Homegrowing to "put by"

[First Shirt]

My late father-in-law was an incorrigible collector of odd books, and an almost-compulsive packrat (probably had something to do with growing up during the Great Depression) and had tons of books on survival, useful skills, etc. We even found a 1943 Bluejacket's Manual in the boxes of books we kept after he passed away, as well as a complete 1896 Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Lots and lots of books on canning, preserving, and storing foodstuffs, as well as some books on gardening. It appears that we got them at the right time!

[MiddleAgedKen]

Well, for those of us in SoCal, there's U.C. Riverside. Their soil science work, their long history and continuing work as an agricultural station, all may be a source of nice information.

Second that. USDA CSREES (Cooperative Extension Service) is one thing the federal government does pretty well. Every U.S. state has a network, run from the state's land grant university.

Fruit freezes pretty well too, so as long as the power stays on, you can do that until you get up to speed on canning. I don't can (yet), but I freeze most of the smidgen of apples and raspberries I produce. You can (and I do, regularly) make a durn good pie from last year's apples, sliced and frozen after picking.

Peach leaf curl caused my peach trees to have to grow two sets of leaves per year (I was trying to avoid doing any spraying), birds enjoy my cherries, and ants like to sometimes get into the prunes. I've gotten the most yield (an overstatement if ever there was one) from the plums and apple trees. They were starting to do better until I got cows again last fall with predictable results.

I hear ya. If you're putting in an orchard, plant what you want most. However, pome fruit (apples) trees are more hardy in general than stone fruit (peaches, cherries, plums, etc.). This is especially good to know in northern climes. However, this is not to say you can't do well with stone fruit. Some of the best cherries in the country, on the commercial side at least, come from Michigan.

[Frankingun]

Now I'm getting nostalgic. When I was much younger and all four grandparents were still with us, we'd can peaches, pears, and tomatoes like no tomorrow. We'd go into Michigan from my maternal grandparent's place (same place where I want to pack heat while wallowing around in the water) and get peaches right at the orchard. We'd also freeze freshly picked blueberries... Yum....

[Termite]

Now I'm getting nostalgic. When I was much younger and all four grandparents were still with us, we'd can peaches, pears, and tomatoes like no tomorrow. We'd go into Michigan from my maternal grandparent's place (same place where I want to pack heat while wallowing around in the water) and get peaches right at the orchard. We'd also freeze freshly picked blueberries... Yum....

Blueberry pancakes and pork sausage for breakfast.........yumm

[HTRN]

use twee little "artisanal" jars with expensive ribbons and paper labnels etc...

The best part is... those "Artisanal jars"? Mass manufactured, probably in China.

Don't use the word "organic" - that has requirements and compliance as set down by the FDA. Use "All Natural", which doesn't have such headaches associated with it.


HTRN

[MiddleAgedKen]

My time is finally freed up a little. First thing after sunup tomorrow, I'm-a knock off the last few mummies from the apple tree and cut the raspberry canes down to stumps. It will be an hour or two well spent in the back yard, with the crazy spaniel frolicking around.

[ZeroGravitas]

As HTRN can attest, in this part of the world we don't can tomatos, we can red gravy. Didn't quite fill 3 cases of quart ball jars this year.

[Netpackrat]

Something I discovered, is that "Classico" brand spaghetti sauce comes in a regular mason jar that will accept a standard canning lid (the lid it comes with is a throwaway). I figure if you are going to buy spaghetti sauce anyway, might as well buy the stuff that comes in the reusable jar.

[Netpackrat]

I knew somebody was going to say that, sorry for trying to help... Seriously though, nobody in this house has the cooking gene. Dumping the contents of a can or jar on the stove is about my speed.

[rightisright]

I hear both sides of that argument. My storage room is chock full of tomato puree, diced tomatos, spices etc. But there is also a smaller stash of ready-made sauces for when I don't have the time to whip up a real batch.

But every single jar of ready-made is sans sugar and , God forbid, corn syrup. YECHH!


BTW, I have two different types of Classico here and neither has corn syrup or sugar in it.