What Are You Canning/preserving?

[love2travel]

Now that we've had our first frost canning is in the air. Today I am canning a big batch of yummy salsa and tomorrow I am making dill pickles. Hopefully on Friday I will make yellow tomato butter.

So far I have made:

- nectarine almond chutney

- pear relish

- marinara sauce

- roasted plum preserves

- roasted applesauce

...and have tons and tons of other things to "put by". Can hardly wait! I am making a balsamic red wine herbed jelly, jalapeno jelly, pizza sauce and about 6 kinds of pesto.

[Mizzo]

I don't know a lot about canning but I grew a tomato "tree" and I still have 2dzn green tomatoes any idea's what to do with them?

[lucia]

I've never canned or preserved. I never had the space or the time before. But I think I could find some space now for jars of pesto or chutney. : ) Do you have any ideas on how to begin?

[mbrookes]

I don't can, but I do freeze. Every summer I freeze field peas and butterbeans that I buy at the farmer's market. I also make pepper jelly to give as Christmas happies.

[NoodleUnit]

Not strictly canning but I just harvested a huge amount of mint from our mint plants before the frosts come ( chocolate mint no less, and yes it does taste like it ). I dried all the leaves in the oven, crushed them up and jarred them. They make an amazing mint tea, perfect for settling the stomach.

[love2travel]

I don't know a lot about canning but I grew a tomato "tree" and I still have 2dzn green tomatoes any idea's what to do with them?

You could make a green tomato salsa (I am doing that, too, as most of the tomatoes we picked were still green).

[love2travel]

Not strictly canning but I just harvested a huge amount of mint from our mint plants before the frosts come ( chocolate mint no less, and yes it does taste like it ). I dried all the leaves in the oven, crushed them up and jarred them. They make an amazing mint tea, perfect for settling the stomach.

Mmmm... mint tea. I love mint, too. Did you know you can also grow apple and pineapple mint? With my mint I usually make:

- mint sauce for lamb

- mint and basil pesto

- mint panna cotta and creme brulee (well, until I went dairy free)

- mint jelly

- mint simple syrup

- mint vinegar (sometimes with raspberries or blueberries)

[mamaw]

Pickled beets, 50+quarts of tomato's, salsa,Amish peppers, hot pickled peppers, peppers in tomato sauce, pizza green tomatoes, cream corn, whole corn, corn on the cobb, green beans, zucchini, sliced green peppers, applesauce, sweet cherries, peaches, next up is grape jelly, grape juice, sourkraut, pickles sweet & sour/dill, horseradish.... I think that's it for 'this year....

nothing better than home canned & froze food with no chemicals, or aprays.....

mamaw

[love2travel]

I've never canned or preserved. I never had the space or the time before. But I think I could find some space now for jars of pesto or chutney. : ) Do you have any ideas on how to begin?

Oh, yes! You can easily make small batches of pesto if you are limited on space. It freezes well, too. I make nearly 10 kinds of pesto including sundried tomato, mint, basil, sage and parsley and switch up the nuts, too, such as almonds or walnuts instead of expensive pinenuts. My pesto classes are amongst the most popular I teach - people tell me often that my pesto is the best they have ever had.

I love to make my pesto in a big granite mortar and pestle for best results in texture BUT that is not necessary. If you have a food processor you can make it.

My recs include toasting the nuts and allowing them to cool for a lovely flavour. I never use measurements with pesto but basically grind a clove or two of garlic with some coarse kosher salt (it acts as an abrasive whilst grinding), add a large handful of torn basil (and/or other herbs) and mash. Then drizzle in olive oil, add the cheese (usually Parmesan - NEVER the fake stuff that comes in the plastic container) and nuts. Blend/use mortar and pestle. Keep adding in oil until the texture is a bit chunky and pasty. When you store pesto in the fridge make sure to keep it covered with a film of olive oil or it can turn rancid quickly. You can make as little as 1/2 cup or as much as 2 cups.

You can easily make small batches of chutney, too. The good thing about small batches is that you would not have to can it if you eat it within two weeks. The negative is that you only have a small amount. But chutneys go far. What kind of veg/fruits do you like? There is nothing like the smell of chutney perking away on the stove. Well, except for homemade GLUTEN bread. To make small batches of chutney you do not need to buy any extra equipment - you just need a good knife and heavy pot and a little time. But much of the time is inactive.

I use chutney slathered on duck, lamb, pork, chicken, whatever. It is also great with cheese and crackers or on platters with yummy charcuterie, good cheese and honeys.

Making chutneys, marmalades, jams, jellies, sauces, etc. is eye awakening. Once you start you will not be able to stop! There is no need to buy any of this stuff when it is easy to make and tastes better and you know exactly what goes into it.

[GFreeMO]

I am not canning anything BUT, I live near an apple orchard and would love to make some apple jelly.

[Roda]

Stewed tomatoes and dill relish.

[love2travel]

I am not canning anything BUT, I live near an apple orchard and would love to make some apple jelly.

Sounds like you live in an ideal location! I make a mean apple mint jelly that goes soooooooooo well with duck and goose and lamb (well, and pork).

[Marilyn R]

Hi Love2Travel,

I don't know if my taste buds are as fully developed as your's, but I was amazed that pesto still tasted so good sanz the dairy. And nobody ever mentioned that it wasn't as good as before when I gave it as a gift or enjoyed it with friends.

I "put up" four quarts of Jamaican style curry goat tonight. I think I crave it because of my osteopenia. I love things cooked with bone and/or bone marrow, and have a love affair with root vegetables going on.

[love2travel]

Hi Love2Travel,

I don't know if my taste buds are as fully developed as your's, but I was amazed that pesto still tasted so good sanz the dairy. And nobody ever mentioned that it wasn't as good as before when I gave it as a gift or enjoyed it with friends.

I "put up" four quarts of Jamaican style curry goat tonight. I think I crave it because of my osteopenia. I love things cooked with bone and/or bone marrow, and have a love affair with root vegetables going on.

Hi Marilyn,

Pesto does taste good without the cheese, too - almost like a pistou in France which traditionally did not have pine nuts or cheese. Did you know you can make a red (sundried tomato) pesto? It is just brilliant.

That goat sounds divine. I LOVE goat and feel it is so underused. I, too, crave meat cooked on the bone and bone marrow. Root vegetables make my heart sing, too! There is something so homey and comforting about them. And now that it is Fall it makes a lot of sense cooking/roasting them as they are now seasonal. I have a recipe for root vegetable "candy" - you know how yummy they get when they caramelize in the oven? Mmmmmmm....

[shadowicewolf]

One year, my mom and i canned a ton of strawberries and razzberries. I swore off makeing jam after that.

A few years before that my grandmother came home with a truck load of cucumbers and we ended up making bread and butter pickles.... swore that off as well.

[GlutenFreeManna]

I still have apples and grape-apple jelly I canned last year. I'd like to do tomatoes but I didn't have a garden this summer due to moving. Local tomatoes have not looked very good or been a good enough price yet to buy in bulk for canning. But I am in a warmer climate so the season is not over here yet. We won't see frost until early November. I will probably just do refridgerator pickles this year. Open Original Shared Link

Also, this website is an excellent guide if you have not canned before:

Open Original Shared Link

[love2travel]

Just finished canning a batch of basil, lemon thyme and mint jelly. Next...salsa.

[lucia]

love2travel,

You are amazing with all of your ideas!

But what do I put the stuff I make into? I thought I needed special containers (like Mason jars?), so that my product will keep?

[love2travel]

love2travel,

You are amazing with all of your ideas!

But what do I put the stuff I make into? I thought I needed special containers (like Mason jars?), so that my product will keep?

Lucia, you are sweet. Food is my life in many respects. I live it, breathe it, dream about it...literally. If I am not cooking I am reading about it. My mind is always planning combinations of things and what I will make the next day.

Anyway, if you are making a bigger batch of pesto all you need is a plastic sour cream or margarine container in which to freeze it. Or even better yet - what I do is drop large spoonfuls onto a sheet pan and freeze. Then I freeze the individual "patties" in plastic bags and just pull out what I need to thaw for a recipe. That is called flash freezing. But if you make jellies or chutneys you will need jars, especially if you are canning. There are recipes that are called "Freezer Jam" that do not require canning - you can freeze in plastic containers. And if you make small batches (i.e. chutney) of either just 1 or 2 jars you do not need to can IF they will be eaten within 2 weeks. Anything beyond 2 weeks really should be canned (or frozen).

Tomorrow I am making more salsa and Peppered Balsamic Strawberry Jam. Next - Balsamic, Red Wine and Jalapeno Jelly.

[notme]

we had the biggest garden this year than we have ever had! i am sick of my pressure-canner! lol just kidding, i am really getting some use out of it this year. i am on the last batch of cukes and i still have green peppers and jalapenos left to put up. probably make jelly - love2, is your recipe sweet/hot? that is what i want, i think.

so far we have:

a TON of sauerkraut - and i fermented it for a few weeks. my family loves me haha

chow-chow - about 5 qts although i am making ALOT more next time, everybody loves it!

beets - 5 qts - i could have put up more but everybody kept eating them

stewed tomatoes - 9 qts

roasted tomatoes w/garlic - 9 qts

bread n butter pickles - 6 qts

half sour pickles - first attempt - 4 1/2 qts

"hamburger" dill chips - 7 pints

dill cuke relish - is brining right now

and i have one more batch of cukes left - debating on sweet relish or trying the half sour fermenting again.... hmmm....

experimental success - all ingredients are natural and gluten free. with my husband's hunting skills, we could eat all winter if we had to. the kids, however, will starve. HAHAHA kidding. they are all grown, they can forage for berries. and eat slugs <gluten free

[wheeleezdryver]

not canning, but I dehydrated close to 15 lbs of bananas last week. (we won't mention how much of that has been eaten already, not will we mention by whom...)

I may also be dehydrating some other things within the next week or so, possibly.

just curious--- has anyone here ever dehydrated onions? I haven't, and that may be one of the things I do soon...

[dilettantesteph]

I've been freezing and dehydrating all season. I haven't tried canning yet. With freezing you can do a small batch at a time. Canning seems like such a long involved process. Shadowicewolf, you swore off canning, is that why? Should I try it, or continue to freeze and dehydrate? I bought a new much bigger freezer this year and it is still basically full. I'll need to take out all the dividers and containers and fill it more compactly. I wonder how much more space I'll get that way? Thanks for the canning reference, Glutenfreemanna. I'm reading it after I finish here.

I've done raspberries, strawberries, black currants, peaches, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, mustard greens, Swiss chard, beet greens, tomato sauce, spices, herb teas, lavender, Oswego,

We haven't even had our first frost yet. I'm waiting on a lot of things for that. They, parsnips, carrots, collards, etc. are supposed to get sweeter after the first frost. Is it true?

[love2travel]

we had the biggest garden this year than we have ever had! i am sick of my pressure-canner! lol just kidding, i am really getting some use out of it this year. i am on the last batch of cukes and i still have green peppers and jalapenos left to put up. probably make jelly - love2, is your recipe sweet/hot? that is what i want, i think.

so far we have:

a TON of sauerkraut - and i fermented it for a few weeks. my family loves me haha

chow-chow - about 5 qts although i am making ALOT more next time, everybody loves it!

beets - 5 qts - i could have put up more but everybody kept eating them

stewed tomatoes - 9 qts

roasted tomatoes w/garlic - 9 qts

bread n butter pickles - 6 qts

half sour pickles - first attempt - 4 1/2 qts

"hamburger" dill chips - 7 pints

dill cuke relish - is brining right now

and i have one more batch of cukes left - debating on sweet relish or trying the half sour fermenting again.... hmmm....

experimental success - all ingredients are natural and gluten free. with my husband's hunting skills, we could eat all winter if we had to. the kids, however, will starve. HAHAHA kidding. they are all grown, they can forage for berries. and eat slugs <gluten free

Awesome! Your pantry must look just beautiful. Am canning green tomato salsa now.

[love2travel]

I've been freezing and dehydrating all season. I haven't tried canning yet. With freezing you can do a small batch at a time. Canning seems like such a long involved process. Shadowicewolf, you swore off canning, is that why? Should I try it, or continue to freeze and dehydrate? I bought a new much bigger freezer this year and it is still basically full. I'll need to take out all the dividers and containers and fill it more compactly. I wonder how much more space I'll get that way? Thanks for the canning reference, Glutenfreemanna. I'm reading it after I finish here.

I've done raspberries, strawberries, black currants, peaches, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, mustard greens, Swiss chard, beet greens, tomato sauce, spices, herb teas, lavender, Oswego,

We haven't even had our first frost yet. I'm waiting on a lot of things for that. They, parsnips, carrots, collards, etc. are supposed to get sweeter after the first frost. Is it true?

Canning can be a long process but so worth it. Most of the work is involved in the prep and bringing the canner to a boil. So, while I prep I turn the burner and keep the jars hot in the oven so everything is ready at the same time.

It IS true that many vegetables (especially root vegetables) do become sweeter after a frost. NOT potatoes, though, of course.

[love2travel]

not canning, but I dehydrated close to 15 lbs of bananas last week. (we won't mention how much of that has been eaten already, not will we mention by whom...)

I may also be dehydrating some other things within the next week or so, possibly.

just curious--- has anyone here ever dehydrated onions? I haven't, and that may be one of the things I do soon...

I have not done that but when I have tons of onions I make savoury caramelized onion jams that are so incredible with proteins and as starters with crackers and/or cheeses.