What to do with all these tomatoes?

I mean, we have them covering the kitchen counter...

...the counter on both sides of the sink.

There are more on the cutting board beside the dishwasher as well.

Beautiful, red, ripe tomatoes.  We have eaten them sliced.  We have eaten them chunked with Chicken Salad or Pimento Cheese.  We have eaten them on burgers, ham sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, and chicken sandwiches.  We have eaten them as bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches.  We have eaten them with sausage, egg, and cheese on a biscuit.  We have also given a multitude away!  They have been fabulous.  But, the plants keep producing and the fruits have gotten ahead of our consuming.

So, yesterday, we made Salsa!  Yep.  Yummy Salsa.

First, I had a great volunteer to help me peel and dice tomatoes.  Then, I prepped the mixture and filled the  jars and processed them in a boiling water bath.  There were nine pints of salsa when we finished.  (Hop over to my recipe blog for info on how we made the salsa.)

Well, there was also a small sample bowl of salsa as well.  I thought it turned out yummy.

 My volunteer tomato peeler and dicer must have thought it turned out pretty well, too!

Now, what are we going to do with the other half of the ripened tomatoes?

Today is spaghetti sauce day!

How many beans make a bushel?

I have seen a couple of public service announcements lately about canning classes being offered in different communities.  I think it has a relationship with the movement to cleaner, healthier, more wholesome eating and the fact that I am seeing more and more backyard gardens.

We have enjoyed canning and freezing vegetables and fruits for years.  I cannot remember a single year going by that my mother didn't make some sort of jam or jelly or preserves.  Mike says it is the same in his historical thinking about his family.  In fact, I have my mother's pressure canner, my Granny's pressure canner, and Mike's grandmother's pressure canner in my basement kitchen as I am pecking out this post.

I borrowed Mama's canner because Mike came in the house with two bushels of green beans!  (We haven't had a chance to test out Mike's grandmother's canner to make sure it is still safe to use after many years of setting idle.)

A couple of weekends ago, I had two canners rocking and shishing and steaming at the same time!

I don't know if you have an idea of how many green beans it takes to make up a bushel.  Let me tell you - it takes a LOT of beans!

I think the hardest part is breaking them up into bite-sized pieces.  Maybe that is because my hands ache and cramp from just normal usage but holding and snapping beans really takes a toll on me.  So, Mike snapped each and every bean.  What a guy!

I think the TV western channel played for 48 hours non-stop.  Marshall Dillon, The Virginian, The Cartwrights, and The Barkleys joined the Duke in providing company to Mike while he merrily snapped bean after bean!  Then, my efforts were required.

First I would dump a large bowl of bite-sized beans into the sink and fill it with water.  Then, I swished them around a bit to begin washing the pieces to make sure that all the soil, bits of leaves, etc. were loosened and easy to rinse away.

Then, handful by handful, I would rinse them in clear water and drop them into a colander to drain.

The next step was to pack them into sterile jars.  I run my canning jars through the dishwasher because it has a cycle that sterilizes them.  Next, I place them into the oven set on 200 degrees to keep them hot.  I would remove a cookie sheet holding several jars.

Using my canning funnel, I filled each jar as full as I possibly could get it, shaking the jar and pushing beans down a bit to get one last handful into it.  The jars need to be as full as possible without having beans touching the lids.

Because I wanted low-sodium green beans, I sprinkled a half-teaspoon into each jar, measuring carefully.

I worked in batches of fourteen jars because each of my canners will hold seven jars at a time.

Next, I added a teaspoon of apple-cider vinegar to each jar.  I don't know why this ingredient is important but my Granny always did that and I do, too!

The next step was to fill each jar up to the mouth with boiling water and slide a plastic spoon handle down the side of the jar and give it a little wiggle to encourage all the air bubbles to float to the top so there would only be an air pocket in the mouth of the jar.  I think this is important to prevent breakage during the pressure canning process.

While I was filling the jars with water, I had my lids in a small pan of steaming water in preparation for adding them to tops of the jars.

As I got a batch of jars filled with water, I would add lids to each.

Then a screw-top was attached to each, tightening only till it was finger-tight.

Next, I trekked down the steps with seven jars and loaded each of the canners.  (I cheated a wee bit and had the water in each canner heating so that it wouldn't take quite as long after adding the jars of beans for the water to come to a boil in the canner to provide the steam pressure which processed the beans and caused the jars to seal.)

Once each canner was loaded with seven jars, I attached the top and let it go to work.

The old-fashioned, basement stove with the coil heating elements seem to work better with the canner than my glass-topped stove-top that is upstairs.  So, that is the primary reason that the actual canning takes place downstairs.

It is easy to hear when the canner seals and the little top pressure regulator starts to jiggle and the steam starts to shish-shish-shish.  I left the jars processing in the pressure canner for twenty minutes after the canner sealed and the regulator began to jiggle just as my Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving book suggested.

Then, I removed the canner from the heat and let it cool before removing the lid, lifting out the jars to cool, and starting the process all over again.  Almost immediately the lids began pinging to indicate they were sealing.

Together, Mike and I canned 52 quarts and 3 pints of green beans.  I'm telling you, two bushels is a LOT of green beans.  Everybody might get a jar of beans in their Christmas stocking this year!

Other things I learned from this experience:

1. Two bushels is a lot of beans.
2. Do all the prep work downstairs instead of running up and down the stairs.
3. Two bushels is a lot of beans.
4. Don't tackle this project the weekend before you go back to school and work long hours and through the weekend for two weeks without a day off.
5. Two bushels is a lot of beans.
6. Don't tackle this project after you have spent the week freezing squash and peaches and making peach preserves.
7. Two bushels is a lot of beans.
8. I may be getting a little too old to do this kind of thing in bulk like that.

Mainly, I know all this because two bushels is a lot of beans!

Puttin' Up Produce

It's that time of year again!  Produce is ripe and it is time to can and freeze it so that we can have delicious foods all year long.

My brother-in-law, Jim, went to the vegetable auction again like he did last year.  You can read about that HERE and HERE.  So, I have been canning and freezing like we have in the past.  You can read about that HERE.

This time my kitchen has been full of yellow squash, zucchini, onions, and cucumbers (the pepper is from the local grocery store).  So, I have been making Sweet Pickle Relish today.  Lots of chopping!

Chopped Cucumber and Red Bell Pepper

Chopped Onion

I used THIS recipe and made eight pints and nine half-pints.

The jar lids are popping to seal as I am typing this in!

We now have a bushel and a half of yellow squash blanched and in bags, frozen in the freezer, a bushel of zucchini in bags, frozen in the freezer as well.  This time I grated some of the zucchini up and froze it raw in hopes that I can use it for Lemon Zucchini Bread with Lemon Glaze.  I also sliced some and put it up raw in hopes that I can use it for Zucchini Gratin.

Isn't relish a beautiful sight?

My pantry and freezer are full, my floor is sticky, and I am pooped!  Sweeping and mopping will have to wait till tomorrow..

Decorating for the holidays

I remember when I was a bit more youthful than I am now.  I decorated elaborately for every holiday.  The inside of our house would showcase what the holiday season might be - New Year's Eve, Ground Hog Day, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter...you name it and I had home decor.  This extended to the entry doors - both front and back - and to the lawn with flags and to the mailbox with some sort of decor.

Somehow, life got faster-paced or, and this is more likely, I got a lot slower-paced.  The all-out decorating isn't quite so popular for me these days.  However, this year I did decorate a bit for the Independence Day.  I decorated the kitchen fireplace.

I went all out.

It started when I remembered that I had some of those little inexpensive flags that come about six to a pack from the craft store and I began searching for them.

I didn't find them but I did find the plaque I made a couple of years ago that was inspired by Suzanne over at Just Another Hang Up and her Plaque Attacks.  These make quick and easy hand-crafted, personalized gifts to give to folks that are quick and simple to do.  Here is one I did for myself:

I just swapped out the one that usually sits there describing our household for this patriotic one.  It looks really festive there with the blue Ball jars and the old red tea kettle that belonged to one of Mike's relatives doesn't it?

It says everything I can think of to commemorate Independence Day.

I have squash to freeze and cucumbers to chop in the making of sweet pickle relish.  Mike is working.  So, we will be celebrating with the children on Saturday up on the hill when Bonnie's Barnyard rolls out their Fireworks Extravaganza.  Hope the day is a little different than it is today.  Here is what it looks like today:

Wet, wet, wet!

The rain gauge says we have already gotten over two inches today and it is still falling steadily.

Hope you have a happy 4th of July!

Busy Week, ahem... Actively Engaged Days

What a week!  Sunday was a day for sharing.

I shared what little I know, ahem... my vast knowledge about canning and freezing with my daughter-in-law and her friend Kali.  (I really have a hard time figuring out what this poor girl's name is because Mike, Stephen, and even her husband, Mark, tease her by calling her Kallie and Kathy and who-knows-what-else.  And when you are sitting and chatting with one another, you rarely call somebody by her name...So, when I got ready to introduce her the other day, my mind just went blank.  Sorry, Kathy Kallie Katherine Kimberly Katy, ahem... Kali!)

~sigh~

Anyway, I guided these sweet girls through canning six beautiful jars of green beans that were fresh from Stephen and Bonnie's garden and picked and snapped and washed by her!  (What you don't realize is that she has never aspired to be a domestic goddess and has always been an outdoor girl and is now a business maven during her off-outdoor-girl time, which is six-days-per-week, since she and Stephen own their own business.  Read about that HERE and HERE.)  Her beans turned out to look like blue-ribbon-winners at anybody's state fair, though.

At this point, you may be wondering why I'm not sharing photographs of this momentous occasion.  Well, there is a perfectly good explanation and it might have something to do with my sitting at the island tasting a splash of Arrington Vineyards' Firefly Rose (that they brought along) and yack-yack-yacking and never even thinking of taking a photo of these cute, sweet, hard-working girls I'm bossing around, ahem... mentoring through the preservation-of-food lessons.

 ~sigh~

The girls also sliced and blanched and chilled and bagged five quarts of yellow squash and five quarts of zucchini squash.  It turned out to be beautiful as well!  Of course, this culinary delight which was 'put-up' for future meals when we are in the dead of winter, for example, was also grown right in these girls' gardens and picked by their own sweet hands (and maybe the rough, calloused hands of their husbands, too).

Do you see me puffed with pride over these girls?

~sigh~

Monday was a day the hubs took a day off from work and we had the chance spend the day together.  Wednesday was another day for my friend Margaret and I to do some more work on school-work, ahem... Refreshing and Updating.  Friday was a day for a follow-up visit to the doctor for Mike and, of course I went along to find out what the doctor had to say because who knows what it would sound like coming from Mike?  Somehow he seems to hear medical instructions a little bit differently than I do.  You know, like, "go home and keep your leg propped up," turned into, "I'm going out to the barn to feed and water the chickens and do a little grass mowing."

So, I'm spending this Saturday morning trying to catch up and wrangle the house back into submission, ahem... leisurely sipping coffee and I might swish over the floors after I nibble a piece of toast.

Making Pickles

My favorite brother-in-law (on Mike's side of the family) recently went south to an auction where the Mennonites were selling vegetables. He brought home a truck-load of goodies. (You may want to read about that HERE.) Mike and I were the lucky recipients of some of those vegetables. Since there was an overabundance of cucumbers, I decided to give pickling a try. My first efforts turned out pretty well. You can learn more about that HERE and HERE. Well, I also decided to make some dill pickles as well. 

I finished those up this past week.  I am anxious to see how they taste but the recipe I used says that they need to ferment in the jars for at least three weeks.  So, I've got a bit of a wait, yet. 

They look pretty good and they smelled fabulous!  If you want to know what it takes to make Kosher-Style Dill Pickles, you can see what I did HERE.  I'm not too happy with the fact that the pickle juice looks a little bit milky.  So, I'm anxious to see if they are going to be tasty.  I won't be able to report on how they taste for a bit, though.

These new adventures sort of make me feel as if I've become one of those back to nature women who lives off the land!  I guess the good thing is, if we ever do have to survive by preserving and canning and "puttin' up" our own food, I'll have an idea of how to do it!

The Things We Do For Love (Part II)...

Isn't it amazing how we will do things for those we love that we never, ever, never thought we would be doing?  Well, this afternoon found me doing just that.  Of course, this is a big step past what I've done for love in the past.  You may remember me talking about it HERE.  I also posted the recipe HERE.  Today, though, I took a big ole step toward the dark side even further than I ever have before...

Remember yesterday that I told you Mike and I went to Mennonite country and got some vegetables - including five heads of cabbage.  Well, you have probably already figured it out - I began the process of making Kraut.

Now, realize that I feel the same way Bridgette did in kindergarten about Kraut.  I think it smells bad and cannot even eat the weenies.  However, it is one of those dishes that Mike just loves.  He has mentioned several times how he could eat it pretty often.  So, I bit the bullet and asked my nieces for their recipe and dove into Kraut making this afternoon. 

I may have more than one college degree and have been told I am rather smart at times.  However, when it comes to making Kraut, I felt like the greenhorn I really am.  So, I needed more than just the recipe Becca sent me.  Here it is:

Kraut

1 gallon cabbage (VERY FINELY CHOPPED)

8 teaspoons salt

3 teaspoons sugar

3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Mix together.  Work it.  (Press down with palms of hands.)  It will make a liquid when you press down.  Then, pack Kraut in sterilized jars and put lids on them very loosely.  Store in a cool dark place for 21 days.  Check on it every 7 days.  If it appears dry, mix 1 teaspoon salt in a quart of water and pour over Kraut.  At the end of 21 days tighten the lids down and keep in a cool dry place. 

There were more instructions like "after you cut the cabbage, don't let it touch metal again," and "store it in a cool, dark place," and "you might want to set it on a towel or piece of cardboard in case it spews out," and "it is going to stink!"  However, undaunted, I plunged in.

The problem is, I had no idea what is "very finely chopped."  Does that mean minced or does it mean slivered or just what?  So, I put in a call to the experts.  No answer.  I discussed it with Mike and he said he had no idea.  So, I just began to chop, chop, chop.  I mixed up one batch and Mike helped me to put it into the jars.  What a messy job that was!  We had Kraut all over the place!  Plus, it didn't seem to have enough liquid to me. 

Finally, one of the nieces called and I confessed that I had sent them photos and pleaded with them to please check out my work and give feedback.  After a bit, I could hear mutterings and both nieces said it looked fine but maybe I needed to "work it" a bit more.  They suggested that I mash it around in the jar with a wooden or plastic spoon.  So, I did.

That seemed to make it more slushy and I decided that must have been the ticket.  So, I plunged in a little deeper.  I wound up making three batches - nine quart jars of Kraut. 

Chunking the cabbage to get ready to chop it.

Chopped cabbage pieces for Kraut

Looking down into one of the jars before I mashed it around with the spoon.

First batch of Kraut

After smushing with a spoon

I have set all nine jars on an old towel that is set on the top of a plastic storage tub.  They are stored in the dark basement storage room.  I've marked the calendar so that I will be reminded to check the Kraut in seven days.  (Do you think I will wait that long?  I don't!)

We shall see what this adventure brings.  The things we do for love...

Green Bean Scene

We have been the Green Bean Scene for the past couple or three days.  Mike and I trekked to Mennonite country on Saturday morning and bought a few vegetables.  He really enjoyed the hunting, bargaining, and dickering and I enjoyed the scenery and time spent with him.  Plus, it has been so hot here that we didn't really want to do anything productive around here and we are the outdoorsy type.

We came home with some blueberries, cabbage, corn, bell peppers, and green beans.  Did we ever come home with some green beans!  We brought home thirty-nine pounds of green beans!  So, late Saturday afternoon, Mike began to break all those beans.  He had brought in some squash from our poor little cooked plot just above the barn and I cut it up, added some onions from our table tubs, and started it to boil for a suppertime squash casserole.  As soon as he had a mess broken, I snatched them up and put them on to cook for supper as well.  Knowing that Bryan and Jessica were coming by for a visit, I laid out some pork chops to thaw and stirred up a peach cobbler.  Then, I began gathering supplies for canning the green beans. 

When Jessica and Bryan arrived, Jess quickly shucked some of the corn and Bryan went to work seasoning and wrapping it to cook on the grill.  Then, Jessica joined Mike in the bean breaking.  I was in the throes of blanching my first pot of beans for canning.  I had never done this step before because I usually just raw pack them into the jars.  I'll be interested to see if we notice a difference. 

I trooped downstairs to get the canner started and while Mike and Jessica continued to break the beans, Bryan and I prepped the supper.  Bryan served as master griller.  He just kept muttering, "pressure, pressure, pressure," and I didn't understand why until much later when they presented Mike with his Father's Day gift and the card indicated that Mike is the griller around here.  Just before supper was ready, I turned off the heat to the canner and let it begin to cool. 

We feasted on a delicious summertime, southern meal of grilled pork chops and corn on the cob, fresh green beans, squash casserole, cucumber/onion salad, home-made pickles, and had peach cobbler for dessert.  It was a wonderful evening of fellowship, food, and fun.  Well, I guess they had fun breaking the beans because Jessica and Mike wound up breaking the entire bag!  I only completed one canner-full that night.  We put the rest of the beans into the fridge downstairs.  Then, I did another canner-full yesterday afternoon.  Today has been serious canning time and I have finished them off.  Here is how I did that:

First, wash the broken beans thoroughly.  I soak them in a sink of cool water and rinse them under cool running water before placing them in a colander to drain.  Next, I begin to fill the jars, shaking them to pack the jars as full as possible without mashing the beans.

Then, sprinkle a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar over the top.  I remember helping Mama when she canned beans and after breaking the beans, sprinkling the salt is about the only job I was qualified to do!

Next, pour boiling water over this to fill the jar.  Run a wooden or plastic spoon handle down the side of the jar in a couple or three places to encourage the air bubbles to float to the top.  Attach the two-piece jar lids.  Then, troop downstairs to the canner.

I have to use the downstairs stove for the canner because the flat-topped-glass stove I have upstairs doesn't work to heat the canner quite as well for some reason.  The older model with the coils seems to work well for this task, though.

Place the jars into the canner and add three to four inches of water to the canner.  (I usually do this when I begin to fill my jars and turn the stove eye on to begin heating that water to save some processing time.)  Attach the canner lid and turn the eye on high heat to bring the water to a boil and build up steam pressure in the canner. 

If you look closely you can see the steam rising out of the top-most point of the canner in the photo above.  When there is a good steady rise of steam with a strong ssshhh-ing sound, the canner is near readiness for processing. 

This is when the "jiggler" should be added which regulates the amount of pressure that is maintained.  For green beans, it is recommended to maintain ten pounds of pressure for twenty-five minutes.  After a minute or two, the jiggler will start to rock back and forth and the sound of the steam escaping will become a steady ssshhh, ssshhh, ssshhh.  I set the timer for twenty-five minutes and find a task to do - washing dishes, folding clothes, ironing, reading a good book, etc. 

In the photo above, the jiggler is rocking and the steam is ssshhh-ing at a steady rhythm.  At the end of twenty-five minutes, I turn off the heat and remove the jiggler to allow the canner to cool and release the built-up pressure.  After fifteen to twenty minutes, the top can be removed and the jars can be set on a towel on the counter.

The beans will have changed from a brilliant emerald green to a softer, more olive tint and the liquid in the jars will probably still be boiling.  I let the jars and the canner cool completely.  Then, I wipe off the outside of the jars and place them in the pantry to await a nice southern, country meal.  Yum!

So far we have about thirty-five quarts of green beans processed and there is still enough for another meal to cook fresh.  I guess we will share a few jars with Bryan and Jessica since she helped to break them all up.  Of course, quality control might mean I need to limit what she and Mike have earned through their efforts.  Notice what I found when I was washing the beans:

Quality Control

Do you think I should dock their pay?  I found all these ends mixed with the good beans. 
(Actually, that isn't bad considering how many they touched that afternoon/evening!)