I found some decent-looking rhubarb at the grocery, bought 3 stalks, brought it home, and promptly cooked it into a thick, sweet sauce. At the last minute I added a teaspoon of lemon zest. I got 3 small jars and I will freeze 2.

I love this on toast. But it doesn't last too long in the fridge so I'll have to eat it up. (Poor me.)

Having a knock out year for zucchini, tomatoes & peppers! I've canned ??? rounds of chunky tomato basil sauce, 3 rounds to Annie's salsa, 2 rounds of zesty zucchini relish, and 1 round of Grandmothers Golden relish (using part zucchini). I've also roasted ??? rounds of cherry tomatoes and frozen them. Lastly , I've also chopped sweet peppers & hot peppers and have them in the freezer. Happy gardening everyone!

Boo, it sounds just like my garden, the peppers/tomatoes/Zucchini are all prolific this year.

Still canning, this morning it was 4 pints of tomatillo salsa and 6 quarts of tomato sauce.

I have a big roaster full of bones on the counter, it'll cook all night. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I'll can the stock and probably Peppi's red cabbage.

Annie

Annie, what do you use to cook your stock all night?

I have one of those big 18 quart Nesco roasters that I use. I roast all the bones and whatever aromatics I'm using, usually onions/carrots/celery and maybe some bay leaf and peppercorns. When they are all nice and brown in the roaster I add my water, bring it to a boil and then turn it down just to a simmer. It cooks all night with no stirring, scorching, etc., and I get a nice big batch of stock to can.

Mine is still cooking on the counter from last night, not quite as flavorful as I want it yet because it really was just a couple of gallon bags of steak bones and trimmings.

Since no one has added their contributions yet, I'll just edit this post to include 4 quarts of beef stock and 8 pints of Peppi's Sweet and Spiced Red Cabbage.

Annie

Annie, that stock sounds wonderful. And I wish I had tomatillos!!! I planted 3 plants grown from seed -- just like usual. All of the plants are large, healthy, beautiful plants, and have been loaded with flowers all summer, and are STILL! Two of the plants have never set any fruit all summer long, despite being constantly loaded with flowers. I don't get it. This has never happened before. Similar problems with my cukes this year, and honestly, I didn't get much zucchini or crookneck squash given how great the plants and all the flowers look. I guess it's just lack of pollinators. :(

Re harvest, I'm still doing a little here and a little there... I just made 2 jars of candied jalapenos and 3 batches of salsa for the freezer. I've been freezing various excess hot peppers. We've had a lot of crazy weather the past few weeks and it's wiping out my gardens. We're not getting sunny warm days anymore -- it was 41F last night and it's supposed to be low 40s for the next few nights. Tomatoes are all but gone. Trees are starting to change color here.

3 more quarts of chicken bone broth. The roasted meat was picked off the bone and froze for future meals. I hope to get several more jars made before winter sets in.

But, today has been both good and questionable. I didn't get enough sleep last night and have forgotten way too many things today. I almost forgot to unscrew the lids on said broth jars; I had images of cracked jars... but I guess I did do so. Whew! And, I forgot all about the water I was bringing to a boil for lasagna noodles that is for a casserole I want to assemble and bake tomorrow. I found it before the pot ran dry, but decided to leave the pasta making until tomorrow. I am afraid I might forget it too. 😴

PM, I always add flowers to my garden to attract the pollinators, but there are getting to be fewer and fewer. The bumblebees did love my basil this year, though, so I'm glad I planted that, it worked better than flowers. My tomatillos did well, except for one plant that grew bigger than the rest and never got a single fruit. Thankfully I planted too many, as usual. I did get bushels of zucchini, but not so many cucumbers. It's been an odd weather year here, and not a great year for tomatoes either.

Kate, I forget things regularly, like that pot of beans on the stove last night that were so burned I couldn't even scrape them out of the pan. Nice fresh Dixie Butter Peas, too, that I grew, picked and shelled. (sigh) A lot of work to burn them into oblivion, that's for sure.

I'm still canning here, got another 9 quarts of tomato sauce and 8 pints and a half pint of KatieC's Chipotle Catsup. I may have enough tomatoes for one more batch of sauce, but there is a frost predicted for tomorrow night, and everything will be done. I'm going to go strip the garden tomorrow of everything that might be usable and then the garden will be done other than the kale, the leeks, the broccoli and the beets, all of which will withstand the frost easily.

I've also been busily shelling and dehydrating beans for a bean soup mixture. This year I raised Italian Horticultural (cranberry) beans, Hidalgo (a cannellini type), Painted Pony, Dixie Butter Peas, Crowder Peas, Charlevoix kidney beans, Purple Hull Cowpeas, Jacob's Cattle Gold, Christmas Lima and Scarlet Runner. I've only gotten a few handfuls of the Scarlet Runner and the Cowpeas didn't do all that well either. I'll add some lentils, which I am not growing and shelling, thank you! Probably Mayacoba and Garbanzos too, along with some yellow peas and whatever else I can find that intrigues me.

Annie

Annie, I plant plenty of flowers in and around…. we had some odd weather this year that probably contributed to lack of pollinators, as did all the area people who sprayed their lawns. :(

They were forecasting frost for last night and again tonight, so I harvested most of the tomatoes, peppers, etc. I just made 1 qt and 1 pt of pickled cherry tomatoes (dill and garlic). I’m so glad I tried them a few years ago because I not only love them, it makes me less unhappy to know that a frost is coming. :)

yum! the low was 37f. lol!

party - we have a frost predicted this Saturday morning here too.

On Saturday I pulled all of the green tomatoes and Poblano peppers and then cleaned out the plants. I also harvested the last couple pounds of filet green beans and pulled those plants too.

On Sunday morning I blistered all of the peppers, skinned them, and froze them to use in Chili Relleno casserole this winter. I've made Chili Relleno before and they are tedious. The casserole appears much easier so I hope we like it as well.

Jack, I just roasted and froze a couple dozen poblanos too, it must be great minds, thinking alike, LOL. I'll have to try that casserole too, Chili Relleno is kind of tedious...

I also dehydrated 9 trays of chopped and mixed red and green peppers and froze a gallon bag of pepper strips for fajitas and cheesesteak sandwiches, and finished canning 6 quarts of chicken broth from a big bag of parts and some chicken wings I found in the freezer. I'm making room for beef to be processed next week, plus Elery shot a deer today, it'll need freezer room.

Annie

Annie,

Have you ever canned vennison in any form? If so, which parts and how did you use it? My brother hunts, and I am now living close to him, so I could pressure can any extras venison he has, to save on freezer space. But, I'd like to know if it's still enjoyable in canned form, before I embark on a big project.

Martha

My Daughter is visiting and she has been drying peppers to take home with her. We also put up a batch of Escabeche and Sweet/Hot Pickled Peppers. I guess I'll have to make up some green tomato salsa, ours tomato's are slow to ripen.

Martha, I thought I had answered this, but if I did, it's gone. (sigh)

Yes, I can venison. Mostly the bits and pieces that are left after we cut the "good" steaks and roasts. Small bits of trim become ground meat, of course, but the bigger pieces are canned and sometimes I can part of the round too. Canned venison makes quick and delicious stew on busy nights and the kids also like to shred it, add BBQ sauce and put it on buns for "sloppy does". We sometimes use it in a quick "stroganoff" kind of skillet, or use it to make chili or shred it and make cheese steak type sandwiches. It's really good to have on hand and since venison is very lean and has a different texture, canning helps tenderize it.

canfan, enjoy your visit with your daughter!

Here I'm still canning. Today it was 10 pints of peaches, with more to go. I have sliced green tomatoes freezing on sheet pans in the freezer, they'll go into ziplock bags for fried green tomatoes in the winter and I put another quart of fall raspberries in there too. Then is dusted off some of the 300 or so pounds of potatoes we have in the garage and put them into milk crates in the back storage room. I like the milk crates, they allow air flow and I can stack them. They will also hold 9 quart jars and more pints and half pints for when I run out of shelf room for canned goods. I buy them at the on line auction whenever I see them. Tomorrow it's probably going to be more peaches, although I also want to bake a cobbler, we'll see if I get to both.

Annie

My daughter took advantage of the dehydrator while she was here, trays and trays of peppers and a batch of pears went home with her. Along with that was the escabeche, a batch of cowboy candy (sweetened pepper/onion mix) and a batch of corn relish. I did another batch of corn relish after she left yesterday. Peppers - its what's in my garden... lol I do have a few green tomato's... I think I'll try some roasted tomato salsa for something different. We're expecting the night temp to drop to 39 degrees which means we could get frost here. Better get busy.

I sliced a bunch of nice large green tomatoes (as in unripe tomatoes) and froze them on sheet trays so I can use them for fried green tomatoes during the winter. I got 5 quart bags of sliced green tomatoes, so that should be plenty. I also canned another 9 pints of peaches and picked 2 more quarts of raspberries, which I gave to the neighbors across the street, I've already got too many in the freezer. I have just about enough peaches left to make a batch of jam, I think.

Beef was slaughtered today, so that'll be going into my freezer in about 2 weeks. The processor hangs it for 10 days, then cuts, packages in vacuum packages and "flash" freezes it. I'm glad for the 10 day aging process, most of the processors here hang them only a day or two because they want to move them out of the cooler and use the (limited) cooler room for more customers.

Annie

Pretty much through with tomato sauces- Italian, Creole, and Tikka Masala. Still have a last small amount of tomatoes left, not sure what they will be yet. Not the freezer, it's almost full lol.

Actually had an apple harvest this year. Got several half pints canned up, and today is running another crockpot full to cook down. I also picked up a couple full pancetta from the local outlet- 4.5 pounds each, $1.39 a pound. I'll be running one through the meat slicer, and one thick cut for other cookiing uses. It's rainy and chilly, perfect day for kitchen stuff.

Did up a couple quart bags stuffed full of thyme twists and oregano twists for the freezer yesterday.

Q. What are "twists"? My imagination is working overtime.

I cut off a handful of herb, then twist it into itself in a little bundle. A twist of herb. I have small squares of wax paper meant to seperate hamburger patties, but I like to roll up my twists in them. Keeps the twists from freezing together. When I want a twist of herbs to toss into a stockpot or sauce, I can pull one out of the freezer. Kind of nice during the winter when the herbs are buried under snow outside. I tend to make parsley stem twists through the summer as I harvest the leaves, and sometimes harvest lemongrass and do twists of that too.

That sounds like a great idea! It would work with rosemary too, right? I haven't been successful at holding rosemary over the winter for 'fresh' use.

I think it would depend on how woody your rosemary is. The twists I make are stem and all, so the stems have to be flexible to twist into a bundle. But you can do rosemary stems not twisted if you want to. Rosemary can be frozen.

I do mint packets too- I pick 8-10 leaves and fold them into the wax paper for a little packet in the freezer. Just the right amount of leaves for a bunch of different things.

beesneeds, I love your ideas! I always dry herbs for the winter.... but then they're dried; having "fresh" - even if frozen - sounds a lot better. I'm going to try your idea.

You might think that my mild winters give me herbs all year round, but not quite. The herbs survive from one year to the next, but don't taste the same in the cooler weather.

I know what you mean Kate. I could unbury the thyme in the winter and harvest a bit. But after a few frosts and freezes the quality of the herb takes a nosedive before the snow comes in to protect the plants. I have done leaf mulch to bury plants so I could harvest in the winter before, but that is a cleanup mess and it's kind of a pain to unbury plants in winter for a handful of herb. I've found it's just nicer to harvest a bunch of twists in the fall before the too much cold hits and freeze them while they are still good. And it also lets me trim back the monsters- the patches always need some cleaning up in the fall. The nice trimmings are better used from the freezer than into the compost pile :)

I for sure use dried herbs too. I dry a ton of different things. But I like using the twists in the stockpot. It's easy to bundle up a couple twists with bay leaves, or use twists to stuff or under a meat. I use twists in the summer too, it's just they are fresh instead of frozen then. I sometimes use stock infusers- think giant teaballs. I have a couple silicone tube ones that a twist or two fits perfect into and a large metal mesh ball that I use a lot too. I tend to use the mesh ball more when I'm using dehydrated mirepoix or other chunkier stuff. I also have a bait trap and a large pierced ball for infusing, but I don't use them very often since I don't use the gallons kettles often.

beesneeds, you remind me that I need to get some parsley, rosemary, thyme and sage harvested before the next freeze. It snowed for a few minutes this morning, yikes!

My herbs are planted right along the East side of the house, and so are relatively protected and manage to remain green and growing longer than other more fragile and less protected things here. And, I've been known to go dig sage and thyme out of the snow, but that's not optimal.

Today, though, I canned the rest of the peaches. 6 jars of jam and 8 pints of Linda Lou's fruit syrup for pancakes, waffles, ice cream, cheesecake, whatever. Maybe herbs tomorrow...

Annie

Dehydrated the last of my red tomatoes from the freezer into leather. Same with a ton of green tomatoes.

My mother has two large Chinese chestnut trees in her yard. My brother does the mowing, and complains that the "burrs" that cover the nuts play havoc with the mower--even the brush hog. So, I have been going out a few times a day to pick up fallen chestnut burrs to throw onto the burning pile. Unfortunately, most of the nuts have already been eaten by the squirrels, but, I was able to collect a little over a gallon of actual nuts. I boiled them and peeled them, with the help of a hammer, and now have nearly a gallon of chestnut flesh. They are actually delicious, tasting a bit like macadamia nuts. Recommendations on line for preservation suggest freezing or grinding into flour. I can certainly freeze them, but I'm looking for recipes, if anyone has any ideas.

P.S. It's snowing in Michigan!!

Martha

Martha, I'm a bit north of you, I think, and it has snowed here a couple of times. It hit 70F yesterday, though, so it all melted. It'll come back, of course. The snow didn't even make the calendula blink, though, that stuff is sturdy!

Today I dug the rest of the leeks, it's supposed to be down to 30F tomorrow night. I have a 9 tray Excalibur dehydrator, so I filled it up with leeks, and ended up with a 2 quart jar full of dried leeks. I'll do another batch tomorrow, and then start on onions. I have a roaster full of beef bones simmering for stock, I'll let that cook all night and then can it tomorrow. Beef will be processed and ready for pick up by Friday.

Since I'm the latest commenter, I'll just edit this to add that I got 5 quarts of beef broth and another 3 quarts of dehydrated leeks into my pantry today. I still have a LOT of leeks but I think I won't dehydrate more, I'll just use them fresh for cooking, they last quite a long time.

Annie

I’ve never been a big user of leeks and have never grown any. So, having quart jars of dried leeks seems strange to me.

I see that next you are drying onions. Do you slice? Chop? how? all the onions you’ll be drying? I am getting my dehydrator back from my son and so hope to do somemore drying in the near future.

Also, do you do all this outdoors?

I run my dehydrator in the garage, otherwise Elery's hot peppers would gas us all, LOL.

I just peel the onions and quarter them, then give them a buzz or two in the food processor. It's faster and a lot fewer tears, although I didn't get them done today and now won't have time until Sunday as I have to start them in the morning to avoid taking dried onions from the dehydrator at 2 am.

I grew Texas SuperSweet 1015, although those are a short day onion and not supposed to grow well here. They did really well, but weren't as sweet as I thought they should be, they were more pungent than sweet onions usually are, probably due to growing conditions. Because long day onions grow well here, I also grew Alisa Craig for immediate use and Redwing and Highlander for storage. I dehydrate anything that seems to be going bad, the Alisa Craig especially doesn't store well. The Redwing keeps the longest, so I seldom dehydrate those.

Texas Super Sweet 1015 got bigger than my hand. Now, my hand isn't huge, but it's average and these were mostly all about this size:

The leeks are really handy, they are much like mild onions, so I make soup or sauces and just toss in a handful. My girls like them because they are "so handy", which means that they don't have to do any chopping, LOL.

Annie

So, Annie, the LEEKS reconstitute easily? And thank you for the onion information.

Annie - Those are really nice onions! I wish I could grow Redwing since they store so well but they are extreme long day onions...42+ degrees north latitude so I've never tried. I'm at 38.5N here. I've already dehydrated 6 racks of onions and should do more. I had to toss a half dozen that were sprouting this morning.

I planted my garlic yesterday and had a sandwich bag of rejected cloves and a bunch of small bulbs left that wouldn't store much longer. This morning I peeled and sliced it all and have 2 racks of garlic on the dehydrator now. It should be done by Monday evening.

LoneJack, if you could share what onions do well for you I would very much appreciate it. I am at the same latitude and have never understood what onions might be best here. I'm money ahead to just buy at the grocery store, and my seed or set grown onions just have not been that fabulous anyway.

24 ozs of prepared horseradish from an ancient patch on my mom's property. I can't get my photos to download, though I will try again.

No luck with photos. Sorry.

Martha

matthias_lang - I haven't started onions from seed in several years. My usual is buying onion starts from a local place that sells Dixondale. I prefer Candy (yellow), Red Candy, and Superstar (white) if they have them. This last year I grew Patterson for a yellow and they seem to be storing better than Candy.

Thanks. My garden shop where I bought sets closed for good this summer. I'll have to look around for a new source. I certainly will try what you've grown if I can get them.

All three types that I listed are intermediate day onions that do well in the middle latitudes of the US. Starts for all three are available on the Dixondale website. They even have an intermediate day sampler that includes 20-25 of each type.

Sets don't bulb up well for me and usually bolt but they are OK for scallions.

Dixondale intermediate day onions

Looking at the remaining peppers has me less than enthused about dealing with them. Although pepper jam is always an easy fix. I did make up a batch of Fall Garden Relish and an untested pepper mustard that seemed like it had adequate vinegar to pepper chopped pepper equation: 5 c chopped peppers to 4 c vinegar + 1 qt of prepared mustard and various dried spices. 15min in bwb. Maybe I'll make up a refrigerated Rummage relish. Wish I could find my Mother In Laws recipe. It was delicious.

I still need to get the onions dehydrated, because I'm the Township Clerk, it's part of my job to administer elections and that's a lot of work that takes up every hour of my time for a few weeks before and a couple of weeks after.

kate, I don't usually rehydrate them separately for whatever use, I just toss a handful of dried ones into soup, chili, the pasta water for whatever I'm making. They do equally well on the stovetop and in the crock pot. I cut them in half lengthwise, then slice them and wash them and put them in the dehydrator so it makes a relative small piece which isn't particularly noticeable, but they aren't strong, chewy, hard, etc., so I think they rehydrate just fine.

Annie

I do like Annie and mix my dehydrated onions together and use them just like I do fresh in soups and such. Red, white, and yellow ground together makes a nice pink onion powder. :-).

I dug one of my horseradish beds on Saturday before we hit a stretch of lows in the teens and the ground froze. I got enough to make 8-10 pints I think but processing will have to wait until Thanksgiving week when I have time to deal with it. The second bed will have to wait until spring to harvest, or I may just let it go until next fall to see how big two year old roots get.

LoneJack,

I used my recently preserved ancient horseradish to augment some cocktail sauce this week. It was wonderful. I was a bit worried the texture would be too fibrous, but it wasn't noticeable at all. So, I think you would be fine letting your horseradish grow for another year.

I don't know if this counts as "putting up," but I just finished my fourth batch of Spicy Candied Nuts. I've done walnuts, almonds, plain cashews, and now cashews mixed with peanuts and leftover almond slices. Each batch has been spicier than the last, and my family are all raving.

Martha

Martha

Those spiced nuts sound wonderful! Especially so because I'm going thru the dreaded colonoscopy prep today. lol

I will probably wait until at least spring to harvest the other HR bed. I do need to replant the crowns in the bed that I did harvest. We have warmed up with highs in the 50s the last couple days so the soil should be thawed. I need to remember to do that tomorrow.

Jack, we're even warming up here, so maybe we'll get enough of a thaw that I can dig that horseradish that got left in the ground. We got a couple of feet of snow, and my hoophouses collapsed, so I'm going to try to prop them up a bit and see if I can save the lettuce for fresh salads until Christmas. That's kind of preserving, isn't it?

Calves have been in the barn for weaning for nearly a month, we will "release the beasts" on Saturday, LOL. No more thawing the water tank and carrying hay, they'll be out at the hay feeder with the "big cows".

Annie

Maybe I’ll end the year with the Christmas Jam.

I made the jam today, and as you will see I couldn’t get jam jars anywhere all year, and ran out this time too. I used everything I had available - such an odd collection. Oh well, it‘s Freezer Jam, so we’ll see how it does in those odd containers.

LOL Kate, that certainly is an odd collection! As long as it tastes good who cares?

I used some of the roasted Poblanos I froze in the fall to make a Chili Relleno casserole yesterday to take to a Chiefs game watch party. I also made shredded chicken tacos and added some roasted jalapenos when I stewed the chicken in the crock pot. The chicken was pretty spicy! It was a big hit with the group.

Mine is a mashup of Kate's and LoneJack's. I made blackberry jelly from my frozen berries and I roasted the last couple quarts of my tomatillo harvest, then made a tomatillo-jalapeno green salsa to have with a tex-mex meal last night. yum.

I made a test jar of lemon marmalade yesterday -- I've made orange, and 3-fruit marmalade, but never just lemon. That's really good stuff, although I had to harvest the lemon from the grocery store. :) Now I want to try one made with just pink or ruby grapefruit!

This past autumn, I read about using cilantro seeds (coriander) while they were still green, rather than letting them ripen to brown. Being late in the season, I was only able to harvest about 1/4 cup of green seeds, and I immediately froze them. My BF was making a chicken curry yesterday and asked me if I had any coriander, and miraculously I remembered what I had in the freezer. Wow, did that smell good!!! and it tasted great too! I wish I could remember where I learned about it and hope that I remember to harvest some green seeds next year. :p

Interesting idea, party_music. I'll have to give that a try this summer.

Kate, you won't regret it! although you probably don't get quite as excited about the scent of anything fresh and green in the winter there, the way that I do here. lol! I did a search and found a couple articles about it... here's a good one:

Green Coriander

Thank you for the link, party_music. It was interesting and gave many ways for preserving it. I'll try your idea of freezing it first.