Life in Tee Harbor, Alaska

Canning Projects and Garage Sales

What have I been doing lately?  I worked on the greenhouse - got it painted red and planted my tomatoes in it.  They are so happy!  I just was in there tonight and counted 17 little tomatoes - I can't wait to eat the first ripe one.  The greenhouse is so nice - keeping everything not too cold, not too warm, not too wet!  There are only a couple of little tomatoes on the plants in the raised bed that has a plastic cover.  I think it is too wet in there for them to pollinate - I try to open them up when it is nice out so they can dry out.

I've been working on some canning projects this week.  My strawberries are finally ripe and so far I've picked 1 3/4 pounds - I've been weighing them to see how much it produces this year.  I had enough to make 4 jars of jam - and boy it was good on my homemade wheat bread this morning.  I also made a batch of jalapeno jelly (5 jars) - very good with cream cheese on crackers.  Then tonight I canned 4 jars of Rhubarb Orange Jam - very good combination.  There are quite a few other new things I want to try with things I've grown:  mint jelly, bluberry bonanza (syrup with the juice of the berries and butter with the leftover pulp), blueberry pie filling, rhubarb red currant preserves, blueberry sauce.  I'd like to try canning pizza sauce with store bought tomato paste.    Also want to make more dill pickles with the recipe I found last year - they are so good and we didn't have nearly enough!  If things work out, I hope to have some salmon to can as well - we are down to our last jar...

The garage sales yesterday were great!  We got some good deals...  a new Lodge 6 qt dutch oven with legs (the kind for cooking outside), 20 new boxes of canning lids, a new Aladdin thermos, a new axe and wedge, 5 new pair of socks for Rod, 4 packages of cloth diapers that I plan to sew up into pads for me - all that for only $30!  I picked up some 4" plastic pots and some gallon size for next years seed starting and two really cool wooden planters that I am going to stain and probably put on the porch.  Got a free bag of wood chips for the smoker and a box of canning lids and rings with roses on them - thought they would be good when doing up Christmas gifts.  Got a few other misc things - was a productive Saturday morning!

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10:38 PM, Sunday, July 29, 2007 .. Posted by crewchief

So, how do you do pizza sauce with store bought tomato paste? I mentioned that I wanted to do some spaghetti sauce and my mom had a cow. "you can't do tomatoes up here! The tomatoes up here are AWFUL!!"

I guess she's right. They aren't nearly as good as the down south tomatoes. At least, that's what I've heard. I don't like tomatoes, just sauce. LOL

Wonderful

2:22 AM, Monday, July 30, 2007 .. Posted by Chas

Wonderful!!! I just canned many pints and jelly jars of strawberry jam, but I had to buy my berries this year, our plants will produce next Lord willing! Sounds like you have been quite a busy bee!!
Have a great day!

My Cup Runneth Over...
Chas