Canning stuff

We harvested a lot of stuff from the garden last evening and now I am trying to get it all canned today. I know I am going to be up till the wee hours getting it all done. I had to figure out a way to use some corn that was past its prime and decided veggie beef soup was the thing to do. I mixed up 2 big dish pans of it and got it in the jars to process. Had a total of 20 quarts. The canner will only hold 14 quarts at a time so did 14 first round and 6 in the second canning. I thought I needed to fill the canner up to process so I made 6 pints of meatloaf and 4 pints of beef roast and loaded the canner for round 2. As I type I still have 25 pints of carrots that will need to be processed before I can call it a night.

I am kinda anxious to try the meatloaf to see what it is like canned. If it meets my expectations I am thinking I might can more of it. I use ground beef or venison, onion, peppers, celery, egg, cracker crumbs, bread crumbs, and cheddar cheese in mine. Then pack it loosely in the straight pint jars and process as with any meat. Will post the do's and dont's when I try it.
Am off the get the canner reloaded with carrots. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

How many pickles does a person need?

Not sure how many pickles a family needs but I am sure that so far I am close to having more than enough.We made 13 more quarts of kosher dills tonight. We have been getting almost a 5 gallon bucket full every other day. I did get the remainder of my cabbage harvested this evening. Tomorrow I think I am going to use some of it in a soup mix. Maybe with corn, cabbage, onion, peppers, celery, and carrots. The guys pulled the rest of the carrots this evening as well and there is close to a bushel of them. Some will get used in the soup mix, some will be canned plain and maybe some frozen in chunks for stew later, some grated for use in meatloaf.
I got 9 quarts of pink eye purple hull peas canned today and when we were in the garden I picked another bushel. Well those will get shelled tomorrow as I have time. The tomatoes are starting to ripen more now.  We picked about a half a 5 gallon bucket of those too. So I got lots to do tomorrow. Am thinking maybe I need to get in bed a lil early tonight.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Playing catch-up

I feel like we have been playing catch-up as of late. The yard is way over grown with the rain. It is either to wet to mow or we don't have time with the garden harvest going on. So this evening we finally got the weed eating done and started mowing. We had a shower of rain today and the grass was wet under neath. So if we don't get more rain we finish the mowing and then head to the garden to harvest corn, cukes and probably carrots. The carrot tops have started to die back and once they do that they have a tendency to sprout and start new growth and get tough with the least bit of rain. The purple hull peas get canned in the morning and by the time I get them canned it will be time to pick again. Hopefully I will get to be home all next week and get a lot done as far as canning.
I took a friend to the big city today for her docs appointment and made a quick stop by the Liquor Barn. I did find some wine yeast that I was looking for to get some good blackberry wine started. Not sure if I want to try and fill my 6 gallon carboy or just make a small batch. I'm just having fun learning something new. Also the beer we started smells really good now. We are making a pale ale as our first batch of beer. It should be ready to drink in a couple more weeks. I think we are going to bottle it  and let it set for another few weeks. Maybe Labor day weekend would be a good time to try it out. We shall see.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Busy with garden stuff

We are finally getting really busy with the garden stuff. Early today I cut more herbs to dry. I got the marjoram and savory cut and it has dried already in the dehydrator. The chives now need to be clipped again and put in the freezer. In the big garden, the pink eye purple hull peas need to be picked every other day. We got another bushel from them this evening. Those will get shelled tomorrow and canned. We also picked almost a half bushel of cukes and made those into bread and butter pickles. I had some left over pickling liquid from the pickles tonight so I am thinking I will make several half pints of just onion slices canned with the same liquid. I love the flavor of the onions that are in the bread and butter pickles on a burger. And I do have a bunch of onions. Tomorrow evening I will likely clean up one of the patches of sweet corn and get it canned. I still have 2 more patches to go yet that should be ready in a week or so. I noticed tonight that the tops are dying over on the carrots so those will need to be pulled and canned as soon as possible. If I don't get them out of the ground they have a tendency to start growing new tops and this ruins the carrot and makes it woody and strong tasting.
The 2 new patches of young beans (tobacco worm and KY wonder bush) have come up and are growing like weeds. The tobacco worm beans will need to be trellised before they get too big or they will be crawling all over the place.The rains we had for a few days have done wonders for every thing in the garden. Hard to imagine with the heat so bad. I did notice too that the tater bugs have stopped eating on the few potato plants that we have left. So maybe we will get enough taters to make a meal. The bugs won again this year I think.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

We got more rain, and mud

It has rained most all day, not really heavy rain but enough to soak you thru if you happen to go out. I had to take my buddy Gene to therapy today so I didn't plan much. He has been stuck at home since last week and just needed some different walls to look at, so he had his wife bring him here as she was going to orientation for a job. So he got to hang out and plunder around with me here on the place today. Then we went to his therapy and by the end of the day he was exhausted and so was I. After supper we went to the garden in the mud and picked cucumbers. Got enough to make 5 more quarts of kosher dill pickles. Those things need to be picked every other day so they don't get too big. Tomorrow we will be picking the pink eye purple hull peas again and shelling those to can. We have some of them for supper tonight and they are so so good. Am looking forward to lots of good peas and cornbread suppers this winter.
Not much else happening here on the farm today. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Shelling and canning Pink eye purple hulls

The weather was nice today and not too hot after the rain. Although it is supposed to get hotter as the week wears on. Well it is July. Yesterday evening we picked almost 3 full 5 gallon buckets of pink eye purple hull peas. Jason had one bucket at his house shelling them for me. I had the other 2. I went and got the ones he shelled today and did my 2 buckets. It does take a while to shell them but I don't think it takes as long as it does to string and break green beans. After supper I got back out in the summer kitchen and got all those canned up. They sure looked pretty in the jars. And gosh do they ever smell good. We are gonna have some for supper on Tuesday evening. Am thinking maybe we can just eat out of the garden for a while.

These peas are prolific this year. I have never grown them before and am just fascinated with them. They grow on top of the plant, so no digging under the vines to find the peas. And once you get a method down they are very easy to shell. The pink eye purple hull peas are in the Cow peas family, similar to a black eyed pea. These were recommended by a wonderful southern lady, my friend Deb. Thanks Deb, I am sure we will eat good this winter. So tomorrow its back to the garden rain or shine and see what else is ready. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

I learned something canning

As the old saying goes, ya never get too old to learn something. Some of our sweet corn was ready so Amoy and I went and picked most of it. This year I raised Golden Bantam which is classified as a normal sweet corn. In past years we have grown SE or sugar enhanced and SS which is super sweet varieties.  I decided this year to can most of my sweet corn to save on freezer space. When the sugar enhanced or super sweet sweet corn is canned, the length of time in the pressure canner caramelizes the sugars in the corn and makes it brownish in color. Where as the normal sweet corn varieties do not turn dark. I proved this fact to myself today when I canned some of the golden bantam from this year.

The jar on the left is the sugar enhanced sweet corn and the many on the right are the normal sweet corn. So for information sake, if ya don't want your corn to be dark if you choose to can it, then stick with a normal sweet corn. All the seed catalogs will tell you the difference. I did end up with 26 pints of canned corn today.
Another thing I learned today while picking this Golden Bantam corn. We usually order from R H Shumway which is kinda a commercial seed production company. As far as I am concerned they do not do very well with quality control on their seeds. As they mass produce both heirloom and hybrid varieties of seed, most of the open pollinated seeds that I have gotten from them is not consistent with the variety that I have ordered which tells me that they are cross pollinated.  Of all the ears of corn I picked today, maybe 2% of the ears even resemble the open pollinated Golden Bantam in characteristic. They say hind sight is 20/20, well I agree. I ordered white half runner beans from the same company and was not happy with the end result. The pods got tough before the bean inside developed which is not like white half runners. From now on I will only order from a reputable heirloom seed company or locate some good seed stock locally. OK I am off my soapbox now.
We went back to the garden late this evening and picked about a bushel of the pink eye purple hull peas. I guess it will be my job to shell those tomorrow. We did get enough cukes to make 4 quarts and 1 pint of kosher dill pickles. Also cut some more cabbage that I will work up tomorrow. The carrots are still in the ground, we did pull another half bushel or so of those. Amoy is taking some fresh veggies home with her. After all she has helped me all day with the picking and cleaning and canning of all this stuff. Jason took a bucket of purple hull peas home with him. So hopefully he sat on his porch and watched a movie on his computer and shelled peas. I can only hope.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella