Pickled beets and the Cadillac of canning jars!

If you are a canner, you share my awe and envy every time you see a Weck canning jar.  They are so beautiful!  They are made entirely of glass, including the lid, with a rubber gasket and two little metal clips to hold it in place while canning.  In early spring, I started buying just a few.  I would love to increase the amount I have, but they are not cheap!  I have been waiting and waiting to can up some beets in these glorious jars.  My husband is from Pennsylvania, and so is my dad so pickled beets is very much a part of our taste repertoire.  I think they make beets taste soooooooooo good.

For picture purposes, I stacked the jars, but you do not want to store your jars this way.  You shouldn't do this for most jars because if there is a problem with your canning and gases start accumulating in the jars, it will pop the lid off.  You want that to happen so that you know it is no longer good.   Anyways, here's a recipe I used. 

Pickled Beets:

7 lbs. beets

4 cups 5% vinegar

1 1/2 tsp pickling or canning salt

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

2 cinnamon sticks

12 whole cloves

Trim the beets (ends and stalks to about an inch) and wash.  Bring to a boil in a pan of water until they are tender, 25-30 min. Let beets cool and throw out the cooking liquid (you can let that cool and water a part of your garden with it).  Once cooled, cut up your beets.  I made mine into 1/4" slices, but I've seen people use dices as well.  I've also seen baby beets canned whole.  You decide! Combine the vinegar, sugar, salt, and the water.  Use a cheesecloth for the spices or a tea infuser ball and place in vinegar mixture.  Bring to a boil and then add the beets for five more minutes.  Remove the spice bag and start filling your jars, leaving 1/2" headspace.  Pints and quarts are process for 30 minutes at sea level.  Since I am at a high elevation, I had to process for 40 minutes.  This recipe makes approximately 8 pints.  

Now I had leftover pickling liquid.  Waste not, want not.  In Pennsylvania, there is this beautiful creation called "red beet eggs."  Once you are done with the beets, use your liquid to infuse hard boiled eggs.  Store in the fridge over night and try them the next day.  

This is the only picture I have because the family ate them all...very quickly!  I haven't looked into whether or not these can be canned.  ???  I swear I have seen them canned but that could be my over-40 mind playing tricks on me.  Let me know if you know this is a canning recipe as well.  ???  For safety's sake until we know for sure, keep them in your fridge until all is consumed!  I hope you enjoyed this post!  Blessings to you!  Enjoy your harvest and the work of your hands!

When life gives you hail, IMPROVISE!

You saw the damage. Not pretty.  This was my best year for tomatoes.  I lost four plants, two of which were massive!  They were magnificent.  But amazingly, the plants did their job and protected the tomatoes...everything was stripped except for the tomatoes.  I lost some, but I had 17 pounds of perfectly good green tomatoes.  What to do, what to do????  Usually it's in late fall when I have this problem and I just let the green tomatoes ripen inside.  I've been seeing so much on green tomatoes lately that I wanted to try some things.

Here's a sampling of some of my tomatoes.  They were just gorgeous.  I decided to make a green tomato salsa, picalilli (which is a green tomato relish), and also with some of my zucchini, I made mock pineapple.

It all turned out beautifully and the mock pineapple (zucchini) tastes just like pineapple!  We put it on some pizza.  It's awesome.  I found something else that I will no longer need to buy.  I rarely use pineapple so that's going to be a real treat!  I hope through life's storms you find the unexpected treasures!  Blessings to you!  Happy canning and harvesting!

Summer's end update...

Wow...I can't believe we're in the middle of September already.  I started the kids' school right after Labor Day.  We also went on vacation at the end of August so I am literally two weeks behind where I should be.  I was thinking I should probably wrap up the summer.  The garden got a bit neglected this year as two of my kids were going to do a major competition and it required a lot of our time.  I still have a lot of tomatoes and my pumpkins are awesome...one in particular is the largest I've ever grown.  I'm anxious to see what it weighs!  In a few weeks it should be ready!

I've been doing quite a bit of canning.  Remember all those raspberries I told you about from my yard?  Well, I used them all up (all ten pounds) for my yearly jam session.  This year I tried many different varieties of jam.  One delicious creation has raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries.  It is delicious.  I also make a mango+raspberry=the sweet nectar of God!!!!  Oh, it's good!  Then there's the new this year: raspberry + peach.  All in all, I made 62 half-pints & pints.  While I was finishing up my jams, lo and behold, peanut butter went on sale for $1.49.  We have been skimping on the peanut butter around here because it is so WICKED expensive.  This sale did it for me...I have enough for a year (I hope).   I am not one of those people who likes to stockpile for ten years worth of food...I just want enough to last us for a bit.  I know prices are going up and I just want to be prepared.  I also canned up a bunch of peaches and some peach jam.  I also got in a salsa session.  I think I will need another bushel of tomatoes because I need to make some more.  I'm hoping to do some beets.  I have pictures to share from our vacation that goes hand in hand with canning.  Plus, there's been a lot of crafting/sewing going on, too. I hope you are winding down from the summer.  We are enjoying some cooler temperatures here because this summer was a scorcher.  Blessings to you!

Wordless Wednesday

Canning on the Homestead

First Canning Session of the Year
What to do with all those radishes???

With the several pounds of radishes I have harvested, I had to figure out something to do with them.  Only my husband and youngest daughter really like them, so I decided to make some radish relish so I can preserve them so they will last.  The recipe I used is here.  I have a feeling my husband is really going to like it.  He tried it with all the raw ingredients and said it had good flavor.  I'm sure it will only get better as time goes on and it has time to mellow out.  It gets such a pretty pink and rosy color.  I made two batches and got about 10 half-pints of relish!

This is a nice recipe because you have to let the whole concoction sit for three hours so you have time to get all your jars ready or do other things.  Once that is done, you boil the ingredients for awhile and then jar them up and process (again, see recipe link).  I look forward to seeing how this will taste in a few weeks, but I can rest knowing that none of the radishes went to waste!  Plus, all the tops of the radishes were fed to the chickens.  They loved them and get so excited when they see me coming!  They have been so fun...hopefully, after this coming weekend, I can show you the finished coop!

I hope your gardens are growing beautifully!  Have you started canning anything???  Happy preserving and blessings!

Canning Jar Jubilation!!!

On the morning of Fourth of July, I went to the thrift store to find a little jacket since we would be spending the day in the mountains and I've lost weight that I needed to get one.  I figured since I was there, I should also look for some canning jars since I need to gear up for more canning this summer and you can get a great deal if you can find them.  The thrift store was running a weekend promotion of 50% off most items for the holiday weekend.  LET THE HUNT BEGIN was my attitude!!!  Lo and behold, I found three boxes of various sized canning jars and all three boxes were half-off.  There were 38 jars total.  A quick scan of the jars inside led my eyes to an old blue Ball jar and one with the wire-type canning lid.  I knew my $7.00 would be well worth the cost.  I took them home and didn't touch them until we got back later that night.  Upon opening the boxes, I found canning jar treasure!!!  You will not believe the jars I got and after much research, I am completely amazed at the history that I found!!!  What started me on my old canning jar journey is the four jars I found at our church garage sale.  I paid $15 for all four of them without really knowing how much the value of old jars were and what would be a good price.  I've put them on my windowsill in the kitchen.

Now after finding my treasures in the box, I have found out all kinds of fascinating little facts!  You can date your Ball jars by the writing style on them.  Here is a great website if you're interested at all about figuring out the date of your jars:  here!  It's a great site to give you info on your jars.  So, without further ado, here are some of the jars I found.

These are Ball Ideal jars manufactured in 1908.  They have the wire-type closure and use a glass lid.  The one on the left is the only jar I got with a lid so I am thrilled with it.  It amazes me to think that this glass is over 100 years old and was used for canning during WWI.  Remarkable!!!

 

 I actually got two blue Ball jars in my boxes.  The one on the left is much older than the one on the right.  Can you see the difference in how Ball is embossed on the glass (see the last L)?  This is how you date the jars.

I got three of these Ball Perfect Masons.  What are so different about these?   It's a bit hard to see in the picture, but these jars are not clear.  They are gray.  They are worth a lot more.  In the manufacturing of these glasses, a chemical was used and once the jars are exposed to sunlight, they change color.  That's why you have blue jars, but you can also find amber, green, and amethyst colored jars.  WHO KNEW??!!  I had no idea! 

These are Kerr jars manufactured in 1915.  Kerr is actually the company who invented the two-piece system for canning lids that we now enjoy today.  I KNOW!!!!  Fascinating!!!

This is a square Atlas mason jar.  It was made in 1920.  Square jars are also worth more!  I didn't know this!  After finding all these great gems in my boxes, I had two more boxes downstairs full of quart jars I had gotten at the thrift store a while back for pickles so I started investigating.  Three of them are Longlife mason jars and are going for $10.00 a piece on ebay.  I also found some vintage quart jars that were made in the 1970's.  Since I was born in the 70's and I'm still working, I'm going to use the jars so they should still work, HA!  I also have a jar that is a Midland Mason jar.  It was only manufactured for one year--1975.  It's worth $8-$10.  I had no idea there were so many different canning jar companies!  It is absolutely mind-blowing that these jars have survived so long!!!  Again, I am inspired by these ladies from our past who diligently put up food from their gardens, not only to survive and have food for their families, but they also supported the war efforts.  By WWII, most canning jars were standard mouth jars (not wide mouth jars) because they were conserving as much metal as they could!  I am amazed!!!

I hope this enlightens you a little about canning jars.  I was trying to get some jars to can with and now I've got my own collection of antique jars.  What should I do with them???  Hmmmm......sounds like another post down the road!

Happy canning and happy treasure hunting!!!

Sixty pounds of peaches!!!

Here are the "fruits" of my labor. Sixty pounds of peaches netted me in total: 22 pints of peach butter, 11 pints of sliced peaches in a light syrup, 7 half pints of peach jam, 7 tiny little jelly jars of peach butter, and about a pound in the freezer. Not bad for all my efforts!!! What have I learned from my peach-y exercise in canning?

1. Make sure your peaches are absolutely ripe!!!! The peels will come off so much easier after you immerse them in boiling water for 30 seconds and then dipped in cold water. The first 20 pounds I processed was very laborious because they weren't ripe. By my last 20 pounds, we had it down!!! Make sure they're ripe!!!!!!

2. "Many hands make light work!" The more the merrier and it will go by quickly if you have lots of help.

3. Flying peach pulp will burn you! Trust me...I learned the hard way!!!!

4. I've heard of some people boiling down the pits and peels. I personally gave some of the peels to my worms (I have a small worm bin) and they absolutely love them!!!!

It will be a joy to have that peach butter in winter, but for now, I really don't want to see another peach for awhile, ha, ha!!!

What are you preserving in your neck of the woods???

More canning...peaches and pears!

Look at these gorgeous pears! These only cost me $1 per 3 lbs. Oh yes!!! I will be making pear butter out of these beauties. Plus, I bought 40 more pounds of peaches. I know, I know, you probably think I'm crazy, but they were such a deal. In a previous post, I told you that I made 4 little jelly containers of peach butter. Uhhh, they're all gone. The kids went crazy over it. They love it on toast and the other night we put it on pancakes. It was CRAZY GOOD!!! So I'm going to make loads of it for this winter. Can't you imagine a blizzard outside and having a delicious scone or buttermilk biscuit topped with the lusciousness of summer by way of peach butter? I can't wait to scoff at the snow while indulging myself!!! Yes, I'm a summer baby! Needless to say, I'll be busy the next few days with my canning, but it will be so worth it!!!

Canning is "peachy" keen!

I bought twenty pounds of peaches because I got them dirt cheap!!! Here are the "fruits" of my labor! I canned 11 pints of sliced peaches in light syrup, 7 pints of peach jam, and 4 of the tiny little jelly jars of peach butter!!! Not bad for twenty pounds. I think I will be getting another twenty pounds since it was sooooo inexpensive ($0.39/lb.). I can't wait until winter to eat this summery goodness!!!

When I started with the peach jam a few days ago, I could not get the peels off the peach. I think it was because the peaches weren't quite ripe. I waited a few days for them to ripen to can the sliced peaches, and the peels came off like it was nothing. That saved me a ton of work!!!! Now they look so pretty and I'll check the seals tomorrow. In the background you'll notice Ball's Blue Book of Preserving. It has been such a valuable guide as I can this year. It is quite the resource and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn to can things properly. What are you canning or preserving this season?

An update on my zucchini: not so good. It's very embarrassing that I'm zucchinimom and I'll barely have any zucchini this year. Last year was such a stellar year for zucchini around here and horrible for tomatoes. This year, the tomatoes are growing like gangbusters and the zucchini are doing miserable. Such is the life of a gardener!!!

Happy growing and happy preserving!!!