Well, I didn’t stop pressure canning with two batches of canned tomatoes, and two batches of Tomato Red Pepper Sauce. A trip to an apple farm, an outing, tempted a purchase of a half bushel of Paulared apples. I don’t like them for eating, they are too tart for me, so applesauce was their destiny. They are an early variety, the varieties I prefer for eating will ripen later in September.
A shout out to Wendy and Bex here! Wendy, when I last made applesauce you suggested using a food mill! Bex, you also recommended a food mill! Great suggestion. My new food mill is definitely the way to go with tomato sauce and applesauce, it is a game changer, with a little help from my friends.
Yesterday I made 9 1/2 litres of applesauce, and pressure canned 9 litres of it. Another 12 hour marathon. The down side of doing this on a weekday is that the low-peak hydro prices aren’t in effect until 7:00 p.m., so that I can’t start the pressure canning until then. That means I have to stay up late at night to complete two canning sessions, as the canner only holds 7 one litre jars at a time. It was a late night last night. The result was 9 litres of tart, delicious applesauce.
The advantage to canning is that it stores without electricity. I love freezing, but our second-hand, beat-up, smallish freezer doesn’t allow for much in the way of bulk storage. Canned goods can sit on the shelves for a few years, needing no equipment or electricity to keep them viable.
If we ever had a prolonged power outage, you would find me in the back yard with my propane camp stove, pressure canning the contents of our freezer. Mostly fruits and vegetables, and a bit of meat. Hopefully that never happens.
So, the only canning left on my itinerary is pressure canning our garden tomatoes, all organic, all non-gmo. As they ripen they are washed and frozen whole. When the growing season is over, and all of the tomatoes have ripened and have been frozen, it will be time to can them.
I can’t think of a better way to wait out a heat wave, which broke this morning. I’ve been canning since last weekend, and it has been hot as hades here. But I’ve indulged myself by working hard in an air-conditioned house, which is even kept cool in the evenings when the pressure canner is sputtering away on the stove!
Worldly
Weather
22°C
Date: 9:00 AM EDT Thursday 6 September 2018
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.1 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 21.5°C
Dew point: 17.9°C
Humidity: 80%
Wind: NNE 19 km/h
Humidex: 27
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“The first time I see a jogger smiling, I’ll consider it.”
Joan Rivers
1935 –
This reminds me of a trip to Costco… I’ve not once seen a smiling face on a customer in there! The staff however, are extremely pleasant and smile a lot, for which I give them credit, considering the dour lot that shop there.
If we lived closer you would be my go to person to teach me to can. I would be at your door with Tim Horton’s in hand as a way of a bribe. I have decided that next year I am going to try.
I have said pretty much the same thing as Joan Rivers. Every jogger looks absolutely miserable. I had a fellow blogger that read my blog on occasion who was really into jogging. One day I posted about the joggers running by my house and how they all looked like they hated every step. She never commented again. But that was fine because she regularly took stabs at people who were “pudgy” which I am. The thing is, my comment was done in fun. Hers wasn’t
I love Costco! If we ever meet I will take you with me and we will have such fun.
Birdie, I’d love to teach you to can! It is so much fun, and the results are so satisfying. The hot water bath canning is the simpler method, and you can can fruits that way, that is where I began. I only took up pressure canning a few years ago, and for that I’d recommend being picky about where your info comes from, as canning low-acid foods such as vegetables, meats, and some tomatoes, if not done properly, can result in botulism, which is often fatal. You need to know what you are doing with low-acid foods. Fruits are higher in acid, so they don’t need the high temperatures that you get with prssure canning. I love canned peaches, strawberries, plums…
Jogging was never something I wanted to do. I love to walk. There is so much to see, to enjoy, to savour, on a long walk. When I job or run, my only concerns is where my next step is going to land, and how to keep breathing.
Joggers do look miserable when they are doing their thing. So do cyclists, the ones with skin tight designer outfits and all the latest gear. I’ve not seen one of them smiling either, while riding or resting.
I do believe Costco would be transformed we were to go on a spree!
I have no memory of telling you to put the apples thru a food mill since I’ve never used one myself (at least I can’t remember doing that!!) I don’t even remember ever making applesauce but my friend Sandy F. makes it all the tie – she makes it in her iPot.
Any progress on getting this Reply box to do auto-fill yet?
Bex, you mentioned a food mill at a different time than the apple sauce session where Wendy pointed out how wonderful a food mill would be for processing applesauce. You didn’t say you had one, you talked about them.
I’ve tweaked the settings, and that might make a difference. The software keeps “improving” which results in unexpected changes, and/or one of the additional pieces of software called plugins has “improved”. Let me know if the tweak addressed your issue. Thanks for reminding me!