Putting up the Harvest

The garden is producing well.  I am harvesting yellow crooked neck squash, zucchini, peppers, peas, and green beans on a daily basis.

Yummy zucchini on the vine.

Sunflowers add a touch of whimsy to the garden.

Fenced garden area.

One day's harvest of squash and peppers.

Now that I have a large quantity of green beans, I have begun canning them.  Oh, how we love home canned green beans.  The children were excited to see the canner and beans.

I love my All American Pressure Cooker!

Green beans getting ready to hot pack into jars.

Green beans being hot packed into quart jars.

The final product

 After the I canned the beans, I sliced the peppers and dehydrated them.  The house smelled delicious as the aroma of peppers filtered into the air.

This is just the beginning of my canning and dehydrating for the year.  Hopefully the garden will continue to do so well during the summer.

Canning Peaches

Today, I decided to try my hand at canning peaches.  I had bought a bag from Cooley Farms last week and didn't want them to go to waste.  So, I pulled out the Ball Canning book and surfed the web to figure out how to go about the process. 

A few peaches cooling in cold water waiting to be peeled.

Peeled peaches waiting to be sliced.

Peaches sliced and in the syrup bath.

Canning jars washed and ready.

Water bath ready.

Hot peaches and syrup ladled into the jar.

 

Finished product.

The process was quite simple.  I put the peaches into a hot water bath for a few minutes and then placed them into a cold water bath.  This made it easy to peel the skin off the peach.  Slicing and pitting the peach took a little more time.  Especially when three hungry children walked into the kitchen wanting lunch!  I made a light syrup mix using 5 1/4 cups of water and 2 1/4 cups of sugar.  Once the sugar was dissolved, I added the sliced peaches and brought them to a boil.  I then ladled the peaches into wide-mouthed pint jars, removed air bubbles, wiped the rim, and placed the hot lid on top.  I secured the band and placed the jar into the boiling water canner.  Once all jars were placed in the canner and the water was boiling rapidly, I timed the jars for twenty minutes.  Within minutes out of the water, the lids on the jars pinged as they sealed.

I had a few peaches that didn't fit into the jars, so we taste tested the mix.  I received two thumbs up from all three children.  The boys wanted more and more.  I tried the peaches and they were pretty good and I don't particularly like peaches.  I may just change my mind about peaches! 

Making Strawberry Jam

Today I took the kids up to Strawberry Hill U.S.A.  We had already been once back in April, but I needed to purchase more of their delicious strawberries.  As we drove along the country road, we listened to our book on cd.

We purchased two gallons of freshly picked strawberries.  They were stacked high and smelled wonderful.  The children asked for strawberry slushes and I obliged.  I love them and we only get them once a year, so they are definitely a real treat.

We loaded back in the van with our purchases and continued to the grocery store, then home.

The children wanted to swim this afternoon, so I settled in on the deck to shell peas and slice the strawberries.

I ended up with about two cups of peas.

I sliced and diced the gallon of strawberries and then set about making the strawberry jam.  This is the first time I have tried to make jam.

One of the gallons of strawberries.

I added the sugar (12 cups!), mixed it with the strawberries and then began to bring the mixture to a boil.

This is after the boiling over incident.

Things were going well.  I had the canning jars and lids ready, and then the strawberry mixture decided to boil over.  Thank goodness Egee was around to help grab another pot!  I dished out half the mixture into another pot and quickly learned a lesson on how much could be contained into one pot.

Jars washed and ready for the water bath.

Lids simmering

I continued to process the jam.  Hoping that I indeed was doing it right.  The boiling water bath was simmering.

Water bath warming up

I dished the hot jam into the widemouthed pint jars and placed them into the water bath.  I brought the water bath to a boil and timed the jars for fifteen minutes.  Removed the jars and listened for the lovely ping of lids sealing. 

Eight pints of strawberry jam.

As I waited for the jars to be done, I cleaned up the mess on the stove.  Luckily, the stove was warm and the mess came up without a problem.  Kitchen is clean, pots put away and another gallon of strawberries await.

I think we will test the first batch tomorrow and then process the next.