Harvest

[gardengalrn]

If I could treat this like the gardenweb harvest forum, I would be glad Can we talk about other than tomato harvests? I posted this earlier at that site: I have put up 24 pints of stewed tomatoes with all-from-the-garden ingredients. I put up 8 pints of Annie's salsa, minus one that boiled over and my youngest will eat up tonight. 7 quarts of green beans (must admit that Jap beetles got mine and these were given to me by a friend who got them from an Amish market), 2 quart bags of sauce (frozen, due to maters coming ripe and having no time to process), 3 quart bags of individual servings of frozen onions (I have a LOT more to do, I had to cure my onions in this awful heat and by the time I realized it was just too hot out, they had been partially COOKED already), 5 pint sized freezer bags of shredded zucchini for bread. 24 half pints of cuke relish. If I hear back from the harvest forum gurus, I plan on carmelizing a bunch more of my onions for soup. I didn't blanch, I figured the sun did that for me. It is incredibly hot here in my neck of Kentucky, not safe to mow during the day. The heat index has been 100+. I couldn't believe that my onions were almost too hot to handle when I went to grab some for the salsa today. I peeled away the outer layers and they still were warm to the touch. Anyways, I did manage to save about 30 varieties of tomato seed (my DH said the house will SMELL in a few days) and since I've become a pepper fanatic, some of those as well. Stink bugs seem to be my biggest problem about now. I hate those darn things!! They make a perfectly great tomato worthless. Lori

[melody]

Due to a late plant out because of rains, my tomatoes are going to be later than normal...I'll do salsa and sauce for sure. Got several other veggies and melons that I'll be preserving some way also...Thinking about freezing melon.

I just got a weather warning that said that heat indexes will be over 110* the next two days....where are you in KY? We may be neighbors.

Haven't seen stink bugs in any numbers yet...and I agree with you...they're the pitts.

[gardengalrn]

I am wondering what everyone plans to put up or preserve this year? I have some pretty big plans so who knows what will actually take place
~Of course, tomatoes: Sauce, stewed and diced. Some Annie's Salsa with the variation for BWB instead of pressure canning it (I always end up with a product that seems too over processed when the pre-canned stuff is delicious).
~Lots of canned green beans
~Hope to freeze peas and corn
~Will cook and freeze collards, have had good luck with this.
~Will chop/freeze onions (as well as hopefully storing some) and green peppers. Too handy to throw into sauce or casseroles.
~Will grate and freeze summer squash as it becomes too much to handle. Great for soups and breads.
~Would like to try slicing and freezing breaded squash in a small amount. Some have had good luck, some not.
~Pickles, kraut
~Pickled beets, peppers
~Strawberry jam and hot pepper jelly
There is a bunch of other things I would like to do but as you know, there is only so much time. I will feel accomplished if I can get half of this done. I read a lot on the Harvest Forum and don't know how some of them do it!

[dcarch]

I have always wanted to do a lot more drying of veggies. They keep longer and save energy.

dcarch

[ddsack]

I always have big plans, but when the time comes due, I so resent the time spent in the house peeling and chopping and washing jars and standing over a hot stove when I could be enjoying the last weeks outdoors in our all-too-short summer and fall. So I end up freezing most of what I store. I have a dryer, but only use it every other (or third) year -- which is about how long my dried stuff lasts.

As far as Annie's canned salsa recipe, mine always tasted over-processed as well. And I don't like the idea of purchasing canned sauce to add to it. Sort of defeats the purpose of doing your own from scratch. Last year I roasted a big pan of whole tomatoes, hot peppers, coarsely chopped onions, garlic, cilantro etc -- everything you need for salsa, drizzled with olive oil. After roasting, I carefully drained off the clear spicey liquid and froze it for soup fixings. The solids got all mushed together (using disposable latex/vinyl gloves), picking out the tomato and peppers skins. This made the best cooked salsa I have made, nice and chunky, and froze well.

[shelleybean]

I got a new commercial freezer for Christmas so I plan to make good use of that. I want to freeze peas, collards, kale, snap and lima beans, okra, tomato sause, spinach and get some strawberries and peaches for freezer jam. I also plan to dry a bunch of cherry tomatoes, herbs and hot peppers for flakes. I love pickles and want to pickle lots of cukes again this summer, along with some beets, okra and peppers. Yum...can't wait!

[coronabarb]

Lori, it sounds like you have quite a big garden. I like to can also, but it is usually so darn hot here at that time of year (over 100) that the A/C can hardly keep up, as it is. I need an outdoor kitchen like they used to have in the old days for canning. I have 2 freezers in the garage and a dehydrator, so I use those as much as possible.

Michele, I love strawberry freezer jam! It tastes like smushed up fresh berries. I haven't tried making any other kind of freezer jam, have you?

[gardengalrn]

The heat here was a big issue last summer when I did up what few tomatoes I got my hands on. I'm thinking about setting up a canning station in the garage with perhaps a turkey cooker type thing for anything that I can BWB.
I planted out all my peppers today and hope to try some fermented tabasco sauce and dried paprika. I planted a total of 36 pepper plants (hot and sweet) so I hope to get plenty although locals around here claim they never have luck with peppers. I want to be able to chop some for the freezer because that is too handy for sauces or soups.
I doubt I'll get enough strawberries for anything since DH directed his friend to plow through them when plowing the rest of my garden.

[coronabarb]

"...DH directed his friend to plow through them when plowing the rest of my garden."

He did what???? Boy, I'd be bummed about that.

[gardengalrn]

I was pretty bummed but he thought he was helping me out since the garden was new-plowed in the fall and although I have quite a few of the "cold" veggies in, a big part of my garden was reclaimed to the pasture. He didn't know that I had planted a long row of strawberries at the front. LOL, he is always doing stuff like that. One year I had planted 9 blueberry bushes which honestly looked like sticks. He was tilling....you know the rest. This year I planted 6 bareroot raspberry plants and took a board and made a sign: "Attention David!!! Although we look like sticks, we are not. We are raspberry plants that want to live. Please do not kill us!" He is always a helpful DH.

[newatthiskat]

I have suffered the same fate due to people wanting to "help" Son ran over strawberries that were in a mound type system with the riding lawnmower. My husband finished them off the next time thinking they were already dead. 2 bareroot raspberry bushes? pulled up. weedeated onions and melon vines. then there is the squash eating kitty that thinks the plants do not belong in my garden. He also rolled all in my newly planted seeds and now I have what I believe is a watermelon plant in the middle of a row. Caught my other Cat trying to dig up newly planted tomatoes. I will be happy if I have anything to harvest.

[piegirl]

bought a new larger freezer last summer - just in time for strawberry harvest - we go to a farm and pick. Kept the smaller freezer and am glad I did! So far I have cooked up a spinach mixture - carrots, mushroom, garlic and frozen 7 pints - that's a lot of fresh spinach! A really great crop this year. Will be freezing some spring fresh rhubarb in the next day or so. Peas hopefully in about a month - 3 varieties. And hopefully the strawberry farm will have a bumper crop this year - they had the big freeze last year and a lighter freeze the year before. I am thinking of buying a box of oranges tomorrw - 49 cents a lb for navels. I know they aren't juicers but the price is good ??

Piegirl