• Please be sure to read the rules and adhere to them. Some banned members have complained that they are not spammers. But they spammed us. Some even tried to redirect our members to other forums. Duh. Be smart. Read the rules and adhere to them and we will all get along just fine. Cheers. :beer: Link to the rules: https://www.forumsforums.com/threads/forum-rules-info.2974/

It's canning season!

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Anyone else harvesting/canning out of their garden?

A nasty storm took washed out a lot of my garden this Spring. Tomatoes, peppers and squash were the sole survivors. I plant my tomatoes and peppers under a layer of road fabric which protected them from washing away.

So, the tomatoes are coming in now. We're harvesting about 1.5 bushels per week now and will get 2-3 bushels per week starting soon.

The rest of the family isn't here to help so I'm canning the tomatoes on my own. I'm juicing the tomatoes to condense them down and we'd normally be making sauces or salsa but when I'm on my own, I don't have the time to do it all (mainly the herbs/spices to make the sauce). Looks like I'll be canning 20-25 quarts today. I'll be doing that amount every 3 days for the remainder of the season and we normally end up with 200+ quarts for the season.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Sadly not us.

Being out of the country during the summer for the past 2 years we went down to look at the garden this spring and found it totally overgrown and in bad shape. Then I injured my wrist badly and that changed our priorities to simply working on the necessary areas of the property.

Our first year without a garden when we've actually been home and we are missing it!
 

deand1

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
I just picked these today and just finished canning them. Love growing my own peppers. Been doing some in Bread and Butter brine with onions and carrots. These went in the jar with the traditional canning sauce.
 

Attachments

  • Peppers 2017.jpg
    Peppers 2017.jpg
    166.1 KB · Views: 140

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I just picked these today and just finished canning them. Love growing my own peppers. Been doing some in Bread and Butter brine with onions and carrots. These went in the jar with the traditional canning sauce.

I love B&B pickles. Never canned peppers in B&B brine but it sounds interesting. Have you done it before? How do they taste?
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
You guys are making things difficult for me.

After over 40 years of having a garden, sometimes a really big one, this is my third year without one. It was really difficult this year, I had the urge but not the get up and go. Over the fall and winter I think that I'll plan a "token" garden so at least I can get some "real" tomatoes and peppers. Gardening gets in your blood and it's difficult to detox but I won't miss working in the 100°+ heat of a Texas summer.

A little garden shouldn't be too much work, should it???
 

deand1

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
I love B&B pickles. Never canned peppers in B&B brine but it sounds interesting. Have you done it before? How do they taste?

I have done it three times this year. Cartwheel the peppers, wash off some seeds, add fresh onion and baby carrots to the jar, pour over the mix your B&B mix and process for 10 minutes at boil. Very good.
 

pixie

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
A pretty bad and short season here.
Soil too cold until the middle of June and frost coming tonight. That makes about a 75 day season....
I grew 'purple ' peppers, several different squashes, 5 kinds of cukes and beans and carrots. Most of the produce I sold to a restaurant.
Also have 4 3x6 raised beds at home and will be getting about 30 pounds of tomatoes out of one of them. I'm just grinding and freezing them this year.
Started some tomatillos late . The bees just love them !

Harvested almost a pound of sage yesterday and have embarked on a 'which basil is best' adventure. Hoping to grow it with lights this winter.
 

k-dog

Member
We canned many, many quarts of beans this year, not sure if we are doing any tomato sauce this year. Zucchini has been going crazy this year. And the wife went to a produce auction and came back with 5 bushels of apples for apple sauce and apple pie filling. She'll be picking up around a 100 or so head of cabbage to make sayer kraut. Not sure what else she will do. The stuff at the auction is very good quality and really inexpensive.
On a side note, somehow morning glories rooted in the garden and are choking out my tomato plants. I guess I'll be hitting the whole this with round up after the season.
 

deand1

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
On a side note, somehow morning glories rooted in the garden and are choking out my tomato plants. I guess I'll be hitting the whole this with round up after the season.

The worst invasive plant in my experience. Not responsive to round-up. I would suggest you do not do any tilling around the plants. They have nodes and tilling just spreads the plant to new areas. I have no suggestions on how to get rid of them though. I dig with a shovel and try to get the whole plant, roots and all.
 

k-dog

Member
Just finished helping my mom make about 5 gallon of chow chow also known as relish. Put it in pint jars. She insists on doing it the old fashioned way by letting it hang in an old pillow case. It is good stuff so I'm not changing what works.
 
Top