Yes, PM, I did try that soup and liked it well enough that I made it more than once. Elery wasn't a fan of the barley, he likes "just beans", I like lots of other stuff, vegetables and grains and, well, we'll just have to agree that we disagree, LOL.

For some reason, though, I never make soup in the summer, it just seems wrong. I"ll be back to the soup when it cools down, it was 91F here today, whew.

Annie

Wow Annie! It has been a bad bean year here but not a great one either. I did get a couple of zip baggies in the freezer yesterday. I don't grow any shelling beans. My blackberries are finally giving up. I still have another two cups or so to get in the freezer. I canned autumn jam (pear, plum & apple mix) another round of fig jam and dill relish (made with cucumbers & zucchini). I have everything ready to make the Mexican sauce. That will be tomorrow.

My tomatoes & cucumbers came in with a boom and it looks like their ending that way too. My tomato plants have blight & bacterial speck beyond repair.

Apologies to anyone who wondered about the bean soup recipe... I was on my ipad and having trouble posting, else I would have posted a link. This seems to be the on-line version, although the original recipe was called Southwestern Bean blah blah blah, and it was written to be one of those soup "gift jar" things, with the layers of dried beans and spices, etc. all pretty, with an attached soup recipe. The magazine article is from 2010, but I found it in my stash last year and decided to try it, similar to the way this on-line recipe is written. omg, we love this soup! except I always hold off on adding the barley so that it doesn't get too soft. Elery just doesn't understand. :)

(Southwestern) Bean and Barley Soup recipe

What I'm stashing away now is blackberries and salsa -- in the freezer. It's that salsa recipe we love, but it lacks acidity and has olive oil in it, so it cannot be canned. My blackberries had a mild winter and are completely loaded down with berries.... more than double the normal amount. I need to make more jelly... I don't water it down, so I use a full qt of berries to make one jar. My tomatoes are beautiful this year and most of the plants are far more productive than usual. We've had such a weird summer -- first hot with long spells between rain, then it's rained almost constantly through August. We've had some real downpours, and even tornados this summer! Even if it's just 1/10", we still get it nearly every day. So basically, I've been busy mowing and weed whacking whenever I get the opportunity. :)

Restaurant style salsa recipe

Thanks, PM, now I don't have to look the recipe up! I did like the Southwestern Bean Blah Blah Blah, LOL, some of those recipes titles are just a really long description of the ingredients. Elery really does not understand barley and I like it a lot. (grin)

Like you, my tomatoes are bearing like crazy. I canned 22 pints of salsa yesterday, tomorrow it's going to be enchilada sauce.

I planted 3 blackberry canes last year, and this year they are at least 6 feet tall. They have been loaded with huge berries all summer and I haven't gotten a single one, the birds take them the instant they start turning black. I have a piece of bird netting on the porch, tomorrow I'll cover them up and maybe I'll actually foil the birds.

Annie

Annie, I like barley a lot too and I don’t think to use it enough! What variety blackberries are you growing? do you even know if they’re sweet? I grow Apache thornless and they are tart. They are useless unless they’re sweetened, and they have lots of unpleasant seeds too. lol! But they make great jelly and are nice if you toss a handful into an apple dessert, etc. The birds don’t really bother with my blackberries — they prefer the elderberries. :)

I did make the Mexican sauce (not woth the effort or ingredients). I also made another round of Annie's salsa & Ball red hot (bbq) sauce. That might be the end of canning tomato things for this year for me.

Party_Music50, I grow Prime Ark Freedom and Rubus Triple Crown thornless blackberries and the Prime Ark Freedom are the sweetest and best blackberries I have ever had in my life. The Rubus are good but are smaller and have more seeds.

PM, I also have the PrimeArk, mine are the Prime Ark 45 and they have monster thorns, unfortunately. They have huge berries that have a great flavor and are sweet if you can get them before the birds do. The only thing I can say is that the birds will leave the raspberries alone and eat the blackberries instead, so I guess they are also a good "trap crop", LOL. I just planted the elderberries last year, so two of the four plants got a few berries, which are not ripe yet.

Boo, my tomatoes are just ramping up. I just canned 11 pints of enchilada sauce and 7 quarts of tomato sauce. I'm planning on one more batch of enchilada sauce and then I'll move on to Chase's Chile Sauce.

Annie

I knew you'd be busy in September Annie!

I'm still picking decent crops from the garden. I made some fiery bread & butter pickles today. Tomorrow I'll probably get more green beans in the freezer and roast some cherry tomatoes to put in the freezer too.

I'm still picking tomatoes, I canned 23 pints of enchilada sauce and another 7 quarts of tomato sauce. Pizza sauce will be next, I think, I have three tables outside all full of tomatoes!

Today, though, it's jelly from the first picking of the seedless Concord grapes. Peaches aren't quite ready but the local farmer's market has pears, so I'll probably get a bushel of those next week since mine still haven't had a single pear, although the trees are 7 or 8 years old. (sigh)

Annie

Today I made 2 rounds of pear & apple jam. I still have to make Linda Lou's apple pie jam. That might do it for canning for the interim. If I'm gifted some half pints and some produce, I might do more. I do have a ton of blackberries in the freezer. I still need to figure out what to do with them.

Blackberries in the freezer? Blackberry syrup for pancakes and waffles, blackberry lemonade concentrate, blackberry pie filling, blackberry cobbler, blackberry dumplings....

Here I made the above mentioned jam, 10 half pints of concord grape jam, the grandkids will be happy. Today I canned tomatoes. First I did 7 quarts of "stewed" tomatoes with onions/sweet peppers/celery and then another 11 quarts of a Rotel type tomato with onions and chile peppers. I have about a gazillion San Marzano tomatoes that need to be used so tomorrow I"ll probably get out the squeezo and start on some chili starter and pizza sauce.

Annie

(9/11/24)As happens, plans change. I got my hands on a bushel of really nice Bartlett pears, so I have 11 pints of cinnamon pears cooling on the counter. The rest of the bushel is spread out in the pole barn, it needs a bit more ripening.

(9/12/24) Since I'm still canning and the last one that posted, I'll just edit to add 10 pints of BBQ sauce, 17 half pints of pizza sauce (just enough for one pizza and no need to store leftovers in the fridge!), and 13 pints of apple sauce.

(9/13/24)What, everyone else is finished? My night included 18 more pints of cinnamon pears, for a total of 29 pints. That should keep the grandkids happy for a couple of months, LOL.

Annie

Well, I'm still canning. I have 16 jars of Tomato Marmalade cooling on the counter and a batch of pears macerating for Readinglady's Pear Preserves.

Annie

Annie your canning is going so well this year! We just got through Hurricane Francine and it ruined most of my tomato plants with too much rain and heavy winds. I just pulled them up disappointed. Our pink banana squash loss some leaves but the plants are still doing well. I was able to harvest some more basil right before the storm and trimmed the plants abit short so the wind wouldn't hurt it. The basil is doing well after the storm too! Such a crazy year with a variety if weather to deal with! Hope everyone is still getting some good stuff out the garden. No squash yet on the plants, but the male flowers are blooming.

Half pint jars haven't come my way, so I haven't canned anymore. However, I'm still stashing things in the freezer. I sliced hot cherry peppers today, LOTS of hot cherry peppers and got those in the freezer. I blanched broccoli & beans and got those in the freezer. Lastly I roasted cherry tomatoes with olive oil & Greek seasoning and got those in the freezer.

My hot peppers are still coming in. My broccoli is happier with slightly cooler weather. Hopefully the Brussels sprouts will be coming along.

Sharon, I wish I were closer, I have a couple of tables full of tomatoes and am pretty much "over" canning any more tomato products after tonight. I'd happily share, I've been mostly unsuccessful in giving away the excess since every one else that cans has tomatoes going crazy in their garden too. I'll end up packing them up and taking them to the food pantry, who is always glad to get fresh produce anyway.

Boo, hot peppers are one of the things that didn't do as well for me this year. I planted them next to the tomatoes and the tomatoes just turned into voracious creatures, gobbling up everything in their path! Heck, I can't even FIND some of those pepper plants but fortunately I canned plenty of them last year. I'm still waiting for brussels sprouts too.

Today I canned 9 quarts and a pint of chili starter, those 5 jars of Readinglady's pear preserves and 17 pints of peach salsa. Tomorrow, I'll start on the rest of the peaches.

Edited to add tht I started canning peaches this morning, 9/19/24. 16 pints and they all sealed, tomorrow we pick some more. I want to can at least one more batch, make some pie filling and put some in the freezer for peach cobbler and other desserts. I have two peach trees and I'm just starting to pick, the trees are loaded this year.

Happy canning!

Annie

Everyone else is so busy canning that they don't have time to post? Yeah, that must be it....

I canned another 16 pints of peaches and have so far dried 11 pounds of various shelled beans. Still more to go, tomorrow I"ll pick the rest of the peaches and start digging potatoes.

Another day and it's just me? Today was 7 quarts of tomato sauce, I'd have done more but I stripped the threads on a screw for the Squeezo!

Annie

Still no one? I put 5 gallon bags of peach slices in the freezer, and 150+ pounds of potatoes into storage, more potatoes to dig tomorrow. I did make peach cobbler, though...

I'll also start bringing in the butternut squash tomorrow..

Annie

Annie, I mowed the grass! :-)

Then I sliced up a couple white onions from the garden to grill with hamburgers for dinner.

I also cut up some garden spuds to throw in the air fryer

Son and DIL are coming over with their pug named Link.

Jack, I had air fryer potatoes for dinner too, I might be eating a LOT of potatoes this winter. No pug to help me either. My onions were the only thing that didn't do very well this year, I think it was too wet too often. The white onions grew quite large but when I pulled them to use the outer two or three layers were soft and mushy, the inside was fine. It was just very odd and I got fewer onions from 5 rows this year than I did last year with only 3 rows.

Mowing the grass is only "harvesting" if you then feed it to the cows. (grin)

I put two more gallon bags of peaches in the freezer and dried a dehydrator full of shelled beans of various types. I've dried nearly 20 pounds of beans this year, so that should certainly keep me supplied for the winter. I also canned 13 pints of the "Kitchenette Style Catchup" from my 1969 Ball canning book. I've been trying to recreate a catsup recipe for my neighbor, who had an Aunt with a secret recipe. I've never understood the big thing about a "secret recipe", but whatever. Anyway, she is very proudly Polish and makes galumpki/cbbage rolls. She used a jar of my catsup experiment for sauce and said that it tasted just like home. I used up a lot of the remaining San Marzanos to make a big batch, 13 pints. She said she'd commission me to make it every year, $5 a pint. I'd prefer to just make it and have it be a gift, so we'll be arguing over that. Friendly argument, of course...

Tomorrow I have more peaches and 6 quarts of tomato puree in the refrigerator that will need to become something, I sure don't know what. I think I still want to make a batch of peach salsa without tomatoes in it and a batch of peach sauce for gingerbread pancakes, then maybe I'll be out of peaches!

Annie

Our neighbor who grows okra to sell to the local stores, surprised us with a very large bag of freshly picked okra. Such a nice surprise! We are smothering some down today for dinner with pork. Hubby is good at throwing things together and it comes out good! I'm not as talented lol. Put one gallon bag of okra in the freezer for later and shared another bag with a friend. I cut some fresh peppermint and dried for tea. We are finally getting some pink banana squash on the vines. I noticed cabbage loopers (green worms) eating on my squash leaves so I've been picking them off in the mornings and feeding them to the chickens. The chickens are happy about it!

Lucky chickens, and lucky you with that okra. Okra doesn't seem to like Michigan's weather, I've tried to grow it the last three years and it comes up, gets about 2 feet tall, has a few blossoms and a few pods, then all the leaves fall off leaving bare stems and it dies. After this year, I give up, no more okra, I'll buy some at the store or the Farmer's Market for my transplanted Southern husband!

Today I canned 16 jars of "Kitchenette Catchup" from my old Ball Blue Book, the neighbors took a great liking to it but not as catsup, as sauce for galumpki, or cabbage rolls. Since I have had such a tomato year this year, I decided to make a big batch for them. I also peeled and sliced another 2 gallon bags full of peaches, I'm getting tired of those!

Annie

Wow Annie! I made 5 jars of ketchup (catsup?) and had it! I had molten lava tomato goo bubble up and spatter on my hand and gave me some tiny second degree burns! It taste delicious. I probably should have cooked it down some more, but after getting burned by spatters, my patience was done.

All the peaches you have are amazing too! I had one peach tree and it was all I could do to handle the peaches from that. Alas, the tree is gone. It was half dead but had to be sacrificed. I planted it too close to our deck which needed to be demo'ed due to some work that needed to be done on the house .

I've had good luck with okra 2 out of the 3 times I planted it. At the end of last season though, the deer discovered it and loved it. Fortunately I had already harvested lots!

The garden is slowing down. I did blanch & freeze more green beans & broccoli and roasted some cherry tomatoes and got those in the freezer.

Annie, I planted okra this year and it came up about 18”, started producing little okras (I never saw it flower), then suddenly the leaves fell off and that was it. lol! Okra must be a strictly southern plant. :)

I still have okra growing here in Texas-I am mostly growing for new seeds and will have to plant more next time around (planted about 10 this time around)

Boo, it helped that I have a BIG Staub dutch oven, so I can make it half full and avoid some of the small lava spatters, at least. I've never, ever gotten this many peaches, it's crazy. I've canned them and frozen them and made cobbler and pie and I finally put the last gallon bag in the freezer yesterday, then took the last bucket full and dumped them out for the deer, who seem to love them.

PM, that sounds just like my okra, it looked nothing like RD's! Those little hat shaped peppers you sent seeds for, though, those finally muscled the tomatoes aside and got about 3 feet tall. We picked them all today, it's supposed to be down to 30F by Wednesday, frost on Tuesday night. THere's nothing left in the garden except greens and brussels sprouts and broccoli, thank goodness. THis year has been crazy for the garden!

RD, I can say that my okra had beautiful blossoms, but that's about all I can say about it, LOL. However, I did get over 25 bushels of tomatoes from 36 plants, so they made up for it, I guess. Onions didn't do very well either, it was too wet, I think.

I'm cleaning out the freezers for beef, so I canned 4 quarts of chicken stock and have another roaster full boiling and some super-hot peppers in the dehydrator.

Annie

Annie, that’s a lot of tomatoes-hopefully I will get a few for the fall crop. I grew the dwarf okra last year and i think it outproduced the tall okra almost 2 to 1. Were those peppers you are talking about Brazilian Starfish? Those are great peppers. All I have left is Serranos and bell peppers

I finally had enough empty jars yesterday so I made a batch of blackberry jelly to be given away.

Odd weather year here… a much warmer than normal winter, then a summer with severe storms and even tornedos! But I’m having a great year for tomatoes and peppers and am still picking lots of pink brandywine, sun gold, and sweet 100 tomatoes, and jalapeno, serrano, poblano, and mini sweet peppers. My kale and herbs are doing great. My tomatillos went in late, so I just picked my first batch to make some green salsa!

Annie. I started several Okra seeds, but only one plant ever came up; so, I did what I had read about: when it is about 1 foot high you cut it back so it can make more branches. This gave me 12 branches on the one plant, which gave me just enough fruits (orkas) just for me. As I was told one can get a much larger crop by doing this. It worked for me and so you might get a decent crop next year... and will have a crop 'til winter. I wish my tomatoes did as well as yours... I never get any good crop in CA, ( I think it is too hot.)

Kate, I'll remember that for next year, I got 6 or 7 pods from a dozen plants and then they were just dead stalks.

RD, the peppers I had were something PM called "Balloon Peppers" and on the internet I've seen some call them "Mad Hatter". They are very mild when green, but get hotter as they get riper. They are the only pepper that really did well this year, even the tomatoes couldn't outgrow them! I had half a 5 gallon bucket of them from just two plants which fought their way out of the tomato jungle. The "super hot" peppers were Dragon's Breath and Death Spiral, both have Scoville ratings well over a million and Pepperscale says that "Dragon's Breath has 2,480,000 Scoville heat units. The Dragon’s Breath received a lot of attention in 2017 for its potentially record-breaking spiciness. Put it this way, the Dragon’s Breath was originally grown for medicinal use, to use its high level of capsaicin as an anesthetic. Initial tests indicated a peak Scoville rating of 2,480,000 SHU. That would easily beat the Carolina Reaper, but more testing and official Guinness records judging are in order to definitively declare the Dragon’s Breath chili as the winner of the hottest peppers top spot. For now, it’s an honorable mention as an extreme chili, even among extreme chilies." I don't eat them, I dehydrate them and grind them to powder. I have a couple of family members who actually put the "Dust of Death" on their food, so I grow ONE plant of each per year.

We had our first frost last week, it'll be 30F or below tomorrow night and again on WEdnesday, so anything fragile will be done for sure.

PM, I planted the dahlia tubers from last year's plants (the ones you sent seeds for) and they all came up but they didn't have blossoms all summer. Now I have buds, finally, but I think the frost is going to kill the plants before the flowers can come out. Maybe it takes the tubers a year or two to "get going"?

So I dehydrated the last of the peppers and put the Cushaw puree in the freezer in quart bags, I still need to can greens, make chicken corn chowder and probably can some more kidney beans, I'm going to need that freezer room.

Annie

Annie, I have grown several Carolina Reaper plants with peppers having scoville scores above 1.5 million and one can only put in one or two in a batch of hot sauce. Saw the Dragon’s Breath, but never did try them. Just about have to wear two pairs of gloves to handle the reapers. I like the flavor of ghost peppers best

RD, I'm a wuss, I don't eat any of those really hot ones. I liked the balloon peppers PM sent, though, because there was pretty much no heat when green and as long as I kept an eye on them (and did a regular taste test), I could get them picked when they were just right, and not so hot that the enamel on my teeth would bubble when I bit, LOL.

Annie

OK, I'm still canning, today it's 7 quarts of cannellini bean soup with some kielbasa.

I'm just adding to this because I was the last poster. Another day, another canning project, today it was 6 quarts of chicken corn chowder.

Annie

Annie, I’m glad you like those balloon peppers. I can take my peppers hotter than you, but I have literally had my lips blister on habaneros, so I know the feeling!

This orchard posted on FB that the entire area had our first frost last night. I’ve been to this orchard many times for U-pick blueberries and apples, but it’s been quite a while… pic is nice. Happy autumn. :)

PM, I do like them a lot, I can actually control the heat somewhat. I'm such a lightweight when it comes to hot peppers.

Lovely picture, autumn is my favorite time of year. Here's the view out my kitchen window:

Pretty, but not many brilliant reds this year, mostly yellows and oranges. The B&B across the street is pretty too and they do have one nicely red tree. I like the way the trees framed their "yoga room" up there on the very top.

And that picture of yours also reminds me that I still have a half bushel of apples in the garage that I need to make something with.

Annie

Gorgeous, Annie!!!

Gorgeous, Annie!!!

made 8 pints of BBQ pulled pork from a bone in pork shoulder ... smelled SO good. next up, buy an extra turkey and can it up.

Bragu, what do you make with canned turkey? Anything that you can make with chicken? I really only see turkeys here during the holiday season, even the local farms will take advance orders and only raise them during the holidays and I sure don't have freezer space this year after my garden exploded.

PM, it WAS gorgeous, now all the leaves have fallen and it's time to go lop down the asparagus ferns and blackberry canes, getting ready for winter.

I did can 4 quarts of beef stock a couple of days ago, now I"m going to have to brainstorm about the canned turkey!

Annie

turkey tetrazeeeeni ... plus add mayo for sammies. it's like canned chicken, but I know what's in it. also can make a chili out of it, or stuffed peppers

Oh, yeah, stuffed peppers would be good.

I'm still canning here, 7 quarts of greens on the counter, 3 are collard greens and 4 are kale and it's all the deer left me.

Well, since I posted last, I'll just edit to add 7 quarts of baked beans, 4 pints of turkey (thanks, Bragu!) and 3 pints of chicken gizzards from the freezer to be used for giblet gravy later.

Still just me? I'll edit again to add 5 quarts of turkey broth...

Annie

OK, Houzz won't let me edit any more, so today I'll add 6 quarts and one pint of peach pie filling, 10 pints and one half pint of sliced peaches, 12 jars of peach salsa and 2 pints of leftover peach syrup, I'm thinking maybe of adding it to pork marinade.

Edit to add 7 pints of crowder peas, 4 quarts of cranberry beans, 2 quarts of cannellini beans and a quart of Jacob's Cattle beans. Can you tell I'm cleaning the freezer to make space for beef? My garden was so productive this year that I was just putting things in the freezer to deal with "later". Later seems to have come sooner than I expected!

Annie

Jack, it's at the processor now, but I asked them to let it hang for at least 10 days. My grass fed/grass finished beef isn't fatty so the extra time helps tenderize it a little.

Horseradish. (sigh) I'd forgotten about horseradish. I suppose I could go dig some out of the snow...

Annie

Annie, Seeds N Such has an even better deal going-25% off all seeds-free shipping on all orders and 4 free packets of seeds

Just what I need, RD, more seeds, LOL. I keep saying that I'll make my garden smaller, then the seed catalogs arrive and the on-line sales and just like that, all good intentions are gone!

I'm still canning here, but it was 5 quart of beef broth. The beef has been processed, my freezer is full and I'm making Christmas cookie dough for the freezer. Then we just bake them a dozen or so at a time when we need them. I did unearth some concord grape juice from last summer, so I think I might have to make some jelly next.

Annie

My BF's SIL always makes a concord grape shrub (drink) that she serves with a scoop of sherbet floating in it as a meal starter. It's delicious! She won't give me the recipe. lol!

Well, that's too bad about the recipe, PM. My stepfather had a "secret" BBQ sauce recipe. He finally gave it to my brother with strict instructions that he was never to share it with anyone. Even stepdad's daughters were not allowed to have it. When my brother died last year, the recipe died with him, and that's what happens to "secret" recipes. (sigh) I didn't much like the sauce, it was full of grape jelly and was far too sweet for me, but the kids loved the stuff.

I've been sorting through my back room storage and have some butternut squash that are going to go bad so I roasted and pureed 6 of them and froze 8 bags with 2 cups per bag.

Since we have not yet had my family Christmas, that's next Saturday, I'm trying to not use freezer room until I can get that big ham and all those cookies out of there!

I also sorted through the pantry and tossed some jam from 2016 (!!) and some pickles from 2019 which had made their way to the far back corner. After the holiday is truly finished I'll make grape jelly, habanero gold, cherry jelly and some raspberry jam with raspberries from the freezer.

Annie