[Beekissed]

LOVE those cute little old-fashioned jars!!! 

[jaydig]

Raspberries!!!  YUM!     It was a great year for berries over here in the eastern US due to all the rain and cool weather at the beginning of spring.  Doesn't mean I got a single berry at my place as the animals all got them before me, but it was a great year all the same. 

Today I'm doing some stripping of the garden.  Will likely have to do it a couple more times as things are still in production, though not like at full harvest, so small batches of things to can from here on out...mostly slumgulleon so I can use all the different veggies to make a larger batch of food to can.

Beekissed,    Can I ask what is slumgulleon?

[Beekissed]

Just a family term for cutting up a lot of veggies from the garden in a big ol' iron skillet, cooking it down until tender and then thickening it with corn meal.  Usually this is done to use up extra veggies either at the early stages of the garden before you have enough of any one vegetable to can it up or near the end of the harvest when in the same predicament.  Usually ours will have tomatoes, both red and green, yellow squash, onions, sweet and hot peppers, sweet corn and new potatoes. 

Typically this is either eaten as the meal or served over potatoes, pasta, rice or biscuits.  It's a great way to use stray veggies that wouldn't make a meal or a batch for canning just yet but can be used as part of a meal...we call is slumgulleon, or more accurately, slumgullion, which normally refers to a meat stew but ours were meatless due to the time of year. 

[tosca100]

Did some pickled carrots recently as the last of the spring sown were splitting in the drought...and I can't be doing with frozen. I was a bit sceptical but they turned out really nice. I changed the recipe I found slightly and used some mustard seed and honey instead of sugar. I thought I'd used too much honey (easy to do when you have so much of your own) but I love the result. Also thought they might be over cooked as I forgot they were in the waterbath outside and they were in there over an hour Chucked some in with braised red cabbage for the last five minutes, worked well

[Beekissed]

Those are VERY pretty in the jar!  Never heard of pickled carrots before, but it seems a reasonable idea.  Taste good? 

[tosca100]

They do. There weren't that many recipes on the internet to choose from. I put whole mustard seed in so it will be a while before the flavour develops. Interestingly, I thought they were quite tart, OH thinks they're sweet. And he's the one with the sweet tooth! Lovely and crunchy too, despite far too long in the water bath!

[New shoot]

Fridge overload again, so last night saw a little flurry of activity 

The oven was on, so beetroots were baked, skinned and cubed ready for salads over the next few days.  A couple of bowls of tomatoes went into a batch of sauce with onion, garlic and herbs and that is now in the freezer.  The tomato skins went into the dehydrator with some huauzontle.

I made tomato skin powder last year and it was very useful to have around over the winter.  This year I am combining dried tomato skins with slices of dried cherry tomato.  When I have a few, I'll blitz them in the food processor.

The huauzontle is about the easiest thing to dry ever.  I tried it last year and it is great for adding to winter curries and the like as a spinach substitute.  I put it into the dehydrator as is with no prep at all, then when they are crispy dry, they go into jars.  It doesn't matter if they break up a bit as the end result is like chopped spinach once cooked 

[surbie100]

How do you stop it sticking to the dehydrator trays?

[New shoot]

How do you stop it sticking to the dehydrator trays?

The tomato skins I laid on the mesh inlay tray I have for mine, although I have done them straight onto the normal trays before and they were OK.  Huauzontle dries without sticking. 

You can use one of those 1 calorie cooking sprays on the trays if you find stuff is sticking 

[New shoot]

Courgette and summer squash overload, so I have been dehydrating them.  They were cubed and mixed with garlic and herbs and I now have a whole jar full for winter use, plus more huaunzontle and some dried French beans.  The tomato powder jar is filling up as well.  This morning has been tomato sauce for the freezer and a small jar of pickled chillies 

I have the ugliest beefsteak tomato ever ripening on the windowsill.  It fell off as I was picking the greenhouse tomatoes and gave me a fright.  It is now leering at me every time I pass by 

[mumofstig]

 

I made 4 more jars of passata yesterday and 5 jars of Boysenberry jelly, a few courgettes went into beanburgers but still need to do something with 6 small ones. I may just blitz them and freeze for soups......if I can find somw freezer space. I've already shuffled the freezers around once 

[tosca100]

Took a load of fruit out to make space but not sure where it went. My store is pretty full and we will be OK for winter...though it's hard to think of two metre deep snow and -20C temperatures while melting in 43C heat. Enough is enough!

Most of the bottled (though will sell some if I can) Top shelf chutneys, second jams and cordials, third tomatoes and sauces and fruit, fourth more toms and honey, then toms, sauces and pickles, then the carrots and what's left of last year's stuff, including sauces, jellies and chutneys. The dried is in a different cupboard.

In the cellar there are potatoes, garlic, watermelons (for the end of year season my neighbour says, we'll see) then if they stop splitting there will be butternuts and maybe sweet potatoes.

[mumofstig]

WOW, that's quite some food store - I hope Winter won't be too hard or long for you this year... but it looks like you won't starve 

[tosca100]

Haha, we might look a bit like tomatoes though! I admit I have done extra as it looks as if my sister might be coming over to live at the wrong time of the year so it will keep them in tomatoes, beans, jams and chutneys too. I just hope the hens lay through winter as they did last year

[Beekissed]

Now that's really pretty and I LOVE your cupboard!     Pretty colors in shiny jars...does my heart good to see it! 

Canning up the remnants of the dying garden now and will soon be moving towards fruit harvest and meat harvest.  Canned 6 qts of soup base, what we like to call slumgullion, and 4 qts pickled hot peppers/13 pts of the same. 

Today will be 4 pts of green beans and 2 qts of rabbit.  All these tiny batches are so much easier to deal with than the 40 qts of this or that veggie or meat, so that's a blessing...easy processing, easy clean up! 

Running out of shelf room and will have to find other storage options for the fruit and meat harvest coming this month and the next.