More apple canning and my backhoe is home!

Apple pie filling

I found a recipe online that looked interesting and didn't require apple juice (the Ball recipe requires apple juice).  the recipe doesn't call for blanching the apples, but cold packs them in quart jars, and THEN proposes to pour the thick sauce over the cold apples!  I made 7 quarts this way.  I had to remove the cold apples from the jars and alternate packing apples in and pouring the thick sauce over top.  I water bathed quarts for 40 mins because 25 just didn't seem long enough for raw apples!  One quart jar didn't seal so I brought it back to taste.  It is good, but i really am going to keep an eye on these!  The next time we are going to use a Ball or similar recipe!


A better recipe may be found on NCHFP.

My Backhoe is home!

Yep!  They finally delivered it Saturday afternoon.  I was getting concerned because by 1 pm i had heard nothing.  I started doing the leaf vacuum thing and was well into it when i saw the truck pull up!  It really wasn't that expensive a fix - they replaced several leaking hoses and rebuilt a hydraulic manifold.  They also serviced the engine, looks much nicer and has considerably more power!  I am very happy!

My baby is home!  I parked it there because i need to use it more in the next couple of weeks!

The Drainage ditch

The next day I put my backhoe to work digging the drainage ditch I had put on hold since last fall!  This ground is stony and well packed so a backhoe is needed to dig it up!  The backhoe did a great job!  I need to clean up the ditch a little and then lay down the tile.  I will have to wait until next weekend though.  There just isn't enough time this weekend.

First leaf gathering of the fall

I fired up the cyclone rake and mowed/vacuumed up the leaves in the front yard.  Nothing unusual.  The grass was a bit taller than it should have been for optimal performance (the vent screen got clogged a couple of time due to grass clippings).    Looks and smells much nicer now.  More leafs are coming down though, so I am sure there will be more vacuuming in the future!

First corking of my concord (well, any) wine!

I finally got the equipment I needed to cork my wine (and the wine was ready - I think) so away I went!  I only did one of the carboys of concord as a test.  The other one was topped off with the leftovers from the first carboy.  Even though I didn't go through a whole carboy of wine I still managed to fill 2 cases of bottles! The second carboy can be bottled at my leisure now since its topped off tight.  Here are some pictures of the setup:

Bottle tree loaded with bottles.

This is a gadget that holds sanitizer and can shoot it up into the bottles.  Very handy!

Here are the bottle after corking.  First 1-2 days they are kept upright.  Then they are stored on their sides.

Bottle rinsing attachment for the sink.  This allows one to clean a bunch of bottles very quick!

I didn't get a picture of the floor corker.  I will try next time I am up at the farm!  It all went fairly smoothly.  It is quite a production though.  Very messy.  Many rags/towels were used!

Pear wine

I racked the first batch of pear wine into a narrow mouth bubbler/carboy.  I added another tablespoon of pectic enzyme to help it clear - its still very hazy.   We will see how it looks next weekend.

I went out to the garage and gathered the remaining pears.  Good lord!  They were ready and there were lots!  I weighed them out after trimming the bad spots and cleaning - all told I ground up 80 lbs of pears for wine tonight!  Counting the first carboy that makes a total of over 120 lbs of pears!   I added double the pectic enzyme to both of the new batches of pear wine to help in the haze issue noted in the first batch.  I did not add any acid to these batches.  I added sugar to get to a SG of about 1.060, as called for in the purple book recipe for "perry".  I used Cuvee yeast since that's what they call for with champagne.   This should be a drier wine.  I need to get some more champagne bottles for this though - I only have 24 champange bottles!   I should probably get more claret bottle for corking too!

Apple caramel jam and plumbing problems

Plumbing problems

The Toto toilet in the hall bathroom has been leaking for a while and I finally decided to act on it after seeing our last water bill (it was more than double the prior bill!)  The issue was a faulty fill-valve.  I ordered a replacement Wednesday, rush order - overnight for extra $6.  I received the valve Thursday evening and proceeded to install.  OMG - the toilet is one of the long ones and its almost smack up against the wall.  There is no room to get  your hand or any tool back there to un-couple the water supply from the old fill-valve!  I ended up taking the tank off the bowl and replacing the fill-valve and the water supply connections before re-seating the tank on the bowl.  This meant that the tank-to-bowl gasket had to be re-seated - BUT - that gasket, as well as any other rubber based material in the toilet, was showing signs of decomposition due to the chlorine in the water (I suspect).  In any case, the leaf from the fill valve was fixed but then there was a leak from the tank to the floor!  I searched online and found a local store that had a replacement for the tank-to-bowl gasket.  I removed the tank again and installed the gasket.  I wanted to use new tank bolt gaskets too, but the kit I got didn't have the right size gaskets.  Well, partial success.  The leak slowed down, but now I noticed that the flapper vale was also leaking.  So i got a new flapper valve and installed it.  That fixed the leak into the bowl from the tank, however, the leak from the tank to the floor was only partially "healed".  Katherine gave me the news that there was still a slow leak from the tank to the floor on Saturday.  I looked online for the correct tank-bolt gaskets and found a place in CA that sold them - but they are back-ordered - possibly for a week!  In the meantime we are just going to have to turn off the water to the toilet between flushes.  Sigh.  I hate plumbing.

For the record, here is some info on the toilet and parts:

toilet:  Toto "pacifica" model ST804S
replacement fill-valve: TOTO TSU99A.X Universal Fill Valve 
replacement tank-to-bowl gasket: 9BU024E
Tank to Bowl Mounting Kit: TS810DV2

City beets!

I finally harvested the beets from my raised beds down in the city (Silver Spring, really a suburb).  I just picked and cleaned them off a bit then left for the farm.  Katherine cooked, diced, and vacuum packed and froze them.  I estimate she did about 2 quarts.

Caramel apple jam

I went up to the farm late Friday because of the above toilet issue.

I was pretty tired after the long 3 hour drive, eventually recovered enough to try a recipe for caramel apple jam.  I peeled and chopped 6 cups of York apples  (some of mom's I picked last weekend).  I followed a recipe that seemed to be fairly popular on the web (I should have read more of the reviews first, in retrospect! ) 

Anyway, I found that I needed to add more water to the first step (cooking the apples), as many people had commented in the recipe reviews.  Also, very subjective as to when the apples are boiling because even with an extra .5 C water you are still looking at a fairly dry mass of apples!  I did the pectin thing and canned and water bathed the half pint jars 12 min.  I got 8 pints from the recipe.   I tasted a little that remained and was not impressed.   Nothing caramel about the taste!  I must have messed something up because the jam did not set!  Well, some didn't.   Some jars seem more set than others! Weird.  I'm thinking I might puree this stuff up with some apples and put it in dehydrator to make a apple-leather.  Not a recipe to repeat!

8 half-pints

Obviously, this did not set correctly!

More apples and planer upgrade

Was a rainy start this past weekend,  but that was ok since I needed to install my new Shelix head cutter on my delta 22-540 planer!

Took a while to break down the planer and clean it, but it went together much faster.  I needed to get a set of clip ring pliers at the hardware store,  but I'm glad I got them there, they had a nice pair with multiple attachments!

Planer much quieter and goes through oak like butter and leaves nice smooth finish!   I  planed the paint of some pine boards mom gave to me -the planer did great!

Apple update

I went over to mom's on Sunday morning to pick up some canning jars and some apples.  I picked about 2 bushels of York  apples.  They look pretty good.  I wanted can some apple pie filling but I didn't have any clear-gel (special starch used frequently for canning).  I did process 10 pints of apple slices in syrup for just eating and making apple crisp.

Weekend Plantings

The ground was pretty wet, but I was able to plant garlic and wheat in the front patch.  I mulched the garlic with wood chips.  I put row covers over the wheat since it's late and I was afraid of freeze.  Also, so many crows around I figured they would strip it clean!

I also trimmed around the blueberries and put a bunch of wood chip mulch down for them.

Pear wine

I removed the pear pulp (must) from the fermenter and wrung it out.  The fermentation got it down to S.G. 1.010 from 1.095 so it did well this past week.  Lots of cloudiness though.  I'm thinking of adding more pectic enzyme to see if that helps.  I  racked into a new big mouth bubbler.  I saw it bubbling so I know it's still working. 

Pear wine and potatoes

Wine

Well, it's still Columbus day weekend, so I decided I would bite the bullet and do a batch of pear wine.  I looked at the pears yesterday and saw so many green ones that I had pretty much decided to wait until next week when they were riper.  Especially after reading online that over-ripe pears are best.  But I considered that there are some pears that are ripe now and some that are even overripe and will rot by next weekend...

So, I sorted through the pears until I had about 40 lbs (I used the bathroom scale). Then I washed and cut the bad spots out, then washed again and ground them up.  I placed the pulp in the nylon bag in the square fermenter.  I used the purple book recipe, but I deviated a bit.  Here is the recipe I essentially used:

• 40 lbs pears - ground up and placed in nylon bag in fermenter - this is DOUBLE what the recipe calls for!  These pears don't seem too juicy
• 2 gallons water (I may add more after I do first fermentation and remove the bag of pulp, if needed to get the 5 gallons I want)
• 4 lbs sugar (I brought the S.G. up to about 1.095, about where they advise it should be - I may add more sugar when I re-rack depending on taste.  Before I added sugar the S.G. was about 1.04)
• 4 tbsp acid
• 4 tsp pectic enzyme
• 5 tsp nutrient
• 5 campden tablets

The rest of the recipe was followed as written.

Sorted out the ripe and damaged ones.

Here is all that is left - probably another batch like this one?  Perry next time, I think!

More canned taters!

I finally got around to canning the rest of the "seconds" potatoes.  Some were looking might rough.  I really should go through and re-sort the "good" potatoes too, but I will do that later.

I got 17 pints!  Looking good now:

Once the starch sets, things will cloud up significantly, I am sure!

Late start columbus day weekend

More (the last of the season) Applesauce 

I didn't hit the road until almost 11am, Saturday, Oct 11th.   I was up late canning the last of the apples we picked at mom's (the prairie spy apples).  The finally tally: 25.5 quarts!  Not bad for free apples.  I had some cinnamon red-hots candy that Katherine bought for flavoring applesauce, so I used them in the last 4.5 quarts.  The candy really helps the flavor since I don't sweeten my applesauce and this stuff was particularly tart and pectin rich due to the type of apple (I think).  I should note that I added about 1 quart of water to the cook pot for the apples to keep from scorching them (like I did with the first batch of these apples a couple weeks ago).

Thursday nights 7 quarts

This is what was left after Thursday night

This is all the above apples made into applesauce!  Those are 4.5 quarts of red-hot flavored applesauce on the right.

All told, mom's Prairie Spy apples gave me 35 quarts of applesauce!  That means I started with somewhere between 87.5 to 122.5 lbs of apples (so I started with somewhere between 1.8 to 2.5 bushels).

Peppers

I harvested the bell and hot peppers from my raised bed before I came up yesterday.  I was looking for how to preserve the bell peppers an stumble upon a recipe for marinated peppers!  I looked safe (even though it does have oil in it) so I decided to give it a try.  I have never (that i remember) roasted and peeled peppers.  Ugh!  I ha to roast them twice because the skin as so hasr to remove.  there was a HUGE amount of waste due to the odd shape and un-peelability th peppers.  I figured I wasted about 1/4 to 1/3 of the peppers due to skinning issues.  I had to substitute garlic power for garlic, but everything else was as called for in the recipe (I didn't include the horseradish or the salt - salt was by accident).

Marinated bell peppers.  6 pints.  1 C left over marinade on the right.

The last (?) of the jalapenos. 

Hot peppers need to be pickled today.  Maybe cowboy candy, since I have some of that pickling liquor left.

Cowboy Candy

Yep, decided on Cowboy candy.  I used the old pickling liquid.  I got 2 pints and 2 half-pints.  I also canned the remaining pickling liquid.  I will just use it for sauce or seasoning on something.  I would be a good hot & sour base for something.

Pumpkins

Set out more pumpkins to dry.  I did 6 small ones when I got here yesterday.  They are probably dry enough now.  I will powder them and add  to the jar of powder i have been collecting.

Fall Cabbage harvest

Harvested most of the cabbages (I left one for slaw later).  Here they are:

I did use one for golumpki - not bad!

I used ramen noodles instead of rice.  Rice would have been better.  The noodles got mushy before the cabbage was cooked!

Damn tasty though!

Here is the cabbage ready to ferment (41 lbs of it):

41 lbs of cabbage!  I had no trouble with this stuff being juicy enough!

Applesauce

Making  Applesauce

We started in on the box of apples we got from mom's trees a couple weeks ago.  There were a lot of them going bad!  I sorted through them and did what I thought would fill a canner.  Still more need to be done soon.  Will try again tomorrow night.

7 quarts canned, 1 and a half quarts in the fridge.

These were the same type of apple, Prairie Spy, that caused me problems last time I made apple sauce.  They had too much pectin in them and burned the first time, so this time I added considerable more water to the pot before running them through the squeeze-o.  Also, I didn't put them in deep pots so that I could stir them more effectively.  The applesauce looks good!

Here is what is left in the box:

Quite a few!  I think these might completely fulfill my applesauce needs this year!  Mom has more apples, Jonathan variety, I think.  They are supposed to be good for pies!  We will probably can some pie filling and jam - and maybe a few fun things!

Rainy start this weekend

Green Beans

Before we left we tackled the green beans from last weekend.  We shelled a lot of them out, but still managed to get enough to can.  We got 12 and a half quarts of green beans canned.  Here they are:

Here are the ones we shelled out, all spread out to dry for storage:

Canning Vegetable soup

We made it up to the farm Friday afternoon (we were up late canning those green beans above!).  I started in on cleaning the carrots I salvaged from the paw-paw patch.  Unfortunately, the carrots left over from mom's patch fermented , so those were a waste.  At least I got the bulk of those dried!  On that point, they weren't as dry as I would have liked them, so I put them back in the drier; I am going leave them there until they get crisp!  Anyway, I cleaned and chopped the carrots from the paw-paw patch and got almost exactly 1.5 quarts!  This is enough to make one batch of  the Ball veggie soup recipe!  So I went ahead and cleaned/cubed up some potatoes and Katherine did up the onions and celery.  We got a late start on them, so we didn't get done until about 2am!   Here are some pictures:

We got 16 and one-half pints of veggie soup cooked up!

 We did up a 1 C jar of "leftover soup" so that it would be cooked correctly .  We will try it today to see if its any good.

We are currently looking at recipes that include tomatoes an maybe potatoes so that we can continue to save these crops.  I hate wasting food!

Grape juice!

I saved the "must" from the wine I started a couple of weeks ago with the idea of trying to make seconds wine or jelly or something.  I hate to waste the grape skins that still have so much flavor!  Well, I finally got to them today (its too wet to do what I want to do so I stay inside and make a mess!).  I took the must out of the nylon mesh bags that were the basis for each of the 5 gal batches of wine I started.  I boiled the must with about 1 gal of water for each batch (they were in some water from when I saved them).   I should say its quite a mess!  Once I got the juice out and strained I tasted it - it was SOUR!  The fermentation evidently ate all the sugar out of the must - which is good for wine but bad for making juice with the seconds!  Anyway, I added enough sugar to the juice to make an extra-light syrup and canned it.  I got 9 quarts! (7 quarts and 4 pints - I did add a little water to the last two jars to fill but it shouldn't effect flavor).

Concord wine progress

I raked the wine again.  It looked like the primary fermentation is well over.  While raking I noticed that there is still a considerable carbonation in the wine.  I will let it sit for at least one more week before I bottle.  I may decide to clarify, although I am not sure why I should since its just for personal consumption.  I will think about it.

Pears

Went over to mom's to sharpen her riding mower blades (I started down that path before but the blades were REALLY tight, so I brought an air-impact wrench this time!) .  I got 3 out of 4 blades off, sharpened, and back on.  The one blade just wouldn't budge.  I will either have to take the deck off or think of something else.   While i was over there i picked some pears (keifer and/or barlet - she wasn't sure - I can relate! lol).  I want to make some pear wine - maybe some "perry" which is a fizzy pear wine!  I need to order some champagne bottles for the perry!  I looked at the jonahan apples - they are good to pick whenever - so maybe next weekend I will get some apples for pies, jellies and other canning delights!

Last of the tomatoes! 

Katherine processed the last of the tomatoes this weekend!  They were done using the vitamix and pressure canned in pint jars.  12.5 pints.  Now to go back and tally all the tomatoes.  Rough estimates aren't as impressive as I that I didn't record the earliest canning of the Mrs Wages salsas.

Begining of the End of the gardens for the year

I took up the black plastic row covers from the sunflower field and along the inside of the big patch.  Then i ran the leaf vacuum/mower over the corn and bean patch (and part of the tomato patch that I had cleared) to get rid of the smartweed seed heads.  It was a real chore since the weeds were evidently still quite wet and the vacuum clogged and stalled frequently.  I eventually removed all of the tomato trellis stuff as well (and broke a tine off of my digging fork! ARG).  I am hopeful that it will be drier next time I am up and I will mow/vacuum the rest of the garden (except the eggplants).  Maybe I will even do a quick till and seed with vetch.