Yes, We Can!

Anyone up for a hot water bath?

We also freeze and dehydrate.  This week has been very busy in the food preservation department.  I put up several pints of pickled Hot Portugal peppers in hopes of making hot sauce in the future.  My earlier attempt didn't turn out so well, so I plan to convert these gorgeous pickled peppers into hot sauce as needed.

Hot Portugal peppers with a few renegade Ancho Giganteas. 

Pickled peppers, flavored with garlic.

Yesterday, I made sweet pumpkin pickles.  It was a great season for our tiny pumpkin patch, and we've decided to do a huge patch next year.  These pickles are flavored with cloves, allspice, and cinnamon.  I think they'll go well in butternut squash soup, vegetarian chili, and as a little side treat for Thanksgiving dinner.

 Young's Beauty pumpkins, all chopped up.

Sweet pumpkin pickles.

Now, on to the dehydrating.  I have peppers hanging all over the kitchen.  I'm drying Hot Portugals and Ancho Giganteas.  This method isn't exactly fast, and some of the peppers are a bit moldy.  So, I dried a few pounds of Ancho Giganteas in the oven.  It took all day at 125 degrees to get them crispy, but it worked well.  I ground them up in the coffee grinder, and now I have ancho chili powder.  I'm as pleased as punch.

 Ancho Gigantea

Same peppers after a day in the oven.

 Homemade chili powder

I plan on drying the next big harvest of anchos in the oven, also.  If you had a taste of this magical powder, you would too!

This summer has been a true learning experience.  I've been canning something almost every week lately.  I've never done it before, and I think my technique is improving (That's what she said).  Right now, in the basement we have blueberry jam, blackberry jam, tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, Italian herbed tomatoes, quartered tomatoes, pickled peppers, sweet pumpkin pickles, and bruschetta.

In addition to the canned foods, I've dried basil, parsley, thyme, oregano, lavender, and sage.  The freezers are packed with roasted red peppers, sweet peppers, tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries, snap peas, blackberries, Amish melon, carrots, beets, and pumpkin puree.  

My fingers are crossed for some late tomatoes.  If they do well, there's a chance I can put up some salsa and roasted tomatoes.

As the season winds down, I'm looking forward to having my fall garden up and running.  I've been so busy with a million other things that I've found it difficult to focus on planting more seeds.  I've got the beets, carrots, lettuce, and broccoli started so far.  I need to clean up a lot of the vegetable beds and put in some greens.  Summer is going to be over before we know it, but the garden goes on!

Keeping Up With it All

Summer's bounty is upon us, and I've been busy.  I'm trying my best to keep up with all the harvesting, canning, and freezing.  And lucky me, I've ben learning a lot while doing it all.

Along with the poblanos below, this was yesterday's harvest.  Sugar Baby watermelon, Pie pumpkins, Waltham Butternut squash, Wisconsin Lakes peppers, Pintung Long eggplants, Snow's Fancy Pickling cucumbers, Hot Portugal peppers, and Australian Butter squash.

Ancho Gigantea 

Yesterday, I hung the poblanos up to dry and made hot sauce with the Hot Portugals.  To make the hot sauce, I made  a mash of the peppers in the blender and added some salt.  The mash will ferment in a ceramic crock for about a month, and my hands will be on fire for at least a day.  I didn't have any latex gloves handy.

 Hot Portugal

 Hot Portugal mash.  Just look at that color!

I harvested several pumpkins yesterday.  Altogether, I deseeded, roasted, peeled, mashed, and froze five pumpkins.  They were all perfectly plump, fleshy, and aromatic.  The chickens got to eat all the insides, and the worms are eating the baked skins.  The ladies went nuts over the seeds and all.  

All of the Pie pumpkins have now been harvested, and the Young's Beauty pumpkins will soon be ripe.  We will have plenty of pumpkins to put up.

 Pie pumpkin, all scooped out.

Pumpkin ready for the freezer.

I also froze twelve pounds of tomatoes and started a batch of nine-day sweet pickles yesterday.  It's my first time making pickles, and my fingers are crossed.  There have been a lot of "firsts" for me this season.  I've taught myself to can, ferment, and freeze foods in a way that will preserve as much fresh flavor, color, and texture as possible. There's so much post-harvest work to do, but I'm having  a great time doing it all.