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I’m canning. I’m freezing. I’m dehydrating. It’s that time of year. Harvest time. Being serious about storing up as much of your own food as possible means a total concentration when the food comes in. And the food is coming in. Now.
Much of my day yesterday was spent blanching and peeling 50 pounds of tomatoes.
I’ll be working on another 20 pounds today. More tomorrow. And the day after that. I won’t be satisfied till I have at least 40 quarts of tomatoes in the pantry. Preferable would be 50. I use about a quart of tomatoes a week. Tomatoes are a huge part of my everyday cooking. Lasagna. Stew. Chili. Pizza. Many of our favorite recipes require tomatoes. I’m only about halfway to my goal of 40-50 quarts.
When I do large quantities of tomatoes, I blanch and peel one day then reheat and pressure can the next to break up the work. (You can process tomatoes in a hot water bath, but a quart takes an hour and 40 minutes in a hot water bath as opposed to 10 minutes in a pressure canner. If you don’t have a pressure canner, go get you one. A pressure canner is a wonderful thing. Be not afraid. Pressure canners are, obviously, also very environmentally-friendly as it takes much less energy to process food in them.)
I was also freezing peaches. To freeze peaches, per quart of peeled, pitted, sliced peaches, add 2/3 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons produce protector. Let sit 10 minutes then place in a quart freezer baggie. Seal and date.
My go-to method for preserving all food is canning because a power outage can’t ruin home-canned food. However, when so much is going on at once in my kitchen and food must be preserved now or it will spoil, freezing and dehydrating has its place. Some foods are even better frozen and dehydrated, or in other cases, just more convenient. (Assuming you don’t have a longterm power outage!) I’ve been freezing peaches for the past month, in the sugar/produce protector mixture rather than in any particular recipe (or pie filling, etc) so that I can choose by whim to make pie, cobbler, whatever, as I take the quart bags out. I love peaches and I’m excited to have so many quart baggies already in my freezer. I’ll be putting more in over the next few weeks, unless I have time to can some peaches. Depends on my tomato stock……
I was also using my dehydrator yesterday. I dehydrated peach peels and pits, of course. (No wasting!) And I had some apples that were mostly bad, so I also dehydrated them, cores, seeds, and all, for potpourri along with the peach peels and pits. (Okay, I also gave a couple of the apples to Pocahontas and the chickens. The chickens also love to eat all my tomato peels.) I dehydrated a bunch of zucchini chips, too. The dried zucchini chips will end up in soups and stews and casseroles.
While I was working hard, the chickens were grooming themselves.
Pocahontas was grazing.
Bread was baking in my oven so we could have ham (cooked the night before) sandwiches on homemade bread for dinner. (Crucial to big food preservation days is the planning of easy meals.)
Nutmeg was begging for cookies.
Flowers were nodding by the garden gate.
Ducks were managing to stay together, avoiding any panic situations.
Kitten and Little…..
….were finally going outside….
….to have Big Adventures.
And Coco was finding the entire day’s events terribly exhausting.
Me, too. But in an oh-so-satisfying way.
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I’ve started my late garden, so I have high hopes for green beans and pickles.
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Hugs From Pa.
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How are your sheep? They have not been featured lately. Is everyone OK?
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I’ve never heard of produce protector…where would I find some of that? Also, are you able to just thaw your peaches and eat them plain..as you would with canned peaches or are the best used in pies and cobblers (like blueberries)?
Inquiring minds need to know..
Beth
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Pressure canners are wonderful! And yes, they also use less water so they are doubly efficient.
Dede
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I’m drying, freezing, and trying to figure out a way to let them sit in the basement after picking. Does anyone have any ideas???? I’ve never had good luck; I’ve tried individually wrapping them and then layering in a big box—they just got soft.
If anyone is in Iowa, come get apples!!
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My chickens also love my tomato scraps. I love to see one grab a tomato peel and run around the chicken yard being chased by 10 more that haven’t realized there’s a big pile by the gait!
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The last 4 we made jam’s out of as well. But at least we have things stored up for the winter. And yes it is all very tiring..but worth it in the end.
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hugs
gwen
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I remember when I was a kid and my mom spent the end of summer canning endlessly. Tomatoes, green beans, beets, jalapenos. Great memories.
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Janie from Idaho
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The recipe in the Ball Blue Book of Canning has a nicely seasoned Tomatoe Sauce.
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Spent the morning canning green beans from our garden.
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oooh I just love them Vodoo, and Hocus and Pocus!!! Made bread and butter pickles! Keep up the great job we LOVE you!
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http://chickensintheroad.com/forum/just-recipes/peach-peel-jelly/
I made a bunch of peach jam last year and I still have some, so I’m doing other stuff with peaches this year. Same reason I’m not making apple butter this year–I made a bunch last year and don’t need more right now so I’m doing other stuff with apples this year. I love trying new things!
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