Health Whos canning and what?
- Thread starter energy_wave
- Start date
Sigh... you aren't kidding!! Mine did well all summer... When we had a frost warning a week or so ago, I picked all the colored ripe ones and got 2 bushels. I just got those dehydrated when we had a freeze warning, and it was obvious the season is over. So, I grabbed a couple peck baskets and went up to pick the "few" rest of the green peppers.
I filled those baskets on the first nine plants!! Final toll (and I ended up covering half a row, as we've got warmer weather for the next 10 days or so, so I figured we'd enjoy fresh ones a little longer) was four bushels of peppers!! That's going to take me at least a week to get them all run through the dehydrator. But I can't bear to waste them... too often, after a bounty one year, we'll have a bust the next. So I'm set even if I have to use the dried peppers in my soups etc, next summer.
But man, am I sick of cutting them up!
Summerthyme
yellowlabz
Veteran Member
You will be seeing peppers in your sleep! But they come in handy in the dead of winter
Boy, you've got THAT right. When I close my eyes, I see peppers. Or honeybees.... spent three hours this afternoon (with my Amish neighbor helping) remove a honeybee hive from our milkhouse wall. I couldn't believe how much honey those bees had stored up in just the 8 weeks since they moved in!
Hoping we have the queen, but I'm not sure. Most of the bees are in the hive on the floor, but some have clustered back in their old space, and there's another cluster on a window. I'll have to suit up tomorrow and try to move the outside clusters into the hive. If I don't have the queen, I'll have to see if I can mail order one FAST. May be too late in the year for it.
But they were going to die anyway- no way a swarm can store enough honey to get through our long, cold winters starting in mid-August. If I can just get the queen, I can feed them until spring.
What a STICKY job!
Summerthyme
Hoping we have the queen, but I'm not sure. Most of the bees are in the hive on the floor, but some have clustered back in their old space, and there's another cluster on a window. I'll have to suit up tomorrow and try to move the outside clusters into the hive. If I don't have the queen, I'll have to see if I can mail order one FAST. May be too late in the year for it.
But they were going to die anyway- no way a swarm can store enough honey to get through our long, cold winters starting in mid-August. If I can just get the queen, I can feed them until spring.
What a STICKY job!
Summerthyme
yellowlabz
Veteran Member
I hope you got the queen! That sounds so cool -- I would love to have a bee hive! There are people about a mile from my house and they sell their own honey. They told me that bees from my garden would be making some of the honey because they travel ...(I don't remember -- a couple miles from the hive??) So we get local honey but I think it would be neat to be the one with the hive!
energy_wave
Has No Life - Lives on TB
You can get around 40 lbs of honey from one working hive from what a bee keeping relative told me. I have a hive in the floor under my bed, but I don't think they're honey bees. I kept hearing a purring sound maybe 6 weeks ago and thought I might have a racoon in the wall somehow, then figured maybe a flying squirrel that also makes a purring noise until I discovered it was bees all flapping their wings in unison to cool the hive. They chewed a few holes in the wood siding to get inside my house.
I popped open a few dill & sweet pickles, hot peppers, dilly beans and beats a few weeks ago and couldn't stop eating them. Turned out dam good for my first try. To easy to make them. I doubt I'll ever buy pickles again unless I run out. I will triple my efforts next year to ensure they last the winter.
I haven't tried my tomatoes yet. I cooked down a full bushel of Roma tomato's into just 9 quarts and have a huge bag of Amish seed saved for next year.
I popped open a few dill & sweet pickles, hot peppers, dilly beans and beats a few weeks ago and couldn't stop eating them. Turned out dam good for my first try. To easy to make them. I doubt I'll ever buy pickles again unless I run out. I will triple my efforts next year to ensure they last the winter.
I haven't tried my tomatoes yet. I cooked down a full bushel of Roma tomato's into just 9 quarts and have a huge bag of Amish seed saved for next year.
Pickles and a few other foods will go soft over time like two years so its best not to make more than you think you can use from one growing season to the next and maybe a little extra to share with friends just tell them you need the jar back.
Wife found a good deal on chicken so We're canning chicken this week end and add that to what we already have.
I've had it fermenting for a while, but today it's time to can sriacha. I've never had it, but oldest DD loves it - so it's part of her Christmas present. I need to get a bunch of stuff dried and put away, too, but I"ve been holding off until we are using the woodstove on a regular basis.
Babs
Veteran Member
Nice to read all your canning stories! I am very busy in the garden during berry season, so I froze all of my berries as they were coming in. I've got to make room in the freezer now for deer (hopefully) and a steer that purchased from a local farmer, So I'll be canning jam this week. The raspberries were incredible this year. Canned 20 jars of strawberry jam last week and used Pamona pectin for the first time. Really nice not having to use much sugar-it was awesome.
Babs
Veteran Member
Also learned recently that lemons and limes can be frozen. I use a lot of lemons for salad dressing etc. I purchased a few bags from Costco--much cheaper than our local grocer. Quartered and quartered again, placed on cookie sheet till frozen then put into freezer bags. Apparently you can just take one out and grate it for lemon zest also. I figured it was worth a try. Anyone freeze lemons? How do they turn out and what do you use them for?
imaginative
keep your eye on the ball
This is a great idea....I'm going to make some freezer space
I LOVE the Pomona pectin. Haven't used anything else in probably 20 years. However, you need to be aware that the shelf life of jams and jellies using a lot less sugar is significantly shorter... after a year or so (for VERY low sugar) or 2 years (if you use approximately equal amounts of fruit and sugar, maybe down to 1.5:1 ratio) the color darkens and the texture gets weird. And the flavor flattens out a lot.
Not a major problem if you only can up what you use in a year, but I always was in the habit of using up bumper crops of whatever in jam and then using them over a few years. I had to change that after switching to Pomona pectin.
Summerthyme
Babs
Veteran Member
Thank you Summerthyme! I'll keep that in mind when I'm doing the Raspberries.
John Deere Girl
Veteran Member
Since it's chilly out I think I'll get busy canning up more soups & stews. Always nice to have these canned up as convenience foods when the power is out or we are too busy to cook.