Today will probably be my last day of canning, but there's still some hope for the plums. I'll say more about that in a minute. Yesterday I put away 13 pints of applesauce (from 15 pounds of apples).
This applesauce is 100% Gravenstein. A batch has just a little bit of sugar in it. To my taste, it was a little bit tart, and so I added just a little more sugar. There's nothing like homemade applesauce.
Sometimes I think part of the draw of canning (for me at least) is to gaze at the world through my grandmother's eyes just for a few minutes. I never actually had an opportunity to watch her doing her canning. We were a military family, and always on the move. Nevertheless, I remember very well a mystery room in her house. The windows were painted black, and a black curtain covered the door. There was almost no light in the room save for the pinholes in the black window paint. Looking at the windows was like looking into the night sky. Inside the room were shelves of her canned goods...hundreds upon hundreds of quart jars. I only do small-batch canning, and so it's a hobby for me, not a lifestyle as it was for my grandmother. It's still very gratifying to see those finished jars lined up. They look like gemstones.
Also on yesterday's agenda, Small Batch Tomato Jalapeno Jam. There are four half-pints, although one of the jars is hiding behind its brethren.
Last year was my first try on this particular recipe. I took all the seeds and ribs out of one of the jalapenos, and it had almost no kick at all. This year I left them all in, and I like it better. Just a little kick without being too spicy. You only need two pounds of tomatoes to make this, and so it is indeed a small batch. It's delicious on eggs and sandwiches (think BLT's). If you're not into canning, it can be frozen as well. It takes quite a while to cook the tomatoes down to jam consistency, and the whole thing is best done in a skillet. A wide cooking vessel helps speed up the process a little.
While I was slaving away over a hot stove (how's that for victimology?), Mike and the kitties were frolicking outside. There's enough activity in the neighborhood (and around our house) on the weekends for us to feel comfortable letting them out for a short while. Also, the coyote activity seems to have abated. I expect they'll be back next year, however. For now, it makes all of us happier when they can be out and acting like cats.
They won't be going out again now until after our trip. We'll be leaving in about a week, and it would be horrible if someone went missing just before we left. We are taking no chances.
When I finished my canning yesterday, there was time to finish off the binding on my little mystery project. Just a peek for you.
Oh, all right. I'll let you see the back too. It's all hand embroidery, and so I kept the quilting to simple straight lines.
With that finished, I wandered around the yard for a while. I harvested some tomatoes from our own plants. They haven't been very productive this year.
There are still lots of green ones, however, and so I suppose they'll ripen while we're gone. Matthew will be here, and so he can enjoy them.
Also, I'm excited to say I think the plums might ripen in great enough quantities that we'll be able to enjoy some of them before we go. I picked one yesterday, and it needed a few more days, but it was sweet enough to be edible. They'll be better by Wednesday, I think.
And so when I said above that I think there might be hope for the plums, that's what I was talking about. I'd still dearly love to make a batch of plum barbecue sauce before we go. For that, I need 4 pounds of plums, and I'm feeling pretty optimistic the plum tree might come through for me. Regardless, I have my eye on at least two dessert recipes, and I'm sure I'll have enough for that. I do have my priorities, you know.
It was time to water the pots, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of the leaves of the poppy plant. Does that look like a heart-shaped water droplet to you?
As I'm writing, Smitty is snoozed out in one of his fave sunbathing spots.
Time to do a little slow-stitching and then get after the last of the tomatoes. Today I'm making salsa and Amy's Tomato Jam. Also, I need to make a quick trip to the post office. You might have a hard time believing this, but I'm actually looking forward to cleaning my kitchen. Canning is messy business.
9 comments:
Good idea to keep the gang in before you leave. I live in coyote territory and they are SNEAKY! Just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean they aren't there. A friend's cat was snatched by one on her patio, within six feet of the door (right after she told her husband not to let the cat out).
LOVE all of your canning efforts. I used to years ago, but have gotten away from it. I'm starting to get the bug seeing all of your beauties!
I make tomato jam just to put on breakfast sandwiches (egg, cheddar, sometimes bacon) because the combination is so good (and my jam isn’t spicy at all. Tomato jam with jalapeños sounds divine.
Every time we let the dogs out before we leave for an appointment I say a little prayer that Harley doesn't decide that he wants to dig under the fence to take a little trip so I understand about keeping your cats in before you leave. I want you to be able to make that plum BBQ sauce. It sounds so GOOD!!
xx, Carol
You are going to deserve a relaxing trip after all the canning you've been doing, but how fun to be able to enjoy all that good food through the next year. My mom and grandma often canned together, but I never helped out since I was usually in school. I recall coming to grandma's after school, walking in the door, and the house, especially the kitchen, was like a sauna but smelled much better ;-) Good memories.
What a mess, indeed. After canning one wishes you could just take a hose to the whole kitchen a wash everything down a floor drain. However, we tackle it section by section until all is clean. It usually takes a few hours to put all away, take the stove apart and put back together, wash cabinets (at least for me there are errant splashes) and then the floor. But once all is in order again it looks great and you have your gems glowing on the rack.
All your jars are beautiful!! We loooove homemade applesauce, but just can't make it in the camper anymore. We do miss it! Love the black and white border on your mystery, can't wait to see the whole thing!
Travel safe, stay out of trouble!
That's some impressive canning. We tried some potted tomatoes this year. We've eaten 4 so far. So tasty!! Our growing season is so short, though, that I'm not sure how many more tomatoes are going to ripen. The nights have already turned super cool. We may end up frying up a bunch of green tomatoes in a couple of weeks. . .
Oh! I forgot to say how cute that binding is next to the tiny birds fabric
Love the peek at the corner of your "mystery" project. Especially like the bird that is standing right on the binding. :)
No one in my immediate family did any canning while I was growing up. One of my cousins did some canning, but didn't live close. My friend & I attempted it once, using pomegranates from her tree in the backyard. We couldn't find a recipe, so tried to adapt one for berries. We did end up with a quite yummy pomegranate....sauce! Her Dad loved it over ice cream.
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