Canning Count 2011: Wrap-Up

Here's my semi-official canning count for 2011. I'm pretty sure I missed recording a few things, but oh well!

Canning:

Strawberry Jam - 19 half-pints

Green Beans - 26 Quarts

Tomatoes - 20 Quarts

Tomato Sauce - 8 Pints

Basil-Garlic Tomato Sauce - 9 Pints

Bruschetta Mix - 6 half-pints

Peaches - many Quarts

Apple Butter - 5 half-pints, 2 pints

Apple Slices - 12 Quarts

In the Freezer:

Broccoli - 4 Gallon Ziplocs

Apple Pie - 4 pies

Squash Patties

Misc:

Strawberry Fruit Leather

Peach Fruit Leather

A few notes: 

-I cannot freeze enough Squash Patties. They are a hit with everyone, especially Jeremiah!

-Freezing ready-to-bake Apple Pies was genius. Best idea ever!

-Garden broccoli was delicious. Do NOT remove the air from the bag w/ the food saver. You end up with a giant brick of broccoli. Flash freeze & use gallon freezer ziplocs so you can pull out just a bit at the time.

Our garden is in the ground (with a very special thanks to my Father-in-Law) & it looks like strawberry season is almost in full swing, so we'll be starting over very soon. Not sure how much I'll get put away this year considering the little one inside of me makes me very tired, but something is better than nothing!

Garden Goodness: Freezing Broccoli

This has been an AMAZING year for the broccoli in our garden. Usually we barely have enough to eat, certainly not enough to freeze. However, these year the heads are huge and abundant! This is a picture of the bounty from our first cutting (minus the head and a half my mother-in-law saved for them to eat fresh). 

Doesn't that just look so good? I wish we had smell-o-vision on here because it smells just divine. Yum!

Anyway, on to freezing. I've never frozen broccoli myself, but I always buy the bags of frozen broccoli florets. They work best for how I typically cook, so I knew I wanted to freeze in a similar fashion. I consulted the Ball Blue Book (my personal preserving Bible) for instructions. This was super easy and I was done in under an hour (including the first 30 minutes of soaking in brine & final dish clean-up!). 

First, you chop off all the leaves and woody stems. Cut into manageable pieces that you want to cook with later. Soak in a brine solution for 30 minutes. Rinse. 

Blanch.

Ice Bath.

Spread on cookie sheets (I had enough for 2 cookie sheets!) and freeze. I prefer this method because they are more easily separated than when first put in a bag and then frozen.

Later I'll vacuum seal them using the Food Saver (or you could put them in a freezer Ziploc bag) and they'll be waiting to be transformed into a delicious side dish!

Canning Apples

A sweet friend of mine (who is expecting twins!) gave me two bags full of apples from another friend's tree. Understandably, she didn't have the time or energy to do anything with them so I gladly accepted!

These apples obviously aren't shiny and polished from the grocery store, but they smelled and tasted delicious (a little tart). They did have some bad spots that had to be cut out - no big deal.

I used my trusty peeler-corer-slicer that my grandmother gave to me. This thing is a lifesaver when working with apples!

Apple slices waiting in a big bowl...

I've only canned applesauce in the past and I don't add sugar. The reason I can get away with that is because I use a variety of apples - some tart and some sweet. This gives it a great taste with no need for added sugars. Well, this batch was tart and I only had these apples, so I had to think of something different to do. I looked at my Ball Blue Book of Preserving and decided to try my hand at Apple Butter and just canned apples in a light syrup (can be used later for baking or pureed into applesauce if I find some other apples to mix in).

It tastes great, but I'm not sure I got the consistency right (I'd never actually eaten Apple Butter before).  I was afraid of pureeing the apples too much because the recipe warned against liquefying the apples. I have no idea if the apple butter turned out like it was supposed to. Nevertheless, I'll take taste over texture any day!

We're having a family adventure to go apple picking at a local orchard in October. I'm so excited and can't wait to can lots more!

Damson Plum Jam

Have you ever heard of a Damson Plum? I hadn't until this past year when a sweet friend told me about them. Her parents grow them and she often makes preserves out of them. She was so generous to give me a bag full. I had no clue what I was going to do with them, but I knew I'd make something!

source

I checked out the Ball Blue Book of Preserving (my go-to book for anything preserving related) and found a recipe for Damson Plum Jam. It looked pretty easy (3 ingredients: fruit, sugar, water), so I decided to give it a whirl. I was quite nervous because this was the first time I'd ever made jam the old fashioned way - without pectin. However, the patience to get it to the "gelling point" paid off because it is delicious!!

The recipe made 6 half-pints. This was so good that I'm not sure I'll be giving them away as Christmas gifts...I might be greedy & keep them just for us!

Fun with your kids - go pick fruit!

So far this summer, I've taken Little Man strawberry picking (alone), Cherry Picking (with his Nana), and Blueberry Picking (with Daddy).  He's not even two yet, but he had a BLAST each time and enjoyed a ton of fruit while we picked (thank God they didn't weigh him before & after or my bill would have been a lot higher!). He even helped pick some to put in the buckets (although most went directly to his mouth).

Little Man picking blueberries.

I'd encourage anyone to take their kids to go pick fruit (or veggies). These have been great outings - both fun and productive (I've gotten plenty of fruit to eat, freeze, and can). I love that my little guy is getting an understanding at a very young age that food doesn't just appear in the grocery store.

Little Man & myself after a hilarious cherry picking adventure.

Suggestions for success:
1) Go early in the morning before it gets too hot. Nobody, your little ones included, wants to be out there in the heat of the day. That will zap the fun right out of you!
2) Wear old clothes & shoes that you don't mind getting dirty. Farm life is rarely pristine.
3) Take a snack & a drink. I never leave the house without these anyway! :)
4) Be patient and don't expect them to be perfect pickers immediately (or maybe even at all). I didn't think Little Man would know which berries to pick, but after  me repeatedly pointing out the ripe berries and taste testing a few that weren't ripe, he became a pro. It's also very important to teach them proper "etiquette" of walking up & down the rows and not trampling the plants.

Canning Season

Canning season is here. We've already finished up with strawberries and soon we'll be moving on to green beans, pickles, tomatoes, and maybe more. I'm ready. 

My canned good shelves are pretty bare...

And I have lots of empty jars!

But that probably still won't be enough...

So thankful my husband got everything organized for me!

And then there were two.

Remember the three cows?

Now there are only two. We'll see #3 again on the grill very soon!

That probably sounds a little mean, but supplying our beef is their purpose. They've enjoyed a happy little life grazing in the pasture and occasionally chasing the donkey. Much better than a life lived in CAFOs. 

 I've heard that beef like this blows beef from a grocery store out of the water. I'm excited to taste for myself. If it's anything like home grown vegetables versus store-bought, then there's absolutely no comparison.

Strawberry Jam

It's STRAWBERRY SEASON!!!

I'm excited - how about you? My little man has eaten a TON of strawberries. He literally ate over a pound on the way home from the strawberry patch BY HIMSELF Thursday. The kid loves fruit - I'm not complaining! 

I have been making strawberry jam with the 20lbs of strawberries we've acquired in the last couple of weeks. I plan on making more too, because after I give some away as gifts and eat it with PB or Nutella, there's just not a lot left to last the rest of the year. And we have an entire YEAR until strawberry season rolls around again.

I've been making all my jam with Ball's No Sugar Needed Pectin.

One batch I made completely sugar free. It's pretty good with PB, but I wouldn't want it by itself on buttered toast. The other 4 batches I've made a "low-sugar" version, using between 2-3 cups of sugar. That's still quite a bit of sugar, but much better than the 7 cups that would typically go in there. I've gotten rave reviews on the low-sugar version, so I'll keep on making it that way.

I gave a jar to each of the ladies in my MOPS Care Group at our meeting the Friday before Mother's Day. 

I wanted to make sure they all had a SWEET Mother's Day!

Our newest additions...

My in-laws picked up four new additions last week. 

Meet Leeroy, the donkey. He's pretty cute (for a donkey) and is getting fairly spoiled. He loves to come to the fence and be petted. He'll even bow his head down low for Little Man to be able to give him a little love. He has a job - keep the coyotes away. From what, you ask?

These three  ladies gentlemen (my MIL originally told me they were heifers and I had no desire to confirm that reality for myself, so I trusted). Coyotes (and any other predator) better stay away because these will become lots of good beef for us to eat in a few months. Local (extremely), grass-fed beef for our family and a few friends. Delightful!

These ladies don't really have names. You really shouldn't name an animal that you're raising to slaughter. Just not good form to be thinking about "Bessie" as you are enjoying a cheeseburger.

They'll be keeping us company in the pasture as we start our gardening adventures this week!

Can you eat local & be frugal?

I've been doing a lot of reading, thinking, and even taking a few "baby steps" to have our family eat more locally. Why do I want us to eat locally? A few reasons, not necessarily in order of importance...


(1) I think our diet will be healthier if we eat locally. Our meat, fruits, and veggies would all be much fresher and would retain more of its nutritional value by the time it got to our plate. I don't really see myself going crazy and being a total "locavore" because there are just some foods that are pretty convenient. We don't eat a lot of processed foods (mainly because I have an allergy to corn, so no corn products like HFCS in our household), however we still have some processed food in our house that I probably just can't part with (It's handy to reach for the carton of Goldfish for Little Man to snack on and I would probably throw a fit if I couldn't have BBQ potato chips with a pimiento cheese sandwich).


(2)  For the Bible tell me so. (Flashback to your childhood days singing Jesus Love Me anyone?)  Ok, well this point I'm still up in the air about. I've been reading through the book of Jeremiah and I've encountered several verses to make me stop and think about this. I'm still pondering...


(3) Our money would stay in the community. I really like the idea of our money staying right here in our community to support our friends, neighbors, and local farmers. Farming is a hard life and generally not very lucrative. I'd much prefer my money (well, my hubby's money if we want to get technical about it!) stay here to support their livelihood, rather than go to large corporations who keep most of the profit.


Speaking of money...we're not made of it. There's not a Money Tree in our backyard and we only have one income since I SAH, so I have to be careful about what I spend on my portion of the budget, which obviously includes groceries. While I'd love to eat mostly locally grown fruits and veggies, it's not always in the budget. Here are a few things that help our grocery bill be a bit more frugal.


(1) A helpmate to the budget is our garden. I have very generous in-laws who fund the garden, so this is free food to us - I just put in my "sweat equity" and get a great return on my investment. I use the garden goodies to freeze and can food that we can eat throughout the year.  I'll be honest, it's a lot of work, but it is cheaper, healthier, and tastes SO much better than store bought items. I also use our canned goods as presents which are always a big hit since they are so darn tasty! Not only does it save money in my "grocery" budget, but it saves in the "gifts" portion of our budget, too!

(2) Farmer's Markets, local farmers & Pick-Your-Own. Even though our garden last year produced a lot of veggies, we didn't have any fruit. We (and by "we" I mean my FIL) planted a few fruit trees, some blueberry bushes, and muscadine vines, but none of those are producing yet. Just because we don't have fruit doesn't mean it's not around. PLENTY of local farms have delicious strawberries, peaches, blueberries, apples, and other fruit. It's still typically less expensive than the grocery store, definitely tastes better, and keeps your money in your community (have you seen where the strawberries in your grocery store are coming from these days?). If you want a fun outing with lots of people and beautiful food, check out your local Farmer's Market. I absolutely LOVE going to the Farmer's Market where my parents live - it's really big and there is so much to see and EAT! If you're willing to work a little and "pick your own" on a farm, you can usually come out even cheaper. Either way, you can buy enough for just that week or you can buy a bunch to put up for the rest of the year - it's up to you!


(3) Coupons! I clip coupons weekly (only items that we'll actually use). I'm not great at using these during my weekly shopping trips, but I stock up and use them when we have Super Doubles and Triple Coupon weeks at Harris Teeter - then I can really see some savings! I especially use coupons for non-food items that I still consider "grocery" items, like personal products, household items, etc. This is a big money saver for us so that I can put that money into better quality (and hopefully local) food.

Well, there are my thoughts about local eating while still being frugal. They may be a bit scattered, as I'm still trying to work out my thoughts on this matter. We're not perfect...we have grapes in our fridge from Chile bought at Sam's Club, strawberries from California bought on sale from Harris Teeter, but also a bowl of peach slices from the freezer that I help pick last July from right down the road. As our MOPS Mentor Mom tells us, remember that a 2-degree change can make a world of difference in your final destination.

Fresh Pork!

I'm making an effort to have our family eat more local foods. We've made progress eating veggies from our garden and getting fruit from local farmers, along with quite a bit of preserving so we can eat that way year round. (We don't eat exclusively local - I bought grapes today that I'm sure are from somewhere in South America, but Little Man LOVES grapes!)

One area I haven't done any local eating is in the meat department. I generally just buy the loss leaders and stock up. However, I started to have a change of heart when we watched Food, Inc. So today I made the first step in our local meat eating endeavor! I ordered pork from a local hog farmer (like 10 minutes from my house kind of local!). Next Saturday I'll be picking up 10lbs of Pork Chops and 10lbs of Sausage (5lbs Hot/5lbs Regular). I thought the prices were very reasonable. The Sausage was $3/lb and the Pork Chops were $4/lb. He also has Pork Tenderloin and Ribs. Maybe next time I'll be brave and order some of those, too.