Thread: More cooking and Canning

Tweet

My wife asked if I wanted to help can the apples from our tree this year. So we picked four big grocery bag fulls off the tree today. We then preceded to make 6 quarts of apple sauce, a bunch of small jars of apple butter, 7 quarts of apple pie filling and 3 jars of strawberry preserves. Exhausting work, that took all day. No truck work today, but I'm off on Thursday and Friday, so there is still some time this week for that too.
Wondering if anyone else did something like this today?
Should be a good winter with all the stuff we canned this summer!

Cant say i did that much work today. Had the boys 5th b-day, so it was all family all day, he got some good loot though.

With all the economic news lately, I thought this thread was about altering the books and firing people.

Steve,
I haven't ever done anything like that. But what a nice thing to do, helping your wife, that has to be a lot of work.
Ken

When I was growing up in Minnesota my Grandpa who was from Norway stayed with us during the summers,we had apple trees and also canned them,he also made apple juice and we bottled it and capped it like we did homemade root beer.We had a basement and a big shelf with all the canned goods there,he put the juice on one end and told me his juice was on the other end and told me to leave it alone.When he went back to California I ran out of juice so I thought I'll have one of his, BIG MISTAKE! 1/2 hour later my legs would not get me up the stairs and had to call Mom for help,Iwas &blitzed.

No apples, but I made 24 jars of chokecherry jelly, does that count? Most of my canning comes in hunting season, lots of canned deer, antelope, elk, like that.

We (my sister and I) have canned applesauce, salsa, chekecherry jelly and have started 5 batches of wine from wild fruit. I still have lots of tomatoes and probably tomorrow will have to can another batch.
And fwiw, if you have never gone berry picking you are missing some great therapy.

Originally Posted by stovens

My wife asked if I wanted to help can the apples from our tree this year. So we picked four big grocery bag fulls off the tree today. We then preceded to make 6 quarts of apple sauce, a bunch of small jars of apple butter, 7 quarts of apple pie filling and 3 jars of strawberry preserves.

You have to tell us the your trick to get strawberry preserves from those apples

We haven't canned yet, we have to do apples, & pears. But the wife & I took down a 5 wire barbed wire fence and then the wife used the Blazer (the one that doen't have drive or OD) to knock down the poles she could, then pulled out the rest out with a chain. So far about 30 poles (about half is left), a Peacock pen, chicken pen, and a goat pen. At least the P.O. only used them for about 6-8 months, so it's still all grass, and not turned into dirt, now it's all mowed thanks to the wife! (about 3-3 1/2 acres so far.

Buck & Baby thanks us!

Next it to clean around the pond. You can see some of the fence and 5 apple trees, on the left side.

Pat

cider cider everywhere and plenty to drink
in the last 4 days we have pressed well over 400 gallons of apple juice
gathered from all the old apple trees on other peoples old homesteads in our little valley.
word of mouth got the people to call us to gather the apples before the bears tear apart the trees.
My best bud and I pick and mash the apples and the gals either freeze the juice or pasturize it and then bottle.
3 more places to go for more apple this week
our best year we did 1600 gallons with a 500 gal average. No BS.
If I could figure out some way to run our rigs on that stuff we would have it made.
it is a excellent trading commodity

hank

sounds like I'm not the only one. Strawberries were leftovers from a huge container purchased from Costco last week!
I'd love to make both regular cider and hard cider, but don't have a crusher! I wonder if they make a small version? How do they pasturize?(heat it to a boil?)

Originally Posted by stovens

sounds like I'm not the only one. Strawberries were leftovers from a huge container purchased from Costco last week!
I'd love to make both regular cider and hard cider, but don't have a crusher! I wonder if they make a small version? How do they pasturize?(heat it to a boil?)

I know how to do this. You get a big wooden tub and you put your fruit inside then you get into the tub an squash it all up. I saw this on a I Love Lucy Show
Ken

Ken I bet apples would hurt compared to grapes! I'd have to put my hiking boots on!

Keep up the good canning works fellows! This winter when the cold wind begins to blow and the snow begins to fall, I'll know just who to call to get some fresh canned fruit and veggies.



Pat - please tell me you all ain't planning on making that thar pond your swimming hole!!

I don't even think I would want to ice skate on that water.

Good thing you don't live in Maryland. They don't allow their citizens to keep wild deer. In fact just a few months ago, the animal police went to a family's house and took their pet deer and killed them. That shit makes me cross eyed with anger.

to pasturize (sp)
heat the liquid to 180*F for 10 minutes- do not boil
I built my cider press using a 1hp electric motor and an 4X12 inch apple wood cylinder with a lot of stainless steel screws in it for the shredder.spinning at 1750rpm
The mash falls into a stainless steel hopper (appox 35 gallon size) with lots of 1/8" holes drilled in the lower half
and a 4 inch thick apple wood pressure board on top
and a jackall High lift jack to press the mash
steel frame and a VW Karmann Ghia front suspension / wheels to make it moveable
usually get 8 to 12 gallons of juice every 15 minutes
we call it the Immaculate Contraption
hank