Managed to get my current batch of meaty tomato sauce pressure
canned last night and today -- tomatoes and basil from the garden,
garlic, oregano and meat from the store. And that let me finally
make use of 16 of my Atlas 20oz (Classico) jars. Everything seems
to be fine. This is the first time I've processed anything in the
Atlas jars.

The first canner load had more "tomato essence" than usual in the
water, but the seals seem good. I was better with constant pressure
on this morning's run, and ended with clear water.

After that, I got a batch of dill relish made and processed:
http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_06/dill_pickle_relish.html
It is much more garlicy than the commercial stuff, and my wife and
I like that. I gathered the dill just last week, and am eager to
see how much punch it has. (I love dill even more than garlic.)

Oh, this was my first BWB canning in years -- 21 quart canner and
covering pint jars. Man, that is a lot of water. It would help
if i'd grabbed something bigger than a 1 quart measure to fill it.

It seems to be a little watery again. I'm getting better at cucumber
management, but still ended up needing to use some that were more
mature than ideal. Maybe next year. I now know that what I planted
this year wasn't enough to expect pickles and relish. Probably
plant 2-3 times as much next year and pull the vines when I get
tired of picking them.

Next thing, hopefully, is dilly beans. I didn't get a chance to
check the beans today. That could happen soon.

Green beans are another thing that I only planted in eating quantity,
not canning quantity. I have a batch canned, but don't know if
that will happen again. Fingers crossed.

I think the tomatillos are close to ready, and need to check out
salsa recipes.


All in all, it's been a good garden/canning season so far, at least
for my expectations. I'll daydream about being in the George Shirley
class, but at the end of the day I'm fine with just being me.

--
Drew Lawson I had planned to be dead by now, but
the schedule slipped, they do that.
-- Casady

Drew Lawson wrote:
....
> It seems to be a little watery again. I'm getting better at cucumber
> management, but still ended up needing to use some that were more
> mature than ideal.

do you scoop out the insides? we do with an ice-cream
scooper. while i don't mind eating that myself Mom objects
to it in most things.


> Maybe next year. I now know that what I planted
> this year wasn't enough to expect pickles and relish. Probably
> plant 2-3 times as much next year and pull the vines when I get
> tired of picking them.
>
> Next thing, hopefully, is dilly beans. I didn't get a chance to
> check the beans today. That could happen soon.
>
> Green beans are another thing that I only planted in eating quantity,
> not canning quantity. I have a batch canned, but don't know if
> that will happen again. Fingers crossed.
>
> I think the tomatillos are close to ready, and need to check out
> salsa recipes.
>
>
> All in all, it's been a good garden/canning season so far, at least
> for my expectations. I'll daydream about being in the George Shirley
> class, but at the end of the day I'm fine with just being me.

we're just starting our tomato canning today.
finally have enough at one picking to do it.

pickles are done for the season. we just picked
two more buckets of cucumbers but they will be eaten
or given away.

i did 12 pints of bread and butter pickles with
the previous batch.

we did 111 quarts of dill pickles.


songbird

In article >
songbird > writes:
>Drew Lawson wrote:
>...
>> It seems to be a little watery again. I'm getting better at cucumber
>> management, but still ended up needing to use some that were more
>> mature than ideal.
>
> do you scoop out the insides? we do with an ice-cream
>scooper. while i don't mind eating that myself Mom objects
>to it in most things.

Not yet, but that is a good idea. It would probably reduce the
watery aspect. I'll keep that in mind for next year.

The cucumbers are suddenly in die-off mode. Not sure why. There's
mildew, of course, but I've never seen that kill a vine outright.

Might be the heat. Even for August, western Ohio has been pretty
hot and dry (except in downpours, thunderstorms, and -- of course
-- tornadoes).

>> All in all, it's been a good garden/canning season so far, at least
>> for my expectations. I'll daydream about being in the George Shirley
>> class, but at the end of the day I'm fine with just being me.
>
> we're just starting our tomato canning today.
>finally have enough at one picking to do it.

My tomatoes (Black Plum, in Ohio) pretty consistently start coming
in around the end of July -- just as we have two consecutive 3-day
weekend festivals.

So the garage fridge gets crowded with the 20 quart tubs I got from
the restauraunt store, and I get busy after festivals.

I have more getting ripe now, and plan on drying some of them, maybe
taking some to work, and picking some green for pickling just out
of curiosity.

This canning run will make about 5 lasagnes, so I hope to get a
second in place. But I've just cracked the 2018 sauce, so I have
some lee-way.


> pickles are done for the season. we just picked
>two more buckets of cucumbers but they will be eaten
>or given away.

I have to plant more vines next year. This year went well, but I
didn't have enough ripe at once for finger pickles (gerkins, for
the US) or not-watery relish.

> i did 12 pints of bread and butter pickles with
>the previous batch.

I haven't done B&B pickles for close to 40 years. I don't recall
the flavor, just that I liked them.

Next year?


> we did 111 quarts of dill pickles.
>
>
> songbird


--
|Drew Lawson | If you're not part of the solution |
| | you're part of the precipitate. |

Drew Lawson wrote:
>songbird writes:
>>Drew Lawson wrote:
>>...
>>> It seems to be a little watery again. I'm getting better at cucumber
>>> management, but still ended up needing to use some that were more
>>> mature than ideal.
>>
>> do you scoop out the insides? we do with an ice-cream
>>scooper. while i don't mind eating that myself Mom objects
>>to it in most things.
>
> Not yet, but that is a good idea. It would probably reduce the
> watery aspect. I'll keep that in mind for next year.

i also pre-process them by salting them some and
then letting them sit a while and that pulls a lot of
moisture out of them.

in the batch i did earlier this week though i used a
bit too much salt so we'll have to use these in
recipes and not add any extra other salt (we usually
don't anyways).


> The cucumbers are suddenly in die-off mode. Not sure why. There's
> mildew, of course, but I've never seen that kill a vine outright.
>
> Might be the heat. Even for August, western Ohio has been pretty
> hot and dry (except in downpours, thunderstorms, and -- of course
> -- tornadoes).

we've had a few seasons where the cucumbers finish
early, but not most of them. the plants will keep
going right up until frosts get them if we don't pull
them sooner. which i am quite ready to do...


....
>> pickles are done for the season. we just picked
>>two more buckets of cucumbers but they will be eaten
>>or given away.
>
> I have to plant more vines next year. This year went well, but I
> didn't have enough ripe at once for finger pickles (gerkins, for
> the US) or not-watery relish.

i don't like the too small ones, they're a pain to
clean if they get dirt on them. my brother requested
them and i told him if he wants them he can come over
and clean them.


>> i did 12 pints of bread and butter pickles with
>>the previous batch.
>
> I haven't done B&B pickles for close to 40 years. I don't recall
> the flavor, just that I liked them.

sweet and sour with pickles and onion. all good
for me. Mom uses them in some of her cooking as a
sweet and sour aspect. i like them in tuna salad and
egg salad to contrast with the green olives.


songbird

On 2019-08-17 23:54:23 +0000, Drew Lawson said:

> Next thing, hopefully, is dilly beans. I didn't get a chance to
> check the beans today. That could happen soon.
>
> Green beans are another thing that I only planted in eating quantity,
> not canning quantity. I have a batch canned, but don't know if
> that will happen again. Fingers crossed.

Hey, Drew -- forgive me if this is obvious, never mind too late for
your use, but you don't need to make a full batch of those dilly beans.
The particulars are easy to halve.

--
--
Barb
www.barbschaller.com, last update April 2013

In article <2019090410153520715-barbschaller@earthlinknet>
Melba's Jammin' > writes:
>On 2019-08-17 23:54:23 +0000, Drew Lawson said:
>
>> Next thing, hopefully, is dilly beans. I didn't get a chance to
>> check the beans today. That could happen soon.
>>
>> Green beans are another thing that I only planted in eating quantity,
>> not canning quantity. I have a batch canned, but don't know if
>> that will happen again. Fingers crossed.
>
>Hey, Drew -- forgive me if this is obvious, never mind too late for
>your use, but you don't need to make a full batch of those dilly beans.
> The particulars are easy to halve.

Thanks, but unfortunately the green beans haven't gone well.
Maybe next year.


--
Drew Lawson | Broke my mind
| Had no spare
|