Putting Food By

I just got back from a local orchard where I picked close to 7 pounds of sour cherries. To pair up with the 6 pounds I picked a couple of days ago. Up in the orchard, net off the tree. It is hot but there is a bit of a breeze and the humidity is low. No gnats, today. Beautiful red cherries, glowing in the sun. What a joy, using small hand clippers to cut the stems and drop cherries in the bucket.



Now comes the hard work of pitting them. Some will go into a tart. or maybe a clafoutis. Some will be frozen, whole and pitted. The larger portion will be turned into jam. I have some lavender sugar I made last year - maybe use for one batch.

Then, when cold weather comes this winter I can open a jar, summer saved in a jar, and enjoy.

catapault said:

summer saved in a jar

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Back to the orchard today to buy two quarts of blueberries. One to eat fresh and one to freeze. These are worth the higher price than supermarket blueberries because these are hand-picked. Commercial blueberries - they take a machine down the row shaking the branches so forcefully that the agitation knocks the berries off.

Fresh berries - I can eat them by the handful. Or make a parfait. Blueberry jam is quite nice too. Blueberry sauce for vanilla ice cream or summer pudding.

To freeze blueberries just spread them out in a jelly roll pan, one blueberry deep. Place in freezer until solidly frozen, then portion into freezer bags. I usually measure out in 2-cup portions. Frozen berries are great for smoothies. Or baked into muffins, in winter.

I see that other people are looking, but not responding. If I'm the only one that's rather boring.

I usually buy blueberries from a local organization as part of their fundraising in the summer. They sell 10 pounds of blueberries for $31 and the berries are gorgeous. Nice and big and so good. I portion them out in 2-cup containers/bags because most of my recipes use two cups of berries and then freeze them. I throw them into muffins and coffee cake. I make a blueberry buckle from time to time; the guys at work love buckle. And I love to eat frozen blueberries.

I have a good recipe for Northern Cherry Puffs, if you're interested. Something to use with your cherries. Rick really likes it.

We freeze applesauce in the fall and I also can peaches. I dehydrate foods, too, and then we'll eat them as a snack. Grapes, apple slices, pineapple chunks, etc.

As an aside, before they put their pool in, my sister had a huge cherry tree in their back yard. I'd go over every summer and we'd pick cherries. I'd used fresh cherries to make pies, puffs, all kind of things and then we'd can the rest; my sister was a canner long before I ever really started. One day we were picking and her kids wanted lunch. I told her to go in and make them their lunch and I'd keep picking. The tree was huge and I was way up on top branches, probably up around where their attic was in the house. Well, I had worked all night the night before and I thought that, while they were having lunch, I'd take a quick nap. My sister looked out the window, saw me on the ground. "OMG! Pam fell out of the tree! Pam, Pam! You OK? Pam!" I woke up and said, "I'm fine! Stop it! You'll get the whole neighborhood going!" She called me a "b**** with a capital B" and slammed the window shut. I'm the only person who can get in trouble for taking a nap!

BTW, I've been to your site; it's gorgeous!

i can every fall, ALWAYS tomatoes and then some years beans, corn, peaches, apples, adn even meat. The new automatic electric pressure canners are absolutely wonderful!!!

di and bob I should get an electric pressure canner. I have one for stove top use, but it doesn't work well on our glass top stove. When I use it, I have to take it outside and use it on our gas grill. It won't come to proper pressure on the kitchen stove. (I didn't know that when I bought the thing.)

catapault said:

I see that other people are looking, but not responding. If I'm the only one that's rather boring.

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I believe "views" also includes guests to the forum and not just members.

I'm working on a batch of sour cherry jam with lime zest, lime juice, and lavender sugar. I think it will be nice.

Today's summer-in-a-jar is apricot butter with lemon and the last of the lavender sugar. Local apricots and could have used more lavender sugar / less "plain" sugar. But what I scraped up from the preserving pan while the filled jars were processed in the boiling water bath tasted rather nice.

I guess I'm one of the lurkers, but I didn't think I had anything to say. I used to have several fruit trees, a grape vine, and a veggie garden and spent most of the summer over a hot stove. I gave this up when I went to work. Years later, we were still eating grape jelly. My boys and I also went into the woods and picked buckets of wild raspberries. The boys sold apples on the street by the grocery bag-full.

I admire all of you still at it. BTW, a cherry pitter that pits two cherries at a time is a great help. Just be sure to wear clothes destined for the trash heap.

My OXO cherry pitter does one at a time. Still better than when I used to do it with a hair pin slipped in through the stem scar, pushed below the pit, twirled, and removed with the pit riding in the U-shape curve of the hair pin.

This year we tossed the pits out benweath the bird feeder, in several installments. The squirrels and the chipmunks must have thought manna was descending from above.

i have a gallon jar of maraschino cherry juice, that i'll be making into maraschino cherry (juice) jelly. i just need to carve out time to make and can it all.

I gave up canning some time ago. I buy the same pickles I used to make when I had a garden and canned and also pickled beets from a local church in the fall. Their ladies get together in the summertime and can for their fall bazaar. I don't have to make them and my money goes to help church folk.

I freeze everything. In the summer I buy green butter beans and field peas from a local farmer or the farmers market, sit on my porch and shell them. Then I process them for the freezer. I cook fig and pear preserves and freeze in plastic boxes. We give away more pears than I cook. I have a couple who live nearby that come get them. I take them by the bushel to my church.

Our local Piggly Wiggly had South Carolina Freestone peaches a couple weeks ago for 99 cents a pound. i bought some for freezing. I had never done this before and couldn't get reliable instructions so I did them like this. I only worked with six peaches at the time. I started a pot of water, bringing it to a boil. I had a large stainless bowl filled with ice water. I let the peaches stay in the water only long enough to see the skins start to peel. I put them in the water to stop the cooking process and cool them, which happened quickly. Then I peeled them and cut off the pit into slices. I spread them on a parchment lined baking sheet, sprinkled them generously with Fruit Fresh and several tablespoons of white sugar. Then I put the baking sheet into the freezer and them let freeze. Then I started over. My peaches turned out a beautiful yellow color and can be broken apart to take the needed amount from the package. I may do some more.

A friend gives us all the sweet corn we want. I freeze some cut off the cob and some on the cob.

blueyedgirl5946 How are the peaches when thawed? I’ve been wanting to freeze peaches, but am afraid they’ll be very mushy.
Thanks!

Winchester So far I have only used them one time. I broke off enough of them to put in two bowls of vanilla ice cream. I let the ice cream thaw just a bit and then cut up some of the slices into the ice cream. Are you worried that they might turn dark?

Winchester I am letting you know some of my peaches were left about 24 hours in the refrigerator. We ate the rest of them yesterday and they were still pretty and yellow.

blueyedgirl5946 said:

Winchester I am letting you know some of my peaches were left about 24 hours in the refrigerator. We ate the rest of them yesterday and they were still pretty and yellow.

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Thanks blueyedgirl5946 ! Yes, I worried that they'd get dark. I'm going to try to freeze them your way. Thanks for the idea!

Winchester Good luck with the peaches. The main thing is don't try to do too many at one time.

catapault said:

I just got back from a local orchard where I picked close to 7 pounds of sour cherries. To pair up with the 6 pounds I picked a couple of days ago. Up in the orchard, net off the tree. It is hot but there is a bit of a breeze and the humidity is low. No gnats, today. Beautiful red cherries, glowing in the sun. What a joy, using small hand clippers to cut the stems and drop cherries in the bucket.

View attachment 290225

Now comes the hard work of pitting them. Some will go into a tart. or maybe a clafoutis. Some will be frozen, whole and pitted. The larger portion will be turned into jam. I have some lavender sugar I made last year - maybe use for one batch.

Then, when cold weather comes this winter I can open a jar, summer saved in a jar, and enjoy.

Click to expand...

We had a sour cherry tree in our back yard growing up. My mother would bake the pies after we picked the cherries. The best cherry pie ever!

i'm getting ready to make some salsa and can it, just a half recipe. i got a 4 quart basket of fresh tomatoes for a good price, and have the other ingredients on hand already. i'll use the rest of those tomatoes in sandwiches, and as a side with my dinners -- sliced, with a little salad dressing drizzled over them.