Busy Monday and Tuesday

Yesterday was a busy day, had to go to take care of some paperwork at the bank, stopped at the local library and checked out a few books on canning and homesteading.  I love to read and learn new stuff so I am always looking.  Canned 2 pints of tomatoes, took everything out of our spare closet and now the stuff is sitting in the office/storeroom.  Ron and I are working on adding shelves to store all the canned items, canning closet and other storage items.  We will add shelves that are 7 feet long and 20 inches deep.  Everything is adjustable which will be nice, if needs change the closet shelves can be changed.  The closet system that was in that closet will be used in the closet in the grandson's room.  Then we went to a birthday celebration of 3 of the grandchildren.  We didn't eat until after 8 so it was a late night for us old people.  Had some very nice Turkish food, not sure what it was all called but it was all very good.  Our new son-in-law is from Turkey and we got to meet some of his side of the family.  2 of the birthday celebrations are "new to us" grandchildren from his first marriage. 
Today Renee, Brandon and I went out to the little shop where we have our craft items to check on things.  We have had our stuff there for 60 days and things are doing pretty good.  My rag rugs are selling better than my soap and making soap is so much easier; oh well.  I need to get busy on making more rugs and need to make some specialty fall soaps.  I will probably just make some pumpkin pie soap.
After I came home I cleaned up some around the house, don't you love how it is a never finished thing.  Get it all cleaned and one thing out of place ruins it.  I hate a messy unorganized space; I can't relax when things are out of place.  Ron will be home in a few and we will need to make a list of the rest of the things we need for the shelves.  Hope to have them up and ready by this weekend so I can start organizing and putting everything back.  
Later, take care.

Canned Corn and Corn Cob Jelly

When we went down to the Amish store on Saturday we picked up 2 dozen ears of sweet corn.  I canned the corn last night and got 11 pints.  I then boiled the corn cobs for about 45 minutes, removed the cobs and simmered the corn water down until I had about 7 cups.  You can strain the juice if you want, I did not.  I put it in the fridge and made corn cob jelly today.  I added the corn cob water, 4 TBS of lemon juice and 2 packs of pectin in a large pan.  I brought this to a boil then added 7 cups of sugar to it.  Brought that back to a boil and boiled it hard for 1 minute.  I put it in jars and processed it for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.  I got 2 pints, 3 half pints and 8 quarter pints (jelly jars).  There was a little left over and put it in a small container and put it in the fridge.  It tastes a lot like a mild honey, it is very good.  Who would have thought that you could make something that good from something you would throw in your compost bin or garbage, amazing.

11 pints of corn

Corn cob jelly.

Corn cob jelly, looks like and tastes a lot like honey.  I did not strain the juice and you can see little pieces of corn in it.  Bring on some biscuits or better yet some good corn fritters.


 


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Amish Bulk Food Shopping Day

We had some things to take down to one of the Kaufman boys (Amish dairy) so we made a trip down there today.  I am not getting any milk right now until we go through the cheese that is in the freezer.  I did have a couple of items that I needed from the bulk food store and Gina had a list of things she wanted too.  I picked up 2 dozen ears of fresh corn and canned it today and also boiled the cobs for some jelly, more on those later. 
I picked our first eggplant today and we are having Eggplant Parmesan for supper.  I have several more on the plants and I've promised Gina and Renee some when I get more.  After getting nothing from her plants last year Renee didn't plant any this year.  I only got a couple last year but I decided to plant some at the last minute; I have 4 plants and they are doing real nice.  I have a couple zucchini that need picked tomorrow or Monday and am going to make a small batch of sweet zucchini relish with them.  Don't have any tomatoes that need picked; they look like they are taking a break right now.  When I pick the zucchini I will pick some peppers to use in the relish.  My peppers have done very good this year and will dehydrate more to use this winter.  The next time I dehydrate some cherry tomatoes I am going to powder them after they are dried.  Tomato powder can be used in soups and takes up very little storage space. 
Later, take care.

The eggplant that I picked today and we had less than 2 hours later for supper.

Garage Sales and Hand Doctor

Renee, Derek the 5 year old grandson and I went to a few garage sales this morning before my doctor appointment.  It was advertised as community wide sales but we found very few.  I picked up a tea ball so I can use my dried herbs to make tea, a tray that matches my set of dishes and picked up the 1/2 gallon canning jars.  I purchased 21 wide mouth 1/2 gallon Ball Jars, 20 regular mouth quart Ball Jars, 1 wide mouth Ball Jar and 25 small Ball Jelly Jars.  All the jars were new had rings and lids and only paid $35 for everything.  I was very pleased with the price and now bring on the fruit and vegetables I'm ready. 
Got my shot, as expected it hurt like heck.  Derek wanted to see me get the shot so he went in the room with me, right before I got the shot he decided he did not want to watch and left the room.  Also found out this is the last shot I can get, my third in 7 months.  If I can just get relief until after canning season I guess it's surgery time. The doctor who did my right hand has left the practice and this doctor does it a little different.  She does not put a pin in it and that is what caused the most pain.  Time will tell, If I can get thru until November I'll think about the surgery then.  In the past it took about 10 days before I had relief so I have a little longer before I get full relief from this pain.
Later, take care.

Hand Doctor and a Few Garage Sales

Several years ago I had the basal joint on my right hand replaced because of severe arthritis and at the time I said if I had trouble with the left hand I would never have that one done.  The prolonged pain after the surgery was more than I could handle and also the limited use I had for almost 8 weeks after was horrible; I couldn't even dress myself.   I have an appointment today to get my 3rd cortisone injection in the joint of my left hand.  I'm not sure how long they will do the injections but will find out.  I will get the shots as long as they will give them and when they won't give the shots then and only then will I have the surgery.  Right now my left thumb feels like it would feel better if they would just chop it off.   It takes a good 2 weeks before the shot fully works and it is pretty painful to get the shot but all in all its worth it. 
Before I go to the hand doctor my daughter Renee and I are going to stop at some garage sales and also I need to pick up some 1/2 gallon Ball canning jars that I found on Craigslist. 

Tomatoes, Zucchini and Herbs

I had a few ripe tomatoes and my daughter Renee gave me 4 nice tomatoes so I canned 5 pints this morning.  I don't have that many tomato plants this year so I will have to can a few jars at a time when I get enough; a little here and a little there adds up.  When the tomatoes were processing I grated then froze 5 bags (2 cups each) of zucchini for zucchini bread.  I think I have enough froze now so I will need to get creative and find some new zucchini recipes to try.  For supper tonight we are having leftovers and I am going to make a small batch of zucchini pancakes.  I've never made or ate them but they sure sound good.  There are many recipes on the internet and I will be using one of them.
I put the stevia leaves through the small food chopper and made it into a fine powder.  I did this several times and also used a find mesh strainer and strained it.  Right now I have chocolate mint and spearmint drying and the aroma in the house is very nice.

Orange/citrus mint, apple mint, stevia, tomatoes.

Dehydrating Herbs

The stevia that I put in the dehydrator yesterday is out and ready to be ground.  I picked some herbs for my daughter Gina this morning and went ahead and picked some apple mint and some orange/citrus mint for myself.  Right now both are in the dehydrator and I will be using them to make herbal tea.  Tomorrow morning I will pick some spearmint and some chocolate mint and dry them and then hopefully I will get the cooking herbs dried this weekend.  After this I will leave them alone and dry them again this fall. 

Dried Stevia.

Apple Mint in the dehydrator.

Washing and adding the Orange/Citrus Mint to the dehydrator tray.

Canned Bacon Results

I posted yesterday about canning bacon and that we were going to try it before I canned more.  I decided to have it today instead of Thursday and the verdict is excellent.  It came off of the paper very easy, fried up really nice and we thought it didn't taste as salty as some we had a couple weeks ago from the same package.  Would I do it again, yes.  Why would I do it again, easier storage, no freezer burn, if the freezer would go out less meat wasted, longer storage life, it is cooked and all you have to do is brown it.  If the worst would happen we would have meat that was cooked and ready to eat.  I would hope I never have to eat it right out of the jar but if I had to I could.

I fried some Yukon Gold potatoes that I canned last month and also some fresh eggs to go with the bacon.  Don't eat fried foods too often and they were all very good.

Ms. Noel, I'm not sure why you said it seems really gross.  It is fully cooked meat in a jar instead of a can.  Canned bacon was sold many years ago at K Mart and we used it when we camped because it needed no refrigeration.  You can buy canned bacon on line but it is cost prohibitive.  Long term storage in the freezer will alter the taste, long term storage canned will not.  U R 2 funny.

24 hours after taking the bacon out of the caner this is what it looks like.

Bacon unrolled out of the jar.

Bacon after peeling the paper off.

Bacon frying.

Delicious Bacon.

Some of the Yukon Gold potatoes I canned last month.






 

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The Worst Part of Raising Chickens

Raising chickens has its ups and downs; cute baby chicks, getting all those fresh eggs and culling of the hens.  When I first started raising chickens I said no way would I do this but as time went by I have looked at it differently.  By no means am I making money raising chickens but I don't want to loose money either, I just want the girls to pay for themselves.  The grandson Brandon took Black Betty home today and 3 others went to live with someone my husband works with.  He also took Ralph the rooster, we have been trying to find him a home for a while now.  He got to be very mean and you could never turn your back on him, I have been spurred several times and I took to carrying the hay fork with me when I collected eggs.  I will wait until next spring to replace the chickens when I can purchase them from our local feed store. 

Black Betty

Brandon and Renee loading Black Betty.

Stevia and Canned Bacon

My grandson Brandon came to spend a couple of days with me so we started our day by cutting some of the stevia and putting it in the dehydrator.  I was cutting each leaf one by one from the stalks and Brandon came in and ran his fingers down the stalk and completely stripped it in just a second.  Young minds come in handy sometimes.  I now have my 5 trays filled and in the dehydrator.  When it is dried I will crush it and use to sweeten my tea.
Then we proceeded to can some bacon.  We canned 2 lbs and will try a jar of it on Thursday for supper to see how it tastes.  If it turns out I will pick up a few 10lb boxes of bacon when we go down to Beachies Bulk Food store in Arthur and can it.  I will keep you posted when we have it for supper Thursday and how it tastes.  This is the link where I found out how to can bacon:

http://www.rural-revolution.com/search/label/canning%20bacon

Brandon stripping the leaves from the stevia stalks.

Stevia going in the dehydrator.

Roll of masking paper, 12" X 180', found at Menards, isle where the green paint tape is for $2.97 a roll.

Bacon going on the masking paper.

1 lb of bacon.

Adding masking paper to the top of the bacon.

1 lb of bacon ready to be folded and rolled.

Took the handle of a long wooden spoon, put it in the middle of the bacon, fold it in half.

Ready to rolled.

Roll tightly.

All rolled up.

Putting in a wide mouth quart jar.

Putting in the caner.

Bacon out of the caner, 10lbs for 90 minutes.
 h


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Monday, Monday

Found myself singing this tune today (The Mamas and The Papas) don't know why, oh well.  Had a list of things that needed done today and finally was able to finish it.  Yes I actually make a list and cross off the things as I do them, I have always been a list person.
One of the things I needed to do was do something with a handful of carrots that my grandson Brandon gave me from his garden.  I saw this interesting recipe for Pickled Carrots here:  http://creationsbydina.blogspot.com/2012/07/pickled-carrots.html
and wanted to try it.  I only got a pint but that is one more pint than I had before today.  They sure look nice and smell good too.  I will wait a couple of weeks before I try them so the flavors of the spices get infused in them.  Another thing I did was to go through the stuff I have dehydrated and if they were in a Ball/Mason canning jar I took it out and put it in a different jar.  When I was in Texas my sister in law Gale and I went through all her canning jars and she was so nice and gave me all the jars that mayo or other store bought items came in that a band and seal would fit on and were not canning jars.  Now days things like that come in plastic jars.  I will use a non Ball/Mason (canning) jar if I am processing a item in a boiling water bath.  I did it years ago and almost all the jam and pie filling I did this year are in that type of jar.  I have never had a problem using a jar like that but won't use them in the pressure caner.  By transferring the dehydrated items into different jars I was able to get about a dozen canning jars.  I am still holding out hope that the guy my husband works with is still going to give me some corn to can.  Also I need the quart size to can some soup and chili this fall.

Pickled carrots.

Canning Tomatoes and Bacon When in Texas

My sister in law Gale and I canned her some Roma tomatoes and bacon when I was there.  Richard had picked her up some very nice Roma tomatoes and I helped her can them.  They were very nice solid tomatoes and looked beautiful when done.  I told her about a blog where I saw that they canned some bacon so she picked some up when we went to the store and she canned it. I found the recipe and directions on this blog:  http://www.paratusfamiliablog.com/2010/06/canning-bacon.html
I am going to can a pound or two and try it and if it is good I will pick up some more bacon when we go down to the Arthur Amish; I can get some of the 10 pound boxes for $16.95 and can it.  Canning it verses freezing it would be much better.  Years ago when we used to tent camp we purchased canned bacon and it was good stuff.  It came in 1 lb cans and it was excellent.  I looked up canned bacon and the one we used to get is no longer made.  You can find another brand but at almost $10 a pound that would be cost prohibited.  I will keep you posted when I make it and taste it.

Making Beef Jerky

My brother in law Richard wanted to make some  beef jerky when we were there so I found a easy recipe and mixed it up for him; then Ron showed him how to make they jerky sticks.  When we make jerky Ron is the one who does it so he was the one to help his brother.  They only made a small batch so it didn't take very long to make it.  They dehydrated it overnight and the next morning it was ready to take out.   I don't care for jerky but they all had some and liked it, sure hope that Richard gets to make some more.

Richard and Ron making jerky.  It's a shame that they look nothing alike :).

Peaches in Texas

My sister in law Gale has 3 small peach trees growing in her front yard and a branch on one of the trees had so many peaches on it that it broke off.  I picked the peaches off of the broken branch and we ate quite a few of them while we were there.  They were yellow peaches and were very sweet.  I wanted to pick the rest of the trees but they wanted to wait.  Before the end of the week there were less than a dozen peaches left on the trees; the squirrels had picked all the peaches. 

Some of the peaches at my sister in laws.  They were beautiful and delicious.

The Babies are Starting to Lay

Ron found the below egg in the run when we went out to do the yard work.  It is really dark brown and speckled.  I'm sure one of the 12 babies laid it, they are almost 5 months old and are getting to the correct age to lay.  We have one that has a bigger comb and is a little larger than the others even tho they are the same age.  My daughter Renee's pullets have also started to lay and they are the same age as ours; she has a couple different breeds and all my babies are DeKalb Amber Links.  She sent me a picture the other day of an egg she found in her run and it is only about 1/3 the size of this one.  It is also very dark brown and had speckles, their first eggs will vary in size.

Wild Grapes

When I was in Texas the wild grapes were ready to be picked so Ron, my brother in law Richard and I picked about 1/2 bushel of them.  I juiced them and canned it and now have the juice ready to make some wild grape jelly.  I will wait until the weather cools down to do it and do the things that can't wait.   I've never seen wild grapes and they were everywhere on the country roads; I found some growing in the trees too.  Gale and Richard had some growing in their front yard trees and I though it was so funny to have vines in the trees.  The grapes were large and the juice is very dark purple, almost black.

Wild grapes growing in a tree.

I'm Home

We arrived home yesterday at 6:30pm after traveling 14 1/2 hours.  It was a long day but very nice traveling weather.  I had my Kindle and read a couple nice fiction Amish stories which made the trip go much faster.  It is nice to go on vacation but oh so nice to come home.  We have everything put away, laundry done and only the yard work needs done.  The grass isn't that tall but the weeds are horrible.  After the yard work I need to pick the tomatoes and look to see what else might need picked and to check the progress of everything.  Will post later on some of the things I did when we were in Texas.
Later, take care.

I Guess I'm Ready

About 12 hours from now we will be on the road to the great state of Texas.  I've been watching the weather where we are going and it has been about the same as here so hopefully it won't be too bad.  I'm ready for just some nice visiting and relaxing.   Me just sitting and doing nothing don't go together but I'm willing to try it.  I will try and write when I can. 
Later, take care.

Retirement, 2 Month Anniversary

It has been 2 months since I retired and in some ways it seems longer.  I look back at all I have accomplished in 2 short months and I am amazed.  My biggest accomplishment has been being able to can again.  I enjoy canning things and being able to control what goes in my food.  Next years garden is already in the planning stage and it will be much larger.  This year I planted potatoes, garlic, onions, several kinds of lettuce, 4 kinds of peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, acorn squash and eggplant. I will plant all of these next year along with some peas, more tomatoes, some green beans and maybe some lima beans.
I also started a large raised bed of herbs this year.  The raised bed has all perennials and all but a couple will be used for herbal tea.  The tube garden has my cooking herbs and they have done very good this year despite the heat.  Next year I will be able to harvest the rhubarb I planted this year.  At first I wasn't sure it was going to make it but it looks really good. Our apple trees are surviving but a couple of the pine trees that we planted this year might not make it.  :(
Take care and thanks to everyone who reads this and sometime gets a laugh to brighten their day or maybe you've learned something new.

Peaches are Finished

I finished canning the peaches this morning; I got 6 qts of yellow and 2 qts of white.  I saved out 8 peaches to eat in the next couple of days and when we travel.  I had about 2 qts of the light syrup left after hot packing the peaches and decided to boil it down and save it for pancakes; I ended up with about 3/4 of a qt.  Started cleaning the stove top and just need to wait until the huge water bath caner cools down to empty it and clean that half.  I though after 5 days of canning it would be horrible but it has not been bad at all.  I cleaned it everyday but it still needed some deep cleaning.
My daughter sent me a bakers dozen of pint jars and I was out of pints so they are much appreciated.  I am down to 4 1/2 dozen of qt jars and will need to keep my eyes open for some more.  I will need some for tomatoes, apple pie filling, applesauce and this fall I want to can some chili, stew, split pea soup and some bean soup.  I can see now where I for sure will need more jars. 
The weather has been really nice the last couple of days with a nice breeze that makes the laundry that I hang out dry really fast.  I did sheets this morning and they look so nice blowing in the breeze.  I need to go out and add some straw to the chicken coop, pick the tomatoes and peppers.  When I was out earlier I took a close at my eggplant and found 5 small eggplants.  I have 5 nice zucchini that will be ready when I'm gone but the eggplants take longer and maybe they will be ready at the end of the month.  I told my daughter Gina to make sure she harvests the garden when she come over everyday to take care of the chickens.  I don't want anything going to waste.  She will have free eggs and veggies for taking care of the chickens.  I know it is worth more than that but she is kind enough to do it for us.  She took care of them last fall when we were gone for 2 weeks.  I warned her about the rooster who has gotten really bad at attacking everyone.  I guess it is time to send him to someones cooking pot.  Ron said last night he found someone to take him but I didn't get any details and will have to ask tonight.  When I go in the coop to get the eggs I take the hay fork in with me in case he comes in.  Last week one day I didn't take it in and he came in and I kept telling him to stay back and was trying to use the egg basket to protect myself but he pecked me on the hand and left a big bruise.  If someone would have been within hearing range they would have wondered what the heck was going on.  I kept yelling "Ralph get back, stay back Ralph, don't come near me"; of course it didn't work.  NO MORE ROOSTERS, this is our second one we've had to get rid of.

Peach syrup, white peaches and yellow peaches.

Canning Day and My 100th Post

This is my 100th post and it seems like I've been doing this longer than I have.
Today I canned 11 qts of yellow peaches, 2 qts and 5 pts of peach salsa.  I used the white peaches to make the salsa because they are a little sweeter.  I used some Ball Salsa Mix and substituted peaches for the tomatoes.  I tasted it and it is very good and a little hot.  It is not real pretty but it is good so that is all that matters.   I have about 50 yellow and 30 white peaches left to do and they should be ready by tomorrow.  I will have Thursday to deep clean the kitchen, do any wash and pack for Texas.  We will leave Friday morning about 4 and drive straight through; it is about a 16 hr drive.
I am getting another truck load of chipped up trees to add to my new garden bed today.  So far it is looking pretty good; newspaper, shredded trees, straw from the chicken coop and now more shredded trees.  I will need a lot more but this is a good start.  If it ever rains and I need to cut the lawn again I will add grass clippings to it and then this fall I will add shredded leaves.

Peach Salsa and yellow peaches.

Later, take care.

Onion and Potato Harvest

I harvest all my yellow onions and some of the red ones yesterday; I still have a lot of red onions that the tops have not died back yet so I left them in the ground.  Usually I just plant red onions but also put in yellow this year.  The onions did real good and I will plant yellow and red again.  I planted Yukon Gold potatoes this year; I planted about 1 1/2 pounds and harvested about 10 lbs.  I also harvested a few potatoes twice to have with peas so for the amount I planted the harvest was pretty good.  This is the first time I've planted potatoes and I will probably plant them again.

I tie the onions in bunches and hang under the umbrella on the patio table to dry.

This is the bed of red onions that are still growing.

My Yukon Gold potatoes, the bag in for storage and the little ones I will cook with some peas tomorrow.

Blackberry Pie Filling and Peaches

I took the blackberries that I picked out of the freezer and canned blackberry pie filling.  I got 4 qts and it looks and tastes wonderful.  Not a whole lot of peaches ripe today so I moved them back out to the garage to ripen.  I put them in the laundry room after I sorted them yesterday morning.  I cold packed them but the rest I will hot pack them.  Hot packing make for a nicer looking final product.  I canned 1 qt and 1 pt of yellow peaches and 2 qts and 1 pt of white peaches.  I made about 2 gallons of a very light syrup and have the rest of the syrup in the fridge ready for the next time. 
I washed up enough jars this morning to last me a couple of days.  I figured since I didn't have a huge amount to can I would do the prep work for the next few days.  Tomorrow I plan on canning more peaches and going to make about 6 pints of peach salsa (that will be all my pints jars).
I need to go out to the garage and put some more qt jars within easier reach in case I don't have enough washed and should get a count of how many I have.  Don't want to have to dig through stuff if I'm in a time crunch.  We leave for Texas early this Friday morning so the peaches better hurry up and get ripe.  

Blackberry Pie Filling

L-R, blackberry pie filling, yellow peaches, white peaches.

Amish Produce Auction and Shopping Trip

We arrived at the auction only a couple of minutes before it started so we didn't get to look around a whole lot before it started.  Almost everything is sold in large lots and it went real fast.  It was very hot and the Amish gentleman said it would move fast and it did.  They had corn, cantaloupe, peaches, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cauliflower, beets and cucumbers.  I wanted some corn but with the other things I got I knew I wouldn't have time to do it.  The auction only lasted 1 hour and while we were waiting to pay Ron was talking to a Amish young gentleman who was selling drinks and snacks.  He asked where we were from and asked about a couple of businesses and their owners and he knew some of the people Ron knew.  We were telling him that we shopped at the Amish settlement by Cuba and his cousin is the lady who runs the bulk food store we shop at.
After the auction we went to Beachy's which is the Amish bulk food store in that area.  They have expanded since we were last there and I didn't have time to look around like I wanted.  We had all the produce in the vehicle and it was 100 degrees out.  We picked up some things for Gina and a few things for us.  I picked up a 10lb box of bacon slices for $16.95; $1.70 a lb is really cheap.  I packaged it in 1 lb packages and we had some for supper on Sunday night with some eggs and used a jar of the potatoes that did not seal and fried them.  The bacon was hickory flavor, thick slices and more meat that fat on the pieces.  Very good and when we go down again we will pick up a couple of boxes of it.  Next time I also want to have more time to look at everything in the store.  Amish bulk food stores carry a lot of seasoning, spices and staple items.  The area we were in has over 1000 Amish families and a very large population of Mennonites who do most of their cooking from scratch so they carry a lot of things you can't always find in local stores.  Very nice day and want to go back to the auction again sometime in September before it closes for the season.  

Peach Sunday

Slept in today until 7 today and before we started the peaches I had to remove the rings and wash the jars from yesterday's canning.  Then I washed jars for today's stuff and got everything out and ready.
Ron and I started the peaches about 8:30; we started out with peach pie filling and we made 16 qts and then is was on to peach jam.  We used the rest of the peaches that were ripe and got 18 pints of jam.  The peach pie filling is so bright and orange and I used the yellow peaches for it.  I used yellow and white peaches for the jam, needed to use what was ripe and ready.  I tasted both things and both are superb.  For 2 old people we really did a lot of canning the last 2 days.
There should be some yellow peaches ready for tomorrow and hopefully the rest of the yellow will be ready on Tuesday.  The white peaches won't be ready tomorrow but I should be able to start on them by Tuesday.  The rest of the peaches I will can in quarts and will do them in halves and slices in a light syrup.
Tomorrow I will be doing the canning by myself and that is why I saved the easiest for the rest of the week.

Peach pie filling made with yellow peaches.

My husband, he blanched the peaches and I cut them up.

16 qts of peach pie filling and 18 pints of peach jam.
 

Canning Crazy Day

Ron and I got up at 5 am this morning and started our long day of canning.
1st caner 12 ea pts and 1 ea 1/2 pt of new Yukon Gold Potatoes, all potatoes we scraped the skins off and all were very small beautiful delicious potatoes.
2nd caner 18 ea pts of red potatoes, all potatoes were prepare the same as the Yukon Gold.
3rd caner 4 ea pts of red potatoes, all potatoes were prepared the same as the Yukon Gold.
1st boiling water bath, 6 ea pts of pickled beets.
2nd boiling water bath 8 ea 1/2 pts and 3 ea 3/4 pts of sweet pickle relish.
At 5 pm we were finished and took much needed showers and then we went out to eat at Apple Bees.
3 pints of potatoes did not seal so I will redo them first thing in the morning.  The peaches are ripening fast so another long day of canning will take place tomorrow.  I need to get as much as I can get done while Ron is home to help me.  He will be working M-Thur so I will be canning solo the rest of the week.  I don't know what I would have done if he wasn't helping me.  The peaches will go a lot faster than the potatoes and I have 2 large water bath caners so I will have both of them going at the same time.  When we were out for supper I had to stop and get some more regular mouth canning lids.  I have plenty of wide mouth lids and thought I had regular lids but was wrong.  I am almost out of pint jars and if I get some corn I will have to freeze it instead of canning it.  I would much rather can it but I don't want to invest in any more pint jars at this time.  I will have to watch garage sales this fall and next spring and try and pick up some.  Just realized that I need some more lemon juice and my daughter Gina is stopping by tomorrow for some things so I wrote and asked her to pick up a couple bottles for me. 
Later, take care.

All the stuff we canned today, look at those beautiful potatoes.