What Have You Canned or Put Up Today?

What have you canned or put up today from the garden?  I've been canning (and freezing) from the garden for the last 3 weeks.  Prior to that I canned in-season strawberries and cherries for jam.

April 8, 2022.  Strawberry jam.


June 9, 2022.  Sweet Cherry Jam.


June 20, 2022.  First batch of salsa.


June 21, 2022.  Tomato skins dehydrated outdoors with a final heat and drying treatment in the dehydrator.  I grind for tomato powder as extra flavoring when cooking.


No photo of the second batch of salsa that was canned for 4th of July celebration.

July 9-10, 2022.  Marinated Mushrooms, one jar of pickled pimento, and 3rd batch of Salsa, 3/4 of a recipe.  Note:  The small salsa with a used lid is for the refrigerator.  The jar of Mushrooms that are less than full are also for the refrigerator.

I have been freezing (in food saver bags) a lot of beans and peas and some potatoes.

Yolos, how do you freeze potatoes? They don't get mushy?

That’s a great idea about tomato skins!  I love it!

sanderson wrote:Yolos, how do you freeze potatoes?  They don't get mushy?

I boil them a little to help with later cooking.  I only use them to put in my southern cooked green beans.  I cook them in the liquid from cooking the ham hock and beans.  Then combine them with the green beans and freeze.  They are not all the way cooked and do not get real mushy.  They are cooked a little more when the beans are heated up for serving.

But I have frozen quite a few in the past.  Slice them and cook aldente.  Then freeze them in food saver.  Later defrost and use in various recipes that require more cooking.   Mashed potatoes, cheese and sliced potatoes, home fries etc .

I have some strawberry syrup to get canned.  Also juice from maraschino cherries. 

Need to do something with some potatoes & onions we have in storage...  

We got a great deal from the restaurant supply place we belong to on yogurt & sour cream.  10 lbs of yogurt is on the freeze dryer now.  (This makes 30 lbs so far that we've done.  Once it is dried & powdered, 3 tbl = 1 cup of reconstituted.)  I've got 10 lbs of sour cream waiting.  

Need to do some meatballs for my mom & us with some of our 15 lbs of hamburger.  I'll can those.  And hamburgers for the freezer.  And 5 lbs will go for chili for one of our class lunches this weekend.  

Cooked 10 lbs of chicken leg quarters in the slow cooker last night.  I'll shred those today & save the skin/bones (to go with skin/bones from the other 30 lbs of leg quarters plus the thighs we picked up) to make bouillon.  

And I need to get a bunch of stuff that have come off the freeze drier in the last several days put up.  We've done 5 gallons of strawberries & 30 lbs of mixed veggies along with a pound cake (in the dryer now) I made to go with some of those strawberries for longer term storage.

Oh, & I need to pull this big turkey out of the freezer & make it for this weekend.  That'll open up some much-needed freezer space...  I'll freeze dry the left overs.

Busy, busy...  

Dang AM, you are a busy bee!  I love the taste of those things in the dead of winter…and the sweet taste of a deal!

AM, You have got to share some Freeze Dry photos. Both on this site and this one: https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t20877-freeze-dried-food?highlight=freeze+dry

From what I have read, Freeze Drying is a good way to preserve food for long terms.

Sanderson, we really like it.  I like having everything shelf-stable.  We're slowly & surely getting our freezers unloaded.  Especially with what we're hearing about rolling power outages.  If it's happening out west, it'll get here eventually....  And that way, if DH wants X for dinner & I want Y, it's easy to pull them out.

Don't currently have pics, but will try to get some done.

Time to go get the yogurt & cake off the machine.  I'm hoping to have another load in this afternoon.  

I made my first batch of salsa for the season using the last of tomatoes from last summer and fresh jalapenos and cilantro from this season. I also canned some banana peppers for the first time! I hope they turn out ok!! 

Tomorrow I will attempt making pickles! Last year I only made refrigerator pickles (which were amazing). This year I wanted to try making them shelf stable. Wish me luck!!

sanderson wrote:Yolos, how do you freeze potatoes?  They don't get mushy?

I read this a few days ago, so I will be going from memory. That's always a dangerous and suspect venture, but the lack is in the details. You can look it up online to verify. Sorry, I am on my way out the door and don't have time right now to look it up again. And I'll probably forget later.

Some potato varieties freeze better that others. The more "Wax" type potatoes freeze better that the other kind, "Not Wax"(?) is the best I can do. 

The article I read was more specific about which variety was which, I just didn't write it down.

Y'all are obviously warmer than we are here in Utah (and/or got your gardens in a lot earlier).  I just finished canning raspberry jam. I have a picture but no idea how to post it. My tomatoes are far from ripe, though I'm looking forward to canning them.

How to post a photo. https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t21775-update-2017-how-to-post-a-picture-located-on-your-computer

It looks like you are on schedule for your area. https://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-calendar/UT/Salt%20Lake%20City

tboofy wrote:Y'all are obviously warmer than we are here in Utah (and/or got your gardens in a lot earlier).  I just finished canning raspberry jam. I have a picture but no idea how to post it. My tomatoes are far from ripe, though I'm looking forward to canning them.

My tomatoes are far from ripe too tboofy! I used tomatoes that I froze at the end of last summer to make my salsa. I figured I better use up what I grew last year before the new tomatoes are ready. 

I hope to make my own raspberry jam some day. I just planted 6 raspberry canes this spring, so it will be awhile....