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Saturday, July 31, 2010

Cleaning out the freezer, canning stuff

I finally got around to cleaning out the big freezer today while it wasn't so hot outside as the freezer is in an outbuilding. Got all the stuff sorted out and found some chicken in there that was from last years butchering. I had put 2 big bags of chicken wings in there with plans to make buffalo wings. Well we see how that turned out. I took all the chicken out that was in the bottom and made stock from it to can. When we put all the stuff back in the freezer I put it in clean pillow cases. The veggies are in one, fruit in another, meat in another, ans so on.  I got the chicken parts all cooked down this afternoon.  While that was cooking I made 5 quarts of tomato juice. My tomatoes are not ripening enough to allow me to do a lot at one time like I normally do. So I will just make it a few quarts at a time. I let the stock set so the pressure could drop on the pressure cooker and went to the garden and picked some more sweet corn. Got all that cleaned and cut off to can. Now the stock is strained and in jars in the canner just cooking away and when that is done I can put the corn in to process. Then I can call it a day. Kinda been a lazy Saturday around here and that's all we got done. Tomorrow might be a different story. So till then, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

5 comments:

Mary said...

I'm kind of amazed at the tomatoes here too. Mine are just now finally beginning to ripen. With all this heat I would have expected at least a few to be earlier.
Did my big freezer clean a while ago too. I always get excited to start fresh with my freezers. :) Cheap thrills!

stella said...

lol mary I know the feeling,guess it dont take much to thrill us these days.
Greg I havent put any corn in the freezer this year, Im trying to get away from depending on the freezer, for one thing it is gettin older too. lol But I use a knife to cut off corn. Those corn cutter off thingys are jus good fer takin bark off the fingers IMO. Maybe I will do a short video on how I use the knife and post it later. But I just take a sharp knife and hold it close to the blade, cradle the corn in the left hand and with the knife blade horizontal and the tippointed at about a 45 degree angle from me and just draw the knife up the ear of corn toward me, with the cut being about half way down the grain. then scrape on the stroke back down to do the next few rows of grains. A smooth fliud motion.

small farm girl said...

I just about give up on our garden. Just like it too has just givin up. Oh, well, there's always next year.(maybe. hehehehe)

The Apple Pie Gal said...

Hmm...4 tomatoes so far...What is up with that! Guess I haven't beat them enough yet. :)

stella said...

Dont give up on the gardens, mine is producing late too. I had all but given up on the green beans but they are getting started now. I think the plants here jus struggled with the extreme heat and not that it is not so awful hot they are concentrating on making fruits.
lol apple pie gal, after thinkin about that post, yeh I am thinkin the beatin the plants would work, it will injure them and their only goal in life is to make fruit to reproduce, so ya beat em and hurt em and they think they gonna die so they try to ripen their fruit to make seed. (it does make fer a good visual tho)lol