Preserving The Fruits Of Our Labor

figured the garden thread could use a thread about .... preserving. (it's getting to be that time around here.)

anybody else pickle/jam/dry/jar/etc.? let's share what we've done with the summer harvest!

this week, my garden buddy and i have made:
-waaaaaay too many "dilly beans" (the spicy kind you find in bloody mary's sometimes)
-spiced blueberry relish (omg, SO good.)
-antipasto peppers (roasted, peeled and packed in oil and vinegar)
-sweet and hot red pepper jelly
-strawberry preserves (whole strawb's in syrup -- not to be confused with jam, which we froze a bunch for, to make later)
-strawberry rhubarb pie filling
-raspberry pie filling
-raspberry jam
-raspberry syrup
-blackberry jam
-blackberry syrup

....... not to mention, we just made a daytrip to the okanagan valley (arguably the fruit capital of BC, if not all of canada) and brought home about 500lbs of fruit between the 2 of us.

...... so this kitty has her work cut out for her and may be rather MIA this week. i'll take some pics and post updates later..... in the meantime, let me know if you want recipes; i have lots of great ones.

a great online resource, both for finding local farms in your area AND a treasure-trove of preserving information:

http://pickyourown.org

i would love some info on preserving, mainly fermenting though, i dont want anything pickled as their is no nutrition in veggies that are pickled. the only thing i have made this year is salsa.
i am going to dry my basil for small jar spices, i want to ferment my cucumbers,jalepenos, and some radish. i am also gonna sun dry some toms this year for the 1st time

Hey Kitty, McPurp. Cool new thread. Sadly, I have really nothing to harvest yet. Just a few cucumbers and sungold toms. When all my tomatoes are ripe I will have a beautiful multi colored tomato salad, salsas, sauces.

Sounds like you have been busy Kitty. mmmm spiced blueberry relish? sounds so yummy. Everything you listed does!

yep, been busy busy. although none of what i've preserved so far has come out of my own garden, sadly. it's still only giving me leafy greens, and i want to give my roots as long as i can before i pull them up. been u-picking like crazy though. that and the okanagan is really quite crazy this time of year. pretty much all of what we bought was $0.50/lb except the berries, which were still around $1/lb. which, considering they want to charge me $3.99 for a 200g clamshell at the produce store, is still a great fucking deal.

going back up in a month for the fall harvest. and then i'll be eyebrow deep in apple and pear butters of various sorts (want to try my hand at "gingered apple pear butter" this year).

mcpurps: have you looked into fermenting veggies with miso? it's a natural preservative, does nice things to both cukes and radishes, and added bonus: it's high in aminos itself.

we're sort of picking and choosing what we want to preserve nutritional value in. like, we're doing a batch (or more) of each of the fruits raw-pack canned in juice, BUT we also made a buttload of dilly beans (probably zero nutritional value by the time they're pickled lol) just because we like them. not to mention christmas is coming. it's sort of a toss up between having less fresh fruits and veggies overwinter in general because stuff like that costs so much more in the winter, or, having an abundance of slightly less nutritional fruit readily available, so we're going with option b.

seriously, between my and my friend's mutual survivalist streak, we are absolutely powerless to resist the urge to preserve things, lol. we're just personifying the "gathering" part of the hunter-gatherer society.

did some raw-pack berries last night, raspberries and blueberries. and started some more blueberry relish, which will be the next post.

washed and picked over:


flash-boil the juice (used sunrype's "wildberry" and "blueberry harvest" 100% juice blends respectively):


sterilise the jars (10mins on rolling boil should do, although if you have a dishwasher you can just use that):

btw, that is a pot of water with a red silicone sheet on the bottom in case you were wondering. (i know it kinda looks like the juice pot in this pic)

pack the raw fruit into the sterilised jars while hot:


fill with boiled juice, top with preheated lids, process in boiling underwater bath for 15min:


starting on the blueberries:


tada! ready for labels!


there's a pretty long list of fruits you can safely use the raw-pack method on, it says they should be good for at least a year in a cool, dry spot... (*ehem* none of my jarred fruit from last year made it that long.... we were fighting over the last jar of peaches by january....)

which left me with this much more blueberry for the relish........

-2 quarts fresh or frozen (unsweetened) blueberries
-whole spices of choice. in my case, i used
-1 cinnamon stick, 2 star anise, 3 cardamom, 4 cloves and 5 peppercorns
(so i can keep track for next time, 12345.)
-cheesecloth and string OR looseleaf tea bag
-1 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
-1 cup white sugar
-1 cup brown sugar

note: you can double/triple/etc. the recipe for the initial stage, but you want to split it up into individual batches for the "final cook".

1. make up a 'spice satchel' with the spices and cheesecloth (you can get looseleaf tea bags at asian markets for $2/100pk around here, they make it really easy)
2. put it in a pot big enough to comfortably hold all your ingredients, pour over red wine vinegar. bring it to a boil, then cook for 5 more min.


3. add berries, continue to heat until heated through (the berries will get dark and plump up). at this point, instead of stirring, you want to shake the pot gently to avoid breaking the berries.
4. remove from heat and let cool completely, at least 6 hrs or overnight.
5. strain the berries from the juice, remove the spice sac (which you can put in some hot milk for "blueberry chai" if you want... mmmmmm the perks )
6. at this point you want to have your jars sterilised and hot, or at least in the pot boiling.
[if you did more than one batch you want to divide the liquid evenly into as many batches as you started at this point.]
7. return the juice to the pot, add the sugars, cook briskly until it passes the "jelly test"... some people like to cook it until it truly "jels", some like to leave it a bit syrupy (we're syrupy people around here, lol). (takes about 4-6 min of a constant hard boil for "syrupy")
[note: i don't have the energy to get into "jelly testing" right at the moment, but if you want more details, please feel free to ask, it's all different degrees of how your stuff coats and/or drips off a dry metal spoon]
8. gently transfer the berries to the hot jars, spoon over sauce to about 1/4" from the top, top with preheated lids, process in hotwater bath for 10-15 min depending on the size of jar.

i started some last night, they're doing their #4 thingy right now.

I love that stuff,,need to find a woman like you....

i just wanted to note that there are ooodles of details i've left out about the basics you want to know before you get started (choosing jars, what jars you can and can't reuse, what lids you can and can't reuse, various sealing methods and their pro's and con's, etc. etc.).
all of which can be found in the info section of http://pickyourown.org

for convenience' sake we're using mason jars with new 2piece snap lids. although i'd eventually like to learn how to do wax seals too.

also: if you're thinking of getting into jarring, spend the $40 and get the bernardin canning starter kit. it comes with everything from canning pot to jar lifter to jar funnel to instructional dvd, and then some. or if not, at least get a jar lifter. i did last year's canning without one and i'm kicking myself for it now.

DSB65 said:

I love that stuff,,need to find a woman like you....

Click to expand...

.... or you could learn to make it all, and then you'll be fighting them off with sticks....

I TRYED DOING THIS WITH MY X...BUT IT JUST DIDNT WORK OUT....AND THAT spiced blueberry relish SOUNDS SO GOOD...

funny story that, my own man has been hovering (without getting TOO close, he's well-trained lol) in anticipation of the spoils and/or "that last wee bit that never quite fits in the jars"; he appreciates the whole process and the fact that it saves us money in the longrun AND the fact that our most difficult xmas shopping is pretty well taken care of already... some jams, dilly beans, and pie-in-a-jar and *presto* you got your gourmet gift basket. (that and i suspect he thinks i look cute in an apron )

i am SOOOOOO grateful because:
my partner-in-crime's man, on the other hand, is in a big SNIT this week because a) he's of the "why not just buy it?" mindset and b) he hasn't been getting as much attention with the womenfolk in the kitchen for 6hrs at a stretch. and of course SHE's pissed because he doesn't appreciate all the hard work we're putting in, so they're in each other's doghouse right now. *shudders*

DSB65 said:

I TRYED DOING THIS WITH MY X...BUT IT JUST DIDNT WORK OUT....AND THAT spiced blueberry relish SOUNDS SO GOOD...

Click to expand...

it's hard to find someone with whom you can both WORK AROUND EACH OTHER in a home kitchen... especially with things like boiling sugars and hot jars flying around everywhere. my buddy and i were just patting each other on the back for that this weekend because whether it's a multi-turkey dinner for 5 families, OR a year's worth of jarring, we rarely get in each other's way.

for the record, i don't think i'd want to do canning with my man.... or if we do, he'll have to build me my dream kitchen first

Aw man. I wish I lived next door to you. I do make some killer meat balls. And you make, well, everything.

i love meatballs. hamburger. sausage. ground meat will be my downfall, i know it.

i wish i had a professional horticulturalist next door, mr blue eyes. all the time in fact.

I do peach and fig preserves. I also do pickles and tomato sauce usually but the rain has been either weeks straight of drought or weeks straight of rain and I didn't get enough to do either, I did have a ton of funky looking cukes, I need to take some pics. The peaches were attacked by worms that were apparently immune to sevin spray. I did how ever get a nice crop of figs. My grandfather has a ton of blueberries, I'm gonna make some of that relish and I'll let you know how it turns out.

I got a bunch of wild blackberries I froze, here's the recipe I use with vanilla ice cream, bangin' cobbler:

2 pounds frozen blackberries, thawed
1 cup sugar plus more for dusting
3 tablespoons instant tapioca
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 packet Bisquick Complete
3/4 cup cream soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 8 (4-inch) ramekins with butter flavored cooking spray and set aside

In a bowl combine thawed blackberries, tapioca, lemon juice, 1/4 cup of cream soda and sugar. Transfer to ramekins.

In a large bowl combined biscuit mix and remaining cream soda. Mix until well blended. Sprinkle biscuit mix over berries. Dust with sugar. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Serve warm.


I got the recipe from my mom out of an old cookbook or something not really sure but it's friggin fantastic with vanilla ice cream.

..... cream.... ..... soda.... ... ?

that's fucking brilliant. and i love cobbler. and blackberries are free here, you can pick them pretty much anywhere. i'll have to try that sometime.

those old people had it goin ON. (i get a lot of my recipes out of a flea market bargain bin cookbook, i love it.)
pity about your peaches, they're one of my favourites, fresh or canned. i bought 60lbs of peaches. i'm raw-packing them ALL. i got nectarines and apricots for "golden" jams; i'm not a big fan of apricots unless they're dried or in jam, whereas i'll eat canned peaches til i get sick, like a little kid.
today, i realised that i actually have all the ingredients to make something called "escoffier's condiment of sweet red peppers"... seems to be a red pepper relish-type dealy, but there are chutney-ish elements to it as well. we shall see how it goes, if i go there.

how do you preserve figs? my neighbours have a couple trees....

mellokitty said:

funny story that, my own man has been hovering (without getting TOO close, he's well-trained lol) in anticipation of the spoils and/or "that last wee bit that never quite fits in the jars"; he appreciates the whole process and the fact that it saves us money in the longrun AND the fact that our most difficult xmas shopping is pretty well taken care of already... some jams, dilly beans, and pie-in-a-jar and *presto* you got your gourmet gift basket. (that and i suspect he thinks i look cute in an apron )



i am SOOOOOO grateful because:
my partner-in-crime's man, on the other hand, is in a big SNIT this week because a) he's of the "why not just buy it?" mindset and b) he hasn't been getting as much attention with the womenfolk in the kitchen for 6hrs at a stretch. and of course SHE's pissed because he doesn't appreciate all the hard work we're putting in, so they're in each other's doghouse right now. *shudders*

Click to expand...

My man and I do well in the kitchen together. He gets in his little snits too. Tells me he's gonna give me a bit of space. So hell yeah! I take it! I can out silence anyone. He usually caves by the end of one day. hehehe

Next yr I want to start doing the preserving thing, I started getting sick of cukes and zucchini about a month ago. Most of my garden is dedicated to sauce and eggplant parm-Roma tom's,eggplant, bell peppers,hot peppers,herbs. I did butternut squash which doesn't need any special prep . I bought a Turkey fig tree and some grape vines this spring and my mom bought some giant blueberry bushes, so hopefully next yr we get fruit. I'm planning on a couple fruit trees in the spring,most likely a multi-variety apple and maybe a cherry or plum.

I do dry many of my hot peppers,still have a couple doz. having over the stove. Next year I want to learn hot to make hot relish with them.

Lack of space(small kitchen) and lack of time have kept me from delving deeper into preservation of my veggies.

I went out and bought the large pressure canner/cooker last year. I had sooooo many tomatoes. I made marinara, pizza sauce, tom paste, salsa. This year, nothing to preserve. I am definitely going to make that spiced blueberry relish. I'm thinking filet of beef mmmmmm.