The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

euronorris

This is where I found the canning guide: https://www.healthycanning.com/wp-content/uploads/USDA-Complete-Guide-to-Home-Canning-2015-revision.pdf


I did use a jar that had previously been pickled beetroot bought from the shop. Nice and large, and I figured it would be able to withstand the heat required for the water bathing process.


Yes, not keen on cooking the fruits, so I would likely freeze any surplus. I'm guessing that the Americans favour canning over the freezer as there are more of them who live more remotely, so keeping a good stock of foods is necessity, and there's only so much freezer space a person can have. Plus, canned goods will still be fine if there is a power cut, I guess.


I only started looking into it as I wanted to pickle the beetroot, but I am also hopeful for a bumper tomato crop and I would really like to preserve them in the form of: basic crushed tomatoes (as a base in the future for other recipes), pizza sauce and home made ketchup. But, I've never done it before and I wasn't even sure where to begin.


I checked on the garden when I got home, and there was a baby caterpillar trying to munch on my first budding black tomato! He was swiftly evicted! lol Im not sure that one will amount to anything. It seems to have been stunted at a certain point, but I can see that another has just started, and all the others are flowering. They aren't in a greenhouse, so not sure if tapping the stem is necessary, but nevertheless I gave all the stems a tap this morning. lol The other tomato plant (which I'm no longer sure are standard - moneymaker maybe? - or the stripey ones), has a HUGE first cluster of flowers. First couple seem to be turning to tomatoes too! How exciting!


At least two of the suckers we pruned and potted on at the weekend have taken root and are perking back up again, so that's super cool. Jury is still out on the others! lol


My courgette plant FINALLY has it's first flower bloom this morning! Beautiful vibrant yellow, aren't they? I love it!

Suffolk_lass

Ha ha, I am sure your analysis of why the Americans can is right euronorris. I have just got my book out and it is "The complete book of Preserving" by Marye Cameron-Smith, published by Marshall Cavendish in 1976 with my copy a 1982 reprint. available here it is quite well regarded. I did not buy it before September 1986 as I know it was on Waterloo Station and I did not start that job in London until September 86. I might have paid £3.50 but I would not have paid £9.95 (too much then) which is what the cover says.

I love this thread but I must go and tie my tomatoes better and check on my courgettes

Karmacat

Right, I'm posting this here and on my diary thread ... I haven't been devoting enough time to clearing and planting the garden I've been out there for half an hour or so just now, and I've pulled out armfuls, maybe ten armfuls, of weeds and grass, some of them two feet high, the rest three feet or more (especially the nettles). And its only a normal suburban garden, 35 feet long, the width of the house (no garage to add to the width). I've got to do better - I never get to the stage where I can plant, especially not seeds, because I'm forever clearing weeds.

So this is the pledge: I'm going away some time around mid September for a week (already turned down the chance of a week in Scotland in July, I was sensing things were getting on top of me), and I want this intense phase finished by then:
1. weeds cleared.
2. roots dug up.
3. bagged topsoil applied.
4. garlic that I managed to plant last year to be rescued (some of it has drowned).
5. garden centre plants planted.
6. bags of bark chippings applied.

I can't let it go on like this, its crazy. The plants I *have* planted are doing their things: the soft fruit, the herbs, one of the comfreys, its good. Just got to let the rest have their life in the sun.

wishuponastar

euronorris wrote: »

They aren't in a greenhouse, so not sure if tapping the stem is necessary, but nevertheless I gave all the stems a tap this morning. lol

Maybe with them being outside the wind would have done the job but best not to take the risk, I still tapped mine last year just in case lol (not got flowers yet this year as late starting). That's good you've got some toms forming already, good job, must be your magic tapping :-)


Thanks euronorris for all the tips and the link (and to others too). I think from reading everything maybe mine unpopped maybe because they were a low acidity food, pesto and I don't have a pressure cooker thing. I normally would use the freezer for it but I don't have such a big freezer and thought I'd try canning to save on space in there. They seem to stay unpopped in the fridge so that's better than being in the freezer as my fridge is bigger than my freezer.

Pablosmummy

Lovely weather today! Garden doing fine, a few broad beans and peas are nearly ready to pick. The only issue I have at the moment is my strawberries ( well what's left of them after the storm) I've been thinking it was birds or something nibbling a few along the bottom row, however I've just caught my dog red handed (or mouthed? ) Eating them straight off the plants!!!
So I will be looking for some of the hanging troughs to hook up on the fence away from her for next year. She knew it was wrong, as soon I I went over she threw herself upside down to surrender. I let her finish the ones she's half chewed...

Suffolk_lass

We had peas, courgettes and beets picked yesterday. The peas did not make it to the pot as DH got home as I finished picking - we simply split the pods between us and snacked them straight from the pods like sweets! The courgettes we (that is the royal we) split them in half and gently saut!ed them to join the bangers and mash for supper. He's dead good at sausage and mash - he likes making it and I like eating it!

Primrose

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

We had peas, courgettes and beets picked yesterday. The peas did not make it to the pot as DH got home as I finished picking - we simply split the pods between us and snacked them straight from the pods like sweets! QUOTE]

I smiled at this because this is what happens in our house when I grow peas. Picked fresh they are simply too good to cook unless you have a whole field of them at your disposal.

Last time I grew them I washed them and put the still glistening wet pods in a bowl on the table as a starter! If I grow mangetout we obviously eat the pods as well but when I,ve grown normal peas I save the pods and cook them down with a little butter and chicken stock to make soup. Somehow they seem too good to waste on the compost heap.

Suffolk_lass

That's a good idea with the pea pods. I have been out on a quest for Monarda (bergamot) but all I can find is a lilac lavender variety which does not do it for me. I seem to have lost at least 2 of the four I had, naturally losing the reds I love and keeping the deep dark pink and purple ones I was sent in error. Anyway, I ended up with 2 delphiniums that asked to come home with me to stay and some replacement gloves as mine have had it.

unrecordings

I've probably still got some Suttons Monards seeds if you're interested - maybe out of date, but PM if you want to give them a try and I'll go delve in the tin and check the details - I can pop a handful in the post (as a gift)

PipneyJane

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

American canning is the same as bottling in the UK - I have a book on bottling and preserving that I bought when my train was delayed back in the 1980s - it was on a table at the front of WHS (I digress) - it remains my go-to for preserving things. I have been bottling, pickling and making preserves my whole life....

The pressure canning you refer to can be achieved with a domestic pressure cooker which typically achieves 10-15lbs of pressure

Vouch! The important thing when you're using a domestic pressure cooker is that it can reach the level of pressure stated in the recipe. I bought the largest pressure cooker I could find, 10L. It came with a knob, not weights, so I contacted the manufacturer and discovered it reaches 13lb of pressure, not the 15 often listed in recipes so I add an extra 5 minutes to the processing time. I don't can a lot - it only holds 3 jars at at time - but it works well.

If you drive to France, there's an outlet store near Calais that frequently has larger pressure cookers, 10L and 12L. It's up the hill from Citi Europe.

HTH

Pip