Canning, Pickling, and Dehydrating!

@HomesteaderWife - for applesauce, I use a victorrio strainer. I quarter the apples, (don't worry about coring or peeling), boil them in a large pot until fork tender, then run them through the strainer. The strainer separates the cores and peels from the pulp. We collect the pulp, boil it in a heavy stock pot for a couple of minutes, then pour it into hot quart jars. Wipe off the jar rims, fit with two piece lids, and process for 35 minutes in a hot water bath.
I collect the pulp in a 9x13 cake pan since that is what fits under the strainer. I sometimes will add 1 cup of sugar to every stock pot full of sauce before I boil it. Sugar is an option though. If your apples are sweet, you don't really need it. You can add powdered spices or even red hot candies to the sauce.
When we have an 'applesauce day', we all get busy. Each helper (I have 8 children-although not all are capable or old enough to help) has a specific job. I can generally do about 100 quarts in a full day of applesaucing, if I have a crew. If I am on my own, things go much slower!
 
We make zucchini bread mainly and have had contests about who has the biggest, I don't have any competition this year but intentionally saved two and found another big one. The first freeze is expected tonight and I think it will get our plants
 
Hi,

I must say this thread brought back a lot of memories. I spent my teenage years in Illinois and made frequent trips to Michigan. I still miss all the fruit so readily available.
 
Does anyone have a recipe for small sweet pickles that are fermented in a crock? Or are all sweet pickles vinegar based ???
 
Let me check my books. I might be able to find something.

Also, you might check allrecipes.com . I might not have spelled it right but they have a lot of recipes there.
 
Another possibility is cooks.com if you search for crock sweet pickles you might find something. Another site I go to is recipesource.com .

Looking through my cookbooks will take some time as I have several.
 
Thanks for the tip...I was searching for fermented sweet pickles and coming up blank, but as soon as I tried "crock" I found quite a few. Now to figure out which one to try. I know I want sweet, and I want whole...like the little midgets or gherkins. I just ordered a fermenting crock so excited to try something a little different as I have wanted to brine pickles for the last 25 years...seriously....and just never did it. I found a produce place here that will pick cucumbers a certain size for me as that was always one of the problems...growing enough cucumbers to get enough to pickle that are all the same size.

I have made all kinds of pickles with just the cold pack but never in the crock. I also have a neighbor with olive trees that told me I could have all I want and my DH has his eye on sauerkraut which is not one of my favorite foods but he likes it so I might try it. This should be fun.
 
If you don't make him some sauerkraut :sick he may go out and start counting goats... justsayin. Hmmm I wonder if counting goats would have the same effect as counting sheep... ;)
 
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