Long day, full freezer

We have had a long weekend!  After the Harvest Fair yesterday, we processed both of the broilers we showed. We thought we'd break up the job between the two days. Aside from the meat you see in the photo (2 chickens), we harvested THREE more birds and NINE rabbits!!  I also picked a ton of ripe tomatoes and canned 5 pints worth. I lost a pint and a quart in the water bath in the process. One jar busted the bottom clear off and the other blew a seal and a ring!! Of course, I can't have a nice, easy experience canning there always has to be some lesson learned while I do it!  Today's lessons were that some jars are flawed and will break for no reason, never mix pints and quarts- do one or the other, and place my jars into the hot water bath at an angle. 

All in all, we are all exhausted and my poor lover boy still had to go to work. He's amazing and extremely tired every Monday morning! 

Also-- We are searching for a small square freezer and a vacuum sealer for keeping our food. If you know of anyone selling, we are actively looking to buy. Please pass us the info if you have it! Thank you, friends!

Thievin'

I couldn't just let those plums fall off the neighbors tree this year. No way! I sent Andy up onto the roof of the barn to pick what was ripe and then I made him promise to go up again to get the rest in a week or so. :) 

I didn't think we had as much as we ended up with (which was 12 pints and 3 quarts!). They leaked and floated to the top, but after troubleshooting and calling mom-in-law, Robin, they sealed and should be safe to eat and save. The floating is more than likely caused by me not heating the fruit before adding it to the jars, and the leaking is because I overfilled the jars with syrup. Matilde enjoyed licking syrupy fingers and gave me a smile of approval. Andy is now trying to figure out where we will store the jars. 

Blueberry Treats

The girls and I had a great time picking blueberries with Grandma R and our friend, Alix. Our share to bring home was two gallon bags full of large, ripe blueberries. Alix passed along a great cobbler recipe and I found another recipe online for a yummy blueberry lavender butter. Both were super delicious and extremely easy to make! I am pretty sure these recipes are keepers. 💙

However, I may need a canning refresher soon because lately my seals have been leaky and I'm nervous to keep them shelved. The seals "pop," but I still pass the jars along to friends, neighbors, and family to enjoy before they (possibly) spoil. I'd rather share our harvest than suffer from botulism. Wouldn't you?! 

Today/This Week

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Here is our pie!  It was made by the girls. We used the canned apple pie filling from a few months ago. I hear that it wasn't as tasty as Grandma Dora's, but it was still an apple pie!  You can never go wrong with an apple pie! 

It had a tad bit of a jelly texture. I'm not sure if it was after cooling or if it was because of the way I processed the filling. Any suggestions? 

Andy's "turkey" is stuffed and ready for the oven!

Here's the "turkey" dressed and ready to eat! Believe it or not everyone who wanted a piece was able to get one! It looked and tasted just as yummy as the real one! 

Andy has decided to make some "poor man" geese decoys out of cardboard. They're not ready just yet, but they are looking good so far! 

Apple pie in a can.

Thought I would listen to Granmo when she suggested I can apple pie filling. I thought it sounded way too good to be true- pour, heat, and serve! Too tasty and delicious to be healthy that's for sure! Can't wait to try it out. Thank you Granmo! 

This week

I know I've slacked off on the photo journal this week. It's been busy and I'm exhausted. I know this is cheating, but I'm doing it anyway! 

Here are a few pictures of our fun jelly making session today. We used a couple of grocery sacks full of Grandpa and Grandma Grape's (Smith's) grapes. It is such a tasty and perfectly sweet jelly. It was so delicious Evan was caught stealing spoonfuls! 

Canning fun

I decided to try again with some canning. The tomato sauce didn't seal properly but it didn't leak all over the water bath either.  It wasn't until I took it out to let it sit that it started to ooze out. Andy noticed the ring was slightly bent and after removing it we noticed the seal had the same bend. So that was a bust. 

The second attempt was to use the Oscar carcass to brew up some ever useful pints of chicken stock. It yielded five pints.  I can't wait to use it in a recipe!  

I also dried tomatoes to use in ketchup and I dried the skins (of the five pounds of tomatoes used for the tomato sauce) to make a powder. I can add the powder to water to make fresh paste anytime I need some!  

Canning dreams...

4 out of 5 isn't bad.  I received a ton of helpful advice from family and friends about last night's mishap. However, I do feel that the jar may have been flawed, well, along with my overfilling. My mother-in-law suggested I freeze the extra bit of tomatoes, so I'm not tempted to overfill. I'll remember that for next time. Our diced tomatoes look yummy and ready to eat whenever I need that little extra. There are also a ton of tomatoes still on the vine ready to be canned into salsas and sauces soon enough. 

Tomato failure. 👎

Today, I decided I would can diced tomatoes. I'm not a canning expert not am I an experienced canner, but I've read a ton of publications on the matter. I went into this task WAAAAAY too confident!  I clearly need help because this is a photo of what I found inside my water bath! 

So....HELP!!

I think I over-filled this jar. It was the last one and I really wanted to preserve every. last. tomato. Could that be why this jar exploded? Any and all advice or in-home canning demonstrations are welcome!  👍