Salsa from scratch

Well we are going to try using the ball book recipe for salsa.   We have everything we need growing in the gardens, even the cilantro! 

 

Update:

We did another batch from scratch using a few less jalapenos.  We got 9 pints more!  Total of 18 ball recipe salsa done so far.  Not sure if doing more since we have already a lot of salsa canned.

 

More food processing! Cabbages, Peaches, Elderberries, Tomatoes, Cukes

Elderberry Syrup

Katherine processed the elderberry "2nd"s into elderberry syrup.  Recipe is basically the same as for the jelly except that she used the 2nd's and only added 1/4th the pectin (she actually used 1 pack of the "no sugar needed pectin" to 4 times the juice they call for - so that would be 12 C of 2nd's).  Turned out very nicely!  Canned just like the jelly too.

She got 10 pints of syrup from 12 C of elderberry "2nd's"!

Salsa

We made another 12 pints of salsa from the tomatoes that were ready yesterday.  Again we used the Mrs Wages salsa (medium) mix.

12 Pints Salsa

Pickles

We did up the cucumbers using the Mrs Wages Kosher dill mix.  We "chunked" the cukes instead of making them as spears or sliced.  I like them this way - I guess they would be called "salad" pickles.

Total of 13 quarts of  Kosher Dills!

Corn

Most of  the corn is now off our patch.  We still have some to harvest from the patch over at mom's.  I want to try to dry and can some of the remaining corn.  We got a total of 30 pints frozen from our local patch.

Most of the corn has been harvested from my local patch now - about 30 pints frozen.

Kale, cabbages, broccoli

The real disappointment of this harvest is the Kale and Cabbages.  Besides getting a late start due to the heavy early rains that made many of the cabbages rot out (and removed needed nutrients from the soil) they were attacked by the dreaded cabbage worms!   I only have 2 broccoli plants that have produced anything - and then just enough for Katherine and I to eat at dinner!   The kale was so filthy with bugs that I only gathered enough to freeze 3 quarts!  I went out and sprayed 3 gallons of BT on the whole patch!  I trimmed a lot of the Kale leaves that I didn't harvest and threw them away.  

Kale in foodsaver bags - freezing them first make it easier
to vacuum seal moist/wet veggies.  

I did harvest what cabbages that were ready - many were split!  Sheesh!  Can't catch a break! 

After cleaning and shredding I only got 13 lbs of cabbage.  I used this to start a batch of sauerkraut.

Kraut in the crock!

Lid on and the water seal set!

Now just to do the peaches and the tomatoes... lol

Katherine will probably do the tomatoes as juice.

peaches are for jam!

Whirlwind of harvesting and preservation!

Well, last weekend we got to the farm and saw that pretty much EVERYTHING was ready to harvest!  This cool weather evidently has kicked everything in to ripening earlier than usual.  So, this is a list of what I have harvested so far:

• elderberries - as they ripen.  So far 25 jars (half-pints) of jelly canned!
• beets - all except "remote" patches - turned about 30 lbs of beets into 16 quarts of pickled beets! They are white/yellow beets!  I had forgotten what i had planted, LOL  See pickled beet recipe below.
• carrots - all except "remote" patches - going to pickle the rough ones today - about 30 lbs total picked.
• corn - about 2/3rds through what we have - i think.  So far I have frozen about 15 pints.  I want to try canning some and drying some.
• tomatoes
• cucumbers
• squash - preserved via zucchini relish, zucchini bread,  and dried A LOT of it!
• pumpkins 
• kale - just a little - but way more to come.  preserved by freezing and drying
• onions - red, white and yellow - curing in the red barn now.  Used some yellows in the pickled beets.  Mom says the white ones don't keep well so I should use them first.
• garlic (all 4 plants - LOL)
• peaches (off mom's trees - we only got one off of ours!)  Preserved by canning and jam.

Pumpkin coming in early!

About 35 lbs of beets!  Despite the red skin, these are yellow beets!

First corn from our patch to be preserved!

The Kale in SS produced well and so far has been the bulk of the preserved Kale.

Zucchini Relish.  Katherine made another batch after this one.  She modified recipe from last year to reduce sugar to 3 C.

The first and only peach off my own tree! (I ate it on my birthday!)

Cucks an tomatoes

Curing the onion harvest in the barn on screens on the bed of the trailer.

Kohlrabi!  

This Kale plant was with the kohlrabi!  I didn't notice it and it became Kale-zilla!

First tomatoes (that we didn't eat immediately) were made into salsa using Mrs Wages mix.  Elderberry jelly on right.

Pickled carrots - 9 pints.  There are more carrots to go, just pickled the nasty ones!

First corn off our own plants this year!  Corn took heavy damages from early rainy season - but we are getting ok yields anyway!