Fritz's garden 2020

[LvsChant]

I pressure canned up more green beans yesterday and had 7 of the jars seal immediately, with two lagging behind... they were a different brand of lids. The fast sealers were from a box of Kerr lids... the other two were Ball brand. When the slow jars did seal, they were very loud - heard a big pop each time... no idea why.

I must add that I have had this stock of lids for probably about 8 years -- bought at a huge closeout price back in 2012. They all seem to be working fine, so all is well.

[Stwood]

I've always liked/preferred the Kerr lids. Gold with Kerr embossed on the lid. They always seal.

[fritz_monroe]

I've never seen Kerr lids in my area.  Once in a while there will be some jars, but never lids.

Tore up a bunch of the garden.  I'll have to do some shopping for seeds.  I think I want vining peas for Fall.

[fritz_monroe]

Did some garden cleanup today.  I pruned back the Roma tomatoes pretty severely.  I pulled out a lot of them.  The slicing tomatoes are still in place, but I pruned out a lot of the branches that didn't have tomatoes on them.  I also pulled the Fordhook lima beans.  We didn't get any beans off of these and they take so long that the Mexican bean beetles cause a lot of damage before we get any beans.

Here's a shot of the last of the ripe Roma tomatoes.  I'm not sure what I'm doing with these yet.



I picked up this chipper shredder off of Craigslist.  It looks practically brand new and starts on the first pull.  The only thing I found that was wrong is the gas cap had a big crack in it, I picked up a replacement cap  It will take a little while to get used to using this.  I've found that when I put branches through that have leaves, I have to poke around in there a bit with the next branch of the leaves will pack into the chute and stop anything from feeding.  I'll probably get a lot of use out of the leaf chute in the Fall.

[Stwood]

I've often thought I could use a chipper. I know I could, but haven't wanted to lay the cash out. And, I'd want a tractor mount.

Roma's look good there. 
I've pulled a bunch of my plants. About one more picking and I'll pull all of them.
Pick the small green maters and pickle those along with some onions.

[fritz_monroe]

I've often thought I could use a chipper. I know I could, but haven't wanted to lay the cash out. And, I'd want a tractor mount.

I've been making trips to the yard waste facility every couple of weeks to get rid of the branches and debris.  I think I got a good deal on it.  I don't have a tractor, so...

[fritz_monroe]

Getting pretty close to the end.  We've never had much luck with red bell peppers.  This year has been a good year.  Here's a shot of some of the peppers.



I chopped 15 pounds of Roma tomatoes and froze them.  I have about 25 pounds in the freezer.  I'll probably make tomato paste out of them, but I'm not sure.

We also chopped and froze a bunch of peppers.  Not sure how many pounds yet.  Will update tomorrow.  Also blanched and froze more okra.

[Stwood]

Peppers look good.
I planted several varieties this year. One was Ozark Giants, which never even flowered. Bad pepper year for us, except for hot peppers. They always do good. 

[LvsChant]

Congratulations on the chipper... we bit the bullet this year and bought a tractor mount chipper shredder... works very well... but haven't used it much yet because of other projects taking priority...

Your tomatoes and peppers are looking good. I'm finally starting to see production on my pepper plants and the tomatoes are mostly still growing, although the plants look a little sad as I pruned all the blighted parts on the lower parts off. I'm getting quite a few green beans from the second planting. The cucumber and squash beetles killed my cucumbers before they really produced much, so next year I'll have to try again on cucumbers for more pickling. I think I have enough dill for the winter, but would have liked to make some sweet ones, too.

[fritz_monroe]

The peppers I chopped and froze were right around 2.5 pounds.  That makes 10 pounds of peppers.

Picked the rest of the bigger jalapeno peppers, I left some of the smaller ones.  There's still flowers on the plants.  I decided to try making some cowboy candy.  I've never had it before, but it sounded pretty good.  I made this Candied Jalapenos recipe

Preserved harvest 2020
14 pints dill pickles
4 pints dill pickle relish
60 pints bread and butter pickles
18 bags of blanched and frozen summer squash (1 bag = 1 meal)
19 quarts green beans
9 half pints pizza sauce
2 bags of blanched and frozen green beans  (1 bag = 1 meal)
78.5 cups shredded and frozen zucchini
3 pints chunky cucumber relish
12 pints zucchini relish
4 pints dilly beans
10 pounds chopped and frozen bell peppers
63 pints Annie's salsa
10 pints Garlic-Basil tomato sauce
13 half pints tomatoes with chiles (Rotel clone)
4 half pints cowboy candy

[Stwood]

*63 pints Annie's salsa*
 

Awesome salsa. I stopped at 36 pints as we needed tomatoes for other canning, and I have almost 4 cases of various recipes left from last year.

[fritz_monroe]

*63 pints Annie's salsa*
 

Awesome salsa. I stopped at 36 pints as we needed tomatoes for other canning, and I have almost 4 cases of various recipes left from last year.

Yep, daughter will eat lat least 75% of that.  She has it a lot for a snack after school.

So what do you use your tomatoes for?

[Stwood]

Eating fresh
Canning straight tomatoes
Tomato juice, kinda like V-8
And our garden stew.
Spaghetti sauces

[fritz_monroe]

Nights are getting colder.  I had frost on my windshield this morning.  Last night I picked all the jalapeno peppers that were big enough.  I left a bunch of small ones on the plants.  Tonight I made up 4 more half pints of cowboy candy. 

Preserved harvest 2020
14 pints dill pickles
4 pints dill pickle relish
60 pints bread and butter pickles
18 bags of blanched and frozen summer squash (1 bag = 1 meal)
19 quarts green beans
9 half pints pizza sauce
2 bags of blanched and frozen green beans  (1 bag = 1 meal)
78.5 cups shredded and frozen zucchini
3 pints chunky cucumber relish
12 pints zucchini relish
4 pints dilly beans
10 pounds chopped and frozen bell peppers
63 pints Annie's salsa
10 pints Garlic-Basil tomato sauce
13 half pints tomatoes with chiles (Rotel clone)
8 half pints cowboy candy

[LvsChant]

Wow! You did great this year!

[fritz_monroe]

Since the family wasn't eating the watermelons, I decided to try making some watermelon jelly.  I've never made it before, so I picked 2 different recipes.  The dark one was from Taste of Home.  It called for white wine vinegar or white balsamic vinegar, I only had regular balsamic, so that's why it's so dark.  The other recipe came from Daily Dish and uses the powdered pectin.  I ended up with 5 half pints of each.  Both taste pretty good, time will tell which we like best.




Preserved harvest 2020
14 pints dill pickles
4 pints dill pickle relish
60 pints bread and butter pickles
18 bags of blanched and frozen summer squash (1 bag = 1 meal)
19 quarts green beans
9 half pints pizza sauce
2 bags of blanched and frozen green beans  (1 bag = 1 meal)
78.5 cups shredded and frozen zucchini
3 pints chunky cucumber relish
12 pints zucchini relish
4 pints dilly beans
10 pounds chopped and frozen bell peppers
63 pints Annie's salsa
10 pints Garlic-Basil tomato sauce
13 half pints tomatoes with chiles (Rotel clone)
8 half pints cowboy candy
10 half pints watermelon jelly

[Stwood]

 

[fritz_monroe]

Cracked my first jar of cowboy candy.  Spread some cream cheese on Triscuit thins and topped with a piece of cowboy candy.



Verdict is they are damned tasty.  I'm glad I cored the jalapeno peppers before candying them.  I like a little heat, but not a lot.  These provide a little bit of heat at the end.  I'm glad I made these.  We are expecting "seasonal temperatures" at the end of the week.  I hope to snag the last of the jalapeno peppers just prior and will make up another batch.  I don't think that 10 half pints will be enough for the year.

[LvsChant]

Looks great, Fritz! My jalapenos are just now starting to produce... I don't think I'll have enough to try it this year, though. My husband is planning to make poppers...