Putting up anything this year?

Well, it looks as if I'm in the majority...I freeze corn & eat tomatoes & cukes as they come in...

Gee, Am I the first to post? :D
Joey

Edited to say: Well, when I posted I was in the majority. ;)

This message was edited Aug 13, 2007 1:41 PM

Never have put up anything and probably never will. I always associate canning with pressure cookers and they scare me. Too many examples of people being hurt by using them improperly when I was a child growing up in the country.

--Ginny

I chose other, because I have been canning tomatoes, freezing peppers, and will be slow-roasting tomatoes for sauce and dried tomatoes.
I'll freeze Okra, when it's ready and am getting ready to can Apple Pie filling, when I get a "roundtoit".

Sasha

I do with canning and freezing fruits and vegetables very often when it in good seasons.

Used to can and freeze all the time. Won't have time to do any of that this year so we are just enjoying all the great veggies when they are at their peak. Also, the kitchen has been toooooooo hot!

I selected "other" because I use several methods depending on the item and how the season went. If there is a bumper crop of tomatoes, I'll make sauce and can them. I routinely dry extra herbs, but I'll also make herbed vinegars and bottle those. I love to blanch and freeze things like green beans, etc. Truth be told, however, I do a lot less of all of these than I used to.

I just eat 'em when they're ready because I never learned how to preserve anything for future use. I really should learn.

Down to just canning tomatoes and stewed tomatoes. Frozen vegetables just don't taste good to me.

I will can pasta sauce and green tomato relish. I just bought a dehydrator - so I will be drying small tomatoes, basil and stuff I find on sale at the grocery store. Next year is my year to concentrate on growing veggies - so ask me again next year!

Let's see - what am I putting up?

Well, I am putting up with gas prices that are still too high.
I am putting up with increased wrinkles on my "much too young for that" face.

And if I WERE to be putting up produce, it would be pickles and tomatoes.

I checked "other" - I can, dry and freeze. Last week I competed with squirrels for the figs, and lost a couple of laps of the race.

I stew and then blend my tomatoes and freeze them for tomato soup and or spaghetti sauce or for stew. I also blanche and freeze my tons o pole beans in two serving baggies. And sometimes extra peppers will also be frozen for later use. My squash always turns to mush as does my corn. :)

I'm with Yankee Cat - next year I'll be growing veggies, so ask me next year! This year, sadly, I am not growing any produce, except one humble tomato plant.

The garden's just a year old, and not producing enough to do much with. But I will! Yes, ask again next year!

I've been making jam for the first time ever. Plum, Ollalieberry and just yesterday Raspberry, all purchased from local u-picks or farmers markets It's so much fun - I love it. In another week or two I'll be canning some of the tomatoes I've been growing. Oh, and last week I pickled some onions. Yum yum... :-)

I have never canned anything, but my grandmother is putting up fig preserves and pear preserves. I need to learn how since it's a family tradition.

This message was edited Aug 13, 2007 12:34 PM

LOL wannadanc!

I'm going to try freezing herbs this year. Not quite sure how yet.

Putting up ??? MY SKIS.

: )

I have to eat black eyed peas, corn, okra, squash all year around. We have a family shelling machine for the peas. With the peas, okra and squash, we bring to a boil and then it goes into the freezer. The corn we take off the cobb with that piece of machinery that does it and then freeze it to make cream corn all winter.
If I am willing to bring the pots of tomatoes in when the weather is too cold we can enjoy tomatoes year around.

PS>>>>>>>>>> but then i freeze lots of other veggies and fruits...........

artngarden.............my cousin just freezes the herbs in zip lock bags, takes what she needs out of the freezer and puts the rest back.................she says the herbs will last frozen all winter long?????????????

No air conditioning in my kitchen. It is way too hot to fire up the gas stove so I either use the gas grill outside {can see why the colonists needed outside kitchens!} or use the microwave. I freeze some things from time to time as I have a large freezer in the basement. But I like many of the summer fruits and veggies fresh so I frequent the farmer's markets here and my husband does in Maine where he works and we usually have fresh fruit and vegetables on the table all summer.
Martha

We cook down our excess tomatoes and freeze the sauce in my silicone muffin pan. Then we pop them out and store them in big ziplocs in the freezer. One tomato "puck" is just enough for one serving of pasta. It makes it easier to cook for one or two that way. We do the same with other sauces and puree fruits (for smoothies). Last year we dried tomato slices in the smoker and they sure smelled yummy.

Katlian.............sounds mighty good to me...........I have never tried tomatoes this way...........or even thought of it...............

This is my first year putting up. I have many tomatoes and peppers I plan to pick and put into a 5 gal container so i can chop and then put up salsa. My harvest isn't big enough to go full throttle, but it is close and then, we'll be putting up lots of veggies.

40 some qts. of pickles so far. About half Dill and other half Bread and butter. Tomatoes weren't coming on yet so froze a bunch of peppers, to use with tomato sauces at a later date. Tomatoes just starting to come on. Only got enough peaches for one good cobler. Froze some apples. Have a lot of onions yet, but plan to use a bunch with with peppers and tomatoes. I make up the sauce for chili, so all I have to do is add beans and hamberger. and maybe a couple other things.
I do more canning than freezing as I don't have a lot of freezer space. I also have a dehydrator, so I dry some as well.

I freeze some, can some and dry some so marked other. I do both fruits and veggies.

I freeze, can and dry.

Thank you gessiegail! I think that's how I'll do it.

my only attempt at "canning" was to make Elderberry Jelly about 10 years ago using a batch of elderberries picked by a creek. I thought I had followed all the canning instructions, but the stuff just wouldn't jell, but it did make some dandy Elderberry Syrup. LOL

It is a shame here locally -- our Extension Office canning center that has been in operation for about 75 years is now scheduled to shut down due to budget cuts and minimal use. I kept intending to go over and see how the process works. I might have actually been able to get jelly to jell with all the right equipment and expert help, but I never found the time. Others on DG may want to check with your local Agricultural Extension Office to see if a canning center is offered anywhere in your vicinity.

Jeremy

My tomato plants yield enough for fresh eating, but for canning I buy a case of Romas from the supermarket. Two years ago I found one in town that brings in about 20 pallets of large cases in mid-August. The parking lot was full of little Italian grandmothers wheeling out 5 cases at a time. No offense intended, these were some smart ladies...

For $12, I got 28 quarts of fabulous tomatoes, great in February -- and great gifts too. But what a lot of work!

I said "No hot kitchen" here, but it's not quite the truth. I WILL shortly be making some peach jam (but I have to buy the peaches) and I will freeze some of the tomatoes or make sauce, but 18 plants, half of them cherry tomatoes won't give me a lot. In September, I might go buy a bushel of Roma tomatoes at the market like I did last year and make sauce with them.

Andy, which market did you use? I got mine last year at Parkdale.

And now that I think of it, my dill pickle supply is getting low too. But I think that might be a job for next year. And I know of some wonderful crabapple trees on public property. Must go check them out as last year I left it too late.

Ann

I've frozen tomatoes this year from my own garden, and broccoli and beans from the local farmers' market. Nothing beats fresh, but local frozen is still much better than grocery store fresh!

I guess I'm in a major minority here since I dry lots of herbs, peppers and tomatoes for winter use.

Same as always - putting up with my wife.

I have arrived at the point that if I never see another okra, yellow squash or zuchini I will be perfectly happy!!!! I have done all freezing...even found a recipe for frozen pickles so there has been no canning and heating up the house here.

I've just entered the world of canning, and finished some salsa (with fresh tomatoes and peppers from our own garden) this afternoon. So far nothing blew up. I'll call in the bomb squad and sniffer dogs in a couple of weeks and we'll open up the first jar for a test. Page one of the canning instructions: Please, do not try this at home....:)

All joking (and precautions) aside, it was kind of fun (and dang hot).

I help my mom put up pickled beets and salsa every year... but we don't grow enough ourselves (not enough room) so we hit the farmer's market to fill out the bounty.

art, at least try it.................she has been doing it for years............
BUT, now she has new gro-lights in the mountains of Utah just for fresh herbs to cook with all year around..............

*********edited to say that pickled beets are the best of all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just buy them at the grocery store and make up a big bottle to keep in fridge.....

This message was edited Aug 14, 2007 7:44 PM

I said I wouldn't put anything away....but now that i've got some excess squash and tomatoes, who knows? The whole idea of me creating a square foot garden this year was to limit the work involved with the upkeep and harvest. Just grow enough to feed 2 and be done with it. Maybe I'll just put a few zucchini breads, and casseroles in the freezer for a snowy day.