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!

Canning potatoes and, of course, more tomatoes!

Canning Crazy!

I am getting a bit overwhelmed with the harvesting and canning activities so what I am going to do here is just post some pictures that i took over the past several days and add captions to explain things.

14 quarts and 6 pint and a half jars of tomatoes that Katherine cleaned and I canned on Sept 4 evening

This is a picture of the cucumber relish (I think) that Katherine made on labor day weekend.  16 pints.  She didn't like the recipe so I won't post it.  It has way too much liquid in it.

 We made it up to the farm last Friday, Sept 5, in time for me to gather some of the rough potatoes from the potato harvest and can them!  We ate 3 of the jars shown below during the weekend to see if we liked them done this way.  Personally, i loved them!  Katherine cooked them in potatoes, eggs and onions breakfasts!  Used our own onions too!

This is the next morning immediately after taking them out of the PC.

Closer view

I didn't get a picture of them later that day, but I will state that the "clear" liquid in those jars gets thick and white with starch!  I personally did not work to get them out of the jars after canning so I don't know really how hard they are to dislodge.  Katherine said it wasn't too bad and she votes for canning more of the damaged potatoes.  They are convenient and don't take freezer space.

More broccoli and our first cauliflower of the season!  The cauliflower looks super good!

We haven't eaten it yet.  That's the problem when stuff comes in this fast.  We just finished eating the broccoli from LAST weekend!

I sorted the potatoes according to damaged vs non-damaged and color.  Looks like we got a total of about 175 lbs this harvest!

The ones in the bucket are next years seed potatoes

Brassica patch is looking quite nice actually!

Late cabbage

another late cabbage, heading up nice!

Quite a few late cabbages made it!  We might have to figure out what to do with all this cabbage!

The cauliflower and broccoli plants are still going strong.  Not sure if we will get enough to freeze or pickle though. 

Yep - that's my green globe artichoke!  Katherine says that they are perennial, so even if this doesn't produce this year, maybe next?  I just need to figure out a way of moving it - its in the center of the paw-paw patch!

Another artichoke.  I have 4 in all.

The kale!  Lots of green leaves!  I sprayed all the brasicas with BT.  I didn't harvest any kale this weekend.  I think i will harvest some and start drying it next weekend.

Smokey, checking things out!

Harvested the sunflowers (most of them) this weekend.  I put them on the garage floor to dry.  I thought about putting them in the red-barn on the trailer bed, but i was afraid that squirrels would help themselves!  The garage is a bit tighter.

Trying to get a record of the tomatoes.  I think we will just have to inventory them after we are all done at this point.

this shows 28 quarts plus 6 pint and a halfs

We brought 3 bus trays full of tomatoes back this time.  Katherine is already a bit punchy over the weekend canning activities and she thinks there is no end in sight.  We did give some of the heirloom "pink lady" tomatoes away to neighbors and friends at work.  She is going to put some of these in trays (after juicing) to try to get a thicker sauce going.  She did a bunch of sauce on the farm on Sunday night - it was very good!  It does take some cooking though. The idea is that on trays, in the oven, there will be more surface area for the sauce to evaporate faster.  We will see!

Buttercup Squash

Those green squash with the little cap on the end are called "buttercup squash".  We probably got the seed packets mixed up with "butternut" squash (since I don't have any of those - lol).  Well, we finally tried one and it was GOOD!  Wonderful flavor and a great texture.  Bright orange!  We will be saving the seeds from these for sure!

Weekend update: potatoes and tomatoes

Just a quick update to try to keep the record keeping straight:

More Mowing Issues

Before I go off on the food preservation I want to mention that I replaced ANOTHER spindle on the Huskee (TSC's "brand" of riding mower/garden tractor).  Grass really needed mowing in the orchard - which I did once everything dried off a bit.

New (?) Hawk sighting!

I saw a Hawk out in the paw-paw orchard Sunday morning!  I hope he sticks around and that the insulators that the utility put up last week work!  I got some nice pictures!

Backhoe finally got picked up!

Saturday afternoon, Joe Hines and his dad showed up with a big truck and trailer and got the backhoe.  Joe asked if I was still interested in the Club Cadet zero turn model mower we talked about before. I told him that it depend on the bill for the backhoe!  I didn't tell him that it also depended on if I actually got the portable saw-mill this guy in Michigan keeps hinting at building and delivering for me!   I am hoping to get the needed repairs done on the backhoe for under $4K.  I haven't heard back from Hines yet.  

Last of the Elderberry

I picked the last of the elderberries for the season.  I got about another gallon.  I cleaned them and placed them in ziplock bag in the freezer for processing later.  We are too busy with canning tomatoes and other stuff to process them now!

Canned Chicken

Katherine got some chicken leg-quarters on sale at safeway last week.  They were $.80/lb so she bought 8 packs of roughly 4 lbs each.  We tried our first attempt at canned chicken!  I have done venison and pork before, but this is the first try at chicken!  We cold packed it in wide mouth pint jars, placing 1/2 tsp salt in each jar and adding water as needed to insure there were no air-bubbles.  Pressure canned at 15lb for 1 hour 15 mins.  We tried a jar the next day - the bones became so soft you could eat them (although the shaft of the bones aren't very palatable, the ends of the bones are good!).  We got 32 pint jars of chicken canned! The pressure canner holds 16 pints per load.  We did two loads.

Tomatoes

Picked many more tomatoes.  They are really getting gripe fast now.  Katherine canned 19 quarts of diced tomatoes this past weekend.  I don't think she took pics, but they all looked good to me.

Squash, pumpkins, cukes and sunflowers

Picked the last of the squash.  I pulled the plants and removed them from the garden due to Squash Vine Borer (SVB) infestation.  Still got a good 40 lb of squash.  Katherine wants to shred and freeze at least part of them so that she can make zucchini bread in the winter.  We already have 3-4 gallon containers full of dried squash!  I picked more cukes - they are almost done I think, but still have a bus tray full of them.  Katherine said something about making relish with them.  I picked more pumpkins.  They are about 2/3rds done I think.  I got a couple that were in need of processing - I want to try making pumpkin leather.  I need to take the vitamix up to the farm and do that next weekend. I need to look to harvesting sunflowers soon too, by the looks of them!

Potatoes

I finally got started digging the potatoes.  It rained Friday and Saturday so I wasn't able to get started until Sunday.  The driveway side of the front patch yielded some potatoes, better than the big patch last year by far.  However, the side opposite the driveway was EXTREMELY productive!  Since I was not able to de-weed and mulch or otherwise care for the potato plants this year the rows were hard to find to dig - I ended up just digging up the entire area where the potatoes were.  Ugh!  Hard work.  Here is a picture of the first bunch I picked.

Mostly white potatoes - i am not sure if these are Kennebec or Yukon.  I might have another variety too, but I am pretty sure I only have Kennebec and Yukon white potatoes

This is a potato fruit!  I never saw them as a kid.  I told mom about finding this and she told me that she used to pick them off as she found them on hers because she heard that leaving them on caused the potatoes to be smaller and less productive! 

Corn

I went over to mom's and picked sweet corn from my patch there.  It was a bit overripe so I decided to preserve it by drying!  The corn there was also seasonally afflicted - lol - it was too dry there!  Anyway, I got about 10 pints which I blanched, cut off cob, and put in dehydrator at 120F for 24 hours.

Almost exactly 2 quarts dried corn from roughly 10 pints (5 quart) of "wet" corn.

I got some recipes for corn casserole type dishes that I remember as a kid.  I don't know which one I liked though!  Or even if I liked mom's or grandma's  or which grandma's grrrr.

Here are some pictures from mom's recipe books:

Also, while over at mom's, we picked up some frozen black raspberries that mom and dad had put away in the previous years.  Mom doesn't eat them - dad used them for his cereal in the morning.  She was afraid they would get freezer burned if they didn't get used soon.  I took them and plan on making them into jelly.

Quick note - update from end of last weekend & backhoe delivery arranged

Busy with work, but I wanted to get this note in before I forgot the details!

Katherine canned 13 cups (half-pints - lol) of thick tomato sauce Saturday (?) and I added another 7 pints (plus 1 C - half-pint)  a day later.  Tomatoes are going bad fast - most are going bad without ripening! :(

Katherine has some ideas for tomato pickles and tomato relish.  I hope we have time before too many are lost to spoilage!

I texted Seth Fenby yesterday and arranged for the backhoe to be delivered this week.  I got a call from the hauler yesterday who got directions to our farm.  He said he hoped to get it delivered today (Wednesday!)  I was hoping to be there for delivery, but this will do - I just hope its in good shape and there aren't any delivery issues!  I am considering going up tonight and working from the farm tomorrow!  Very excited!

Roasted tomato sauce and pumpkin

I cleaned up the tomatoes a bit; lots of them on the verge (or just past) of going bad.  Did the roasted tray method with them.  I got 7 1.5 pint jars first batch and 6 1.5 pint jars second batch (total of 9 3/4 quarts).  Should really have done more, but its too late tonight and I need to go to farm tomorrow.

I also started processing the pumpkins.  I figured I would freeze most of them since its just easier and most pumpkin will be used for puree (pie, custard, etc).  I did 4 pints of puree.  I ran it through the squeeze-o and then pureed it in the vitamix.  Turned out very smooth.  The pumpkin is in wide mouth pints, ready to be frozen - I will take it up with me tomorrow and freeze it at the farm (more room in that freezer).

More roasted tomato sauce and Bus Trays

Canned 10 pints of roasted tomato sauce.  Many more tomatoes to go.

Bought bus trays from restaurant supply house.  5" pans are $6.95.  7" pans are $7.95.  Nice plastic trays to hold produce before processing.

Trying to can some tomatoes today!

Well, I canned the rest of the cucumbers that we brought back.  Only got 4 quarts (3 quart jars and 2 pint jars) of kosher dills canned.  Out of cucs!

I have some tomatoes that really needed to be used, so I decided to can them as a test run.  They process 35 min in hot water bath! (for PINTS even!)

I canned 2 pints of crushed tomatoes and had some leftover in the fridge.  However, when I removed them from the hot water bath I noticed that they were leaking tomatoes!  Well, one eventually sealed, but the other didn't :(  I am confused since I had PLENTY of head space in those jars!  Was a half inch - I am pretty damn sure!

I am trying to can that one now - I also am trying a half pint with the tomatoes I had in fridge.  I know its a waste heating up the canner just for 1 pint - but its the principle of the thing now!  It's tomatoes for gosh sake!

BTW:  I followed NCHFP's recipe for crushed tomatoes.  Note that they have you add vinegar (or lemon juice or citric acid) to ensure that the tomatoes are acidic enough (some tomatoes are low acid - so better safe than sorry!).  I also added 1/4" teaspoon of salt per pint which they list as optional.  The vinegar and salt both go directly in the jars, not in the boiling tomatoes.

There might be enough tomatoes for another 3 pints to can this week.

Still have green beans and corn to deal with.  I wanted to pressure can the green beans for the experience, but Katherine wants us to do the pressure canning together since neither of us has done it before.  Therefore, we will just freeze the beans - probably this evening.   I have to do some "work" work!

Oh, while I was out walking Smokey, I noticed that a couple of the sunflowers were bent down.  One was missing a top!  I suspect squirrels!   I am gonna put some posts in and tie them up like I did with the ones in PA.

Update 9:00pm:

Katherine and I froze 4 more quarts of green beans tonight!