Peaches anyone?

I canned a few peaches this year and well here they are. The peaches that I used, were so juicy that I did not add anything to them...I just sliced them right into the jars, pressed them in and they made their own juice and all... It was amazing. I love to use these canned peaches for a peach cobbler, or peach cake when we are in the middle of winter and just craving some summer, yumm!

Apple Season Already Starting

I just love apples. We do have a couple of older apple trees and a few younger ones (that are not producing much in the fruit department yet). I pruned our two older ones last winter and they did not produce very many apples. We usually go to a nice little orchard that is about 25 miles away and get apples, wether we have them on our trees or not. We recently got 1 bushel of small apples (seconds) and 1 bushel of beautiful pears. They are just beautiful. Here is a pic of the apples (which are Jonathons)
I usually dehydrate them first...I cut the apple in quarters, cut out the seeds, then cut each quarter into 3 or 4 "slices". This pic is the apple slices floating in a "solution" of water, salt and lemon juice. It keeps the apples white and beautiful throught the dehydration process.
And here they are, the apples laying out on one of the dehydrator trays. I like to fill all nine trays and let them dry for a long time till they are very dry...most directions say leathery, but I dry mine more than that...till they are almost brittle. I place the dried apple slices in jars or containers that seal well after they are dry.

Canning Tomatoes

I have been very, very, busy. We have had tons of tomatoes coming off the vine, and all at once too. This means that it is time to can, can, can all of those tomatoes and well, here is what it looks like. I like to can them in quarts, although I do can several in pints too.
I like to can my tomatoes a bit differently than most others...I like to can the whole goodness all together where most people like to blanch and remove the skins of the tomato. I take my fresh tomatoes and wash them, cut out the cores and place them in a blender, then hit the liquefy button. I then pour this whole tomato goodness into a very large stock pot, and bring them to a boil. I add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to each quart jar. I then ladle the tomatoes into my already clean and sterilized jars(with the salt and lemon juice) , clean the rims, place cap and rings on them and place in a boiling water bath for 45 minutes (that is 45 minutes after it starts to boil hard). Then I remove the jars and allowed to cool over night. I then remove the rings, wash the jars, label the lids and put them in storage.

Dehydrating garden goods

I have been working to dehydrate as much of our garden produce as I possible can. This is a pic of onions going on the dehyrator. I just slice them and lay them out so they are not touching much and let them dehydrate over night. I like them very dry and crisp. I crush them and then place them in 2 liter plastic soda bottles when finished.
You can see in this pic one of the plastic soda bottles of onion flakes. The glass quart mason jars have dehydrated eggplant in them. They are easy to do as well. I slice them, about 1/4 in thick, then soak them in a bit of lemon water for a few minutes then lay them out on the dehydrator and leave for several hours.
The bags contain yellow squash, zucchini squash, and cucumbers. They are all dehydrated, and placed in food saver bags and all the air removed.
This is a close up of some of the yellow squash in the food saver bag. I like to use these in casseroles whole, or just grind some up into flakes or powder to add to soups or the like. They have great flavor and a super to have around.

Canning Chicken

This is some chicken that I canned the other day. I canned 8 pints. It looks wonderful. It was great. I cooked down some chicken the day before and deboned and deskinned it, and put that back into the chicken stock. I waited till the next day to can it up, but It was really easy, cause the hard part was the cooking, and boning the chicken out. I took the chicken in broth, heated it up on the stove, and ladeled that into my already hot and boiled pint jars, wiped the rims and placed on the rings. I placed them into an already boiling pressure canner. When all 8 were in the canner, I closed it up, brought it to 11 lbs of pressure and started a time for 75 minutes. After that time, I allowed it to pressure down, then removed the chicken from the cooker, allowing it to set out for 24 hours to seal, and cool. After the 24 hours, then I remove the rings, clean the jars, write on the lables and then put them up.
This is a close up of one of the jars...it looks great. This chicken will be great to make chicken soup, casseroles, or even chicken salad, yum!

A bit of Jam

I have been canning jam here lately. I canned six 1/2 pints of Strawberry/Gooseberry Jam one day along with 5 more 1/2 pints of Blackberry Jam. They are both delicious.
here is a pic of them here.
A close up of the Strawberry/Gooseberry Jam. I am definitely going to be making a lot more of this one...
I am not much of a recipe person but I will do my best to write one out for you for the Strawberry/Gooseberry jam...here goes.
6 cups of Strawberries, put through the blender
4 cups of Gooseberries, put through the blender
Put all the blended berries in a pan and heat on med heat till it is boiling.
Add 5 cups of sugar and start stirring...stir and watch closely till it comes back to a boil.
Once it is boiling, stir constantly and boil for at least 10 minutes to about 20 minutes (varies due to humidity and water content of berries) . At about 10 minutes of boiling watch for the sheeting on the spoon to determine if it is thick enough. I do not add commercial pectin, just the sugar. If you are not sure if it is thick enough, drop a few drops on a cool plate and let it sit for a minute...then touch it and see if it is thick enough...if not, continue to cook for a few minutes and check again, by dropping a few more drips onto the plate. I keep a plate in the frig to do this on when I make jelly/jam. After it is the "thickness" you want, (remember that it will thicken when it cools) then ladel it into clean sterilized 1/2 pint jars, wiping the jars rim, placing the flat onto the jar, and tighting the lids down. Process in a water bath for 15 minutes. take out and let cool. After 24 hours, take off the rings, clean the jar off and put in a cool dark place to store.
Now you have jam.