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!