Post #200!! Fall is here. Orchard care and wood-chips

First off, last weeks preserving efforts

I finally tried the Mrs Wages Dilly Beans mix!  I used the best beans of the pick.  6 pints

I got 3 and a half quarts of tomato sauce.  If you look at the previous posting I had already made 10 pints of pasta sauce.  The remaining tomatoes were initially too green to use so i let them ripen and made them into plain sauce.

15 quarts of green beans!  I processed them an extra 10 mins to soften them up a bit more.

Blueberries

Well, i wanted to clean up the sawmill - there was a lot of debris, slabs, and sawdust cluttering the place up and its now cool enough that I could start milling some more.   So after I moved out a bunch of slabs and organized some pieces that I might feed through the chipper (I need more wood chips already!) I was able to get to the sawdust.  I shoveled out 3 front loader buckets full of sawdust and placed it on the blueberries - rather thick.

As a side note, I suspected that my sawmill base was out of level so i grabbed a carpenters level and checked it out after I had cleaned up,  The base was almost perfectly level side-to-side.  However, front to back it wasn't - and I think I initially set it up incorrectly!  I front-to-back is level from the top of the guide rail to the opposite bed flat - but i think its supposed to be leveled from one side flat to the other side flat!  I am going to have to check the manual to make sure.  

I have 22 plants and was able to get all but 10 of them dressed.   I will be running the mill more though soon so I will have plenty of sawdust in the future.

Wood-chips

I continued to place the wood-chips around the orchard trees.  I put a full front-loader bucket full around each tree.  I ran out of wood chips before i finished.  I am planing on chipping some of the mill ends next weekend.

I preferentially placed wood-chips around the plum trees since they are looking a bit harsh

Pumpkins are ripening!

I didn't have any decent pictures of these so I decided to take a few shots.  The "Cinderella" pumpkins are in the back nearest the house.

They are a striking orange.

A few spaghetti squash there.  Way more then I wanted.

I am trying to push these on people at work.  I have so much powdered pumpkin left from last year, I really really don't want any more!  Although i do plan on testing the new pumpkin type out and probably dehydrate and powder that.

Castor beans are ripening!

They are still growing too!  I need to put some sacks around the seed bunches otherwise they are going to exploded their seeds all over the place!  I want to have enough left for seeds for next year!  I have only managed to save 5 beans so far!

This guy is about 7-8 feet tall now (that post is over 6 feet tall).  Still shorter than the ones mom and dad grew - those would get 10 feet or more!

Harvest

I picked tomatoes, Kale, and broccoli before I left.  Sorry, I only got pics of the tomatoes.   I processed the broccoli (blanched and froze) and kale (braised it with sausage and onions - it was dinner) Sunday night and then sorted and processed some of the tomatoes Monday night.  I used the Mrs Wages chili mix again.  After reviewing how much tomato sauce I have in storage, i don't feel bad about making more chili base!

Before sorting.  I don't have all of them in there though.  I got the volunteers from the big patch and the front patch as well.

After sorting.  I am letting these ripen up before i process them into more chili base.

the chili base I made from the first sort of the tomatoes.  I was surprised at how much I had.  The mix is supposed to be used for 5 pints and I got 6.5.  I made chili with the left over .5 pint along with some of my old (2013) tomatoes.  It tastes great!

Tomato Sauce, green beans and Eggplant

Tomato processing

Decided to try the Mrs Wages "Pasta Sauce" mix since we are so happy with the chili base mix.  I couldn't find any reference in the blog about trying the pasta mix before.

The tomatoes from last weekend harvest

Pasta Sauce

I had about 23 lbs of tomatoes from the harvest and a number of expired canned tomatoes (store bought from before when we had the garden) to use.  I decided to make the pasta sauce out of our own tomatoes.   I used the vitamix, as per-usual process, and while doing that I had an idea.  

I have been collecting the apples and pears that have been taken off my trees (pears taken early because I was afraid the weight of the fruit would break the tree down, and the apples because the freaking birds would peck them to pieces before I could get any!).  The I have been leaving the fruit out to ripen, but the damage from the various factors is not being good to them and they are spoiling faster than ripening.    I figured, since the vitamix pulverizes things so completely, why not just add those fruits to the tomato sauce for sweetness?  I mean, the recipe calls for adding sugar anyway, why not fruit?  So I tried it.  Unfortunately, the fruit wasn't too sweet so I ended up adding sugar anyway, but the fruit did extend the sauce!  You cant taste the fruit in the sauce at all.  Katherine even tried it (I didn't tell her I had added the fruit).  She commented that the sauce was a bit off; I agreed, but I think that the flavors are off simply because its a different mix than we would normally use.  It would have tasted "off" even if using only tomatoes.  Anyway, the taste is not bad, and since I am the one to use most of the pasta sauce I seasoned it to my tastes.  By using the fruit, I 1) saved the fruit from spoilage waste, and 2) extended my tomatoes - maybe important depending on the weather for the next couple of weeks (tomatoes may not be getting any more on if it stays this dry!).  

I got 10 pints of pasta  sauce canned.

The pasta sauce with apples.  Tastes fine!

Chili Sauce

I found a bunch of commercially canned tomatoes downstairs.  The cans had expired but still looked good.  So I used these cans to make my chili base sauce!  Like before, I added some fruit!  You can't tell the difference in flavor at all!    

I got 11 pints of chili base canned plus a half pint in the fridge.

Plain tomato sauce

With the remaining harvested tomatoes I just whirled the tomatoes up in the vitamix good, boiled them for 10-25 mins and then canned them in quart jars with a half-teaspoon of citric acid for safety.  One of the jars didn't seal because of a flaw in the jar lip, so I had to re-can later using 2 pint jars.

I got a total of 6 quarts of tomato sauce canned this way and a half pint that I mixed with the left-over chili base in the fridge.

Green Beans

After I canned the tomatoes I snapped the green beans I had picked last weekend.  I did the usual pressure canning process and got 4 quarts and 1 pint of green beans canned.

Hot packed, as usual.  I think I may have rushed them a bit though.  The liquid level in the jars is a bit low.  They will be fine though.

Eggplant

Katherine sliced, breaded, and baked the eggplant from last weekend.  I don't know yet if she is planning on freezing it or making another eggplant-parmesan.  Sorry, no pictures of the eggplant after processing.

Broccoli frozen

I blanched and bagged the brocoli from last weekend.  It was between 1-2 Cups.  I usd the new seal-a-meal gadget with one of the reusable bags.  It took me a while to figure out how to use it correctly, bug I finally got it bagged, vacuumed and frozen.  Slow going on the broccoli preservation, but it is adding up!