Steve Kroll
Wine Guy
Started canning winter pickles today. I put up several quarts of baby dills, and a couple of jars of beets (I'm the only one in the house who eats them). Next weekend: giardiniera and pickled jalapeno slices. 
What are you canning/preserving today?
- Thread starter CWS4322
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
OP
OP
CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
No canning today--TaxLady and I split packages of meat from the side of the grass-fed, free-range 6 mo. old Highland bull calf we snagged a couple of weeks ago.
CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
No canning today, but planing on pickling some cucumbers, providing I can get dome decent ones st the farmer's market.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Discuss Cooking mobile app
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Discuss Cooking mobile app
No canning this year, the garden was the worst ever! No peppers, no tomatoes, few cukes, and the dogs ate all the green & yellow beams. The only thing doing well are my flowers and cherry tomatoes. Hmmm pickled zinnias anyone?
Dawgluver
Chef Extraordinaire
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2011
- Messages
- 25,033
That's frustrating, Dave. Happened to my brother, rabbits and squirrels got everything. He replanted some tomatoes, big plants this time, and resowed some carrot seeds.
Kat Brandhuber
Assistant Cook
Steve Kroll, those look amazing! What's your secret? 
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Discuss Cooking mobile app
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Discuss Cooking mobile app
OP
OP
CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
I hear you, Dave. Our tomato plants (some 300) have produced 7 ripe tomatoes. We have enough green tomatoes on the vines to float a boat and only about 5-6 weeks before frost. A few peppers, no eggplant, and the cukes are also not producing well. On the other hand, the winter squash and pumpkins look great. For the size of gardens we have, what we've been able to harvest is very disappointing and very behind this year. We did not get the summer heat we usually get and we've have more cloudy/rainy days than sunny. The tomatoes are no closer to being ripe today than they were 2 weeks ago.
My two little rosemary plants are still under 3 inches tall...
We picked some bell peppers today which I will pickle soon as I get time.
And I have about 4 more pounds of my sauce 'maters too.
And I have about 4 more pounds of my sauce 'maters too.
GotGarlic
Chef Extraordinaire
My basil plants are doing great, so I'm going to make more pesto and frozen basil cubes today. I will also roast and freeze some Roma tomatoes.
No canning for me today. But, I will probably be freezing some meat, which is a way of preserving it.
GotGarlic
Chef Extraordinaire
This thread is about preserving food, not just canning. Freezing, dehydrating and pickling all count
CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
3 days Refrigerator pickles & tomatoes.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Discuss Cooking mobile app
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Discuss Cooking mobile app
CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
So I got the peppers done. The tomatoes will wait for tomorrow.
Jalopy peppers???
OP
OP
CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
I threw some beans in the freezer. Cukes are in the fridge chilling for dills tomorrow night.
Load of blanched kale in the dehydrator. Last year we used it more than I ever thought we would...crumbled in risotto, minestrone, like parsley in just about everything.
I dug a couple of hundred garlic bulbs...they're curing in the middle of the living room floor. Sort of preserving.
I dug a couple of hundred garlic bulbs...they're curing in the middle of the living room floor. Sort of preserving
.
OP
OP
CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
How long do you blanch the kale? I plan on doing some of these:Load of blanched kale in the dehydrator. Last year we used it more than I ever thought we would...crumbled in risotto, minestrone, like parsley in just about everything.
I dug a couple of hundred garlic bulbs...they're curing in the middle of the living room floor. Sort of preserving
Dehydrator Recipe: Kale Chips with sea salt & smoked paprika
The kale isn't blanched--doesn't that increase the drying time? Is it necessary? I will probably cut the amount of salt back. We have lots of kale...it keeps in the garden until mid-November (although, one year, we picked it for Christmas dinner...).
The Book says to blanch greens four minutes, but since I don't cool them down, I do more like a minute (or more for very thick leaves). Then the hot leaves go on the rack and immediately into the dehydrator and they finish 'cooking' on the rack. They stay a nice, dark green all year.
We had a cafe that made kale chips to go alongside their sandwiches. They massaged the oil into the leaves and that must break the fibers down...they looked cooked when they went in to dry. Blanching wouldn't be that important for chips, which aren't meant for long-term storage.
Similar threads
