Vegetable Gardening

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

My husband and I spent the day doing apple sauce...it pretty much took the whole day at a pleasant leisurely pace.
After breakfast, we bought a bushel of Paula Red apples at a local orchard that uses very little spraying compared to others. Cost more, of course.

Anyway, DH peeled the apples on our old peeling/coring countertop crank machine. then he made pot after pot of apple sauce and I filled the pint jars and processed batch after batch of them in pint canning jars.
In the the end we wound up with 35 pints of wonderful chunky apple sauce- it didn't even need any sugar at all, it was so good...just a touch of cinnamon.

They'll be going down in the basement next to my 16 pints of sweet pickles.
Later this week I want to make another 20 pints or so of organic pickled beets....I adore pickled beets.

It was fun working together with my husband today side by side on our little apple sauce 'assembly line'....him churning out the sauce, me canning it. A great way to spend a rainy autumn Sunday.

[Grog]

Hey Lisa, can you smell the apple butter simmering in my kitchen? I'll unplug it at 5 a.m. tomorrow before going to work. I'm following your instructions.

[OakLeaf]

Waaaaah, I'm so jealous. A late frost took out all my apples. The flowers had even been pollinated - I saw plenty of bees - but I guess it was just too soon for frost-resistant fruits to have formed. All my neighbors have plenty of apples, but my tree is a later variety plus my hilltop is cooler.

I still have two quarts of last year's applesauce (one wild raspberry, one cinnamon) and I'm hoarding them, now.

[NoNo]

I made applesauce on Friday Didn't have quite the output you did, though. After taking a few apples out to make a crisp, the rest of the bushel I bought only made 7 pints. Perhaps I'll buy another bushel and make another batch. My aunt's boyfriend said he made green tomato pickles. I've never heard of them, but he says they're delicious, so I'm looking forward to trying them.

[tulip]

Okay, I am SO going to do some canning this fall. What's a good one to start with? I haven't canned since I was a kid, helping my stepmother. We did it the big, hot, messy way full bath way. Now I understand that steam canning is easier, but not good for acidic things like pickles.

I don't have enough of my own home-grown produce to can, but I can certainly buy a bushel of apples.

I do have a slow cooker (for apple butter?). Thoughts and resources are appreciated!

[Jolt]

Okay, I am SO going to do some canning this fall. What's a good one to start with? I haven't canned since I was a kid, helping my stepmother. We did it the big, hot, messy way full bath way. Now I understand that steam canning is easier, but not good for acidic things like pickles.

I don't have enough of my own home-grown produce to can, but I can certainly buy a bushel of apples.

I do have a slow cooker (for apple butter?). Thoughts and resources are appreciated!

I would suggest you get the Ball Blue Book of canning/preserving--it has lots of recipes as well as general instructions for canning. For acidic foods (pickles, fruits etc.) you do need to use the boiling water bath. Making a mess is unavoidable when you're canning .

[GLC1968]

Waaaaah, I'm so jealous. A late frost took out all my apples. The flowers had even been pollinated - I saw plenty of bees - but I guess it was just too soon for frost-resistant fruits to have formed. All my neighbors have plenty of apples, but my tree is a later variety plus my hilltop is cooler.

This hurt us, too. The only apples we got this year was from the one early tree and one branch on a later tree (a branch that is somewhat protected by it's odd location!). Such a huge difference from last year! No applesauce for us this year.... Our pear harvest was minuscule as well - only the earliest ones made it!

We are making due with masses of blackberries, grapes and pumpkins!

Okay, I am SO going to do some canning this fall. What's a good one to start with? I haven't canned since I was a kid, helping my stepmother. We did it the big, hot, messy way full bath way. Now I understand that steam canning is easier, but not good for acidic things like pickles.

I don't have enough of my own home-grown produce to can, but I can certainly buy a bushel of apples.

I do have a slow cooker (for apple butter?). Thoughts and resources are appreciated!

Tulip - go here: http://pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm

Sooo much good information and inspiration for canning!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I made applesauce on Friday Didn't have quite the output you did, though. After taking a few apples out to make a crisp, the rest of the bushel I bought only made 7 pints. Perhaps I'll buy another bushel and make another batch.

7 pints? Surely you must be thinking of peck baskets, not bushels? A bushel is a huge boxful, and our bushel of apples made 35 pints of apple sauce.

Here is our apple sauce from yesterday:

[sunlightbrite]

OMG that looks yummy! I'm so jealous! I have to learn how to make applesauce one day. We can go through applesauce like crazy

[NoNo]

7 pints? Surely you must be thinking of peck baskets, not bushels? A bushel is a huge boxful, and our bushel of apples made 35 pints of apple sauce.

Here is our apple sauce from yesterday:

That must be it. Mmmmm....35 pints. Of course, I'd need to buy more jars for that

[smilingcat]

Been meaning to post a pic. this is about a week ago.

The little green peppers in the bowl are Japanese pepper "shishito".
The dark green ball is an 8-ball zucchini.