yum.... kimchi..... let us know how it turns out, Liz. I have a batch now in the fridge.... fam says it's the best batch so far.... I sent some with my Dau who is away at college... had to scold her for not eating it as she should when she came down with a cold... she laughed and admitted that she hadn't been eating it....

Annie, I'm a "tart" apple-lover but my favorite applesauce is when I make it from the traditional MacIntosh apples. Such good flavor and walks the line between tart and sweet. How did you can your broth if it were gelatinous? I haven't done any yet so was curious. I work over the weekend but hope to do several more canning projects on my next days off. Again, I just loved the cranberry-pepper jelly (sauce) using the Bon Appetite recipe. I've opened another jar to use as a spread for some ham sandwiches. Lori

Gardengalrn, I searched for the Bon Appetite cranberry pepper jelly sauce on here and looked at the recipe. Do you think that using regular green jalapeños would ruin it? I don't know where I could get red jalapeños or Fresno chilis, as the recipe reads. Do you leave the red pepper flakes out of yours? One reviewer online for this recipe said the flakes made it WAY too hot. I am open to ideas, from someone who has made this before.

Thanks, LoneJack, I'm glad to know that limit has been lifted, if it was ever there.

canfan, my husband LOVES kim chi, so I make it. I don't eat the stuff, though, I'm such a wimp about heat and he loves it hot, the hotter the better!

Gardengal, the stock is only gelatinous when it's cold, when it's heated it's liquid. I cook the stock for 24 hours, then strain and refrigerate it. The fat rises to the top and I skim that off and use it for frying potatoes. The broth then gets reheated to boiling, poured into jars and pressure canned. Even at room temperature the broth is liquid, so on the shelf it looks prettier, LOL. That "jello" quality is actually what I'm going for, it means that sufficient collagen has leached from the bones and into the stock, giving the stock a thicker "mouth feel" and a heartier and more defined flavor. My beef broth does the same thing. To me, store bought broth tastes very little like chicken or beef, mostly like water and salt. My broth can be thickened for gravy or added to vegetables for a quick soup, with no additional flavoring necessary.

MacIntosh is my favorite sauce apple, but I want Empire for baking and a mixture of sweet and tart for the cider press. Yeah, I gotta have a bunch of different apples, LOL, can't be happy with just one!

Annie

Just finished the spiced red cabbage - ended up with 7 quarts. Took much longer than expected because I had to keep refilling jars as the cabbage compacted (I don't think I over-filled them, because I still ended up with more jars than the recipe estimate). I'll let them sit for a couple weeks to develop flavor, and then hopefully try them with our pork that should be arriving soon.

22 pints of dill spears

10 pints of dill chips

11 1/2-pints and 1 4-oz of peach butter

14 pints of giardiniera

56 1/2-pints and 5 4-oz of jam (cran-rasp, cran-rasp-blue, plum-rasp, plum, grape-pear, grape-rasp, plum-pear, grape-plum)

I added 3 quarts and a pint of chicken broth to the pantry and 2 gallon jugs and 9 quart jars of freshly pressed cider to the freezer. Another gallon went home with my daughter, so we pressed a little over 5 gallons today, a mix of Red and Yellow Delicious, Fuji, Jonagold, MacIntosh, Empire and SunCrisp.

I managed to put hash browns in the freezer, thanks Dave! I packed some into a sheet pan in a pretty firm layer and then portioned it out into squares and froze it. When I took it off the pan, I could break it into squares for individual hash brown patties. Will they fall apart when they hit the pan? Darned if I know, but it seemed worth a try. Others were just packed into gallon zip lock bags and frozen, so they can be poured out as needed.

I was thinking of canning some, but I've canned them before and thought they had a "rubbery" texture that I didn't care for. Dave, do you get that in your canned ones?

One more batch of chicken stock and I'll have all the backs/neck/feet out of the freezer so I have room for beef, which will be processed on November 19. I may have to can beef, too, though!

Annie

It's been a while since I've posted here-- 3 young children will do that to ya-- but I had to look up applesauce tips and here I am again. This year I've done 2 batches of blackberry jam, about 3 gallons of frozen squash purée, and most recently applesauce and apple-sage-thyme jelly.

Annie, what is right above your granddaughter's head in the photo with the nail gun?

Donna, I don't think it would matter. I only had a few small red ones so I used mostly green as well. I didn't use the pepper flakes but think I will try them next time! Lori

food lover, that white thing? It's a hanger for laundry, attached to the side of my laundry cabinet. That room is "L" shaped, and around the corner is the laundry room!

Annie

Well, I was inspired by Annie's chicken broth so I canned 7 quarts of delicious stuff. Probably not as decadent as Annie's, I only cooked for about 5-6 hours but it was good. Used my older gifted jars and just loved them, vintage. All seals were good and they are now washed, labelled, and put in the pantry. DH saw me bringing the jars up from the basement and asked if they would "hold up?" YES, they seem to me to be sturdier than the newer ones. I just made sure there were no chinks on the rim and was good to go. Lori

Annie, I am sorry that my question was unclear. I meant the canned food above and to the left of her head. I could not identify it. Thanks!

foodlover, directly to the left of her head are carrots. I grew a mixture of Purple Dragon, Atomic Red and Amarillo, and canned them as a mix, thinking they'd be pretty. The purple kind of leached into the water in the jars and the Amarillo lost their yellow color and took on that "dirty" color. The next batches I canned each color separately! The kids loved the purple carrots, though, they also stained mouths/tongues/lips/teeth and the kids called them "zombie carrots", LOL.

Annie

Annie (sorry to keep badgering you!), so the Purple Dragon carrots still held their purple color? So many of the purple veggies turn green when cooked. I've grown a different purple variety plus the ones you mention but I've never had them in the amounts to can. Lori

Made 3.75 gallons of chicken stock today from four stewing hens I picked up at a local farm. Will make and can chicken soup for the first time tomorrow! I've gone back and read dozens of soup threads on this forum, as well as the NCHFP guidelines, and I've got the Ball recipe as my guide (sort of..I'm doing the 1/2 solids, 1/2 stock method discussed at length here). Wish me luck! Also picked up our hog from the butcher today. In addition to the 118 pounds of delicious meat in our freezer, I have 26 pounds of bones and 9 pounds of fat. I'll never be bored this winter :)

Liz, can you share your canning spiced cabbage recipe? I have four large head sitting in my refrigerator. Aldi got them in by mistake, and they were $1.49 a head. A steal for red cabbage!

Here you go, Donna. It's from the Ball Blue Book.

Todays totals: 12 qts chicken soup + 2 qts soup broth, 9 cups frozen, diced roasted beets, 5 frozen kohlrabi gratins, beet brownies that will eventually find the freezer after we stop tasting them.

Thank you, Liz! I appreciate it!

gardengal, when I canned the purple carrots by themselves, they definitely kept the purple color. But when I canned them with other things, the purple leached out into the water and dyed everything kind of a dirty purpleish color, very unappetizing.

I'll take a picture tomorrow and post it, so you can see, tonight I'm not at home so I don't have access to my jars of goodies...

Annie

Just to clarify for anyone searching for the recipe, the photo of the recipe above is from the Ball Complete Book of Food Preservation and not from the Ball Blue Book. However the exact same recipe is also available on pg. 94 in the current edition of the BBB.

Anyone who does any canning needs to have at least a copy of the BBB.

Dave

Thanks for the clarification Dave. I've honestly wondered what the difference was between the two, and if my book was just called the BBB by experienced canners. Is the BBB the thinner book that is often sold next to the canning supplies in big box stores?

Yes it is, among other places, and while there is some overlap, they are quite different in approach, organization, and goals.

The Ball Blue Book, usually referred to the BBB (currently in its 37th edition), is often also referred to as the canning bible, the one book any one who cans should own. It is introductory in its approach and is best for any beginners as it covers all the basics in much more detail and focuses on canning foods safely rather than niche or gourmet recipes. But it also meets most needs for even the most experienced canner who focus on canning the basic foods rather then "fancy" things. It is also revised and kept current with the guidelines every second year and has existed for over 100 years.

The much bigger Ball Complete Book is commonly referred to "Ball Complete" and while it does address basics, in many ways it is directed at the more experienced canner who want to expand their recipe repertoire and who keep current with the guidelines on their own. It has only the one edition and has not been updated since 2006.

Then there is the

The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving published by Jarden/Canada in 2016. Referred to as "The All New" and a very different book from the other two and only indirectly tied to Ball.

Dave

Thank you, Dave. Not only is this a fantastically thorough explanation, but now I have a new book to add to my canning list.

Thanks for the heads up, Annie. I have ordered some seed to try Purple Dragon again, as we enjoyed them fresh before. Lori

You are welcome, Lori. And I can add to my list: 9 half pints and one pint of cranberry sauce with pineapple and apples. Very yummy, and I'll use the pint for Thanksgiving dinner.

Annie

I harvested the rest of my carrots and most of my Brussels Sprouts over the holiday week. We had some of both with Thanksgiving dinner. The BS were roasted using a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com Maple roasted BS with bacon. They were a huge hit and the kids even loved them.

I blanched and froze about 10 pounds of the carrots and took another ~10 pounds and layered them in a plastic tote box in moist sand. The rest of the BS were also blanched and frozen. I left 2 of the BS in the garden and put wire rings around them and mulched inside the rings with shredded leaves. Hoping they will survive until Xmas for another batch of the Maple roasted BS.

Sounds like your carrots did awesome Jack, mine were very small this year, still tasty but nothing to store. All of the fall stuff was smaller this year. Next year I will go back to the old spots.

I have some BS, leeks, lettuce, and baby carrots left. Next weekend I will pull it all and the garden will be done for the year. Time to let winter do its thing. The Brussels turned out good despite suffering through the summer. One meal's harvest left. They were a lot of work though, to peel off the unappetizing outer leaves and scrub the aphids and other bugs/frass.

Yeah the carrots did pretty well but the Danver Half long only got to about 3 inches long. The shoulders were over 1.5" and then they tapered down quickly and looked like a top. The Bolero were the most impressive with consistent 8-10" straight uniform roots. The Napoli were a mixed bag with most pretty nice sized and others were forked and twisted.

The sprouts did pretty well but a lot of them were still pretty small at the top of the stalk. Some of the bottom sprouts had bug damage as well and were composted. I think next year I will harvest the bottom sprouts in September even if it is prior to frost and that will hopefully allow more energy for the upper sprouts to size up more.

We got down to 20 degrees for 2 nights the weekend prior to Thanksgiving and everything survived including the BS, leeks, Cauliflower, and Broccoli.

I too had very small carrots this year. Due to my heavy clay soil, I always grow Royal Chantenay. This year despite planting by June 10th, they were small when I dug them in mid-October. Very fat but extremely short. I have always grown them in the past with good results but not this year. Instead of 4 gallons of carrots, I ended up with 2 gallon bags full.

I also had small carrots, because the buttternut squash was planted next to them, with enough space that I thought it would be sufficient. However, the squash encroached on the carrots, and then overtook them. That was after the groundhogs ate off all the tops. When the squash vines died, I left the carrots in the ground for another month, but the deer started eating the tops, so the poor things never did get bigger than 3 or 4 inches long. I had Purple Dragon, Atomic Red and Amarillo. I kept the "biggest" ones and just let the cows have the small ones.

Jack, that BS recipes sounds delicious, I love brussels sprouts, but have not been very successful growing them here. I'll have to try again.

Annie

Yeah Annie, BS are definitely a challenge. This was only my third try and by far my best result but still plenty of room for improvement. I did not have much luck with the heirloom types like Catskill in the past. This year I tried the hybrid called Jade Cross E grown from seed and planted out in mid July. I see pictures like this one Jade Cross E and want to grow some that look like that. In Michigan I would think that you would want to get yours planted out in late May/June.

I also dug up and processed my horseradish last week. I got 3.5 pounds of roots that made 3.5 pints from my 3x3 bed. I made it a little hotter than I have in the past and boy were my eyes watering while I was doing it. I canned it in 4 oz. jars and froze it. I'm planning a prime rib roast xmas dinner so we will try it then.

LoneJack, How did you 'make it a little hotter'? Will store bought horseradish root be just as spicy as home grown? When you say you canned it, do you mean BWB? My understanding is that the horseradish looses its kick when heated. So if you canned it why freeze it? Thanks - I love horseradish but was unsuccessful in trying to grow it here in Phoenix.

I would recommend the BS variety Churchill, for a summer planting for winter harvest. It seems like Johnny's doesn't have it anymore sadly. Hestia was good too but not quite as vigorous and cold tolerant, and had more disease issues than Churchill for me.

I still haven't pulled up my horseradish. I will do it this weekend when I pull the final stuff.

Mary, try growing it in a pot, I am sure you will have success. IDK about AZ but growing it in the ground here is a nightmare. It is extremely invasive.

Mary - too increase the heat I run the peeled and cubed roots thru a little Cuisinart food processor for a minute or so and then let it sit for about 3 minutes. Then I add the vinegar, and a little salt and sugar and process it again until I get the right consistency. You want enough vinegar in it so that there is a little liquid covering the top when you put it in the jar. The 3 minute wait time increases the heat as opposed to adding the other ingredients immediately.

I'd assume store bought HR roots would be the same as homegrown, but I believe there are different varieties of HR so there may be some variation. I've never used store bought roots. If homegrown, the key is to wait until after a freeze or 2 before harvesting to get the best flavor and heat. Not sure if that would be possible in Phoenix.

No, I don't BWB it. I just spoon it out of the food processor into the 4 oz. jars leaving a little head room for expansion and then freeze it. I take a jar out of the freezer a couple days before using it and let it thaw in the frig.

This is basically the recipe I use proportion wise. Prepared Horseradish

Thanks for taking the time to give me that detailed response. I'll try some store bought HR. We occasionally get a hard freeze but that's hard to predict although we are due for a cold winter.....but then there's climate change so who knows??

Mary - as Jack indicated it is the amount of time you wait after grating and before adding the vinegar that determines the degree of hotness. Once the vinegar is added the heat is locked in at that level.

http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_06/pickled_horseradish.html

Dave

Thanks Dave.

The second half of our winter storage CSA arrived right before we left for vacation...so I returned home to a fridge full of produce that needed to be put up somehow. The two most urgent (and space hogging) veggies were cabbages (3 green, 3 red) and daikon (2 giant, 4 normal). With the green cabbages, my husband and I made 4 dozen cabbage rolls (in the oven now). With the red cabbages, I made a new-to-me recipe of smothered rice and cabbage soup ... which ended up turning into almost cabbage risotto. I used my pork bone broth, and it was delicious. It made enough for 9 dinners for two! Both of these dishes will be portioned and frozen. I also used the daikon to make a freezer slaw...recipe was found on this forum. That's sitting in the fridge and will be frozen tomorrow. I think I have about 10 cups of it.

I'm nowhere near through the storage share, but at least those veggies are taken care of!

Add 7 more quarts of venison and 8 pints of vegetable soup (with venison) to the pantry! I have about 6-7 more quarts of venison to do today. Possibly some carrots as well. It's our first snow of the season and I love the smells going on in the house. Getting into the holiday spirit! Lori

I harvested and pulled the last remaining 4 Cauliflower yesterday. They were only around 4" and weren't getting any bigger. It is supposed to get down in the single digits later in the week so they wouldn't have made it until next weekend. I blanched and froze most of it getting enough for 6 meals.

My sauerkraut turned out! The first batch I tried in glass jars this year didn't work well (I didn't really understand the process), but last month my nephews helped me shred up three giant cabbages, and we fermented them in a 5-gallon food grade bucket. They took great pride in "smushing" the cabbage for quite some time to make sure it put out enough brine. After five weeks of fermentation, it looks and tastes perfect. I'll be canning it up this weekend. Looks like we ended up with about 1.5 gallons.

Liz, I love your "kraut packers", help is always a good thing. (I like your floor too!)

I used to help Grandpa pack kraut, now my grandkids help me. It always seems to turn out better when I have helpers!

Annie

Wow...quite the herd of helpful nephews you have Liz! And a good looking kitchen as well. I'm glad that this batch turned out so well for you.

I believe I am done putting up stuff for the year, although I still have a few dozen garlic bulbs that I might end up pickling or dehydrating sometime.

This might be my last "hurrah" of 2016, but I just put 410 pounds of beef in the freezer and I have stock simmering in the roaster now. I am planning to can some beef tomorrow, as long as I have stock going anyway, we'll see how that plan plays out!

Annie

I'm jealous Annie! That's a lot of beef and I'm sure it is great stuff...Angus? Hereford? I buy 20-30 lbs. of ground beef from a friend that raises a few Angus every year and it is really good quality. We don't eat a lot of roasts so buying a whole side wasn't very economical for us. I usually just buy Ribeye or Strip steaks by the loin when they are on sale and vacuum seal them.

I dehydrated most of the rest of my garlic last weekend. Some cloves were starting to brown but most were still in good shape. I put the rest in the frig in hopes that it will last until the next harvest in June. I've got 2 quarts of garlic chips in the freezer now so we won't run out of garlic powder anytime soon! I use a lot of onion and garlic powder in the summer when I make a big batch home made BBQ rub.

Jack, I'm just using up the last handful of cloves that I kept "fresh", and they're just starting to sprout, so I need to use them up....

Right now I'm running with a Hereford/Highland cross, and I'm happy with that. The calves are born small but grow quickly and happily graze on brush and weeds along with their pasture. Mine are all grass fed and grass finished, and eat only that which is grown on the farm here. Well, not exactly, they all love the Little Debbie powdered sugar donuts the grandkids feed them as treats, but other than that it's grass and hay, LOL. We butcher at about 18 months, so it's really "baby beef", and my animals have acres of pasture to roam around in and just be cows. No feed lots, no crowded spaces, the barn is open but they seldom go inside unless they are escaping summer's heat. When it's time, Dallas comes to the farm and they are killed as quickly and humanely as possible. They are born on the place and never leave it, no trailers or strange places. They are not pets, (well, except old Red Cow, she's 16) but they are friendly and docile and I can handle them myself. They'd follow me off the edge of the earth for a powdered sugar donut, LOL.

I have neighbors who are old farmers and they swore I'd never get an animal from birth to 1,000 pounds in 18 months on just hay and pasture, but a couple of them have now switched to grass fed because they can sell them for more money. I'm happy that you are buying beef from a neighbor, keep the little guys in business! And I mean little, right now I have 6 head of cattle. (grin)

And so, I just canned 5 quarts of sirloin chunks and 3 quarts of stock. That'll be the last of my preserving until next year, as I have our family Christmas celebration on Sunday, complete with a 7 rib standing rib roast, homegrown. So, no time for canning, we'll need a new 2017 posting!

A very Happy and Healthy New Year to all my friends here...

Annie

Love the pic, he sure is adorable. We only have one animal (beef critter) at a time but I think our friend is going to put his steer in our pasture for company for ours for a while during the bad weather. They are the same age so they will be good companions. Our freezers are completely full and the hogs are going off next week so I have to finish cleaning the freezer I keep pork in. Good food and glad to have it. I had made a few more quarts of chicken broth but froze it due to my work schedule. Lori

Lori, we didn't raise pigs this year because Elery had a hip replaced last September and a knee replaced this September. Last year I schlepped 250 lbs of pig food a day, this year, so this year I went on strike. But a friend has an "extra" pig that he raised and the buyer backed out, so he asked us if we'd like to buy it. Oh yeah, we would. I like to spend my money locally and give my food dollars to a neighbor and the local small-town slaughterhouse instead of Chinese owned Smithfield, or whoever.

Now, I'm off to start a 2017 thread, I canned today! Happy New year!

Annie