First Rain since June 3.5". Freezing Sweetcorn. Canning Pears. 9.19.2021.

Today was the first rain since June. We measured 3.5 inches. I think it was needed. I picked more pears. I didn't plan to can more, but did after all. It took about 7 pounds for 4 one-pint jars. I ran out of commercial fruit-fresh and there was none in the store. With Covid Im only going to the store every other week, so I ordered vitamin C tablets and citric acid on Amazon. from what I read, 6 500-mg vitamin C tablets, crushed and dissolved jn one gallon of water, will prevent browning. So I used that, adjusted for just 4 cups. There was no browning. I also added 1/4 tsp citric acid to each jar, per an online recipe. Canned per Better Homes and Gardens Canning Guide recipe. I'm getting better at it.

I also harvested most of the rest of the sweetcorn, and blanched and froze 7 ears. Drop into boiling water, boil three minutes, transfer to ice water, chill, slice planks of kernels off the ear and freeze in freezer bags.

Red Peppers Harvest. 9.17.2021

I harvested the red peppers. There are still quite a few green ones. Most are serranos and Jalapenos, but there are also some cayennes. Ning grew Korean peppers. I started some hot sauce fermentation, one batch with Serranos and one batch with Korean peppers. After these ferment about 10 days, they'll be separated from the brine, pureed, some brine added for the right thickness, and kept in the fridge. The recipe: 2 cups water, boiled. While hot add 1 1/2 tbsp canning salt and 1/2 tbsp sugar. Cut up 2 1/2 pounds of the peppers, a small shallot, and 4 cloves of garlic. Place the garlic and shallot into fermentation jar, add the peppers, then pour on the brine. I also added 1 tbsp sauerkraut juice to the cooled brine before adding to the peppers, as a starter. I'm using water filled pplastic bags to seal the tops and exclude air until they are fermented.

Another Tomato Pie, with Improvements. 9.17.2021

I made some changes in how I made the tomato pie. This time, I used a pyrex pie plate. I covered the edges of the crust through blind baking and through the pie baking. After blind baking at 375, I removed the lining foil and baking marbles, and baked for additional 10 min. Five min might have been better, it was slightly more brown when I wanted, but was still great. I think this one came out looking and tasting great.

Squash Harvest. 9.13.2021

The squash vines and leaves are starting to turn brown, so I don't think they can give much more nutrition to the squashes. This year the vines produced about double what they did last year,and many of the squashes are bigger. Some are much bigger. I think the "Illinois" squashes look like Al Capp's Shmoos. Others in the photo are Pink Banana Squash (the big oblong ones), Red Kuri (like small-ish pumpkins) Galeux d'Eysines (Warty, salmon pink pumpkins) and some ripening zucchinis. I don't know yet what I'll do with all of them. The Illinois and Pink Banana squashes are over 18 pounds each. And there are at least a half dozen more to harvest. Puree for pies, freeze chunks for doggie food, roast, bake, make soups. No wonder they were a staple food for first peoples.

Canning Tomato Sauce, Grape Jelly, Pears. 9.10.2021

 I learned that home grown fruit isn't solely for fresh use.  Freezing is great, still home grown flavor and quality.  No comparison to grocery.  But freezing takes up too much freezer space, so it needs to be limited.

The jellies are also better than store bought.  I think even when sugar is needed, it's better in flavor and healthier than the damn high fructose corn syrup.  Plus the tree or vine ripened fruit is more flavor, and not fertilizing and watering too much also helps.

I made jelly from "Venus" grapes. Easier than expected.  I used the "low sugar" pectin.  

Using extra grapes, but leaving out the sugar, pectin, and canning step, makes for a very "grapey" flavored grape juice. So that is more benefit and less waste. I did this a few days ago. Canned pears, also last week. I made 7 pints. That's about what I buy for 7 weeks, so not too bad. Plus the same amount of peaches.

Last night I canned 4 and 1/2 pints of Roma tomato sauce. No spices or garlic, I add those when I use it. Per USDA recommendation, each pint has 1 tbsp lemon juice as a preservative. Also, they recommend pressure canning instead of boiling water canning for better quality and nutrition for tomato products, so I did. If the 1/2 pint jar is good on tonight's pizza, I can can some more. I'm not sure if that lemon juice will impact the flavor.