Canning anything...not just salsa...what's in your pantry?

Don P · August 28, 2005, 05:39:25 PM

Serrano's are about my favorite hot pepper, they have flavor rather than just being firey hot.
When Michelle worked as an ag tech at moo-U one of the professors was trying to make the hottest pepper he could, NC Hot, it was a smoker, made habenero's seem tame

. She brought a few plants home and we grew them out. She bit into one while in the garden, big mistake :D. I thought the back door was going to come off the hinges as she blew by me heading for the milk in the fridge. We saw no need to plant any more of them :

.
Her salsa came in third last nite out of 15 entries 8)

gary · August 28, 2005, 06:17:53 PM

The next time you eat a pepper that is too hot try this eat 1or 2 teaspoons of sugar. It will put the fire in your mouth out right now

Dan_Shade · August 28, 2005, 06:25:53 PM

lemon juice helps too

I think sugar works about the best, though, milk doesn't do much after it's not in your mouth anymore

Paschale · August 28, 2005, 07:02:40 PM

Has anyone tried making Crabapple Jelly? I've got a banner crop this year, and I dug around the web and found some recipes, but is it worth it, or any good at all? I'll probably do it anyway, since it's fun to do that sorta thing. ;D

CHARLIE · August 29, 2005, 12:22:40 AM

When I lived in Stewartville, Minnesota, we had a beautiful flowering crabapple tree in the backyard. It flowered heavy every other year and then was loaded with tiny apples that were about 1 inch in diameter. One year in the mid-80s my mom came to visit and said she'd like to make some crabapple jelly. I picked up about a 5 gallon bucket of those little apples and then I proceded to cut each one in half for her. The apples made the prettiest crabapple jelly I'd ever seen. It was a rose colored jelly. It was good too but tasted like.....like...uhhhhhh....like apple jelly. I never made anymore after she left 'cause picking up and cutting up enough of those little apples was more work than it was worth. Her crabapple jelly sure brings back good memories though.

ElectricAl · August 29, 2005, 07:15:01 PM

Patty,

We missed most of the big rains :-[ One storm we got a tenth and a friend 1.5 miles north got 1.8"

2 weeks ago we drilled some 12" post holes 4' deep, nothing but powder came up >:(

Enjoy your veggies ;)

Jodi · August 29, 2005, 08:01:33 PM

Quote from: Paschale on August 28, 2005, 07:02:40 PM
Has anyone tried making Crabapple Jelly? I've got a banner crop this year, and I dug around the web and found some recipes, but is it worth it, or any good at all? I'll probably do it anyway, since it's fun to do that sorta thing. ;D

we've made that before, and it's not bad. crabapple juice is worth making too if you're interested. it has an apple juice taste, but different...very good!

Paschale · August 29, 2005, 08:42:41 PM

Well, here's five pounds of crabapples, ready to be processed tomorrow morning. 8)

Tom · August 29, 2005, 08:55:36 PM

I have always found spiced apples a fun thing for the table. I wonder if whole crab apples would make spiced apples. It would be kinda like eating maraschino cherries.

CHARLIE · August 30, 2005, 12:13:52 AM

Paschale, those look just like the crabapples I had in Stewartville. We just cut them in half and Mom left the peeling on since you strain the apple out of the jelly anyway. The jelly was the prettiest rose color you ever saw.

Patty · August 30, 2005, 01:12:36 PM

Hey Al, I've seen sevearl summers just like that, where we would get 3 drops of rain, and the folks 5 miles north got 3 inches. :-\ It is really frustrating. We have plenty of veggies...I plant enough for us and most of the neighbors :

, so you guys are more than welcome to come over and pick some.

Paschale · August 30, 2005, 07:53:05 PM

Well, I finished processing the crabapple jelly today--I don't know how soon I'll do that again. :D It took a long, long time to cut off the stems and blossom ends off of all those crabapples...a couple of hours anyway! :

There are a lot of crabapples in a pound, lemme tell ya! I was watching the scale, and the heaviest crabapples weighed in at about 1/8 of an oz. :

I had two recipes, one that called for five pounds, and another that called for three--I stopped at three! ;D It was fun though, and it's pretty tasty too, and Charlie was right about the cool rose color that naturally results. I was thinking of cutting down that crabapple tree since it hadn't really flowered at all since I moved here, but this year was a banner year. It's so satisfying knowing that the jelly I made today is the result of bees doing their magical work to bring about fruit on a tree in my backyard that I can use to make something tasty. 8) It will be fun to pull that out for breakfast Christmas morning to slather on some toast. I think tomorrow might be Peach jam day.

I changed the subject to anything anybody's been canning...let's see what's in your pantry and what your putting up. I know Norm and Patty are up to all kinds of stuff--I look forward to seeing what you guys put away. 8)

ElectricAl · August 30, 2005, 07:55:54 PM

Patty,

Did you know we have a 1 ton dump truck? ;D

Are ya sure I'm welcome to come by :D

Paschale,

Looks yummy ;)

Tom · August 30, 2005, 08:07:44 PM

Paschale,

Next time make yourself a corer. A little piece of pipe that has been sharpened on one end and a hammer to hit it with. Maybe a stick to push the cores out if too many get hung in the corer.

I made a punch like that for the truck. I'm always needing to punch a hole in something. I think the last thing was my belt. I don't have to punch extra holes in my belt too often. :D

Linda · August 30, 2005, 08:20:59 PM

Quote from: Tom on August 30, 2005, 08:07:44 PM
I'm always needing to punch a hole in something.

Tom,

You had me a little worried there.

Until I saw the word "thing."

Hope your not into the drywall "thing." :D

Linda ;D

Roxie · August 30, 2005, 09:01:09 PM

I froze corn, beets, and brussel sprouts this year. In order to use up the red and green peppers and sweet onions the Amish have given us, I made pulled pork barbeque and I'm freezing that tonight.
I ate the last of my beautiful Brandywine heirloom tomatoe's tonight too. :'(

Furby · August 30, 2005, 11:01:40 PM

Hey Paschale,
I have a small wild cherry tree full of fruit if ya wanna try..............
Kirk, what was that you told me at the piggy roast to make with those cherries ???

Quartlow · August 30, 2005, 11:17:18 PM

So far this year the wife has done Strawbery freezer jam, blueberry jelly, blueberry jam, peach jam.
Canned a bunch of green and yellow snap beans, canned some lima beans and canned potato's and some canned corn

My tomatos are just starting to come on good. She's off either next week or the week after to do more canning

Paschale · August 31, 2005, 01:33:14 AM

Quote from: Tom on August 30, 2005, 08:07:44 PM
Paschale,

Next time make yourself a corer. A little piece of pipe that has been sharpened on one end and a hammer to hit it with. Maybe a stick to push the cores out if too many get hung in the corer.

Man, why didn't I think of that? :

Good thinking, Tom...perhaps there will be crabapple jelly in my future for next year too!

Furby,

Are those cherries pretty tart, or sweet ones? Are they still in pretty good shape, or starting to rot? I might just take you up on your offer! Are they possibly chokecherries? It just seems awfully late for cherries to be ripening... :P

Patty · August 31, 2005, 07:56:08 AM

Norm & I walk by a wild plum tree on our way to work everyday. Last night we could smell the ripened plums, they smelled so good! We checked and there are tons of plums on the ground fully ripened. I hope to get some this weekend and make some plum jelly...doesn't that sound yummy!

Dan, your crab apple jelly is beautiful.
I love to can...the fruits and vegetables from the garden are so pretty all lined up on the pantry shelves.

Al, maybe if you bring a shovel to dig potatoes, we can fill that truck of yours up! We planted 6 rows....long rows....of winter potatoes. We have been eating the "summer" potatoes from the other garden now for a couple months.

Furby · August 31, 2005, 01:31:20 PM

Paschale,
They are "wild" cherries from a black cherry tree.
They are yours if you want them, never tried them myself, but Kirk was telling me about making something from them, can't remember what though. :

WV_hillbilly · August 31, 2005, 08:04:45 PM

We are going to can 3 bushels of Yellow wax Hungarian peppers this weekend . I put some of them up in vinegar , some in salsa , and some in a ketchup syrup. we also make our own spaghetti sauce , crushed tomatoes and tomatoe sauce. The green beans will be next weekend .

Don_Papenburg · August 31, 2005, 11:11:30 PM

Most of our garden craped out with the drought. All of the blueberries droped off before they tuned blue. the sweetcorn was a disaster and my sugar pie pumpkins were damaged by the damd bugs .
But we made apple cider from windfalls , My wife made grape juice tonite and ketsup is cooking down right now.