Sunday, August 17, 2008

Food preservation haul #2

This weekend I froze 10 dozen ears of sweet corn.


Canned 17 jars of tomato juice and 3 jars of whole tomatoes:



1 bushel of cucumbers turned into pickles:



4 quarts of plums were frozen:


All in all - it really wasn't a lot of work, except for the pickles. The tomato juice I didn't cook at all - just heated it good and hot and canned it. The corn - I cut mine off the cob before cooking it and add water, sugar and salt to it while cooking - tastes exactly like corn on the cob would come wintertime (and somehow, it's quicker to cook it off the cob than cook it on the cob, wait for it to cool and then cut off). The plums I froze whole in baggies, and the pickles were.....let's just say we love them, but if I do a bushel of them at a time, I don't have to do them every year, which is a good thing as they are labor intensive!


Note to self: When I need to do pickles again during the next decade - don't even remotely think you need to do a whole bushel - I have pickles coming out the wazoo!!

Sweet Pickle recipe:

6 lbs. cucumbers
1 lb. onion
1 head garlic
1/3 c. salt
3 cups cider vinegar
4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. tumeric
1 1/2 tsp. mustard seed
2 Tbsp. celery seed


Slice pickles and onions - mix with salt and garlic cloves. Let sit in sink covered with 3 trays ice per side of sink and towels for 3 hours. Rinse and drain.


Mix up cider vinegar, sugar and spices - add pickles. Heat through. Place in jars and can in water bath canner 10-15 minutes for either quarts or pints.


(and if you are like me doing a bushel at a time - I'm not measuring any of this exactly, and they still come out just great:)!!)
Kris

4 comments:

audreypawdrey said...

I wish I had your pantry and freezer. Wow, that is going to be so lovely when it is cold again to have. Thanks for the pickle recipe, too!

A Spoonful Of Sugar said...

WOW - you have been most productive!

Philigry said...

i love tomato juice! I love virgin bloddy mary's more. i am jealous of all that fresh juice!

Anonymous said...

CONGRATS! a great haul! I just found you blogghoppin and think I am going to like it here! Do you ever can outside? I blanch my corn in a turkey fryer and then pop it into my kitchen sink of cold water to cool and cut right away-it doesn't shoot all over the place then. Plus my pressure canner fits on the stand for the fryer so I can do up the jars in the kitchen but keep the hottest part outside. I a jealous of your warm--I have not yet had a red tomato and my plums are only just starting to turn color!