Canning

We picked up some scuppernongs last year at a local market.  Made some GREAT jelly.  Mike just loves it!  Saved some for juice as well...

walshevak wrote:Yes. I used SURE-JELL. but in case anybody is interested.

GRAPE HULL JAM using grapes with seeds.

prepare grapes by  squeezing the grape out of the hull into a pot, saving the hulls in a separate container.

Add enough water to cover the grapes and cook for 5 min mashing the pulp (I used a potato masher) 

Put the pulp though a strainer to remove the seeds. (I used the colander from the picture)  I didn't use cheese cloth because I wanted the pulpy remains for the jam not just the juice. 

chop the hulls coarsely (I used my blender with enough water to allow the hulls to chop.  do not over chop you want the pieces of hull in the jam)  Add the chopped hulls to the pulp.

That colander full of grapes yielded 8 cups of pulp and chopped hulls.

4 cups of grape pulp
5 1/2 cups of sugar
1 box of Sure-jell

Follow box directions for making jam.

I suspect if you are using seedless grapes you skip the popping of the hulls and just cook  grapes without straining.

I can't wait until my scuppernong grapes ripen.  That's the grape my grandmother used to make grape jam.

Kay

FYI, I planted my 2 gal pot grape vine spring of 2012.  That colander full is the total harvest this year. Last year I got just enough to enjoy eating.   (after sharing with the birds.)

My scuppernong vine was a gift and much bigger when transplanted.

Excellent post, Kay, right down to the age of the vine! Thanks so much! I saw some Concord grape vines on sale at a local nursery the other day and had thought about picking one up. Now that I know it won't take years and years I will look into it more. I just need to figure out where to put it.

CC

Saturday morning project. The two larger jars are fermented pickles for the refrig. Should have enough for the year. These are all Serrano infused dills which are my favorite. The 3 lbs. of tomatillos and serranos became salsa verde on sunday morning.

Interesting recipe for grape Jam
I have a lot of grapes near ripe and I guess I had been thinking I would have to make jelly with it.
WHICH seems like quite a waste.  Thanks for the recipe.

Jelly may be easier as you can just boil and mash the whole grape and strain seeds, pulp and hulls out of the juice. But I think hulls add something.

Kay

I will try one more time. Saturday morning canning. The two larger jars are fermenting pickles for the refrig. These are all Dill pickles with Serrano chips which are my favorites. The 3 lbs. of tomatillos with the serranos were made into salsa verde on sunday morning. 

John,  Impressive amount of work.  Today will be the first time canning for me!  Salsa.  Maybe some spaghetti sauce if there are enough tomatoes. I don't have enough tomatillos for salsa verde, but I do like that stuff.

My tomatoes are not producing enough this year for canning, but I visited my daughter over the weekend and she had so many romas, super romas, and san marzanos that she was feeding them to the chickens.  She gave me two boxes to bring home.  Canned one box full (plus some left in the freezer from last year) yesterday and plan to can the other box full today. 

Juice, medium thick sauce, and crushed tomatoes





Kay

I've finished up canning pasta sauce and salsa.  Yesterday was Red hot Apple sauce.  I've got the dehydrator out to start the dehydrated soup base.  So things are humming along here on the Pacific Coast.

Canned eight lbs. of peaches into the best peach jam I have ever had. Used a recipe never tried before using granny smith apples cut in quarters to cook with the peaches, I guess for the pectin. Took the apples out to finish and canned. Truly the best I have tasted. Used another six lbs. of peaches for ginger peach chutney which is very good but some what runny but canned it anyway. Also did two pints of curry pickles.  Have no ides what they will taste like but they sounded different. Should have taken a picture but didn't think about it until everything was put away. Going to the state fair today because my wife has to demonstrate weaving. I get to go buy stuff and look at the canned stuff and see how the pro's do. Also eat a lot of junk food.

John please would you post this peach jam recipe in the food section of the forum. My neighbor gave me about 6 pounds of peaches and I'm looking to make jam.

+1!!

I never got around to canning the tomatoes like I said I was going to do. I'm going to go to the Farmers Market and see if I can buy some nice culls, tomatoes and maybe peaches.

Got 7 pints of diced tomatoes done last night.  

Still got 2 5-gallon buckets of Kiefer pears to figure out what to do with...  Preserves probly...

AtlantaMarie wrote:Got 7 pints of diced tomatoes done last night.  

Still got 2 5-gallon buckets of Kiefer pears to figure out what to do with...  Preserves probly...

ginger honey pears.... Divine!

I'm going to be quiet about canning until I actually do it. It was too hot to go to the FM.

I will post the recipe when I return home tonight. It is from the book  "Canning for a new generation" by Krissoff. It is called classic peach jam.

johnp wrote:I will post the recipe when I return home tonight. It is from the book  "Canning for a new generation" by Krissoff. It is called classic peach jam.

Thank ye!!!

31 qts and 1 pt tomatoes plus 9 qts juice from tomatoes my Mom bought. She did all the work except juicing the tomatoes.

Can she come over to my house? 
I'm staring at 18 + lbs. of ripe maters that need to be done today.  Keep telling myself I'm getting right to it, I'm getting right to it...

She said she would never again do it alone; that is lots of work!  i did do a small batch of salsa this weekend.  BTW LM, Happy Can-iversary!  It was a year ago this weekend we got together so I could walk you through that first batch of tomatoes!

Herblover your Mom is right as I always do all the canning myself, and yes I totally agree its a lot of work. But its ok because we really enjoy the results.

And Happy Can-iversary to you Herblover - my personal teacher!!!  A side note this weekend was my wedding anniversary too.  So we were all set to go on an anniversary 'date' to Lynds fruit farm and pick Gala apples.  But earlier that morning  I pulled enough ripe tomatoes and instead canned another 7 jars.  Now that I've gotten my feet wet so to speak over the past year, there is a new pressure canner being delivered on Wednesday after Amazon messed up the original delivery...  anyway, I'm excited to get going on soups, stews, and chili to add to the canning adventure. 

And it all started with your generous offer to walk me through the steps.  Always grateful to you, Thanks Herblover!

Tried something new today.  Cold packed green cherry tomatoes into sterilized jars and covered with a zesty bread and butter pickeling brine.  Mrs. Wages mix.  Water bath for 15 mins for quarts  and 10 min for pints.  Yield 4 quarts and 2 pints.  Cut up red tomatoes into some of the leftover brine for an instant pickle for dinner.

I usually make dill pickles out of the green cherry tomatoes.

Kay

I'm now in the process of pressure caning 17 pints of chicken stock and six half pints of chicken bits ( cooked already )  in chicken stock

 Only another 8 pints and two half jars to do.

 We love making our own soups , curries and stews but never seem to have enough stocks  around when we want them
having recently finished the last jars of about 24 pints of beef stock 7 several pints of Po beef stock I decide it was time to do the chicken stock batch
 
Five fresh four pound unfrozen chucks from the supermarket £17.50  ( $ 25 USD ) later ,
I sharpened the filleting knife to razor sharp on the steel , held up a chuck by the wing and sliced it deep into the shoulder joint o it practically fell out the joint , then did the other .
Next was hold & hang it by a leg and cut the leg deep back into the hip joint..again the leg practically falls off.same with the other leg .
 The breasts are sliced off by sitting the bird on its butt end and with the back towards me & sliced off the whole RH breast
 invert t& rotate the remains and take off the other breast.
 
 it took less than 15 min to dissect them all .  Once cut up thy were packed in threes .  the breasts were done as single slabs they were then vac packed , heat sealed and then deep frozen

 One of the breasts was chunked for curry purposed
  After putting two unpeeled carrots t,hree sticks of celery a two big onion cut in half in the slow cooker pot   I broke two of the frames up laid then on top and added a pint of our home  produced tomato mush , then slow cooked it on low for 8 hours ...Poor old dog he was hanging about by the kitchen door all night , mind it did smell good
 The remainder of the frames were given the same treatment but this time in the 21 & 1/2 quart All American canner  with the trivet removed  & pressured cooked  for an hour after the initial setting up was done.
 Once the timer went they were left to cool over night
 This morning things in both the utensils were still slightly warm

The crock pot stock was good  plenty of bits of meat with a fee small chunks  .. i strained the stock off and then stripped the bones of any usable meat & chicken & bacon with leeks in white sauce  for tomorrow nights for tea..

 I used 3/4 pint of  a jar of the stock to make a mixed veg & chicken soup for our lunch today , with our  home grown leek , onions carrots , the last baby aubergine & final red tomato out of the green house .

Whilst the soup was cooking I poured the rest of the stock into clean Weck jars the slipped a lid & clips on them  then put them in the fridge ( 6 pints in all )

 The AAC  took a while to decant with a quart jug as I cannot not move it when it's full .
 
 Once I'd strained off as much liquid as possible it was easy to slide it off the gas ring /hob & on to the sinks draining board.

 Now ,we have a special 2 pint  stock jug where the outlet is like a watering can spout , it's so designed that the oil floats on top of the water liquid and allows only the watery stuff from the very bottom of the jug to be poured out the spout .. this gives you a high quality almost totally fat free stock .

All the stock was as put through the jug and the unwanted fat poured into a plastic bag for freezing before disposing of in the recycle food waste bin . We rarely ever use this bin due to my composting efforts )
 I managed to get the first batch of stock & chicken bits in stock  going in the canner just before we sat down to lunch.

All in all ....a very productive day , far better than a week ago when I was stuck in bed for almost four days continuous with my back problems and the associated muscle spasms from it.

The stock sounds delicious!