That Time of Year

64, cool and so nice. Some cloud cover has kept it comfortable so far. Yesterday reached 86, with a couple showers. We need more rain; it's getting very dry.

It's time to start cleaning out most of the gardens, sadly. Larry brush-hogged the garden that had the first onions,  potatoes, peas, and early corn so that one is finished. He will soon clean up the tomato and late corn garden, after he cuts the corn for shocks.

Here's some of what we gathered yesterday. 

The small peppers to the left were given to us by our friend Tamara; we are constantly supplementing each other's veggies. The broccoli on the left is producing tinier and tinier spears, but still delicious. I must learn how to encourage larger shoots next year. This has been our most successful broccoli year ever, so I am very pleased.

There were more squash, but we had them for dinner. The main plants died back, but some stems rooted themselves so we have "new" plants. So cool. I will string the cayenne peppers to dry later today. The tomatoes are fading fast, but a few stalwart cherry varieties are hanging on, thank goodness.

The last tomatoes from the big patch. They did terribly this year.

The large peppers were also from Tamara; she bought too many so gifted them to me. I am making stuffed peppers for the freezer with them. Our banana peppers have done gangbusters, and there are many still in the garden. I will make pepper mustard with some, freeze some, and stuff the larger ones for the freezer. So handy for a quick meal.

I started these mums in June, from tiny bit picked off some of my plants. So easy to start! Now I need to get them planted.

We didn't plant any pumpkins this year but had several plants come up from seed. We have harvested 13 of them. Considering that we did nothing at all to get them, I am a happy gardener! Beside them to the right is a maple tree I will plant soon; it and the wee hibiscus in the same pot both came up from seed in a flowerbed.

And of course, since I was in the garden, I picked a few small bouquets. 

We spent Tuesday with my cousin Tom and his wife, who will soon be moving to North Carolina, and my Aunt Georgette, Tom's mother. She will be 90 on her birthday but still gets around fairly well, although she said she is having balance issues. She still has a pet bird, and lives in a nice assisted living facility about 2 hours from us. As the nearest family, Larry and I will be "on call" whenever she needs us.

The past two days I have not felt up to snuff, probably just tired. So I took it fairly easy, just canned some Corn and Potato Chowder and some more grape juice. I also worked on data entry for the booths' records, and priced a few totes of items. But I did a lot of just sitting, resting, and even (shocker!) napping. I feel a bit better today, thankfully. 

Here's the recipe for the chowder, should you want to try it. It does not have to be canned, of course, but I like to have it on hand for quick meals.

As you can see, it has been a well-used page in the cookbook!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Of Canning and Books

34 this morning, some patchy frost here but other places in the county had a killing frost. A pretty day, very windy. Some light showers the other night helped but it is still very, very dry. 

Well, every time I think I am back to blogging regularly I veer off course. Most days, I get busy and then when I finally stop for the day, usually about 7 or 8 in the evening, I am too tired to think well enough to post. But today, I decided to stop, at least for a while, and I actually have enough brain power remaining to write. 

What's kept me so busy? Let's see. I spent Monday mostly resting and generally movng slow. I did get some cleaning done, and then in the afternoon we had the pleasure of a surprise visit from our son, granddaughter Hannah, and her two children. What delight it is when children come to visit! Our grandchildren are all grown up now; only Natasha is still in high school. So now it's the great-grands we have to look forward to, and we don't get to see them as often as we'd like. After they left I got the first coat of paint on a small table, and listed some things on eBay, and that was the day. 

Tuesday I sorted out totes of items for our booths and got everything all priced. That doesn't sound like much, but there were 6 totes and it took a while. I had just finished up when Larry came in with a huge Chicken of the Woods mushroom.

And then he went back and got more! These were growing on a fallen tree, and Larry said he left about half of the mushrooms on the tree so that they will hopefully spread next year. So we worked together to get the mushrooms cleaned and canned, getting about 40 half-pints, along with a couple bags in the freezer. I saved the broth from where I had to briefly cook the mushrooms before canning, and yesterday I processed that to. It might puzzle the unsuspecting vistor to our cellar to see jars labeled COW broth. 

After putting up the broth, I moved on to canning some pie filling. The freezers were completely full and we will need space for venison, so I pulled out most of the frozen cherries, blueberries, and some strawberries and made a mixed berry filling using Clear-Gel--which, by the way, I like very much. It makes a really nice pie filling. I also pulled out the frozen cranberries from last year and canned cranberry sauce. Now there is at least some freezer space, and I will work on making more soon by making strawberry jam.

Today I dealt with the pears. 

They are really not fun to do for several reasons. Our tree is about 45 years old, a standard Bartlett that is about 30-40 feet tall. Larry has been pruning off the lower branches so he can mow under it, which means all the pears are well about our heads, almost impossible to pick. We use the apple picker to get what we can, but just have to wait for the rest to fall. And of course, when they fall, they bruise. This variety is very, very hard and takes a while to finish ripening after picking/falling, and of course the bruises spread and by the time the pears are ripe, there is a lot of bad to cut out. Some just have to be tossed, just too bad to use. It's so frustrating. Next year I think we will get some thick foam from a neighbor who works at a plant where it is made, and lay it under the tree to hopefully cushion the pears' fall. Do you think that will help? Or do you have any suggestions for picking the pears short of a bucket truck?

Tomorrow? Well, the last of the celery has to be cut and put in the freezer, and a good neighbor gave us a bushel and a half of apples. So I think apple pie filling and maybe applesauce is in my future tomorrow, along with taking care of the celery. I am working at the antique mall this weekend, so that will finish out this week. I declare, working might feel like a rest after this busy week. I told Larry that it seems like I have had little chance to get out of the kitchen! Which is fine really--the cellar is bulging with so much good food that I feel guilty at having such bounty.

I have been taking time to read, though, and have three really good books I am alternating between. The first is one I've mentioned here before: When Time Stopped by Ariana Neumann, 

It is slow going, as there is little to no dialogue-it's all narrative, but so well written and detailed that I find myself reading it slowly to be sure I miss nothing. It's a frightening story, actually, one that fills me with dread as I read because it details the growing restrictions and inhumane treatment of Jews in Czechoslovakia under Nazi occupation. What cause my dread is that the author's family deal with each restriction as it comes, and yet their photos and letters tell of a relatively happy, normal life as this black cloud hangs over them--and I feel sure that what happens to them in the end will not be good. But the author has amassed so many letters, photos, and artifacts that her telling of their story is compelling and absorbing.

The second is a book I have had for some time, and dip into most years in the fall: The Autumn Book: A Collection of Prose and Poetry Chosen by James Reeves. I was rather stunned to see its prices on Amazon. I am pretty sure that 146.00 must be an error. It's a very good read, but not sure it's that good.

I browse through, picking and choosing what to read. One selection prompted me to order the third book: The Natural History of Selborne, by the Rev. Gilbert White. The selection that intrigued me enough to place the order was simply dates and details of weather, birds, gardens, etc, in the author's gardens and surrounds of Selborne, in Hampshire, England, in September 1779. Okay, that might sound boring, but consider such lines as "began lighting fires in the parlor", "Mrs. Snooke's old tortoise retired underground", "Vast condensations in the great parlor; the grate, marble-jams, the tables, the chairs, the walls are covered with dew". 

You might notice that I have taken a leaf from his book and hae begun to write a bit more at the beginning of each post about the weather and other natural observations. I am thinking I may start another blog that simply catalogs such things as an ongoing natural diary, maybe starting on January 1 and keeping it for a year. To get back to the book, though--I have only just started it and am loving it. Rev. White begins his book with some beautiful poems, then goes on to describe the geography of his area, including the type of rocks, soil, trees and crops. Fascinating, considering this was written in 1779.

Off I go now to put yet another coat of paint on the little table--this one will be red, and I am liking it so far.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Canning in a Heat Wave

73 this morning, sunny. We've had several sunny days in a row, with an afternoon rain on Sunday. Very humid.

So it's still August, and I'm still canning and freezing the good things our garden is giving us. This is yesterday's production: corn and cherry tomato salsa, pickled jalapenos, dill pickles, and tomato juice.

This morning we tried freezing corn on the cob. I've done this before and wasn't thrilled with the results, but I'm trying again. In this method, you cut the ends off the cob, leaving the husks intact, put in bags and freeze. I used the vacuum sealer, and I am hoping that makes a difference to the taste. Last time I tried it, the corn just didn't taste right. We shall see.

I used up a whole 5 pounds of cherry tomatoes to make the salsa--click the link above for the recipe. It's not a difficult recipe, just a lot of chopping, normal with any salsa I suppose. I substituted parsley for cilantro and used regular chili powder since I didn't have the chipotle kind the recipe calls for. It tasted good but I'm waiting to taste it cold on chips before deciding if it's awesome or not. The pickled jalapeno we have tried, and it's delicious. My jalapenos are not hot--I grow a mild variety that has the flavor but not the heat. 

I also divvied up some large packs of blueberries that I stuck in the freezer in their plastic clamshells; I put them in bags and vacuum-sealed them. So two jobs done already. Now peaches are in the sink and I will have to see what I can do with them, as they're full of spots and such. Not the best, but the only ones we have for this year.

The weather has been so humid, and will be getting hotter as the week goes on. We will probably reach the 90's today, so we're trying to get as much done before the afternoon heat as we can. I expect this heat wave will end with bad storms as that's the usual pattern. But meantime we may well have to break out the sprinklers and hoses again if we don't get at least some showers.

I went out last night and tried to clean up my late garden. The poor thing has been completely neglected these last few weeks and looks it. The kale is bug-eaten, the radishes have gone to seed, and I think Larry cut down some of the onions with the weedeater. Well, they were pretty covered up with weeds, so no wonder. We managed to salvage some of it. The Lutz beets look great, the third planting of squash is bearing, and the lettuce looks surprisingly good. Once this heat passes I will get out there and stick in some more seeds. And hope I can give it more attention now that we're almost through with the major part of the canning. I think.

Listening to the news of Afghanistan I have such mixed feelings. On the one hand, I firmly believe the US should never have gone in there, especially considering the sad history of foreign intervention in that country. Why should we have thought we would be any different than the English, the French, and the Russians? On the other hand, I understand the drive to contain terrorism. And the poor people caught in the middle of it all, or who worked with the US--their plight is truly frightening. I am not an isolationist, but there are times when I do wonder if we should just mind our own problems, and leave others to their own devices--or is that vices.

We spent Sunday in the backcountry of Calhoun county, at a friend's house so far back they can't get mail service. They are planning to sell their place now that the husband has health issues, and have lots of things to sell. We spent a busy afternoon looking through piles of stuff and just visiting, and then came home with a vanload. We will be going back soon for another load. This is one of the hardest, and yet in some ways, one of the best ways of finding merchandise for our booths. It is not easy to talk money and prices with friends, especially when they know I can't pay full value because I need to make a profit. But they know their things will find good homes, and I am honest with them about what I can afford to pay--if it's not enough, I'm not insulted, and if I offer less than they want, they understand and aren't insulted either. 

I'm sure there is other news, since it's been a while since I posted, but I need to get back to the kitchen so I will close now. I hope everyone is well, avoiding Delta, and staying cool.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Busy Busy

70 and cloudy, then later hot and humid and clear. This evening a nice thunderstorm that dropped enough rain to wet the gardens well, and no run-off.

It's been a busy week, so many different things on our agenda. 

The gardens are beginning to really produce, and Larry seems to bring 5 gallon buckets of yellow squash to the house every day. I found a recipe for squash-lemon bread that I will try soon, and I froze some shredded squash for use later on. I've been giving it away too, even took a basket of squash to the antique mall with me yesterday and put outside with a FREE sign. They were all gone by the end of the day.

It's also tomato time. They're beginning to ripen but so far I've only made the chili sauce. Tomorrow I'm going to make ketchup with the ones ready now. Today I made pepper mustard from the 80+ banana peppers Larry picked. I made more dill pickles the other day, and canned more green beans. 

Besides canning, I've been painting a big dresser, and of course yesterday I worked at the antique mall. I was happy to see my friend Donna Wilson, my old storytelling friend, who is visiting from Florida. She moved several years ago and I do miss her. so we had a nice chat. I also had a lunch date with another friend this week; we tried out a new coffee shop which was so-so, and then lunch at another new place in town, which was also just so-so. But nice to get out and visit anyway.

We were super busy at the beginning of the week to prepare for Larry's planned trip to Florida--he was going to visit his sister in Orlando for 4 days, but at the last minute Spirit Airlines canceled his flight. We were literally on the way to the airport; our power was off for a planned outage so we had no internet or cell service the morning he was to leave, and weren't able to get the notifications until we were already in town. I don't think we'll ever use Spirit Airlines again. What bad, bad service. 

But I will admit, I'm happy Larry didn't go. Totally selfish of me, I admit. He really wanted to see his sister, who just turned 78. Opportunities for them to visit are rare, and we'd been planning this trip since the spring. But I was dreading him being gone, and having to take on all his chores in addition to my own work. Not to mention just missing him. We do enjoy each others company, and spend a lot of time just talking. 

Today we were up and out early because there was a big yard sale at a church that I didn't want to miss. We got there just as the door opened and came away with some wonderful finds. Then we stopped at another sale and did very well there too. When do you ever find an antique coffee grinder for a dollar?? It needs a little repair which Larry can do, but what a bargain. I will take photos of everything tomorrow; we haven't even unloaded the van yet.

And we haven't unloaded because we went to Parkersburg, about a 45-mile drive one-way, to get baby chicks. They had pullets for 1.00 each at Tractor Supply, so we bought 20 of a kind called ISA Browns, French variety that lays brown eggs and are supposed to be prolific layers. So we had to get them all set up when we got home. Then I had those peppers to deal with, and Larry worked on his new project, laying up too small light columns along the walk with glass bricks and regular bricks. He's finished one and is about halfway with the other. We still have to do the wiring too, but they are going to be so nice. I will post photos tomorrow if I can remember.

I think that catches up what we've been up to this past week. Nothing exciting, just lots of little things that seem to fill the days so quickly.

And just for fun, I'll end with this video that I just love. The geese go marching...

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

The Beet Goes On

65 and overcast this morning with a few light drizzles. Looked like rain most of the day, interspersed with sun and some strong breezes, but all in all a nice day.

It was past time to harvest the beets. I've been trying to get to them for the past two weeks and finally decided that today was the day.

We grew Lutz beets this year, a different variety for me. I wanted to try them because the tops are less red than the Detroit Dark Reds I've been growing. I thought the flavor would be milder, and as it turns out I was right. Lutz tops are very like Swiss Chard both in color and flavor, at least to me. And they grow BIG. Really big. 

Today was perfect for pulling them because the ground is still soft from all the rain recently. Larry brought me a wheelbarrow brimming over with the beets and a few carrots that were also huge. He accidentally tilled up most of the row of carrots earlier in the spring, but the ones he missed did very well. I got a couple bags of them into the freezer before tackling the beets.

Tackling is a good word for it too. Some were so large that I just relegated them to the chickens. But there were plenty of nice sized ones, even though this was only about a 10 foot row. I ended up with about 15 pints of pickled beets, I think, plus some for dinner tonight and 3 bags of greens for the freezer. And the chickens ate very well, too, with all the scraps and tops I didn't use.

I sometimes wonder why I bother with beets. We don't eat many of them, really. We'll open a jar, eat a few and then the rest go to waste. We need to do better--it's a lot of work to put these things up. But I cannot imagine planting a garden without beets, and even now I have two more plantings coming along. These I will just put up without pickling, and I am determined that we will eat beets at least twice a month in the coming year. 

So now the canning/putting up season has finally begun, a little later than usual but I think we're in for a good harvest. We're getting cucumbers now and I bet I'll be making pickles next week. Green beans are ready and I'll put them up on Thursday. Corn looks like it's a week out, the peppers are covered up, squash is coming in like crazy and I can't keep up with it. The tomatoes will be a while yet since we got a late start with them, and zucchini the same. 

I have another planting of onions, lettuce, zucchini, squash, and radishes coming up now in the small rock-walled garden. Clyde the cat thought I'd made him a big litter box and rearranged some of my plantings so they're coming up oddly in places, but oh well. I also planted the asparagus that I started from seed and so far so good. I have some late cabbage ready to plant as soon as we can get some ground worked up. 

Busy days ahead, for sure, but it will be nice to see the cellar fill up again.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Covid Journal; Day 191: Still in the Kitchen

Rain at last. It showered all night, and off and on all day today. So thankful. 59 again this morning, and didn't warm up much all day.

I was in the kitchen almost all day again today. The garden is winding down, but there are still some things to put up. The problem is, I keep running out of jars, and I am sure now I have used every single quart anywhere around this place. I really had to scrounge today to get 7 for the vegetable soup.

I still have some pints, though, and that's good because I still have tomatoes coming in. Today I made more of the chili sauce I mentioned the other day, Jenn's recipe. It's so good; still in the canner so no photo. Tomorrow, I hope to make some sumac jelly. We shall see if that happens since I have some running to do first. At least I still have a box of half-pint jars for the jelly. I've never made it before, but I have made lemonade from sumac and it's delicious.

The other thing we did today was to take out the small sofa in the living room. Larry hauled it off the the Goodwill. We just don't need it any more, and we now have a little more space. It's funny how just moving one thing out meant a whole lot of re-arranging and cleaning. Where does all that dust come from? I still have one chair full of things that I need to figure out what to do with. This stuff is actually from the bedroom, and was in or on the dresser we painted and took to our booth last week.  So here's a look at the new arrangement, junk and all.

The other news today is that a short poem I wrote last month was featured today on the Central Coast Poetry Show. Kind of exciting, since I so rarely submit my poems anywhere. If you'd like to read it, just click the link above.

First fire in the fireplace tonight, as it's a perfect night for it, cool and drizzly.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Covid Journal, Day 115: Flowers and Beets

72 again, but humidity was not bad. Clear and hot all day, with a high of 93

I had a mission this morning: get to work on the big flowerbed. There were plants that needed to be cut back, and weeds to be pulled. The little pink primroses (I have called them poppies for years, and only learned that they were actually primroses recently) are an annual that self-seeds--so that means I can't mulch where they grow or I will suffocate the new plants. And that means lots of weeds get a happy place until the primroses are done and I can finally get in there.

Before

So I was up early to get this job done. Larry got up early too, to weed the leeks and get the sprinkler going because we have not had rain now for 2 weeks. Two weeks without rain, at the height of the growing season! I feel for the truck farmers.

After

because I really wanted to be able to see these lilies!

Aren't they pretty? Well, except there's Larry's bucket. He uses it as a stand for the sprinkler. Not pretty, but necessary.

It took me about three hours, and by the time I stopped I was dripping with sweat. I didn't clean up behind myself, so that will be my task tomorrow. The garden does look better for my efforts, though. Next year, maybe I'll move those tall yarrow and coneflower plants to the back of the garden so they don't block the view. Maybe. I kind of like the wild randomness of this plot though.

I mentioned yesterday that I canned a few pints of beets. I tried a couple different things. First, I forgot to tell Larry to leave a couple inches at the top, and not to cut off the roots because when the beets are pre-cooked to loosen the skins, cutting off the tops and roots means the color will bleed out. So, what to do? Because of course he trimmed the beets very nicely for me.

I decided to roast the beets in the oven, and then peel them. And then there was this other thing. The other day Larry dug a few carrots, to see if they were ready to harvest. He washed up the ones he dug, put them in a baggie and put them in the freezer. The next day he dug all the carrots.I didn't realize he'd put the first ones in the freezer that until I went to get them out to clean and cut up with the rest of the carrots. I took them out to clean up, and lo and behold, the skins just kind of slipped off!

So when I was doing the beets, I wondered: could freezing beets be a way to remove the skins more easily than cooking and cooling? That is what most recipes say to do: wash, cook, and peel, then reheat before packing in jars. I took one beet and put it in the freezer while the others were roasting. I figured roasting would keep the color in, unlike boiling them. After about 35 minutes, I pulled the roasting beets out of the oven and peeled them with a vegetable peeler. It wasn't super easy, but I was right--they retained their color.

Then I got the beet from the freezer. The skin was s-o-o-o easy to peel with the vegetable peeler! Much easier than the roasted beets. This one (large) beet was raw though, while the others were cooked. Would that make a difference in canning them?

I went online, looking for answers. And found none. Apparently every single recipe recommends the cooking, cooling, reheating method. So I decided that since the one beet wasn't cooked, I'd just add 10 minutes to the processing time. The pressure canner actually gets to about 240 degrees F, whereas boiling can only get to 212F, so I figured the extra ten minutes would compensate for the cooking time.

So pretty--but the liquid boiled out of the jars more than I'd like. Maybe the canner was too hot?

The beets came out fine. And given that they will be boiled for a few minutes before we eat them I think they're perfectly safe. What do you think?

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Another Story, and Home News

This conversation excerpt from two years ago showed up on my Facebook timeline. I don't remember who she was, and I had forgotten this story, so I was glad when it popped up this morning:

The lady behind us in line at the store said, "I went to Sissonville High School. When I was 15 I had a boy friend. I wanted to get him a gift but didn't have any money. School lunch was 25 cents back then, but if I cleared tables after lunch I ate for free. I saved my quarters until I had enough money to buy him a $25.00 sweater at the Diamond Department store. It was my only experience with the Diamond, but I married my boyfriend that year. That was 56 years ago and we're still married."

What a happy start to my day this story was! 

We were up early (for us) today. A friend of one of my sons had tomatoes to give away--right when I was surprised to find there was not one jar of tomatoes left in the cellar. That's the first time that's happened in years! So we went to pick tomatoes this morning and came home with four bushels. We put up 54 quarts and still have a bushel or maybe a little less than that. Those will go into pasta sauce. We hope to get more and put up some tomato juice too, but we will have to buy jars. I couldn't believe it but we're out of quart jars! We have given away a lot of things in the past year--pickles, apple butter, cider, etc--and often the jars can't be brought back. So we're going to have to bite the bullet and buy more. Since we still have cider and applesauce and pickles to make, I think we're going to need a LOT more jars. 

The corn is beginning to ripen. We had the first picking for dinner Sunday and it was delicious. So along with tomatoes, looks like we'll be putting up corn. I freeze corn as we like it better than canned corn, but I might just can some this year--in pints, since we're out of quarts. You never know when the freezer might go down, or the power be off for long stretches.



Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

In the Kitchen...Again

I'm back to canning this week. Tomatoes, more peaches, corn chowder, and pickled beets. Tomorrow, apples. Corn is in the freezer, and 3 meatloafs made for freezing--they make great fast meals for my husband who hates to stop and fix something when I'm busy or not home.

Yesterday, peaches in the waterbath canner on the left, corn chowder in the
canner on the right, and peach cobbler in between. 

It's been a busy week, but the end is in sight. Then I can think about writing again!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Still in the Kitchen

I have been in the kitchen for most of the past week as the garden continues to pour forth its goodness.

Yesterday I had many tomatoes to deal with, as well as the rest of the peaches, carrots and the first of the corn.

pasta sauce

So peach preserves, pasta sauce and frozen corn and carrots were the end result.

peach preserves--the first jam I've made this summer.

The day before Larry dug some of the carrots and some potatoes so I made vegetable soup to can.

Some of the carrots are pretty big, at least for our gardens. We don't grow varieties that get huge, so most of ours are fairly small, which we like better.

one big carrot

Also had more peaches to do The cellar is beginning to look great.

He also pulled the onions and spread them in the woodshed to dry, and brought a few into the house to use now. I will be cutting up some of the later crop of onions and drying those in the dehydrator, I think. We really liked having the dried onions last year, so convenient for soups, stews, casseroles, etc.

Today we're back into corn and green beans, and I bought black cherries since they're the cheapest I've ever seen. Those are in the freezer too, waiting for time to make some jam or something else.

Tomorrow I am taking a break from canning and doing some writing. I think we've earned it.

How about you? How is your garden this year? I know some people are having a good year, other places need rain badly.


Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Peaches and Salsa of the Zucchini Kind

We are still working on the peaches, canning them as they ripen. Yesterday's yield was six quarts, and we have a bushel left to do. We'll see how many ripened overnight.

These aren't the easiest peaches to can because they're the cling variety, meaning the meat of the peach tends to cling to the seed. So it's a messier process and rather than neat halves we have smaller pieces in most instances. But they taste delicious.

A friend mentioned that he was making zucchini salsa last week and that got me curious. Last year I pureed a lot of zucchini and froze it for use in chili, spaghetti sauce and other dishes. It made a nice addition, kind of a filler with no strong flavor but adding some good veggie content. So salsa? I figured it would be about the same.

And the way I made it, that's pretty much what it was. I admit, I cheated! I used Mrs. Wage's Salsa mix, medium heat instead of my own spices and salt. Mrs. Wage's is easy to use, and the taste is fantastic. With so many fruits and vegetables coming in right now I need all the help I can get. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of chemicals and preservatives in Mrs. Wage's as far as I can tell, and it's sure better than the store-bought salsa any day.

So, for the salsa, I used this combination:

6 sweet banana peppers
2 bell peppers (all I had at the time)
4 onions
6 medium zucchini (about 10-12 inches long)
and a bunch of tomatoes of all kinds--cherry, yellow pear, pink, red, yellow and black--enough to make a total weight of 12 pounds of vegetables.
2 packs of Mrs. Wages and 1 cup of cider vinegar (per package directions)

All the veggies went through the food processor with the shred blade. That left enough larger bits to satisfy me as I like a chunky salsa.

Then cooked according to Mrs Wages, put in jars and processed according to package directions.

How did it taste? Delicious! We ate one whole half-pint jar of it plus the little bit left over after filling the jars.

I will absolutely be making more. And looking forward to having it all winter long--and adding to chili too.

For a recipe that is all from scratch, click here.


Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Beans 'n' Kraut

Not a recipe though--I can't even imagine what that would taste like. But it's what's been cookin' in my kitchen the past two days.

Friday was beans. 25 quarts, to be exact. These are bush beans--Tenderettes, my favorite. I am not a fan of the half-runner beans that are the runaway faves in this area; I don't like stringing them, and I don't like their flavor. Different strokes!

Beans, beans, beans

Saturday was sauerkraut day. This year I bought a food processor to cut up the cabbage, and it sure made the job easier. We've always used a kraut cutter, sometimes called a mandolin for some reason, but last year it was just too hard so I looked for a better way. The job went a lot smoother and easier with the processor.

Some of our yield.

It takes both of us to make kraut. We had 10 heads of cabbage, 5 early flat Dutch and 5 stonehead. We had to toss one head of early flat Dutch as it had split was was a mess of bugs and dirt and who knows what. So with 9 heads, we got 17 quarts of kraut. It was actually a pleasant job this year--we took breaks for wine and beer! More than one way to make canning fun.

Here's the recipe I use to make kraut. I've used this recipe since 1978 or so, and it always comes out well. It is from my Better Homes and Gardens Home Canning Cookbook, 1973 edition. It's pretty simple:

Shred 5 pounds of cabbage. Mix in 2 1/2 tablespoons of pickling salt. Let that set for about 30 minutes-1 hour. Then pack in jars, packing firmly, and leaving 1" of head space. The juice comes out of the cabbage as you pack and should cover it by the time the jar is full. Then wipe the jar rims and put the lids and rings on tightly. Let work for about 6 weeks--put them on a tray of some sort because the brine might spill over. If you need to, you can add brine while they're working by mixing 1 1/2 TBSP salt in a quart of water and adding to the jars that need it. Then clean the jar rims again, put on new lids, and set them in a water bath canner that is filled with cold water making sure there is 2" of water covering the jars. Bring the water slowly to a boil, and boil for 30 minutes. Tighten rims if necessary when the jars are removed from the canner.

Today I am tackling the red cabbage in my first attempt to make and can the Russian soupl called Borscht (the recipe is in the same cookbook). Wish me luck!


Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

In the Kitchen: Canning Time

One of things keeping me busy these days is the gardens. Well, not so much the gardens as what is coming out of them. While I hate the summer heat, I love seeing the produce that provides food for us for the better part of the year.

It's high harvest time for our summer gardens. Tomatoes, corn, beans, squash, potatoes, onions, and so on have been making their way to the kitchen by the basketsful for the past few weeks.

Which means:

Vegetable soup, 16 quarts now completed. In the pot,

and in the jars.

Onions, dehydrated and stored. We're trying this method this year, as we seem to lose so many stored onions to rot. I've also tried freezing them, but it's difficult to keep them from smelling up the whole freezer. So we'll see how we do with the dried ones. This is about 2 bushels of mixed yellow, white and red onions--they sure take up a lot less room this way.

Pasta sauce, 16 quarts so far and I am hoping for more before the tomatoes give up. They looked so pretty in the pan prior to cooking down!

They've done well but the heat and humidity have made it touch-and-go as far as the various blights, etc that might attack. So far so good, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. We've had our best crops from the German Pink and the Cherokee Purple so far. We also planted Mortgage Lifter but have had only a few tomatoes from them so far.

Broccoli, about a dozen bags so far. The plants continue to produce although the flowerettes are getting smaller and smaller. Larry has taken good care of these plants and we're hoping they'll make it through to cooler weather and continue to produce.

Cabbage: we grew a half dozen heads of Late Flat Dutch, to make sauerkraut. When they were ready last week, we spent hours "butchering" them, as I call it, because they were so huge! We used 4 of them to make 8 quarts of kraut--there was a good bit of waste due to bug and slug damage--and the chickens enjoyed the last two because we were worn out with working on them. It would not have been so bad but we did those after putting up ten quarts of corn.

 

Corn has been excellent but now the raccoons have found the patch so we won't get much more. We have 20 quarts put up so I am satisfied. The first raccoon damage was only about 5 ears, but the next night they had a party out there. My friend John Rushing of western Virginia has a theory that the first coon goes home with sweet corn on his breath and the others smell it and make him bring them all back the next night! I think he's got something there. Larry was so determined to finish up the last wagonload that he worked under an umbrella in the rain.

I've also frozen 20 bags of shredded zucchini to add to soups, stews, chili, and to make zucchini bread. This is a new venture too, something I've not tried before but I am hoping this will turn out to be a good way to preserve the zucchini bounty.

I've tried freezing squash but don't like the texture when I've used them. I've also tried dehydrating them and pickling. The pickled zucchini is very good but we can only eat so much of it! So I am hoping this frozen puree will be worth the trouble. I also ground up zucchini and added it to pasta sauce which I canned. I think this is going to be great in casseroles this winter.

And lastly, we got a little bit of garlic this year. I want to focus on this more next year and perhaps figure out a better place to plant it. These were wildlings that had seeded themselves in my flowerbeds.

Our second planting is coming on: late beans, corn, squash, carrots and onions seem to be thriving. Pumkpins and melons are doing well too, but it will be September before we taste our first melon. Ah well.

We still need to plant the fall greens, and I hope we can get to that in the next week or so. We have the seeds ready, just waiting to get the potatoes dug and a few other things pulled out and the ground tilled.

Two things that are different this year: I have made no jam or jelly yet. We've frozen a lot of berries and have been eating them fresh, but with so much jam still in the cellar, we really just don't need any more. Kinda makes me sad because I love to make it, but it's just silly to make what we don't need. I have yet to put up any pickles, either. The first cucumber plants turned out to be those long burpless once and they have done terribly. The Chicago Picklers are just now starting to come on, so later this week I'm pretty sure I'll be pickling.

Overall it's been a good garden year, partly due to having a lot of rain, partly due to the horse manure Larry spread last winter and to the fact that he has mulched most of the garden this year. He has really become a good gardener and I leave it to him anymore because he really enjoys it and I can see it's good for him--he relaxed when he's messing around out there.

So what's going on in your garden? Good year or bad one? Surprises or disappointments? Do tell!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.