The ( Official ) FHC canned food thread.

Indeed.

1 gallon apple cider, 1 packet of champagne yeast, 3 cups white sugar. Going for a little less dry cider this year so I gave the yeast a little something extra to eat by adding white sugar. The yeast I'm using is resistant up to 18%. Should be some good sitting by the fire sippin' stuff this winter.

Never tried it this way before, but I've got about 50 more gallons of cider in the freezer that need gone, so if I screw a couple up its not a big deal.

 

The big bubbles are done and now down to a steady stream of tiny ones. Getting good color change too.

Day 1



Day 5

 

Here is some of the 32 qts of applesauce that was made today.

 

Whew 32 quarts! I made just a few pints of applesauce with it being 98% humidity outside today.



My parents have a gallon size wire bail jar. I had no idea they are that big. I believe there was even 4 gallon bail wire jars. This one has an eagle embossed on the back of it.

 

2 batches of spiced apples done tonight. This year is an experiment, using apple slices instead of crab apples. Might do one more batch as there are plenty of apples around now.

 

Looks good - would you care to share the recipe?

 

3lb light brown sugar-3 1/2C apple cider vinegar-3 C water put in pot and warm to a easy boil and set to simmer. Put your apple slices or if using crab apples cut the blossom end off and load in jars. Add whatever spices float yer boat. I use 2 heaping tsp of each cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, added to my syrup and give a good stir. Fill jars with syrup leave about 1 inch headspace. Process in water bath canner for 10-15 min. Let sit for a few weeks for everything to get happy together. They taste like miniature apple pies. the brine is so good that after the apples are gone I drink the nectar that is left.

 

Okay, I wasn't especially interested before; now I am going to copy your recipe. Sounds Wonderful!

 

Sounds Freakin great! Thank you very much for the recipe - I'll be in on that this weekend as we have another cart load waiting on the hill to be gathered.

 

I picked these crabapples off the tree next to the house. It took a few years for it to produce a decent amount of small apples. These are the size of my small finger tip.



I ended up with about a cup of juice and added just over a cup of sugar. A pinch of cinnamon was a nice addition.



A little warning to the kids to go easy on the servings. It was a lot of work for little yield.

 

I canned pink salmon on Sunday. Friends had given me six fish which were frozen. Here are the fish.



I started cutting it up before I remembered that I needed pictures.



Jars are ready to have salt added and lids and rings.



While I was loading the fish into jars, I saw a rainbow out the window.



Ready to load into the pressure canner



Processing the first batch. The pressure cooker takes 21 1/2 pints but I split it into two batches of 14 jars each.



First batch finished. I ended up with 28 1/2 pint jars.

 

What a lot of work for what you got. Would it have been easier to just can the small apples or did they have more core than fruit?

 

The apples are very small, about the size of a marble.They did not come off the tree easily, so I had to cut them off. I cooked them stems and all.

I canned some tomato jam yesterday. It is very good on burgers, hot dogs, beans, meatloaf, etc.

 

Woodwidow, I noticed the campstove. Any particular reason than on the regular range?

 

Well after canning on my old stove for many years, the stove sunk in the middle so anytime you put a fry pan on the element, everything ran to the middle of the stove no matter which element you used. Plus the enamel was checking and around the one element, it was so black I couldn't get it clean anymore. campinspecter got tired of chasing the food from the edge of the pan so he went out and bought a new stove. Although it seems more solid than the other one, I am using the camp stove to make it doesn't happen again. The only stove we found that had really solid support was a gas stove and we are getting too old to haul 100 lb bottles of propane around and wouldn't use enough to have a tank big enough for delivery service.

I find that the campstove was easier to regulate the heat and the second batch I got it right on until the bottle ran out 7 minutes from the end. As it wasn't a full bottle to begin with, I had expected it to happen. I now know that a full bottle will do two batches of fish at 100 mins. each. I much prefer the propane for canning anyway.

 

Here is some good info to help with the grapes. I've had black rot for 2 seasons now, but kept ahead of it and did well this year.

Black Rot on Grapes in Home Gardens

 

I need to get back to canning, making some strawberry jam would be nice.
Anyways back to this original comment.
No about the jard they are not, I do have this fascination for them at a small level. Some of the jars are unique but they are only rare when there’s a jar that isn’t made by a company anymore or similar situation. Those true purple jars that have been altered by time and UV in a window sill arent exactly rare but they are valuable with the chemical change.
Sometimes for me it’s smaller jars for keeping smaller amounts of canables when you don’t have a whole lot but its nice to give out a small size rather than a quart.

 

Canned these today.
Sauerkraut Stuffed Hot Peppers. Marshel54's recipe.
Thank You, Roger!

 

Tried some last night. Still needs to mellow but one glass of this stuff and it's sleepy time. It's pretty stout.