Ever make something that you just don't want to give away?

[shannonlovesflowers]

In my yard I have tons of fruit. Giant Apricot tree, tons of plum trees, 2 different apple trees, and 2 chokecherry bushes.

We've lived in this house for 3 years now. We usually eat some of the apples, but it's just me and my husband. We can't eat all that fruit

So this year I decided that by golly we are gonna do something with them!

Lucky for me I have a mom who knows how to can like a rock star.

We made lots of stuff.....Well mostly I paid for all the supplies and mom made the stuff. I even paid my mom to pick those tiny chokecherries!
I picked about a cup full and thought "Oh hell no!"

Anyway, out of all the stuff my mom made (It's all killer BTW) without a doubt the apple butter is my favorite! The apples were gala apples, so she put just a little sugar in it. OMG, it is SOOO freakin good.

We did all this so we could give the stuff for Christmas gifts. There's chokecherry jelly, chokecherry syrup, apple sauce, apple butter, plum jelly, and chokecherry/plum jelly. We couldn't get to the apricots, maybe next year.
If you've never canned, just let me tell you it's a lot of dang work!

Anyway, I don't know if I can part with the apple butter.

Do any of you all can?

Next year...pickles too! yum! And if I can sneek some out of the public parks,,,,,crabapple jelly!

 

[Beth]

Darn, Shannon, that sounds AMAZING!!!

I used to do a little canning.. mostly tons of tomato sauce. I used to plant lots of tomatoes, and couldn't stand any of it going to waste. I would cook up a lot of tomato sauce and some spaghetti sauce (tomato sauce plus sauteed onions, garlic, peppers). It was awesome to have all that ready to use!

My ex was an avid fisherman and owned a smoker. He would smoke some of his fish and then we'd can that too. So when we split up, somehow he ended up with the canner. So wrong! lol

Now I want you and your mom to adopt me!

 

[Twila]

What the heck is a chokecherry?

I used to can...lots of it: jam (no that was freezer jam), beans, tuna, peaches, pears, tomatoes and grape juice (actually that was from a steamer-juicer). There is no other pride that you feel than when your shelves are all lined up with the "fruits of your labor".

BTW...I'd be more than happy to try some of the chokecherry stuff for you!!....whatever it is. Sounds like it is pretty good.

 

[Dorothy]

What the heck is a chokecherry?

I used to can...lots of it: jam (no that was freezer jam), beans, tuna, peaches, pears, tomatoes and grape juice (actually that was from a steamer-juicer). There is no other pride that you feel than when your shelves are all lined up with the "fruits of your labor".

BTW...I'd be more than happy to try some of the chokecherry stuff for you!!....whatever it is. Sounds like it is pretty good.

Twila, I grew up in the Peace River Country on the BC side (you can look it up on Google Earth). We had wild chokecherry trees...they grow on trees like Saskatoon berries, another wildberry tree. Chokecherries can be sour but oh-so-good. Have you tried Wildberry jam? They'd work well in that mixture. We also had wild strawberries, wild raspberries and crabapples. Nothing like going out into the woods with your ice-cream pail and picking berries to jam or freeze!

Now I live in the Okanagan Valley which has tons of fruit growing in people's yards: cherries, apples, peaches, apricots, plums, grapes...and I don't preserve a thing! I even have walnuts and hazel nuts in my own yard! Maybe next year I'll get into the canning thing again...this thread has inspired me!

Thank you all!

 

[Victoria]

I used to can every summer and fall. Four kids loved jams, pickles and the like. My beets, onions, chile sauce and just for kicks, Christmas tree skirt, all won at the fall fair.

My personal favourite was the wine baked apple butter. Delicious.

Yes it was a lot of work, but what a treat to taste those happy seasons in the dead of winter. There is nothing quite like it.

My mother, who never did anything like this, could not figure out where on earth I learned how to do this stuff. I read.

V

 

[Connie]

Ah! What sweet memories! My dad always planted a huge, and I do mean HUGE, garden! He even planted about 1/2 acre of corn. For the latter, my 2 sisters, our husbands, our children, and Mom and Dad would spend our July 4 gathering, "cutting off," blanching, and putting that corn in containers for our freezers. It was the best corn in the world, and we had a blast together.

From his garden, I canned many tomatoes (and the ones that you can buy from the grocery store are pathetic in comparison), green beans, butter beans, squash, cucumber pickles, peppers, peas, okra, broccoli, vegetable soup, and more.

One year I had canned so much that I made up gift baskets with some of my jars of goodies and gave them away for Christmas.

Exasperated at the amount of hard work that we did in Dad's garden, I once asked him why he planted so much. He replied, "I like to see it grow." That was enough for me because I love to see things that I've nurtured grow also.

Sweet memories, indeed!

 

[Kristine]

you bettcha Still canning and freezing all kinds of jams, veggies, fruits, etc.

Couple years ago I got my hands on a dehydrator. Started doing "sundried" tomatoes. Can't keep them around. The nephews went gaga over them - both are good cooks. Last year found a recipe for roasted plum tomatoes. Little olive oil some herbs slow roasted in the oven 3ish hours. yum

This year my hubby tried chilpolte peppers - jury is still out.

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

The best way to do chilies is roast 'em and then freeze 'em WITH the skins still on!

I roasted 2 bushels of green chilie this year and put about 7-8 chilies in freezer bags and shoved 'em in the freezer.

My hubby and I love a big pot of pinto beans with green chilie and tortillas. That's good eatin'!

 

[Kristine]

The best way to do chilies is roast 'em and then freeze 'em WITH the skins still on!

I roasted 2 bushels of green chilie this year and put about 7-8 chilies in freezer bags and shoved 'em in the freezer.

My hubby and I love a big pot of pinto beans with green chilie and tortillas. That's good eatin'!

what variety of chilies do you grow?? I've been looking at the seed catalogue for next years crop. A girl can't start too early

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

I buy them from a local farm. But I always get "Big Jim Chilie" it's like a giant anaheim chilie, very close to what they grow in Hatch New Mexico.. The best chilie in the world if you ask me! That sort of chilie grows best in a hot dry climate.

When you freeze the chilie with the roasted skins on, they are SO easy to peel when they thaw out. And I roast the heck out of them, Some would say they were burned, but that's how you do it. I usually do it on the BBQ grill. They will roast it at the farm, but I don't trust them to clean all the dirt and bird poop and whatnot off, so I take them home and do it myself!

 

[aileen_c]

Yes, You're rght on Shannon about Hatch, NM. My uncle "retired" there, had a very awesome double wide and worked at the local chile plant. He took us there, while we were on vacation, and we got to see him load up this huge vat with chiles...it was awesome. I loved going to the chile festival and also roaming around Hatch checking out the houses made of adobe.

 

[Beth]

The best way to do chilies is roast 'em and then freeze 'em WITH the skins still on!

I roasted 2 bushels of green chilie this year and put about 7-8 chilies in freezer bags and shoved 'em in the freezer.

My hubby and I love a big pot of pinto beans with green chilie and tortillas. That's good eatin'!

OMG, Shannon, my mouth is watering! You know, Wendy, my friend from New Mexico who went to the same high school as you? When she visited a few months ago, she brought me several bags of frozen roasted green chilis, skins on. They are so absolutely wonderful!

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

yep!
Did she tell you the best way to season them is just with salt and a LOT of garlic!
I just use garlic powder. That really makes a difference!

I still think it's funny that you know someone from my high school!
Small world baby!

 

[Beth]

yep!
Did she tell you the best way to season them is just with salt and a LOT of garlic!
I just use garlic powder. That really makes a difference!

I still think it's funny that you know someone from my high school!
Small world baby!

No, she didn't tell me that... thanks. But to be honest, I think they rock right out of the bag... she gave me some already skinned and diced. I used some for taco salad and then just ate a lot of them straight out of the bag on a spoon! They are heavenly!!

I still can't get over the fact that I know two women from FHS either! What are the chances of that??

 

[blomingdns]

I try to get a bushel of cukes at least once a year and do a massive pickle batch (bread and butter). I have friends that won't let me visit at Christmas without the admission jars of pickles. They have even offered to buy the cukes for me.
My husband doesn't understand my need to do the pickling, but he sure does enjoy it!
Unfortunately, sometimes when my hair is the right color and length I am told that I look like Martha Stewart and then get called Martha because I am so domestic!!

 

[ctherose]

OH Shannon, my mouth is watering over your chokecherry jelly. When I was a young girl, my mom would pick wild chokecherries and make the most fabulous jelly. If you make some next year, would you sell me a jar?? It just sounds so good right now!

 

[RWK]

HA !!!! You wanna talk about canning !!!! I gots ya beat. I have so much home canned food in my freezer, dry shed, and canning shed.....that I am being serious. The only things I go to the grocery store for is milk, bread, and meat. I am surrounded by people who garden and I get tons of stuff.

Right now I have 30 quarts of black-eye and purple hull peas in my freezer, 20 quarts of speckled butterbeans, 10 quarts of tomatoe puree ( used for homemade sauce ), just to name a few things.

And I was lamenting earlier in the season about how I could not find one bushel of this years sugar and snap pea crop at the farmers market this year.

 

[hangglidegirl]

Love to can! We have an orchard (apples, pears, peaches, and cherry trees as well as blackberries and raspberries) and 1/4 acre in vegetable garden.

Every year I try a new receipe - this year it was pickled banana pepper rings. Yum - that's a keeper!

Tried the dehydrater thing - blasted contraption nearly drove me nuts. I returned it.

 

[bloomery]

My friends call me crazy...

I can lots of stuff every year, as well as freeze things. Green and yellow beans, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, salsa, sweet corn, beets, cauliflower, broccoli, stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbages, chopped peppers and onions, shredded zucchini for zucchini bread, plus fruits, jams, etc.. My friends think I am nuts because of the amount of work they think it is, but there is nothing better than homegrown, home-preserved food. We also buy beef from a local butcher and have that in the freezer, and also some years we'll get a pig as well. It helps so much with the grocery bill, and all tastes so much better!! Just thinking about it makes me hungry - I think I'll go and get some of those peaches now!

 

[wildflowerschicago]

You ALL have made me totally jealous!!!!!!!

Once upon a time, before the store and before kids, I had a garden and canned the proceeds from it (sigh). Granted it was a sad little city garden behind my garage...but it was a garden none the less. Now I can't even find a decent farmer's market (that happens on a day I can take a few hours off).

So while you are all feasting on the fruits of your labor (literally) think of those of us who are stuck eating crappy canned and frozed grocery store food, and dreaming about your homemade/home canned goodies. My pity party & I are going home now...hungry & unsatisfied.:corky