everything else is gone and most didn't do well this year. I don't know why, we had a nice summer. Not much rain but I still did a lot of watering. I just got back from the farmers market. It is a small one, I prefer and closest to home. They said cukes and bell peppers just were not as good this year. I did pick up enough okra to pickle about 6 more pints.

We will make a run to the Mexican market in a couple of weeks to get a few more tomatoes and make a little more salsa. What we have made isn't as hot as we like.

[Ohiogirl81]

I made more salsa, tomato juice, and pizza sauce (yum!).

I'll make some apple butter and applesauce at the end of the month, when I can pick up some cheap apples at a local orchard. And then I think that's enough for this year.

[nmnita]

pickled the rest of the okra but had prepared to many jars, so didn't know what to do: I decided to try Asparagus, it was on sale at Aldi's. Anyway I did pickle 3 jars, have no idea how it will work, but will try it in about a month.

[gentlearts]

I was just looking through my old Fanny Farmer cookbook at some really good sounding piccallili and chow chow, and pickle recipes.
Since there are only two of us, and a jar of pickles lasts a month or two, I hesitate to make a bunch of jars. I am tempted, though.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

I was just looking through my old Fanny Farmer cookbook at some really good sounding piccallili and chow chow, and pickle recipes.
Since there are only two of us, and a jar of pickles lasts a month or two, I hesitate to make a bunch of jars. I am tempted, though.

just make a small batch; they really are easy and if processed right the pickles will last almost forever. I just threw out some zucchini relish I canned 2 years ago: it wasn't all that great, we use very little relish and I still have a few jars. We did use it yesterday on our hot dogs.

[gentlearts]

You are right, nmnita! I think I will.

[Ohiogirl81]

It's just me, so I try not to make too much of any one thing, except for crushed tomatoes and salsa. I did make a lot of pickles this year, though ... Guess I'll be eating pickles! But if you have a cool dark place to store your jars, the food will keep better. It's safe indefinitely as long as the seal holds out, but light and heat will diminish the flavor and nutrients.

[gentlearts]

So, I just chopped 4# of green tomatoes in the food processor, and tomorrow I'll put up some green tomato relish, but I have a burning question.....

The recipe calls for a quart of cider vinegar, but all I have is white vinegar. Should I go buy the cider vinegar, or is white ok?

I would actually prefer to use the clear vinegar for esthetcs, but I try to always make a recipe as written the first time.

[Ohiogirl81]

Use the clear vinegar. It's perfectly fine as long as it's 5 percent acidity.

I'm not crazy about the flavor of cider vinegar for pickled vegetables. It's OK for salad dressing, but I prefer white or white wine vinegar for canning.