Putting up

We have been busy busy busy with summer fun, gardening, and canning. The preservation will probably continue into October so the blog may continue to be sporadic. Here is a glimpse of some of the projects we have been working on:

8 pints of dill pickle spears. There were plenty more pickles where these came from, but we had to give them to the chickens because they were huge, bloated, and yellowing. Luckily, the chickens seem to love them :)

http://www.mccormick.com/Recipes/Sauces/Dill-Pickle-Spears

Ground cherry chutney.... Yum! This was our first experiment with putting ground cherries up. We may repeat this recipe if we are able to glean more produce from our friends' farm. Neal ate a good deal of the ground cherries straight, and the rest went into a sweet refrigerator salsa.

http://www.edibleparadise.com/canning-and-preserving/89-chutneys-relishes-and-fruit-butters/972-ground-cherry-chutney.html

4 quarts of tomato sauce from about 25 or 30 pounds of heirloom tomato seconds. Kind of a shame to use such distinctly tasty tomatoes all in a sauce, but they weren't going to last long, are easily sauced, and freezer space is limited. We also made a roasted veggie salsa with the rest of the tomatoes plus garlic, onions, and red bell peppers. 

http://oneparticularkitchen.com/2009/05/19/salsa/

We are doing our first fermented veggie of the year here. Traditional pickles brined for at least 3 weeks. We'll see how it goes. Once the root veggies and cabbage are ready, we hope to have lots of ferments going. I just love that sour taste!

http://www.pickyourown.org/pickles_oldfashionedbarrel.htm

We are collaborating with some friends tomorrow to make cider. Wish us luck!