Canning 2012

Green Tomato Mincemeat
fresh out of the hot water canning bath.

We've been canning tomatoes, and assorted produce from The Mother's garden. Today we finally tallied up what we could find sitting in Kerr and Ball jar boxes around the house.

The tomaoto plants have been the biggest givers this year, we just picked over 20 pounds more this morning that will need to be processed tomorrow. We've been picking an average of every other day for weeks now.

Here's our canning accomplishment so far:

4 - 1/2 pints of beet relish
3 - 1/2 pints mango chutney
4 pints banana peppers
5 pints green tomato mincemeat

6 pints pickled beans
7 pints mixed pickled vegetables
21 pints pickled beets

17 quarts whole/puréed tomatoes
13 quarts pasta sauce
12 pints pasta sauce
2 quarts salsa
12 pints salsa

The list will grow as we harvest more beets and tomatoes. And soon we'll be moving, and preparing for our own garden.

It's been fun learning, and we're really getting the hang of it.

Update - September 01, 2012:

3 quarts hot salsa
5 pints hot salsa
2 pinta heavy tomato sauce
4 -1/2 pints heavy tomato sauce
11 quarts stewed tomatoes
1 pint stewed tomatoes

Update - Spetember 03, 2012:

3 quarts stewed tomatoes
14 quarts stewed tomato chili mix (hot peppers, peppers, onion, garlic, tomato & cumin)
4 pints stewed tomato chili mix (hot peppers, peppers, onion, garlic, tomato & cumin)

Update - September 07, 2012:
7 quarts stewed tomatoes
1 pint stewed tomatoes
3 pints tomato sauce, seedless
2 - 1/2 pints tomato sauce, seedless

Update - September 08, 2012:
1 quart pasta sauce
5 pints pasta sauce
6 pints hot salsa
2 pints green tomato chutney
4 - 1/2 pints green tomato chutney
4 pints green tomato mincemeat

Update - Septeber 25, 2012
9 - 1/2 pints green tomato chutney
1 pint green tomato chutney
4 - 1/4 pints mango chutney
9 quarts tomato sauce

Update - September 30, 2012
12 quarts stewed tomaatoes

Countdown...

It's about a week, to a week and a half, before we put offers on one, or two (depending on how the first one goes) farms. It's been nearly three months of failed offers, and waiting.

The first property: 40 acres consisting of loads of trees with a small rolling pasture, a huge yard around the house with loads of garden space, lilac bushes, a young apple tree and the willow tree that we have mentioned in the entries about the property on the other blog, and three pole sheds in mediocre condition, one of which is giant.
Property number two: 20 acres of mostly tillable/pasture land with very few trees, a nice sized yard, and three maples in the handful of trees in the yard - for tapping syrup - the house is half the size of the first property and it has three buildings in very good condition, one of which is very small.

Both houses need A LOT of work.

It's getting close to fall, which is a good time to select gardening spots on those properties - they currently don't have any from the last owners - and till it up, working the dirt, preparing it for it's first growing season.

Soon we will have renovation tales, and photos of as much as we can, and we will be a whole different kind of stressed, the kind that comes with a massive uncertain future, as the whole of us, and James, try to build a self-sustaining existence and become "farmers".