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Now that it is high summer, the bounty of the earth is everywhere.
In past years, my wife and I have canned quarts of tomato sauce, seasoned with garden fresh herbs. This year we got lazy, peeled the tomatoes, and bagged them fresh with herbs in quart ziploc freezer bags. They freeze flat and stack easily in the freezer. We did 28 quarts yesterday in about 3 hours, taking plenty of breaks. We have about that many more tomatoes still in the garden, but I'm thinking the next batch will be salsa, relish, etc. You can't buy flavor like that in stores.
A friend has about an acre of sweet corn that should be ready this weekend. We have a corn shaver and can freeze corn pretty easily, though we'll have to move outside. All those cobs take up too much space in the kitchen. One big propane hot plate and a cauldron will blanch the corn, the deck table makes a good prep surface, and pressure washing the deck beats kitchen cleanup.
I have about 30 lbs. of frozen berries from earlier in the year, mostly strawberries, Marionberries and blueberries. I also have a lot of meat left over from last year, all vacuum sealed, and my freezer is a chest freezer. I wish I wasn't too old for elk hunting, but getting an elk out of the woods at my age would defeat me. There are plenty of deer in the back yard.
I hope we have a good mushroom season. I'm training a dog as a truffle dog right now, and it could be a really gourmet winter. I sauteed and froze about 20 lbs of meadow mushrooms last fall, but only have one pint left. The chanterelles are long gone, and I didn't get out for morels last spring.
I haven't checked beef prices in the store since May. Prices were absurd. We just had a couple $2.97/lb boneless prime ribeyes a couple nights ago. I'm hoping some good turkey sales pop up. I bought a stack of bento boxes from Amazon last year, roasted a 26 lb. turkey, made dressing and gravy, cooked up butternut squash and scalloped potatoes, and made deluxe turkey freezer dinners. The bento boxes took up too much space in the freezer, so this year I'm going to try plastic baggies. The bento boxes had compartments for each course, which was nice. I'm thinking to bag the turkey and side dishes separately, and leave the dressing dry until I'm ready for it. Turkey broth makes great dressing and gravy, so more quart freezer bags.
If you are wondering, I have a big chest freezer and three (count 'em) generators. My little camp generator will run 4.5 hours on a gallon of gas, and runs the freezer just fine. If I run short of gasoline, I can run the propane fuel generator, which supposedly runs 8 hours on a 20 lb. tank. I don't know, because my tanks are bigger. I also have plenty of dried staples, like beans. Those frozen tomatoes will make great chili sauce.
Oh yeah, I did a bunch of apples too. I sliced and dehydrated about 100 lbs of apples, and froze enough deep dish pie filling for a dozen gravenstein pies.
The bounty of the earth. Hmm. I wonder who is having a sale on fishing tackle? My compost pile is full of worms. There's a decent sized river within walking distance of my house.
We did 40lbs of beef shoulder, a bunch of brats, pickles are done and tomatoes are starting to come in....Will can potatoes and carrots shortly...40 lbs of peaches and 20 of cherries are in jars
Now that it is high summer, the bounty of the earth is everywhere.
In past years, my wife and I have canned quarts of tomato sauce, seasoned with garden fresh herbs. This year we got lazy, peeled the tomatoes, and bagged them fresh with herbs in quart ziploc freezer bags. They freeze flat and stack easily in the freezer. We did 28 quarts yesterday in about 3 hours, taking plenty of breaks. We have about that many more tomatoes still in the garden, but I'm thinking the next batch will be salsa, relish, etc. You can't buy flavor like that in stores.
A friend has about an acre of sweet corn that should be ready this weekend. We have a corn shaver and can freeze corn pretty easily, though we'll have to move outside. All those cobs take up too much space in the kitchen. One big propane hot plate and a cauldron will blanch the corn, the deck table makes a good prep surface, and pressure washing the deck beats kitchen cleanup.
I have about 30 lbs. of frozen berries from earlier in the year, mostly strawberries, Marionberries and blueberries. I also have a lot of meat left over from last year, all vacuum sealed, and my freezer is a chest freezer. I wish I wasn't too old for elk hunting, but getting an elk out of the woods at my age would defeat me. There are plenty of deer in the back yard.
I hope we have a good mushroom season. I'm training a dog as a truffle dog right now, and it could be a really gourmet winter. I sauteed and froze about 20 lbs of meadow mushrooms last fall, but only have one pint left. The chanterelles are long gone, and I didn't get out for morels last spring.
I haven't checked beef prices in the store since May. Prices were absurd. We just had a couple $2.97/lb boneless prime ribeyes a couple nights ago. I'm hoping some good turkey sales pop up. I bought a stack of bento boxes from Amazon last year, roasted a 26 lb. turkey, made dressing and gravy, cooked up butternut squash and scalloped potatoes, and made deluxe turkey freezer dinners. The bento boxes took up too much space in the freezer, so this year I'm going to try plastic baggies. The bento boxes had compartments for each course, which was nice. I'm thinking to bag the turkey and side dishes separately, and leave the dressing dry until I'm ready for it. Turkey broth makes great dressing and gravy, so more quart freezer bags.
If you are wondering, I have a big chest freezer and three (count 'em) generators. My little camp generator will run 4.5 hours on a gallon of gas, and runs the freezer just fine. If I run short of gasoline, I can run the propane fuel generator, which supposedly runs 8 hours on a 20 lb. tank. I don't know, because my tanks are bigger. I also have plenty of dried staples, like beans. Those frozen tomatoes will make great chili sauce.
Oh yeah, I did a bunch of apples too. I sliced and dehydrated about 100 lbs of apples, and froze enough deep dish pie filling for a dozen gravenstein pies.
The bounty of the earth. Hmm. I wonder who is having a sale on fishing tackle? My compost pile is full of worms. There's a decent sized river within walking distance of my house.
Interesting. Before reading this, I just finished my "TV dinner" of portion bagged turkey, dressing, jasmine rice, broccoli. Last night was a frozen homemade "Mexican" TV dinner, made with homemade cheese, masa tortillas for chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice. I'm not sure which style I prefer, all-in-one, or individual portions.
There is no question in my mind that canning is inferior to freezing for home preservation. I have blueberries from years ago that are still good, while the strawberries I canned two years ago just got tossed.
IMO, saving the summer squash and zuch are just not worth the effort, though winter squash and (surprisingly) heirloom carrots are well worth investing the time to prep.
I know full well how to garden, but after doing a cost analysis, I now buy in season to do the processing and prep for storage. I'm ready to go back to growing if needed, but have better uses for my time now.
I'm currently at only two generators, but know how to get the most out of them.
One thing I have learned is to either wet pack for freezing or store the bagged stuff in a corrugated cardboard box in the freezer to prevent freezer burn and off flavors. (My freezer is auto-defrost).
Interesting. Before reading this, I just finished my "TV dinner" of portion bagged turkey, dressing, jasmine rice, broccoli. Last night was a frozen homemade "Mexican" TV dinner, made with homemade cheese, masa tortillas for chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice. I'm not sure which style I prefer, all-in-one, or individual portions.
There is no question in my mind that canning is inferior to freezing for home preservation. I have blueberries from years ago that are still good, while the strawberries I canned two years ago just got tossed.
IMO, saving the summer squash and zuch are just not worth the effort, though winter squash and (surprisingly) heirloom carrots are well worth investing the time to prep.
I know full well how to garden, but after doing a cost analysis, I now buy in season to do the processing and prep for storage. I'm ready to go back to growing if needed, but have better uses for my time now.
I'm currently at only two generators, but know how to get the most out of them.
One thing I have learned is to either wet pack for freezing or store the bagged stuff in a corrugated cardboard box in the freezer to prevent freezer burn and off flavors. (My freezer is auto-defrost).
Never had a problem with squash and zuchs with a vacuum sealer in the freezer ever. They keep for years. Same with my roots.
Been doing it this way for over 20 years and no problems.
The secret to canning is to only store raw veggies high in acidity- like tomatoes. Every thing else you 'prepare' into something else. Like or carrots, onions, cabbage and peppers go into pork udon soup. Or we make chili, or radish soup, or southern greens. Haven't had one issue with our canned good lasting a long time. I still have collard greens and peppers that are in the cabinet from 3 years ago. Still good.
A good pressure canner takes care of it.
Improper canning results in **** poor performance.
And fermented foods like sauerkraut and pickles are jarred and kept in a room where the temp is 65deg year round. They are good for a year just plopped in a jar or kept in a crock- just like my grandparents and great grandparents did in Ohio.
I don't doubt you. I just find canning not cost or time efficient for me. My freezer issues are in large part because it is a frost free upright which works for shorter storage, and not a chest designed for long term.
As an aside, I've noticed commercially canned tomato products failing more quickly in the past few years. I opened one can of tomato paste (within date) only to find it turned to dust. Many cans of tomato or acid products begin leaking around the expiry date. If you home can in glass, you have an automatic advantage.
Wow never had a can of paste turn to dust. That's odd.
Yeah, it was very strange. It was dark gray, adhered to the sides and bottom of the can, quite likely some sort of mold involved. The puzzling part to me was the dryness. In a sealed can, where did the water go? There must have been some way for it to escape as pressure built, but the can appeared intact and normal.
I mostly just chalked it up to living a long time and seeing another unusual thing.
The only thing I bother to pressure can is seafood. When you have a lot of tuna, it's worth the effort. Pressure canning is the only way to store fish long term. Vacuum sealed in a chest freezer it may last a year, but it eventually goes bad. Fish pressure canned in glass is good for 5 years.
My grandmother used to can beef, which is a great way to preserve tough cuts. That was in the old days, when people might keep a good milk cow for 10 years and freezing was only available at food lockers in town. I have never bothered to can venison. If it's not a good cut, it gets ground into sausage.
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