What I'm usually doing in July

Freezing peaches - I canned them once and I probably won't.do.that.again.  I usually buy the "seconds" from a local orchard and freezer them.  Sometimes I make peach butter but now I'm making peach honey.





Canning green beans



I'm usually freezing corn (at least towards the end of July).  One year I even had a corn freezing party.  It was kind of crazy.





This year I froze blueberries too - towards the beginning of July.  I bought them from a local farmer who only uses vinegar as a weed killer and no other chemicals!

I try to buy as much as I can locally and freeze or can it to use for the winter.  I've been doing this for several years and I just can't seem to stop.  I also canned banana peppers too because I've recently discovered that I love them!

What have you been "putting up" for the winter?

 

Canning green beans today

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Candy Apple Peel Jelly - A Christmas Gift Idea

I saved all of my apple peels and cores from when I made applesauce.  I just threw them in freezer bags and froze them.  When I wanted to make apple juice, I thawed them in the fridge overnight and then I got a big pot and put in the peels and cores and filled it up halfway with water.  I brought this to a boil and then simmered it for 30-45 minutes.  I strained the apple peals a little at a time with my paper towel lined colander (and a bowl underneath that).  I just let it strain for about 20 minutes or so.  I then poured that liquid through a mesh strainer into a pitcher and refrigerated that overnight.  You do not want to drink this juice.  It is not sweet.  (I used the instructions from here)

The next day, measure out 4 cups of your apple juice and then follow the recipe below:



Candy Apple Jelly
*Recipe from All Recipes

• 4 cups apple juice
• 1/2 cup red-hot candies
• 1 (1.75 ounce) package powdered fruit pectin
• 4 1/2 cups sugar

In a large kettle, combine apple juice, candies and pectin. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar; return to a full rolling boil. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from the heat; skim off any foam and undissolved candies. Pour hot liquid into hot jars, leaving 1/4-in. headspace. Adjust caps. Process for 5 minutes in a boiling-water bath. 

If you do not know how to water bath can then please see this tutorial. 


I bought these Better Homes and Garden Jars from Wal-mart and they looked so pretty with the gingham red and white tops.

I realize this is not a healthy food.  I made this to give away as Christmas gifts because it is so pretty.  The color just reminds me of Christmas.  I also made it because I did not want to waste the apple peels.  The taste is pretty delicious too! 

*If you do not have apple peels you could just use apple juice that you bought.

Apple Butter - Its What I'm Doing Today

My friend and her kiddos just left.  My kids are napping (well, one is at school the rest are napping) and so I am sitting down here to tell you about my apple butter.  I am making it today to can and we will keep some and we will give some away probably for Christmas gifts.

I will say that the house smells so good.  I love the smell of apple butter when it is cooking.  When I make apple butter I start by making applesauce.

Yes, I know you can buy applesauce but I think you know me better than that.  Last year I found all of my apples for free.  We went foraging - I mean we did ask people and they let us pick apples off of their trees.  I have done that the last few years, but this year I just went to the orchard and picked out the "seconds" from the big bins.  It was ever so much easier and at $17 a bushel it was a pretty good price.

You may have seen this before but when you buy about 50 lbs. of apples that are dirty and not too pretty you need to wash them so I always wash my apples in the dishwasher:

I wash my potatoes and my pumpkins in there too but that is a story for a different day.  After I wash my apples I just chop them into thirds or fourths because I have one of these amazing machines:

It is on sale at Amazon for $41.46 -  a great price and free shipping

I just pull the stems off but I don't core them or peel them.  I just cook the apples until they are soft and run it through my handy dandy food mill.  And then I have applesauce!

And once you have applesauce  you just put it in the Crock Pot with some sugar, cinnamon, cloves and all spice or you could follow this recipe.

Right now my applesauce is cooking down.  When it is about half of what it was then it will be ready to can.  You only have to water bath apple butter and for it only takes 5 minutes!  It is definitely worth the work.

Well, that is what I have been doing today.  What have you been doing?  Something much more exciting I'm sure.  I don't know though, apple butter is pretty exciting especially on homemade biscuits.

Homemade Ketchup

Last year I tried to make homemade ketchup and I did can it but it was not good.  This year I wanted to try it again but I did not want to waste my own tomatoes in case it did not turn out again.  So, I bought this 6 lb. can of diced tomatoes from Sam's Club for $2.53.  Hey - they were Red Gold and were at least processed in Indiana.

I used Mrs. Wages ketchup mix.  It tasted like . . . ketchup!   Success, of course next year I will try it with my own tomatoes (and maybe I might do it again this year), but I need to wait to make sure my family will like it.  We are big ketchup fans here.

With the 6 lbs. of diced tomatoes I ended up with exactly 12 half pints (jelly jar size) of ketchup.

Here is the numbers - I paid $1.50 for Mrs. Wages mix and $2.53 for the tomatoes.  I did have to add tomato paste, sugar and vinegar all totaling about $0.75.  It is about $0.40 per half pint.  Of course, if I would have used my own tomatoes it would have been about $0.20 per half pint - definitely worth it!

What are you canning?

Pink Applesauce

Having just made some applesauce over the weekend, I thought I would share a few tips to make things go faster.

This is a re-post from last year, but I thought it was timely considering we are coming into apple season.

This is what I did.

I washed the apples in cold water.   Here is where the tip comes in – I slice off the very bottom of the apple to make the apple sit straight.  I then use my apple wedger from Pampered Chef (although my friend has the Kitchenaid and I like her’s better). 

 I throw the slices (with water) into a pot and cook them until they are soft.  **Now you could also throw the slices into your slow cooker and add enough water to fill 1/4 to 1/2 the slow cooker.  Then turn on low and let them heat overnight and make your applesauce in the morning.  This makes it easier if you have a lot of apples and are really tired like I was.  Then run it through your food mill and out comes pink applesauce.

And do you have time for a quick story here?  My friend Kelly once told me that she was so embarassed when she took her mom’s homemade applesauce to school because it was pink and no one else had pink applesauce.  Now they color applesauce all kinds of colors so kids in school today probably would think that pink applesauce is cool.  I know I do.

Moving on, I then follow directions from here to can my applesauce.

And just in case you were wondering, I highly recommend homemade pink applesauce.

Although this year we used green apples (because they were free) and my daughter said, "Oh, I wanted the pink applesauce."

Please visit:
Tammy’s Recipes for more kitchen tips
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace

Tasty Tuesday

Peach Butter - mmmmmmmmm

My friend and I bought 100 lbs. of peaches  this week at a local orchard.  We canned and canned and canned and canned peaches but there were some that were just too soft to can.  So I thought I would try my hand at making peach butter and I am very glad I did.  Now this recipe is loaded with sugar and I know I try to stay away from white sugar but I don't know if you can make a good jam or jelly recipe with honey (if you have one please tell me!).  The original recipe is from Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving.

Peach Butter

4 1/2 lbs. peaches, peeled, pitted and coarsley chopped
1/2 cup water
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
4 cups of granulated sugar

I used my Lehman's Best Food Mill (it really is just awesome).  You should not can without it.  I talked on and on about it here last year when I made some applesauce.  Now back to the recipe, I sent the pitted peaches through there so that I did not have to chop them.  Actually my son did it see:

Then I added the peach "mush" (my word) to the water and lemon juice and sugar in a pot on the stove.  I brought it to a boil and boiled it for about 45 minutes - this was a light boil not a roaring boil.  And stir it often to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan.  You need to boil it until the mixture drips very slowly off of the back of a spoon.  You just know when you get to the point that it is like jelly.  It cooks down and gets very thick.  If you do the spoon test and it drips off easily it is not ready - does that help?

Oh really that doesn't help, well then go here and you will see what I am talking about.   When you are done then ladle the mixture into sterilized and warmed canning jars.  You can go here for a good starting tutorial.  I am assuming you know a little about canning though but if you do not go check out that website.

Anyway, ladle your warm "butter" into the jars and you may either process these now in a water bath canner  or you may do what I did which is put them in the fridge and eat them for breakfast on my toast the next morning.  The jars will keep for several weeks in your fridge.  Hand some out to friends because you really don't need that much sugar do you?