Grape Jelly

Putting up Food - Grape Jelly

The first thing I ever canned was grape jelly.  It was three years ago when I was teaching Family and Consumer Science at a nearby high school.  My co-worker, the shop teacher across the hall, brought me a five gallon bucket of grapes.  Apparently, he was making wine.  I was not that adventurous.  

So I went home that night and looked the "how to" up online, and that began my canning career.  I really had no idea what I was doing or if it would work.  For a long time I wondered if I would make someone sick with my canned goods or even worse yet.  But no, no one took ill.  Instead, I ended up with 12 beautiful jars of translucent purple jelly that some even proclaimed better than store bought.  Yay me.

This year, it was my aunt who supplied me with grapes.  Funny thing is that I didn't even know she grew them.  She hasn't been using them for a few years now and they would normally go to waste.  My cousin suggested she give them to me and in return I'd give her some jars of jelly.  Sounded like a good deal to me.  So when we met for lunch yesterday, I received an enormous crate of grapes. I was back in the jelly business :)

The Business of Making Grape Jelly...

The first thing that needs to be done is to wash and de-stem the fruit.  I set up shop on the deck.  If you decide to do the same, beware of bees.  One arrived, but he wasn't too pesky.  Supplies were easy enough - three containers (one for wash water, one for stems and over ripe fruit, and one for clean grapes) and the hose.

Working from left to right, I set up the grapes, wash bucket, and then two empty buckets.  I took about an hour and a half to repeatedly grab a handful, swish it into the water, de-stem it and place it into the clean bucket.  I ended up with two and a half buckets full.  Each bucket weighed in at just over three pounds.

Because the day was getting away from me, my buckets of grapes went into the fridge.  Today, I've pulled out my Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and gotten busy.  Referring to page 106, I cleaned the grapes once again, placed them in a stainless steel pot and brought them to a boil.  I boiled them for ten minutes to loosen the skins and juices.  I also mashed them occasionally too.

Next, I lined my strainer with four layers of cheese cloth and placed the strainer over another pot..  Then I scoop the grapes and juice into the lined strainer.  The instructions call for letting the grapes sit for a full two hours to release all the juice - undisturbed.

Your not supposed to press the grapes so that bits of solids aren't released into the pot.  By not disturbing it, you end up with a clear, translucent juice. 

So into my stainless steel pot went five cups of juice and one box of pectin.  That got whisked together until the pectin dissolved. I brought the juice to a boil and added all of the sugar at once.

I stirred near constantly until the juice mixture came to a hard rolling boil ( a boil that cannot be stirred down).  I let that boil for one minute and then shut off the stove.  Ready to can.

The hard boil does create a foam that needs to be scooped off.  The hot jelly juice gets poured into hot jars leaving a quarter inch of head-space. Rims are wiped with a clean damp rag.  The lid gets centered on and the band gets screwed on fingertip tight.  Jars are processed in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  When ten minutes are up, the stove gets turned off and the jars rest in the water for an additional five minutes with the canner lid off.  Once the jars are removed, they are allowed to sit for 24 hours undisturbed.

SUCCESS !

* If you are in fact thinking of doing your own canning, please refer to a reliable source book such as The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving for all the exact measurements and details.  Also, always check with your local extension office for changes in time, temperatures, and higher altitude conversions.

This post has been shared with Food Renegade, Make Your Own Monday, and Too Many Jars in My Kitchen.

Green Beans

"Putting Up Food" - Green Beans

This past weekend, I picked up ten pounds of green beans from the CSA.  I am trying to build a good stock pile of local veggies to be eaten this winter.  How nice it will be to have food on hand and know where it came from and how it was grown.  I especially like that putting up food will potentially save me from running to the store later.

To put up greens beans via freezing is pretty simple - just a little time consuming.  Just grab a comfortable spot where you can cut the beans the way you want them.  I use my spring loaded kitchen shears to snip off the ends and then cut them into about one and a half inch pieces.  Once all the beans are cut.  I start a pot of water to boil on the stove.

Then I clean the beans by rinsing them well in the sink to remove any debris.  I  also pick through them to toss any that look spotty or rusty.  

The beans get a two minute dunk into the boiling water and then are dunked into cold water to stop the cooking process.  They come out a nice bright green with an good crunch to them.  

I then bagged them into quart size freezer bags containing approximately  one and a half cups each.  I didn't measure - just eyeballed what looked like a necessary amount for a family side dish.  I ended up with fifteen bags of green beans to go into the freezer for future use.

Typically, I would cook these in a small crock-pot with a few strips of bacon for a few hours on low.  The bacon really gives them a nice flavor.  I also like to saute green beans in a skillet  with butter and then sprinkle them with Parmesan cheese.

How about you?  Are you putting up any goodies?  Share your recipes or ideas with us below.

Jam and Jelly - Not Just for Toast

Unless you are a huge fan of toast and jelly, canning your own jams and jellies may not make sense for you.  Or does it?  I used to be very narrow minded when it came to jelly or jam.  It goes on toast.  End of story.  But wait up, it doesn't have to be so cut and dry.  Jams and jellies can also be ingredients in delicious dishes. 

I don't know why I never thought of it before.  It wasn't until a recent cleaning out of the cabinets that I even considered it.  I am currently taking a short break from canning and decided it was time to move this year's jars off the dining room table and into the cabinets. 

This meant evaluating what was left over from last year - a couple of jars of sloppy joe sauce and four jars of strawberry jam. 

The strawberry jam stressed me out a little.  Honestly, I thought what a waste.  We are not big toast and jam eaters so in my mind I already saw myself dumping out the jam straight into the garbage.  Then I started thinking, "What else can I do with this stuff?".  Would you believe that Allrecipes returned 100+ hits to the ingredient search for strawberry jam?  Seriously.  You do have to go to the second page though before you start seeing it as an ingredient.

I decided to make Strawberries and Cream Pie.  It sounded easy peasy and I had most all the ingredients on hand.  Happy to say that it turned out yummy.  

Best of all, I have one less jar of jam to worry about ;)

Not to say that too much food on hand is a bad thing, I just prefer to use up canned goods within the year for best quality assurance.

So now I am wondering what else I can can for this year that would be purposed for ingredients in delicious dishes.  I like having things on hand and canning it up now would certainly make for some tasty future dishes.

Do you have any favorites that you can?

Pickle - Palooza

Pickle - Palooza

Today marks the fifth day that I have been in some way shape or form pickling.  Yet, believe it or not, I still have cucumbers left over.  However, the house reeks, I'm tired, and I'm beginning to wonder how many pickles one family can really eat. So I'm pretty sure tonight's batch of relish is the end of Pickle-Palooza 2012.

My first batch of cucumbers to process came in last Wednesday's CSA bag - 16 whole pounds of two to three inch cucumbers.  (Sadly, though I tried, I couldn't get that kind of yield from my garden.) I was so happy to have enough to do a double batch of Sweet Gherkins.  They are absolutely delicious.   I got turned on to them through reading Chickens In the Road.  They turn out so crunchy and sweet with just the right amount of tang. 

Emma, however, does not like them and prefers dill pickles.  So I went to the Farmer's Market on Saturday and picked up another ten pounds of pickles.  I took the easy road on the dills though.  When shopping for jars, I saw a package mix of Mrs. Wages and decided to give it a try.  Glad I did.  Emma taste tested today and gave it her seal of approval which means a lot because this kid is getting quite picky any more.

Now apparently twenty - six pounds is  a lot of cucumbers because even after 14 pints of gherkins and 7 quarts of dills, I still had cucumbers left over.  Which was fine because I've been wanting to try making  relish.  Last year we just diced up the gherkins any time we wanted some which worked well.  This gave me an idea.  I chopped up a few more pounds of cucumbers, a couple of large onions, 3 small green peppers (which did come from my garden, yay. ), and marinated it all with the left over brine from the gherkins. So tonight I processed four pints of relish.  ~Sigh~  I think I'm done with pickling for this year.

But not with canning...  My Clear jel came in today, and I got a real good price on a 1/4 bushel of peaches.  So tomorrow it's "hello peach pie filling".     :)

What are you canning today?

When a Plan Comes Together

Who doesn't like it when a plan comes together?  It occurred to me that if I didn't want to, I didn't have to go to the grocery store this week (at least not for dinners).  Skipping a trip to the grocery store has been wishful thinking of mine for some time now.  Thanks to a little planning, skippin' is beginning to look like a real possibility.

Sweet Gherkin pickles and Sloppy Joe Sauce

The plan I've been working is this:

1. Purchase a large supply of meat to stock the freezer.
2. Join a CSA for fresh local produce.
3. Build a respectable pantry stockpile.
4. Preserve food for future use.

Happily, I purchased a 1/4 beef from Sevens Sons this past week.  I am hoping that the 90lbs of beef will last a good six months for our family of five.  We average eating beef about three times a week.  This is the third time I've purchased from them.  I've found the meat to be very lean, tender and tasty.  Plus, I like that it's local.

Back in February, I rejoined our local CSA.  This will be our second year participating.  We are into week two of the season and off to a good start.  This past week, we enjoyed strawberries, romaine lettuce, asparagus, knob onions and radishes.  It's nice having this paid for in advance.  Now, it's just a matter of picking it up every week which is no trouble at all.

When I say "respectable stockpile", I just want you to know that you won't be seeing me on TV for extreme couponing or prepping.  I don't have a basement or garage lined with shelves bursting with consumables.  Although I do use coupons and take advantage of a good sale.  I did get twenty free bottles of salad dressing by using coupons once.  Yep, we used it all :)      Seriously though, most of my pantry is stocked via my Sam's Club membership.  I tend to buy only the basics - flour, sugar, yeast, rice, pasta, etc..

As for preserving food, I am always thinking about how to make what we have stretch and last.  I have begun canning, tried dehydrating, and acquired a second freezer with then intentions of making food last and making it more cost effective.  I also go by the saying "waste not, want not".  If a meal provides extras for us, those extras go to use.  For example, a weekend breakfast of homemade sausage and cheese English muffin sandwiches makes seven.  We eat five and the other two go in the freezer to be used later as sandwiches for my husband's lunch.

So what are we eating this week?

• Grilled steak  with asparagus 
• Sloppy Joes with sauce that I canned last fall 
• Homemade pizza with premade crusts and sauce from the freezer
• BBQ chicken sandwiches on homemade pretzel bread rolls
• Patty Melts with mac and cheese
• Tacos and salad

Beef and produce from local farms ~ dry goods from the pantry ~ everything else from the freezer 

The plan is coming together.