Final 2012 tomatoes

In anticipation of a busy garlic harvest season, I am making a big pan of chard lasagna on Sunday to freeze for quick late night meals.  So today the last of the 2012 tomatoes went into the slow cooker to make the sauce...

Garlic - and canning season (Pickled Green Garlic)

The garlic is looking good.  Although we are weeks behind where it was maturity-wise last year at this time.  We've completed our first pass at weeding the beds. 

All tomatoes are transplanted.  Varieties this year are Hillbilly Potato Leaf, Illini Star, Blonkopfchen, Green Zebra, Martino Romano, Dester and Kellogg's Breakfast. (Our forever thanks to Penny at Wishful Acres for introducing us to Kellogg's Breakfast!)

Kale, Swiss Chard and a couple of pepper varieties are also transplanted.  Pepper varieties transplanted are Georgia Flame, Beaver Dam, Lipstick and Alma Paprika.

Memorial Day saw summer canning start again. 

Our first batch of pickled green garlic.

Scapes!

We are inundated with scapes - and it is great!!

Freshly harvested scapes

Getting ready to pickle

Done! And we have already given them all away...

Ag/Wood Shop

The shop foundation is poured, insulted and back-filled due to some long work days of Bill.

We recently got the containers delivered. These are going to be the sides of the shop with a space between the two which will get framed out. Roof trusses will span the empty area between and overhand the containers to create a building.

It was pretty unnerving as the semi had to back down a portion of the driveway, back past the barn and continue down the shop road.

I've been canning and jamming.

We are also now official TV free!

Finished up the jalapenos

Bill said to me Sunday morning over coffee, let's do some canning today. Music to my ears!

We finished up the remaining jalapenos from my earlier jalapeno canning fun. We got 9 1/2 quarts of escabeche. Escabeche is a Mexican pickled jalapeno mix. We follow Rick Bayless' recipe from Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking... Essentially it is a mix of jalapenos, garlic, carrots and cauliflower in a vinegary oregano brine. We typically use serranos instead of jalapenos, but since we were overflowing in jalapenos this year...

Brown the garlic in oil for 3 minutes

Carrots. Unfortunately, from the produce market, not the farmer's market.


Filling the jars



Into the canner

Waiting for the ping. See the cauliflower, carrots and garlic?

Additionally, we roasted 3 tin foil trays of green tomatoes that I brought home from our Wisc garden last weekend and made 12 more pints of roasted green salsa. Roasting green tomatoes on a hot grill brings out the sugars and makes them sweet and juicy.

I forgot to take a photo of the finished product.

I think we are set for spicy food in jars for this winter!

Cannin'

I've been canning.

I got a bunch of beautiful tomatoes from my friends and fellow farmers at The Gentleman Farmer. They canned up beautifully. I have 24 quarts. Loving my pressure canner El! :)

And a couple of weeks ago, I spent a day helping my friend Molly at Breslin Farms. We harvested beets for the Dill Pickle Food Coop and she gave me the 'rejects' aka 'the ugly beets.' You know - the ones that people in the store won't buy because they are misshappen or have insect/pest damage. She gave me all of the rejects - and a beautiful bunch also which we ate fresh. I processed all of the ugly beets into beet burgers and froze about 20 of them. That is 10 quick weeknight meals for Bill and me.

See - a little misshapen. OK with me...




In the food processor

Into the big bowl. Add some eggs, ww flour, herbs, nuts.

I also purchased about a half bushel of jalapenos from a farmer at the Independence Park Farmer's Market where the Urban Worm Girl sets up every other week. (note to self: a half bushel of jalapenos is a lot of jalapenos!) I made 15 pints of bread and butter jalapenos, 12 half pints of pepper jelly and 4 half pints of peach/jalapeno jam.

Cut up and chillin' in an ice bath (yes, I wore gloves)



Lovely red onion from Breslin Farms

In the pot

Vinegar-y and look at the peppercorns!

Resting and waiting for the ping

The peach/jalapeno is in the middle. I used peaches from my parent's neighbor's tree

I only used about 1/2 of the jalapenos. The can jam over at Tigress is using chiles in October so I might have to wait for that round up to get some additional ideas!

Pressure canning

I finally overcame my awe and fear of my new pressure canner and fired it up. After this, I think I can retire my water bath canner. El has posted often that she uses her pressure canner for all canning needs and now I can see why. It seems to be more energy efficient - heating 1.5 inches of water to boiling takes much less energy than a entire waterbath kettle full of water, and it puts off less heat as the canner is covered. It is a bit intimidating as it seems like it might/could explode, but we certainly bought a really safe one that is made in Wisconsin (El's recommendation).

I made a roasted tomato soup and I was able to get 5 quarts canned. Next time, I will do a lot more, although I had run out of tomatoes. I used a combination of red, yellow and even a couple of Green Zebras and it really was a lovely orange color.

Straining the soup

Hot outta the canner

Come January, this will be a welcome hot meal.

It's a big canner for sure, can fit two layers of jars

Pear Ginger Jam

I've been making jam. Local pears from the tree of a friend of my parent's. I use the regular pear jam recipe from the Ball Canning Blue book and add 1/3 C of grated fresh ginger for every 4 C of pears. Process in water bath for 15 minutes. I've got a headstart on my holiday gifts! Its a bit spicy and delicious.