Anybody home canning.

[Patriotic Stabilist]

Pretty much, my stove inside has a glass top under the burners and I'm not sure how the heat from the pressure canner would effect it. I also use one of the burners that you use to deep fry but didn't want to go get it out of the shed. All the prep work is done inside.

The bottom of the jar broke inside the cooker when I picked it up. I had gotten sterilized jars out of the pot and bumped 2 with a steel sharpener I used to take them out, didn't use it again. I might have damaged it.

Man that meat sure will be nice. I would love to get ahold of good, fresh beef, that was raised clean and not in one of those nasty feeding pens.

Also this patio area is right outside my kitchen/family room patio door, so not really inconvenient.

 

[dmccarty]

Pretty much, my stove inside has a glass top under the burners and I'm not sure how the heat from the pressure canner would effect it.

We have a HEAVY 6-7 pint/4 quart AL pressure cooker. Cost a small fortune but if we don't break it the thing will last forever. I liked it because the pressure relieve was a simple weight. Nothing to break. KISS.

I have used it on our glass topped burner just fine. The manual for our stove said to keep it away from the edge and the pot had to fit on the burners or maybe slightly over.

Having said that..... Next time we can I am using the propane burner outside the house. Running the pressure cooker in the house just heats up the house which turns on the AC.

Later,
Dan

 

[DanielVT]

Oh, my gosh. I went out to check on the garden this afternoon. Well, now I'm picking green beans! I've got to say this is the best looking garden I've had in several years. If all those tomatoes produce I may need those 700 jars!:licking:

I also picked some banana peppers and bell peppers and not a surprise, pulled some green onions. My spinach is almost ready for cutting number 2.

Oh you lucky southerners...I woke up to 20 degrees yesterday morning. Tomatoes and peppers cowering under a growlight and sitting on heating pads in my guest room a.k.a. "the greenhouse". Nothing edible has come up here except chives and last year's spinach (which survived under 8' of snow!). I'll put in lettuce and spinach this weekend, peas went in on 4/4 and are about 3" high at this point. Sigh.

On the other hand, I wouldn't trade the fall color up here for any money.

 

[Duffster]

Canned 14 pints and 6 quarts of Rhubarb. :licking:

Going to try making rhubarb juice too.

 

[jayste]

Nothing like a pantry or closet lined with canned goods!:thumbsup:

 

[Duffster]

Nothing like a pantry or closet lined with canned goods!:thumbsup:

You can say that again!

Canned 7 out of 10 quarts of Rhubarb juice.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I like rhubarb pie but noone else here would eat it.

I picked my first 2 ripe tomatoes today! YES! No blossom end rot this year, but bugs are working on them, lost 3 to them. I'm going to dust, I hate to put chemicals on those plants but if I don't I won't have much produce.

Looks like the eggs worked to put calcium into the plants, sure glad.

I broke off some bibb lettuce and pulled some onions. Think I will bake some salmon for lunch and have a salad with it. I ate one of the tomatoes, awesome the flavor.

 

[Bird]

I had big tomato crops down in the country, but here in town, my wife talked me into a couple of tomato plants just in big pots and the bird's ate the tomatoes.

 

[Duffster]

You gonna eat 2 quarts of food every day for a year? :laughing:

You have me keeping track now, we have been averaging 3 jars a day.:licking:

ps. I'm still full:laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

You have me keeping track now, we have been averaging 3 jars a day.:licking:

ps. I'm still full:laughing:

I jealous! :licking::licking::licking: All we have left from canning last year is applesauce, tomatoes and apple butter. Makes for a strange meal! :laughing:

My 12 year old daughter and I went out to check the garden last night and put in our last 4 tomato plants. We had our last frost/freeze Sunday night. Everything seems to have survived our tarping/covering efforts with only a little freeze damage on some grapes.

THEN I SAW IT!!!! :shocked:

Four or five bean plants with no leaves.... RABBIT!!!!

Since we have a fence around the garden with wire that is close together at the bottom and gets farther apart as you go up, I knew it must be a small one. We also have electric wires around the bottom edge on the outside. So I grabbed two bamboo sticks, gave one to my daughter and told her to start poking the larger stands of growth. I took the raspberries, she took the Jerusalem artichokes. Poke, poke, poke. Nothing. The I hear my daughter in the corner of the garden talking all quiet and sweet. I walk over and she's talking nice to the little varmint in the corner. I told her if she didn't chase it out of the garden I would eat it. :licking: She whacked her stick at it, it jumped right through the small wires of the fence and took off. We laughed hard. She suggested I should put chicken wire on the inside of the garden fence to make it harder for them to get in. I may have to do that this weekend. :laughing:

We have 4 each of Roma, Beefsteak, cherry and yellow pear tomatoes.
4 each of green bell, gold bell and Hungarian wax peppers.
1 chocolate bell pepper.
2 chili and 2 salsa peppers.
Two kinds of pole beans.
Edible pod sweet peas.
Carrots, radishes, and spinach.
Cucumbers and pickles.
Blueberries, strawberries, fall gold raspberries, red raspberries, three grape vines of undetermined species, sugar baby water melons, potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes.
It sounds like a lot, but there are only a few of each. It is just a very large salad garden! :licking:

We also have a pear tree, golden delicious apple tree, red delicious apple tree, granny smith apple tree, two tart cherry trees, one peach tree, two apricot trees, two nectarine trees and two filbert (hazel nut) trees and one kiwi vine.

And lots of rabbits and groundhogs! :laughing:

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I imagine later today I will pick snow peas, likely just blanch and freeze those. Also I see more green beans out there. I cooked spinach and turnip greens and I'm going to freeze those in 2 small containers to have with my dinner some evenings. But I bet I'm canning beans again.

I'm waiting for my beets to come off so I can make pickled beets, I have one jar left.

First year for my apple tree, won't produce for 1 or 2 more.

Peaches look good, tenant and I netted it to try to protect the peaches from the squirrels, they ate them off the little tree. Also tied it up, its so full and heavy with the wind blowing it was leaning. Orange tree is overloaded also.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

Today I canned 7 more quarts of green beans. We have had some hard rain and the latest are getting rust so probably the end. I have 41 quarts up, that's enough, but I hate odd numbers.

Today I'm getting ready to blanch and freeze the snow peas I picked yesterday and decided to can some turnips. I have the peas already to process. I would rather keep the turnips like potatoes, but we don't have anywhere cool to store them. I've never raised turnips before and so canning them is new to me, going to try in pints.

Soon should have beets to pickle and can.

I hope the gully washer and heat doesn't ruin my tomates, they look so good.

I have found down here the bibb lettuce lasts longer into the heat and holds up better then regular leaf lettuce, so I will plant only it next year.

Today we had a wonderful salad, lettuce, zucchini, tomatoes, cherry yellow, onions, cucumbers, all from the garden except the mushrooms. Topped with ham and boiled eggs, Sue Anne had cheese on hers. All from the garden.

I'm cooking the rest of the beans for tomorrows dinner and some pork roast for barbecue. I had to buy some new potatoes for by beans, mine are not ready yet.

My kitchen smells so good all I need is to make some fresh bread, I'm really getting hungry for it.

Tonight oriental, fresh snow peas, baby bok choy, bean sprouts, squash, hard tofu, and a half pound of tenderloin beef sliced thinly and added to the dish and rice of course. I like the Jasmin Rice. I'm in one of my cooking moods right now.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

wow, and my garden isn't even planted yet.
One son likes rhubarb pie, so do I.
We are picking strawberries, and making jam. Did a couple batches yesterday.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I am hoping we have peaches. I have netted the tree to keep the squirrels off but don't know. The oranges are sure looking good though, think they will do well.

I'm hoping for lots of tomatoes. May try Hempstead for sweet corn, now that I like to cut off the cob and freeze. My husband doesn't like a lot of frozen foods but he will eat frozen corn.

Ok, 5 pints of turnips, in the pressure cooker now. I would have liked to put some bacon in each jar but not sure how that would do. We took off at 6 and went and saw Robin Hood, really good movie.

Tomorrow swim rehab at 10:30 then going to try and finish cleaning out the older motorhome so I can put it up for sale.

 

[dcyrilc]

We took off at 6 and went and saw Robin Hood, really good movie.

Took the kids and wife to see "How to train your dragon" a few weeks back. Great movie for all ages. I highly recommend it.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

That was 7 pints of turnips. I need to open one and check. I was cooking out doors and I think the gas tank was going empty because it just steamed and wouldn't jiggle on the pressure cooker. So I brought it in and cooked them on the stove I don't like to use for that. I only cooked them a few minutes less then the full time so I hope I didn't make mush. I canned one pint of water with them to fill the kettle and will keep it too.

I've never canned turnips before, if they do good, will do some more. I would like to can a bit of bacon in with them but not sure of what cooking time I would use, but it sure would give them some flavor.

Last year I had some lids open, this year I ordered all my lids from a Ball site, almost a case of them. These are the newer silver ones with the white clad lining, they are fine. I fear the others were some chinese fakes, got to watch everything anymore. Even some of the lids inside the canned tomatoes had turned black so I pitched them. Not sure but I think I bought them at Big Lots. I may have written this before but bears repeating. You can't be to careful.

We saw that movie too, we really liked it, toothless. Last night we saw Robin Hood, a good one. Next we want to see Babies, gotta get busy, later.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

Canned 6 quarts of tomatoes 2 days ago, have quite a few picked and ripening on the outside table, maybe 6 more quarts.

I am canning pickled beets tonight at least 7 pints, maybe more. I'm the only one that eats them so whatever I get will be enough, I have one pint left from last summer. There are some more in the garden, going to do one more round of fertilizer tomorrow, only did one so far and see what I can get to develop further. The spinach is done in this heat, yesterday heat index of 100. The lettuce is gone and most of the cabbage, bugs got it. I dusted quite a few times and decided was just to much pesticide so no more. Cukes, bell and banana peppers are coming off, also more snow peas, already froze several packages. Hope to can lots of tomatoes but don't know, to many are touching the ground and rotting, I raised quite a few today, last year tried plastic, next year tying up on rebar. I have big huge ones and so many rotting, durn.

I gave up and am canning in the kitchen, its just to hot out there. But I did all the cleaning and prep work in the laundry sink in the garage so not a lot of dirt in here. But I will peel them in here.

 

[MossRoad]

Canned 6 quarts of tomatoes 2 days ago, have quite a few picked and ripening on the outside table, maybe 6 more quarts.

I am canning pickled beets tonight at least 7 pints, maybe more. I'm the only one that eats them so whatever I get will be enough, I have one pint left from last summer. There are some more in the garden, going to do one more round of fertilizer tomorrow, only did one so far and see what I can get to develop further. The spinach is done in this heat, yesterday heat index of 100. The lettuce is gone and most of the cabbage, bugs got it. I dusted quite a few times and decided was just to much pesticide so no more. Cukes, bell and banana peppers are coming off, also more snow peas, already froze several packages. Hope to can lots of tomatoes but don't know, to many are touching the ground and rotting, I raised quite a few today, last year tried plastic, next year tying up on rebar. I have big huge ones and so many rotting, durn.

I gave up and am canning in the kitchen, its just to hot out there. But I did all the cleaning and prep work in the laundry sink in the garage so not a lot of dirt in here. But I will peel them in here.

That's kind of funny. There, your crop is ending and here in northern Indiana there are just now flowers on the pepper and tomato plants. Heck, we had heavy frost on Mother's day weekend. :laughing:

 

[jinman]

The spinach is done in this heat, yesterday heat index of 100. The lettuce is gone and most of the cabbage, bugs got it. I dusted quite a few times and decided was just to much pesticide so no more. Cukes, bell and banana peppers are coming off, also more snow peas, already froze several packages.

We went on vacation on May 3rd and returned on May 19th. I have to say that for a garden, those are probably the most two critical growth weeks in our area and I wasn't here. Before going on vacation, we put up a quick deer fence, tilled, fertilized, and applied insecticide/dust. The deer had been eating my snow peas and sweet peas so that most plants were just 3" to 4" high. I didn't have a chance to get them trained to grow on strings. Also I had three broccoli plants that the deer had trimmed.

When we returned from vacation, it was about 5 days after a 4" rain that pretty much floated the garden. My pea vines had grown a foot high and then been knocked over by wind and floated by the rain. They are mostly yellow on the bottom and may not recover. I've only picked about a double handful of snow peas and sweet peas. I put up strings and tied up the plants, but with the mid to low 90s heat, they just may never recover. My cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli grew in my absence, but bugs ate so many holes in the leaves that they looked like a colander. I've sprayed and got the bugs under control, but my baseball sized cabbages and golfball sized cauliflower and broccoli may never produce. It's only 18 total plants, so it wasn't a great loss.

The best news is that my tomato vines are loaded (24 plants) and we picked our first 3-gallon tub of bush beans. I stir-fryed some two nights ago and cooked a big pot of beans yesterday to eat for several meals. We still had plenty to share with the inlaws and neighbors. By the end of the week I'll have lots of yellow squash and be picking tomatoes. My okra, melons, onions, chives, blackeye peas (cowpeas) and peppers are doing great. My whole garden has been tilled with my little mantis style tiller to loosen the soil around all plants and kill the weeds between the rows. Except for the sweet peas and leaf veggies, the garden looks beautiful. Everything is on a soaker hose and ready for the dry season.

I'm not producing like Carolyn yet, but I can see it won't be long until I'll be covered in veggies from the garden. It's exciting.

 

[Bird]

Jim, I seem to recall you saying something in the past about buying sweet corn for a quarter an ear at Walmart instead of growing your own (or am I imagining something?). Anyway, recently I'd noticed that Walmart had sweet corn for 33 cents an ear this year, but yesterday in the Walmart nearest us (the Hickory Creek store which is one of those currently undergoing remodeling), it was "5 for 95 cents"; i.e., 19 cents an ear. We had some for supper last night; very good sweet corn.