this summer's canning, 2.0
Today, my friend and I went and picked peaches and cucumbers (and a few ears of corn) at Sauvie Island Farms.
Mostly this is for reference for me for later (like next year). If any of you want to read it, enjoy. That's why it's behind a cut. :)
I ended up paying about $40. I got probably 60 peaches, nearly 15 pounds of pickling cucumbers, one large slicing cuke and 6 ears of corn. The peaches were AWESOME. Very ripe. They were $1 a pound because there were so many of them ripe that they couldn't pick them fast enough and they were falling on the ground to rot. Lots of fat, drunk bees eating rotting peaches. We wandered through the peach orchard picking whichever peaches we felt like. A nice lady told me what to look for in a ripe peach (slightly soft near the stem, comes off the tree easily). Sadly, many of my peaches appear to have become bruised on the trip home. Poor peaches.
The pickling cukes were overripe. They get fat and yellowish when they're too ripe and the seeds get larger and firmer. Apparently they also make soft, mushy pickles (which is the eventual goal). I picked the greenest ones I could find. We'll see how they do.
Tonight, TD and I peeled, pitted, sliced 30 peaches to start a batch of peach butter. It totally fills the crockpot. We built a little tent out of towels around it. The goal is to cook it slowly overnight to evaporate out a lot of the moisture. It needs to cook down to less than half it's current volume. From prior experience, I know this is going to take a while. Hopefully it'll be done sometime tomorrow afternoon so I can get it canned. It smells good.
I started 4 pounds of pickling cukes soaking in brine. They soak for 12 hours, then get sliced and mixed with the pickling liquid and canned. I'm also trying three other pickle recipes. That way, we get to see which ones we like best. There's one sweetish pickle recipe and three dills. I'm going to make spicy kosher pickles with at least one of the dill recipes - you add a bay leaf and a dried pepper to the pickling liquid.
I have never pickled anything in my life. We'll have to see how it turns out.
Earlier today, I compared myself to a squirrel what with the storing of food and all.,
Mostly this is for reference for me for later (like next year). If any of you want to read it, enjoy. That's why it's behind a cut. :)
I ended up paying about $40. I got probably 60 peaches, nearly 15 pounds of pickling cucumbers, one large slicing cuke and 6 ears of corn. The peaches were AWESOME. Very ripe. They were $1 a pound because there were so many of them ripe that they couldn't pick them fast enough and they were falling on the ground to rot. Lots of fat, drunk bees eating rotting peaches. We wandered through the peach orchard picking whichever peaches we felt like. A nice lady told me what to look for in a ripe peach (slightly soft near the stem, comes off the tree easily). Sadly, many of my peaches appear to have become bruised on the trip home. Poor peaches.
The pickling cukes were overripe. They get fat and yellowish when they're too ripe and the seeds get larger and firmer. Apparently they also make soft, mushy pickles (which is the eventual goal). I picked the greenest ones I could find. We'll see how they do.
Tonight, TD and I peeled, pitted, sliced 30 peaches to start a batch of peach butter. It totally fills the crockpot. We built a little tent out of towels around it. The goal is to cook it slowly overnight to evaporate out a lot of the moisture. It needs to cook down to less than half it's current volume. From prior experience, I know this is going to take a while. Hopefully it'll be done sometime tomorrow afternoon so I can get it canned. It smells good.
I started 4 pounds of pickling cukes soaking in brine. They soak for 12 hours, then get sliced and mixed with the pickling liquid and canned. I'm also trying three other pickle recipes. That way, we get to see which ones we like best. There's one sweetish pickle recipe and three dills. I'm going to make spicy kosher pickles with at least one of the dill recipes - you add a bay leaf and a dried pepper to the pickling liquid.
I have never pickled anything in my life. We'll have to see how it turns out.
Earlier today, I compared myself to a squirrel what with the storing of food and all.,