Lillian and baby helping me snap beans. I quit before the bean plants quit producing... I feel like it's a waste but my hands were hurting from snapping so much and we had 53 quarts of beans and 7 gallon sized bags frozen. (I swear I bathe my children!)
22 lemons juiced and one beer drank...
This isn't even all of them!!!
From left to right
Lemon Poppy seed
Peach Amaretto
Cherry Limeade
Pina Colada
Watermelon
Margarita
Pink Merlot
Not pictured is Carmel Apple Jam (may make another batch because it's soooooo good!) and I will make some habenro jam yet once those are ready...
And yes, I am selling them!! Ask me about them if you want some!!! GREAT gifts!!!
Grandma's Lime Pickles (sweet sandwich pickles) 2 gallons worth so- 8 quarts-ish
Grandma's Cinnamon pickles (I skipped the coloring them red process as how much red food die do we really need in our diets anyway. So they may not be as pretty but they will still taste yummy!)- 2 gallons
10 quarts of apple pie filling, Peach pie filling is in the back and I'm not sure how many of those are in there, I think 6-ish but the peaches on trees are not quite ripe yet so may add a few more :)
And here's my pantry (hopefully soon, this will be moved to the new house!!!)
So, unfortunate but we (Mom and I) lost about 25 quarts of green beans due to something called flat sour. Canning is a learning process I think for everyone, new or advanced at the hobby... Apparently it happens if when you let the beans sit too long before processing. Well, I'm terrified of pressure canning. Maybe someday I will get the nerve to start trying it but until then, I snap them and get them ready for my Mom and then she pressure cans them for me. It took a few days to get to her and while time to eat them fresh would have been okay apparently, they started getting this bacteria and caused quite a bit of heartache in terms of canners everywhere. 25 of about the 90 quarts that were canned became either unsealed or were just cloudy and smelled awful when we dumped them. So, education for all others, make sure you get them processed ASAP! After the loss, we have kept around 40 quarts of green beans that are still good.
Tomatoes aren't even ripe yet. I really think that I'm just going to can them for soups or chili or even salsa in the middle of winter... You get to a point of almost burning out in the kitchen and I'm getting close to that. After the pickles I have yet and habenro jelly, and a few jars of tomatoes I think I'll be done in the kitchen.
I have also accepted that we will not be moving into the new house until after chopping (since that starts... today) I am taking the time to clear out each room and boxing up the stuff that we don't need for the next 3 months, throwing away all the stuff we don't need and just hoping when the time comes to move it will be a speedy processes. I didn't get a good picture of the kitchen on my camera before now so here's a picture I put on Facebook with the kindle...
There are doors on all the upper cabinets now and most of the bottom cabinets. The island is almost done (probably done now just needs stained and varnished.) So, next blog post I'll get that picture for you!!!
Finally, the kids enjoying half a jar of watermelon jelly!
