Canning, Dehydrating and Saving Produce

We bottled our Walla walla onions using our pressure cooker. You've never smelled anything better than these onions right out of the pressure cooker! Wowzers! Super sweet! I seriously think this in my new favorite smell. 

We used the following instructions we found on the internet:

According to the USDA, use onions of 1-inch diameter or less. Wash and peel onions. Cover onions with boiling water; bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes. Pack the onions into hot jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Add ½ tsp salt to pints; 1 tsp to quarts, if desired. Fill jars to within 1-inch from top with boiling water. Remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rims. Adjust lids and process.

Process in a Dial Gauge Pressure Canner at 11 pounds pressure OR in a Weighted Gauge Pressure Canner at 10 pounds pressure: Pints or Quarts:40 minutes

NOTE: Sea level pressure is 10 pounds. Pressure has to be increased as altitude increases by ½ pound per 1000 feet.

 I believe since this paragraph was written, however, that sea level pressure has been changed to 11 pounds. Below, pictured is onions on the left, roasted peppers centered, and cucumber relish on the right. 

Roasted Peppers (from Pesto Pressure Canner and Cooker Instructions and Recipes, 2010)

PEPPERS—HOT OR SWEET (INCLUDING BELL, CHILE, JALAPEñO, AND PIMIENTO)

Preparation of Chile peppers—Cut two or four slits in each pepper, and blister using one of the following methods:

 oven or broiler method: Place chile peppers in a 400° oven or broiler for 6 to 8 minutes until skins blister.

 Range-top method: Cover hot burner, either gas or electric with heavy wire mesh. Place chilies on burner for several minutes until skins blister.

Allow peppers to cool. Place in a pan and cover with a damp cloth. After several minutes, peel peppers. Remove stems and seeds.

Preparation of other peppers—Remove stems and seeds; blanch 3 minutes.
Hot Pack: Small peppers may be left whole. Large peppers may be quartered. Pack peppers loosely in clean, hot Mason

jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Cover with boiling water, leaving 1-inch headspace. Adjust jar lids.

Process at 11 pounds of pressure – Pints 35 minutes. For processing above 2,000 feet altitude, see page 11 for recommended pounds of pressure. 

Altitude and Pressure Chart for Canning Vegetables

Altitude
2,001 – 4,000 ft.
4,001 – 6,000 ft.
6,001 – 8,000 ft.
Processing time is the same at all altitudes.

Pounds of Pressure for Pints and Quarts 

12 lbs.
13 lbs.
14 lbs.

I don't usually blister the peppers; the skins aren't tough enough out in Utah for this to be a concern. It's actually a lot harder to try to get the skins off, and they're not at all unpleasant to eat anyway. 

 Cucumber Relish

(from an old canning book such as a 'ball blue book')

12 lg. cucumbers peeled

4 lg onions

6 green peppers, stems and seeds removed

4 tsp each celery seed and mustard seed

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 Tbsp ground turmeric
3 1/2 c. cider vinegar
2 1/2 c. sugar

Put the cucumbers, onions, and green peppers through a food chopper, using a medium blade or chop. In a 5 or6-quart saucepan, combine vegetables, celery seed mustard seed, salt,chives, turmeric, vinegar, and sugar. Quickly bring to boiling, stirring constantly; reduce heat and simmer for about 3 hours or until reduced to about 5 pints. 
Prepare 5 pint-sized canning jars, following step 1 under Processing with a canner on page 31. (wipe rims, put heated lids on, etc.) Proceed with steps 3-9. Process for 15 minutes. Makes 5 pints. (Don't forget to adjust for altitude.)

Bread and Butter Pickles

6 cups sliced/chopped/speared cucumbers

Mix:

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 tsp turmeric (optional)

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 Tbsp mustard seed

1/2 tsp celery seed or more

2 cups mild cider vinegar

Bring slowly to boiling point and boil 5 minutes

Put cut cucumbers in a jar, then fill with vinegar brine with 1/2 inch headspace. Clean the top of the jar, put lids on, and water-bath for 10 minutes. Adjust for Altitude. 

1,001-3,000 ft = +5 minutes

3,001-6,000 ft = +10 minutes

6,001 - 8,000 ft = +15 minutes

Yield 4 pints. Store for 4-5 weeks+ before opening for best taste. 

(as I was typing the original recipe, I realized I didn't follow even half of the instructions listed. So, I retyped the recipe to be what I actually do, and included correct water-bath instructions. The original recipe actually says you don't need to water bath it to seal it... so I must of gotten this recipe from an un-reliable source...)

Italian Tomato Sauce

Yield: about 7 pints or 3 quarts

4 quarts chopped, seeded, peeled, cored tomatoes (about 24 large)

1 cup chopped celery (about 2 stalks)

1/2  cup chopped onion (about 1/2 medium)

1/4 cup chopped green pepper (about 1/4 medium)

1 Tbsp basil

1 Tbsp oregano

1Tbsp minced parsley

2 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a large sauce pot. Cover and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints 20 minutes, quarts 25 minutes, at 10 pounds pressure in a pressure canner. (adjust for altitude.)

I tend to vary this recipe from week to week, depending on if I have celery, onion or peppers. Most weeks, I have left all 3 of those out, and added 1-2 cups of shredded zucchini to each quart jar. I also don't usually blanch (peel) my tomatoes or de-seed them when making it into sauce; rather, i run it through a food processor and can that extra fiber into my meal. 

I've also noticed that tomato varieties play a large role in how runny your sauce is. Celebrity tomatoes tend to be very meaty, so there is no need to extract any juice before putting it through a food processor. Other varieties seem to have a lot of juice. Methods to take some of that extra juice out (and possibly can the tomato juice separately), is streaming the tomatoes in a juicer first; or, mashing quartered tomatoes in a colander while catching the juice in a bowl under it; or, after it's all been through a food processor, cooking it down in a pot for an hour or 3 (without the lid) so the extra juice can evaporate out, or else, in a crockpot (without a lid) over night. The last resort - say you've sealed that sauce into jars and it's still too runny - add that water/cornstarch combo to thicken that sauce right up, as you use your jars for dinner meals. 

We have zucchini coming out of our ears, so we tried drying some zucchini for food storage. I did some sliced (for use in lasagna and meaty casseroles), and some grated (for use in spaghetti and casseroles). There's instructions out there for how to re-hydrate these veggies before, use, but I have yet to go look for those...

Lastly, I dried my cheyenne peppers. I got a needle and thread and just strung it through the peppers, then left them to hang in my kitchen. I don't have an A/C, so my kitchen is plenty warm enough for them to dry properly, but if yours isn't, or you're in a more humid area, hang them outside in the sun, or use a food dehydrator. Station the dehydrator outside your house, though, so you're eyes aren't burning in a couple of hours. 

Drying (thin-skinned) Peppers and Chiles

Drying, Smoking, Powders, and Spice Blends

Drying is the oldest and most common way to preserve pepper pods and works well for most peppers—except for the very meaty ones such as jalapeños, which are smoke-dried and called chipotles (see below). To dry peppers, select those that have reached their mature colors, or are just starting to turn. If they are picked while still green, it is very likely that it will never turn the mature color. Avoid any pods that have black spots, because these will mold or rot. On dry days, the peppers can be placed on metal racks and set in the sun. Placing them on a surface that collects heat, such as a car hood or roof, accelerates the process. They can also be hung individually on a clothesline. Another method to use is a home dehydrator—just follow the manufacturer's instructions. Jalapeños and several other chiles will dry well in a dehydrator. Cutting the thick-fleshed chiles in half, or into several pieces helps to speed up the process. Some of the larger growers use forced convection solar dryers, which reduces the time for sun-drying by 65 percent.

Dehydration also works for fresh New Mexican or poblano peppers which are first roasted and peeled (either green or red), and then placed in the sun to dry. Lay long strips of the peeled pods on nylon window screening, cover them with cheese cloth, and place them in semi-shady location with good air circulation. The more humid the climate, the more sun that should be applied to the drying pods. This process makes chile pasado (chile of the past, see below), which will turn an unappetizing dark color, brown or almost black. However, when the chile pasado is rehydrated in water for about 30 minutes, it regains its green or red color. One ounce of this chile pasado is equivalent to ten to twelve fresh pods.

http://www.fiery-foods.com/chile-pepper-gardening/189-processing-and-putting-up/3000-drying-smoking-powders-and-spice-blends

Our Garden is Producing!

Keshia and Dave's Apartment Garden has been flourishing too. These are our cherry tomato plants. They are about 6 feet tall in this picture... almost 7 feet in a couple of spots. They regularly grow up the bottom of the next window above it, and then flop over because they're too heavy to hold themselves up. They've done this about 3-4 times now... however, they've only done it 1-2 times when I took this picture. 

These are some of my herbs: I have, from left top to left bottom, pesto basil, thai basil, (dead sweet basil); middle top to bottom: cilantro (end of season), parsley, cinnamon basil; and on the top right: chives, garlic chives, mint, and to the very far right: walla walla onions and a rose bush. I use grass clippings as mulch to keep the weeds down. 

These are our beef steak tomato plants. They look respectable in the picture, but since then, they've grown so big, they're like one huge bush that's threatening taking over the grass. They're so heavy that even my heavy duty cages can't quite hold them up anymore. I've been mildly frustrated with these plants however, because they haven't produced a lot of tomatoes. There's a good chance it's because we failed to prune them regularly. They're also in partial shade. 

On the other side of the rose bush, we have our Huge Sunflower coming up!

This is back in our highland garden. Celebrity tomatoes in the middle; winter squashes to the left, and peppers and onions to the right. Far back there on the right are zucchini plants and huge sunflowers.  

Dave sporting his hard working self. He does most of the work to make this garden look so good!

We took out the onions this week (July 24th), and planted red potatoes that didn't quite stay cold enough in the cellar this last year. As we were planting them, we realized the roots had already started making baby potatoes! So we popped those off, took them home, and made a tasty soup! It was so Good! Other ingredients are corn, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, onion, grated zucchini, couple bay leaves, and... I might have put in some basil or parsley, or perhaps some red curry paste; cinnamon or a bit of brown sugar. I really don't remember. 

Here's my pregnant self, in front of our growing cherry tomatoes! 

And the Sunflower is almost about to create its flower!

This is one week's worth of produce (August 11th)! We were so surprised by how many boxes we got, and how amazing it all looked, we had to take a picture!

Produce includes Zucchini, tomatoes, Parsley, cucumbers, banana peppers, bell peppers, cheyenne peppers, blueberries, and anaheim peppers. 

Next Blog - - what did I do with all of this stuff?

Gardening in Utah

Dave and I have been gardening in this garden in Utah for a couple of years now. The land belongs to Dave's parents. They have an irrigation ditch that runs along the street (the far side on this first picture), then water hookups at the end of each row on the right. These pipes are pvc that have had little holes punched into them, so that the water sprays down evenly into each row. This system is on two timers that runs for 20 minutes everyday/every other day. One timer controls one half of the rows and the other the second half. This can also be accomplished with a drip-line system, which is available at home depot and sprinkler stores. If you use a drip line, you will need it to drip water for 2-4 hours every night.

The pipes are suspended in air with small bricks, so that the holes in the PVC don't get clogged. It's important when setting up these pipes in the spring, to flush dirt out the end before putting the caps on. You might also notice that the rows are LOWER than the walkways. That's for 2 reasons. One, so we don't flood the walkways and entire garden where we're not even growing anything useful. It just makes the weeds stronger. And two, Utah is dry, and we need to make sure we put the valuable water right where the plants are. Plants can take a surprising amount of water, so filling up the entire row to the brink is actually recommended.  For some reason, it's popular for people to make their rows raised, but in Utah, this only leads to water run-off due to the clay soil. The plants really struggle when this is going on. 

In gardens where it's been used for several years, it's important that after you plant, you fertilize every two weeks, or whatever your fertilizer instructions tell you. After about 6-8 weeks, fertilizing will become less effective. Without fertilizer, everything will be small, short plants, however, you should still get a decent amount of produce on them. We put left-over potting soil in the dirt where our cherry tomatoes are, so they didn't need any extra fertilizer. They are now over 6 feet tall! 

When we first got the rows ready, we had a several step process. First, we tilled down the weeds and raked them out. Second, we made our depressed rows as deep as we could... about 5 inches... with our rake. Third, we used a long wooden beam and a level to make sure they were flat. This is done so that when our water was put in the row, it would fill up and down the whole row without leaving a dry spot... or leaking out. Next we positioned our pipes with our bricks. We planted our seeds on both sides of the row... and for squash that was zigzag about every foot/12 inches. 

We don't follow seed instructions very seriously. Often they say 4-6 in a mound, 4 feet apart; I usually do 1-3 every foot. Sometimes that means you'll end up having a gap, but it also means you won't have to thin your plants out. Next we sprinkler our fertilizer down the row (ours are little white-ish pellets), turn on the water, clean out the pipes, cap them, and let the rows fill up with water. The first couple weeks the dirt will take much more water than later weeks, fyi.

This year we made the mistake of tilling one saturday, then planting the next; this gave the weed seeds a week head start on the garden food, and stunted the veggies growth until they had managed to get big enough we could safely weed around them. (You can't weed them when they're too small because 1. you'll run the risk of pulling out the fragile veggie and 2. it's really hard to recognize what's veggie and what's weed.)

The weeks after that, it's just a matter of staying on top of the weeds and fertilizing rows. We liked to till the paths to keep the weeds down, then use a small rake to get the little weed starts out. If you set your watering to 'late in the night', your dirt should be just moist enough that it's fairly easy to pull the weeds out, but not too muddy that you can't get anything done. Also, watering at night is a great way to save yourself on the water bill. Watering during the day leads to a lot of the water 1. being used to just 'cool down' the dirt/plants from the hot sun, rather than going deep into the soil for the roots to grow long. And 2. regular sprinklers usually have a significant amount of water that just evaporates or floats downwind. So save yourself on utilities and water when it's dark out. 

As the summer gets real hot, Dave and I woke up earlier on Saturdays to go weed. We can do about one row each per 1.5 hours, and we work faster when it's cool weather. Some veggies take longer to weed than others, fyi. Squash is really quick, but carrots are super tricky. A couple of times we've gone twice a week when the weeds were getting ahead of us. We try to do 2 rows a week. (We have 8 rows that are each about 30 feet long.) When you're weeding, it's also very helpful to take out the rocks. In carrot and onion rows, underground rocks can be devastating to your harvest. An onion or carrot will not move the rocks out of the way, but simply grow around it, or just stop growing all together. On top of that, onion rows need to be prepared with extra deep depressions because as the onion bulbs grow, you need to rake more dirt on top of them. Shallow rows means your water will escape half way through the season. 

Lastly, make sure you know WHEN to harvest your food! Last year, we waited too long to harvest onions, and the bulbs had shrunk for the oncoming winter. If you pick your veggies regularly, they will grow more veggies. If you leave them to rot on the vine, you're plant will stop producing. So whether or not you'll be able to get around to using all that food, you Must pick it. And pick it WITH the stem... or your plant might not realize the produce is gone, and again, will stop producing. The stem on the veggie also helps the veggie stay good longer. Use scissors or a blade to pick produce. 

Today we harvested our first zucchini, several cayenne peppers, a couple of bell peppers, several banana peppers, chard, lettuce, a couple onions for this week's meals, and thinned part of the carrots... which gave us some baby carrots. Our cherry tomatoes came in last week, and we've picked those every 2-3 days. 

Our 2012 Garden

Originally posted 6/25/12

Dave and I have been having all sorts of fun gardening this year, and now that it looks like we're done planting (unless we suddenly get more ambitious and add potatoes and beets to row #1 of the garden)... and are just trying to keep up with the weeding. This is it. A sketch of the garden(s) layout. 

This first photo is at Dave's parent's and each row, I'm told, is about 30 feet long.

This second photo, each foot is numbered across the top. This is the garden bed in front of our 4-plex. 

Dave bought me a pressure canner this week for my birthday so I'm excited to be able to bottle a wider variety of foods! 

I have spagetti sauce, meatballs, chicken broth, and raw veggies planned so far. 

Garden Fever!

Originally posted 6/2/12

Dave and I are having Garden Fever! We have prepared 8 rows, 30 feet long, of all sorts of veggies, squash, fruit and produce. Off the top of my head, there will be... tomatoes, zucchini varieties, variety lettuce, spinach, chard, white pumpkin, jack-o-lantern pumpkin, 3 types of bell peppers, banana peppers, cheyenne peppers, anaheim peppers, carrots, 2 types of cucumbers, walla walla onions, watermelon, 4 types of autumn/winter squash, and a variety of flowers. 

On top of that, at our apartment, we have about 13 types of herbs (except 3 types of basil didn't make it), 4 types of cherry tomatoes, spinach, variety lettuce, sunflowers, walla walla onions, and beef steak tomatoes. 

We're already recruiting some neighbors to help us... #1 so they can learn how to do it, and #2 Keshia will be very pregnant by "bottling" season, as my neighbor calls it, and will need some help.