Category: Recipes

Canning/Harvest, Recipes

Bbq barbeque sauce 2022

Keira

***disclaimer before you think this is a real recipe, it is not! It is notes on what *I* did on a scientific basis in order to create my own safe bbq sauce recipe from tomato skins. It has not been tested by any official source and I completely created it myself instead of using my knowledge to safely tweak someone else’s. Use this recipe and this blog post at your own risk.**z

Once again I decided I’d re-try a recipe I had in the past and it’s been so long that I have no idea what that recipe even was or where it came from. I would hide in self-pitty but I’m too stubborn. I’ve been looking for days and I am just going to have to do my own digging on what makes a good and bottle-able sauce! So here goes:

First of all, I struggle with a lot of the recipes on the world wide web because they start with whole tomatoes! Since I use tomato skins to get my tomatoes, this is an impossible measurement. So for my recipe I started with 3 gallons of tomatoes and tomato skins that I have heated, blended, heated some more, and run through the victorio. It’s pretty tedious to run that much tomato through the victorio since it likes to just kinda hover and not run through with the entirety being soft and small, but some tips I re-learn every year should help the process: first, when things stop moving, do a turn or two backwards. It loosens everything back up and gets things flowing again. Also, if things get unproductive, grab a scoop/handful of the already processed skins and push them through. After that process, you’re left with smooth tomato juice, no seeds, no skins (or at least very small shreds of it. Not gonna lie, some seem to always slip in).

Then reduce that down by about half (so 3 gallons becomes 1 1/2). Upon further reading after it was too late, I wish I had added onion before reducing, because even the ball recipe adds diced onion, which is odd to me because I was told to never add vegetables. But I had onions and my guess is that they’d be obsolete as a pH-affecting entity in such a reducing process. I pH tested my tomatoes at this point just for scientific reasons and my particular tomatoes (I used all the interesting colored heirlooms, so a lot of Cherokee green and brandywine yellow and Valencia and German stripe. I also threw in all my unripe ones, about 3 pounds) simmered down this far had a pH of 4.3. just in case you were curious. I don’t know what they started out as before simmering down so this info is pretty worthless. But it gave me a starting off point for how much it’s safe to play with a BBQ recipe.

After it simmered down I added:

  • 1 cup apple cider vinegar (5%)
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 6 tbs molasses
  • 5 tbs prepared mustard
  • 3 tbs lemon juice
  • 5 tbs salt
  • 4 tbs onion powder (I think I was happier at 3)
  • 3 tbs garlic powder
  • 3 tbs chili powder ( I would have been happier at 2.5)
  • 1 tbs sugar
  • 4 tsp cinnamon (I wish I had stopped at 3)
  • 4 tsp paprika
  • 3 tsp nutmeg
  • 2 tsp coriander

I let it summer about 30 minutes (I bet 15 minutes would work, I was testing flavors), put it in jars and pressure canned for 15 minutes. Only to discover that there aren’t any pressure canning guidelines! I’m guessing that pressure canning is just overkill? I intend to call the extension office tomorrow to find out if I need to reprocess them, but for now, they’re sealing easily as I type this [I called. Without hesitation they told me I was fine to have pressured it and probably overprocessed but for bbq sauce it wouldn’t matter]. And the pH is 3.97 so they’re acidic enough I easily could have waterbath canned them. It’s just I pressure canned the tomato sauce right before this and the sauce starts out the same way so I didn’t think about it until it was in the canner gaining pressure.

As far as flavor, I wish it were sweeter. My husband wishes it had more heat. But we could mess with it the whole time and end up ruining it in entirety, or bottle a decent sauce that is pretty basic and therefore can be tweaked for what preparation I intend. For instance, I will probably add some liquid smoke and a tablespoon of brown sugar when I use it to make pulled pork. But I will also probably add a dash of ketchup when I give it to my kiddos for dipping fries or chicken strips. And I’ll appease my husband and add some hot sauce and a little clear gelatin when I’m basting some ribs.

Also, I read during my research that you could add applesauce and the more we talked about it, the more Ranger and I agreed that would have helped it. Applesauce should fall safely I’m the pH range, too. We both think we might take one bottle and experiment with it that way.

Recipes

My own sliders recipe

Keira

I have to keep reinventing this recipe because I never write it down so this is me, writing it down…

  • 1/4 c dried onions (more if desired. Dried helps soak up some liquid)
  • A handful of pickles (depends on your pickle preference)
  • 1/4 c mayo
  • 1/3 c ketchup
  • 1 T mustard (optional)
  • 1 lb regular beef hamburger
  • 1 lb buffalo burger (to make it without buffalo, cut back in a little mayo and ketchup)
  • Your favorite steak seasoning
  • Slices of cheese to cover the whole set of patties
  • A set of rolls that are 9×13 (if another size, adjust meat size below)
  • Very softened butter

Mix all but the cheese, rolls and buter together to make a meatloaf. Flatten it out to a giant patty, sprinkle steak seasoning on top, and bake in a 9×13 pan at 350° for 20 minutes.

While the patty is in the oven, slice the rolls in half to make buns. Spread the butter evenly over the buns. Place butter-side-down on a cookie sheet.

When the patty is done, pull it out, place sliced cheese over the top and place it back in the oven just long enough to melt the cheese. Then let it rest until you can remove the patty. Discard the grease. While the patty is resting, toast the buns until buttered side is golden. Let cool long enough to handle safely, and stack the buns and patty to form mini burgers.

May serve with extra pickles, sliced tomatoes (Romas make a good choice based on size), lettuce, grilled or fresh mushrooms and onions, and any other burger toppings your family desires.

Recipes

Creamy Cucumber Salad with Greek Chicken Seasoning

Keira

Cucumber salad:

  • 2 long English cucumbers (I did 1 English and 2 loosely peeled regular cucumbers)
  • 1 medium size purple onion
  • 1/2 c Greek yogurt (can sub sour cream of your family won’t eat plain yogurt)
  • 1T apple cider vinegar (white vinegar is fine)
  • 1 packet fresh Dill
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Garlic powder
  • 1T of Italian dressing
  • 1/2 c chopped tomatoes

Slice/dice all the vegetables. Set aside. Combine remaining ingredients, adjusting to taste (will become stronger as it chills). Pour over vegetables. Stir thoroughly. Chill 2-8 hrs.

Greek seasoning for grilled chicken:

  • 2 tsp onion powder
  • 2 tsp dried minced garlic (or 3 tsp powdered)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp dried basil
  • 2 tsp dried oregano
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp rosemary (cut up finer)
  • 2 tsp dried Dill weed
  • 1 tsp marjoram
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • Dried Lemon zest from 1 lemon (about 1 tsp)
  • 1/2 tsp Dill seed

Mix together and place in a shaker. Sprinkle liberally onto butterflied chicken breasts. Cook chicken to 165°F internal temp.

Canning/Harvest, Recipes

Berry lemonade

Keira

Our berry choice was huckleberry, raspberry, and nanking cherry juice. They’re all tart berries so I added 1 cup sugar. My mom probably would have added more but she also said that she can always add more sugar when it was made up but I wouldn’t be able to take any out. Also, I modified the recipe to what I wish I had done as I sat waiting for it to process. This time around we divided the juice evenly between the jars and then added water to get a better headspace; but, I really feel like the berry lemonade could have had more lemon, so the recipe reflects an extra cup of lemon juice I wish I had added in processing. It will probably need more sugar that way, though.

  • 10 cups of lightly masserated berries
  • 6 cups of water (you may need more)
  • Peels from 10 lemons (instructions below)
  • 5 cups lemon juice
  • 6 cups of sugar (plus more to taste)

Simmer berries and water 20 minutes.

While the berries are simmering, peel 10 lemons with a peeler so that they are large chunks. You don’t want to zest them, but you’re after the whole yellow part. Set aside.

Transfer 3 cups of liquid (try to get just liquid!) into a separate saucepan. Add 6 cups of sugar. Stir and simmer until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add lemon peels, and cover to steep for 10 minutes. When it has cooled a little bit, return to the heat until it simmers and then let steep 10 more minutes. Re-heating the liquid helps release the rest of the oils and infuses it in the syrup better.

Strain out the peels and turn them into candied lemon.

Put syrup and lemon juice back in the stockpot. Simmer until desired flavor is achieved (can take a few hours). Add sugar to taste. And remember it’s a concentrate, so it should be strong!

Put 2 tablespoons of the reserved mash of berries into 7 warm sterile jars and then spread the rest evenly throughout. Pour warm liquid over the berries (you need about 1/2″ headspace, but it can vary based on how much liquid you have). You may have to add a little water.

Process for 20 minutes, adjusting for altitude (I live at 5000 feet).

To reconstitute, it’s about one part concentrate to one part water or soda, but adjust it to taste. You can also add sugar to taste if you need to.

Recipes

Homemade “Chicken” Bouillon

Keira

I made this recipe because in reducing the amount of corn in our food, it became necessary to eliminate bouillon (that stuff has some scary ingredients). But so many recipes call for Bouillon! Mostly, I use it for my SOS mix.

  • 2 c nutritional yeast flakes
  • 1/3 c salt
  • 1/4 c dried basil
  • 1/4 c garlic powder
  • 2 T rosemary that has been run through my food processor (my family won’t eat it otherwise)
  • 1/4 c onion powder
  • 2 T oregano
  • 1/2 T marjoram
  • 1/4 c parsley
  • 2 T black pepper

I leave mine flakey, but shake the jar I put it in rather vigorously. I know a lot of recipes tell you to blend it, which might be helpful. I still use it as an even trade-off in recipes, even though I know by not blending it I’m getting less flavor in my measurements. Honestly, I don’t notice much difference. It’s a preference thing.

Recipes

Corn “Free” S.O.S mix

Keira

I’m gonna start this post with a disclaimer: anyone that is also allergic to corn will know, anything claiming to be corn-free probably isn’t. My family is only considered “corn-lite.” Some things don’t bother us (mostly corn starch, corn syrup, and sometimes citric acid), and we fall in the “bucket” category (as in, if we don’t overfill our bucket, we don’t have to be too careful).

And a lot of it will come down to your individually sourced ingredients. But, this is a lot better than what you find at the store. It’s based on the S.O.S. mix you see all over the web, except I’ve eliminated the cornstarch and used my own version of “chicken” bouillon.

My chicken bouillon (purple) and my S.O.S sauce (before I added the onions and mushrooms that were still in the dehydrator)

I won’t make some long story, I hate blog posts for recipes that do that. Don’t even read them, usually; but I use this sauce for anything that calls for a can of “cream of…” I also sprinkle some in gravies or sauces I just want a little thicker or creamier.

Without further ado, modified SOS sauce

  • 2 cups powdered milk (non-instant)
  • 1 1/4 cup tapioca flour
  • 1/4 c homemade chicken bouillon substitute
  • 2 T onion flakes
  • 2 T dehydrated mushrooms and/or celery (optional)
  • 1/2 T salt (optional, but the tapioca doesn’t taste as salty as corn starch)

Mix it all together and store in an airtight container. I stick with the same usage as the original instructions and it usually works out okay for me. Start there and you can get a feel for if you feel like anything needs changed.

To use: wisk 1/3 c mix with 1 1/4 c water or chicken stock.

I’m sure this recipe could also use arrowroot starch. It would require about half the starch and then less salt, but tapioca starch is readily available in my small town and arrowroot would require a more intentional purchase. And my bouillon is a little less salty anyway, so the additional salt helps there as well. Anyway, make this recipe your own this is how I make mine.

Canning/Harvest

Harvest 2021

Keira

This post is probably boring to everyone but me, so you have my permission to move on. But if you like gardens and knowing totals, you might find one information here:

In thinning the carrots, I picked about 3 gallons when the stems were off. That made 10 jars of pickles carrots. And boy are they pretty with all the different colors in there. Note to self, Cosmo purple aren’t great for canning. I took a risk and left the skins on just to hilight the purple that is only on the outside and they are still orange when canned, but the brine is red-tinted. Not worth it. However the atomic red are pinkish in the jar, and make a nice addition. I haven’t found too many of them, yet. And they don’t really scream red, but in a jar full of real orange, yellows, and whites, they’re different and elegant.

The lunar white carrots taste amazing, but they kept getting rooty and seedy. Not cool. I guess I can’t say for sure if was the lunar whites, it could have been the mystery whites from the Sow Easy packet.

The varieties I planted.

I will have to go thin them again (or at least harvest them) but it was nice to harvest and get the canning ball rolling. And my preschooler that hates carrots will now eat them… In pickled form.

I put all the pretty ones in the same jar.

I really want to find a way to plant carrots so I don’t have as much early thinning. I tried mixing them with sand this year and it didn’t work, I still ended up with bald spots and over-crowded spots that I wasted tiny seedlings. And with the sand, I ended up with carrots all over my garden from seeds not staying in their spot.

I thinned the beets, too. I planted Detroit Dark Red and Ruby Queen. My family has always done Detroit Dark Red… But I might be a traitor because Ruby Queen has grown amazingly and they’re so much easier to peel. It’s already time to harvest the Ruby Queen beets, but the Detroit Dark Red can stay longer. There is definitely a difference in color. One is really purple compared to the other.

I got 6 1/2 pints. I can’t remember how many gallons of just roots from harvesting, though.

And oh the peas! My peas have been crazy this year. I planted 4 rows, 6″, 12″, and 6″ apart like I usually do… And I’m not gonna do that again. Usually they don’t come up so well and then I have some on either side of my string trellis and it works out. Next year, I will plant them with a walkway between them. Or at least use better string/twine! They snapped the string and I had to deal with vining swampy peas. No fun. But I got 6 harvests of 2 gallons each! And I’m still getting about a gallon every few days now.

How many have I managed to get in the freezer? Um… 1/2 a gallon of just peas, and 1/2 a gallon of peas and baby carrots from my first thinning. The rest have gone into just about every meal I’ve made over the summer. Or straight into little mouths. Am I complaining about that? Not in the slightest. But it tells me that 4 rows is my minimum.

However, green beans… I planted those darn things twice and something keeps eating the new sprouts! I even placed forks in the rows to keep things out and they eat around the forks. Which makes me think that field mice really like bean sprouts. So I bought 11 lbs from my friend and it made 27 pints.

My other purchase for canning so far has been cherries. I thought I’d missed them, and wasn’t willing to pay upwards of $5 per lb, so I didn’t think I’d get to use my new cherry pitter this year. Then I was walking down the produce aisle at the grocery store and saw cherries for $1.99/lb! I snatched up 4 bags (couldn’t bring myself to get more) and filled the jars half full (I want to use the juice just as much as the cherries), boiled the pits (for not nearly long enough) to get more meat/juice off of them (eventually I’ll have a steam juicer) and put about 3/4 a cup of what I had boiled in each jar, filling the rest with simple syrup of 1:4 (sugar:water). I hope they’re not too sweet, I used internet suggestions. It made 13 qts, so 2 lbs per batch. Remember, that’s about half full, though.

And, as a note to myself, I made a video of my garden, but I don’t want to add it here because it has identifying location features.

Canning/Harvest

Tomato Varieties

Keira

This is more of a tomato diary than anything. If you don’t care about tomatoes, keep moving, haha.

Firstly, I planted tomatoes on April 15th. Not as early as I wanted to, but last year I planted them too early and they all got root-bound so late is better in this case. In my growing zone I don’t actually put them in the soil until the weekend after memorial day (we always get caught off guard by one last super cold day and too many people lose their tomatoes. I don’t wanna be one of those people), so we still have plenty of time. I planted 3 of each variety.

I bought an heirloom seed packet from David’s Garden (no commission. Just pretty impressed with his seeds. No one is paying me or rewarding me for this post). This included Slicing Black Prince, Striped German Hybrid, Slicing Moskovich Slicing, Beefsteak Brandywine, Beefsteak Cherokee Purple, Beefsteak Cherokee Green, Beefsteak Great White, Beefsteak Valencia, Beefsteak Yellow Brandywine, and Beefsteak Rose. I also had cherry, pear, Roma, and Rutgers tomato seeds from years past, Carbon seeds from Baker Creek Seeds (kind of a seed nerd girl favorite. All their catalogs are so pretty and I feel fancy ordering from them), and Delicious tomato seeds from Gurney’s seeds (I like their seeds but they’re never in a rush on shipping, so order *way* early).

The only ones not claiming “heirloom” status are my Roma, the Delicious and Cherry tomatoes (though I have a packet of Cherry tomaotes that do say heirloom. This packet is older so I grew it this year (I like my other one better, though), and the Striped German (it’s the only one that says hybrid in the title). I want to keep seeds, done all the research on how to do it, but I haven’t managed to do it yet. I’ve also never managed to compare seed packets like I’ve wanted to before, so I’m at least checking that off my bucket list. Fingers crossed I can stick with it.

If you want to see how last year went, I’ve got a gorgeous tomato picture in this post. The same seeds were used.

Today is April 27th and I feel like I need to get this all written down before I forget it all.

First, the Delicious seeds popped out of their pods first. They’re growing amazingly well. Next (a very close second) were the Valencia, White (surprisingly. The packet said they’re hard to grow. And I got a whole 4 white tomatoes last year, so it’s probably not wrongn), and Brandywine. They all have their second set of leaves. I think the Black Prince will catch up, they’re all kind of showing their heads, but just barely. Then I have 1 German, 2 Moskovich, 2 Purple, 2 Roma, 2 Green (plus a sneaky volunteer. I dropped a seed when I planted and it landed right in the hole, I guess), 2 Yellow, 2 Rose, and 2 cherry. My Rutgers, cherry, and pear seeds are losing the race. The Rutgers have sprouts but none of them look healthy, they still have the seed shell on them and they’re tiny. I’ve got some sprouts starting to show in my cherry pods, and not a single pear tomaoto is showing, which surprises me because I always have a *ton* of Pear and Cherry tomaotes by season end. Fingers crossed the rest show up but each day looks less promising. I also have an extra white and a mystery plant. The white seeds were both little and stuck together so I left them (like I said, they’re supposed to be hard to grow). And when everything was planted I found a random seed and didn’t want to put it back in the wrong spot, so I just threw it in some soil. We will see what it turns out to be).

I intend to keep 2 plants from anything that grows, and the 3rd plant I will send to my parents. They live in a different growing zone (I’m in 5B and they’re in 7A), but I wanted an accurate idea of how things grew and didn’t want to have open garden space because something didn’t grow well, and my mom said plant some for my dad, too, so my dad getting the surplus is a win for both of us.

More to come…

May 23 Update

I transplanted tomatoes (and my sunflowers) on the third of May. I decided to re-plant some of the problematic ones. For science. Some were just extra for my mom (I had the space). Instead of writing lots of paragraphs, it seems easier to just start putting everything in chart form. I like charts.

Varietyreplantedtotal notes
Delicious03Still doing crazy well.
Valencia03Doing well. Turned the grow light off because they were getting sunburned (weird) but nothing else has suffered from not having it on.
Purple03Interesting note: I thought only 2 would survive (only transplanted 2) but the other guy was just a late bloomer. He’s currently got his second set of leaves and I’m about to transplant him.
Green02growing well. I had 4 plants (one volunteer seed) but one didn’t grow and my children … loved on the other one. This plant also got sunburned from the growlight. I didn’t replant because my mom doesn’t care for green tomatoes.
Yellow02Growing well. Didnt replant because my Mom doesn’t care for yellow either. She’s more of a classic tomato fan.
White03I have 2 unlabeled plants now (thanks kids) so maybe 1 is the extra white one? They’re looking a little weak. Thin, long stems. The packet that came with advised planting a fish with them, so when I put them in he ground, I most definitely will!
Brandywine03The tallest plants now! They’re getting eager to be transplanted but I never dare plant tomatoes in the ground until after Memorial Day.
Roma25I thought I was only getting 2 Roma plants so I planted another for science and an extra one for my mom. 2 days ago the last little Roma popped his head out of the dirt! The other 2 (planted May 3rd) have their second set of leaves now, but that guy’s pulling through!
Rose13growing as expected
Moskovich131 plant doing really well. One on the short end. replanted one appropriate size for being re-planted.
Cherry23Same as Roma, thought I was only getting 2 cherry plants so I planted 2 more just to make sure I had enough to send to Mom and I have a little seedling growing well! the original 2 are growing well. the second planting have not sprouted yet. But that 3rd little guy is growing!
Pear33One pear plant transplanted with the rest. Replanted 3 to make sure I got enough. 2 have sprouted from the second set.
German24ishI thought I was only getting 1 German so I replanted 2 more. When I was checking on my seedlings today, the 2 I had all but given up on are starting to break through the soil. No leaves out yet, but there are 2 living plants coming up. One of the replants is also up. the original plant is doing well and about 6″ tall.
Carbon23ish1 carbon made it to transplanting and is doing well. one was decapitated when the seed shell didn’t come off right (I need to figure out how to help them with that). It’s still alive, but I’m not counting it a survivor. one of the replants is up with it’s second set of leaves. And as I was evaluating all of the other late-bloomers, I’ve got a carbon sprout working it’s way out.
Black Prince221 plant is growing well. 1 replant is sprouted with a second set of leaves.
Rutgers306 plants and 1 was decapitated when the seed shell didn’t come off, one still has the seed shell on and I don’t wanna repeat the problem (but it’s not growing), and the new ones haven’t even sprouted yet. Don’t think I’ll keep trying these.

Recipes

Slow Cooker Gumbo

Keira
  • 1 pound andouille sausage
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil (I use grapeseed because that’s what I have)
  • 1 cup flour (I use wheat)
  • 2 bell peppers, cored and diced
  • 3 celery stalks
  • 1 small onion
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • 1 quart jar stewed tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning (my kids will eat this but I cut it down if my mom’s coming to visit)
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne (I leave it out when serving kids or grandmas)
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 1/2 c small-cut cauliflower (leave out if freezing. Not authentic but I like to pack veggies in and it’s not too far-fetched in a gumbo)
  • 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
  • 1 cup okra (if you have it. We don’t, usually)
  • 1 pound peeled and deveined raw shrimp (mine’s frozen)
  • salt and pepper
  • Prepared rice
  • Optional toppings: green onions, fresh parsley, or avocados (Avocados aren’t authentic but they are delicious).

Slice sausages. In a regular-sized frying pan, brown sausage coins (2-ish minutes). Place in crock pot.

While the sausages are browning, I start slicing my trinity of vegetables (peppers, celery, and onion). It carries over into my roux stage, but I’m pretty fast at dicing and my stove is right next to my cutting board. If you don’t have ideal circumstances, definitely do the mis en place version and slice your veggies first! And do it as fast as you can at the beginning of your roux, because toward the end it goes much faster.

Once the pan is available, add the oil and begin slowly adding flour, mixing in as you go. It will be pastey. This is called a roux. It’s a staple in cajun cuisine. Turn the temperature down to medium. If you’re still slicing veggies, stir your roux about every quarter of each of the vegetables, but adjust based on need. Don’t burn your roux! If you do, start over on it!

Once your roux is about the color of chocolate (20-30 mins. It starts slow but gains momentum), add the trinity. Mix it around and it kind of coats the veggies. Then mash and finely dice the garlic. After the veggies have been in the pot around 5-8 minutes, add the garlic to the mixture. Cook it one more minute, stirring constantly. The veggies should just be turning translucent and soft. Add the whole mixture to the crockpot.

Add in the chicken stock and mix it around to encorporate everything. Then add the stewed tomatoes, creole seasoning, paprika, cayenne, and bay leaves. Set crock pot to low. It will need to simmer 4-6 hours.

At any point, depending on preference (I add about halfway through, but have added it at the beginning before), add chicken, okra, and cauliflower.

Half an hour before serving, defrost the shrimp under hot water and add it to the pot. If your shrimp is defrosted, add it at 20 minutes. This is also when I start my rice (unless I’m using day-old rice. I do, regularly).

The gumbo is ready when the shrimp are pinkish and opaque, not clear. They also kind of curl in on themselves.

Adjust salt and pepper, as needed. Remove bay leaves.

To serve, place rice in a bowl, pour gumbo over the top, and add toppings of choice, if desired.

To freeze: don’t freeze it with the rice or if you added the cauliflower! But you can still freeze it with the proteins. Let cool. Scoop desired amounts into ziploc freezer bags. Freezes for approximately 3 months with shrimp, 6 months without it.

Brag, Canning/Harvest

Harvest totals (for my information)

Keira

I always forget by the time it’s next harvest season (or even next growing season), so I’m writing a post, simply for my memory, but feel free to follow along!

This year, I planted sooo many seeds and most of them died. the only thing that survived were my tomato plants (and I planted a ton of them, thinking I’d sell them or give some to family or neighbors. But by the time I got them in the ground, I didn’t wanna give them to everyone else because they were not in great shape. They needed to be planted sooo much sooner, not halfway into June! But I have toddler twins, and a super active preschooler (still technically a toddler when I was growing from seeds and planting), and needed help to get them in the ground. I intended to keep track of how many plants were out in the garden, but… I didn’t.

When we harvested all the tomatoes before the freeze, 99% were still green. But when hey did finally ripen, they were pretty yellows and purples and some nice round reds. I got about 10 green tomatoes and 1 (count it) white tomato. I think I had more white, but they ended up in the green salsa/enchilada sauce because they didn’t look like they would ripen well (which is how I decided which green tomatoes to select).

From those 10ish boxes of tomatoes, I’ve gotten

  • 17 pts freezer green salsa (somehow I messed up and it made a ton so I didn’t feel safe canning it)
  • 31 pts regular salsa (a batch of 8 used the only peppers I got from plants I bought on clearance and the onions my MIL gave me. The jalapenos were smaller than my fingernails, but I had a few good poblanos and some mini bells, some Cajun bells [spicier?], some seranoes, and some spicy banana peppers) 23 jars used serranoes, Jalapenos, and green bells.
  • 7 pts green salsa (I labeled it small batch green salsa to keep track of 2 different recipes I’m trying this year )
  • 7 qts stewed tomatoes
  • 6 qts spicy stewed tomatoes
  • 1 batch of bbq sauce (I’ll have to update the total, but I think I got about 14 half-pints of sauce)
  • 18.5 qts green enchilada sauce
  • 9 qts of stewed tomatoes (forgot the salt, dang it!)
  • 4.5 qts of leftovers from previous batches (mixed stewed and rotel/spicy stewed)
  • 16 pts of salsa (jalapenos and green peppers only)
  • 12 qts of whole tomatoes
  • 12 qts of tomato juice (one jar was a hand-me-down from my grandma and isn’t quite a quart, but there’s another hand-me-down jar that is probably over a quart, so I’m just rolling with it)
  • 11 qts whole tomatoes (forgot the salt in 4 of them again! And I had the *worst* luck. In one batch I only had 1 jar seal!)
  • 32 pts of green salsa with very little heat. I ended up doing the math wrong and making way more than intended, but it used up all the greens I had left, so I wasn’t complaining!
  • 14 jars (assuming they all seal, as they’re cooling as I type) of herb tomatoes. And I am DONE with tomatoes. whew.

I also bought 3 boxes of tomatoes (in case mine never got ripe), 1 box of peaches (all they had was white when I went to buy them. I looked at a comparison chart and I’m guessing they’re Georgia Belles?) and 1 box of pears around mid-September. In which, I got:

  • canned sliced peaches (when I actually count this, I need to remember I’ve already snitched one jar)
  • canned quartered pears
  • multiple varieties of mixed fruit (note, some of the mixed fruit came from my friend delivering fruit from her tree and my MIL giving me a box of peaches. Most of my MIL’s peaches went into jam this year, though because the peaches didn’t know if they were gonna be too firm or too mushy and were varying combinations within the same peach)
  • 34 qts of whole tomatoes

So… how much does approximately 10 boxes of tomatoes weigh? I measured it all because I was curious.

I used:

  • 7 1/2 lbs green
  • 4 1/2 lbs green
  • 30 lbs green
  • 17.5 lbs green

  • 5 lbs ripe
  • 1 1/4 lbs ripe
  • 5 lbs ripe
  • 10 lbs ripe
  • 14 lbs ripe
  • 11 lbs ripe
  • 5 lbs ripe
  • 12 lbs ripe
  • 5 lbs ripe
  • 10 lbs ripe
  • 12 lbs ripe
  • 22 lbs ripe
  • 22 lbs ripe
  • 3 lbs ripe
  • 25 lbs ripe

So, just under 60 lbs of green and 128 (and change) pounds of ripe tomatoes!

I also turned our tomato skins into tomato sauce (because a), paste scares me, and b), I think sauce has more uses). The first batch (which included leftovers from last year that I never processed – just left in the freezer – started out as 20 qts of skins and turned into 3 3/4 qts (in 20 different half and quarter pint jars). The second batch is still sitting in the fridge waiting for processing, (it’s not nearly as much, but with all the heirloom tomatoes, the bowl is quite colorful).

Also of note: I bought 200 regular Tattler lids and 100 wide mouth Tattler lids. At the end of canning season, I have 0 regular and 35 wide-mouth lids left. I would have had less but I don’t like doing tomatoes with tattler lids, so I finished off the tail end with the normal kind I had in storage. Seriously, I bawled my eyes out one night. I have never had so many problems canning. I have had great success with the tattlers in water-bath canning, but canning in the pressure canner… yeah. lets just say that the night I bawled, I got 1 successful jar in 2 canner loads (noted above). And a huge exploded mess inside the canners. I don’t think I need all 100 tattler lids in the future, to be honest. But I definitely could use more regular mouth lids!