More Applesauce

I've finished my applesauce making for the year. The total is 41 quarts; which took 4 afternoons, since I worked on it by myself.

I would put canning in the 'fun' work category.

Nebo Loop

This was a nice Saturday. Joe and I got to ride along with my mom and dad to look at the Fall colors.

These first pictures are going up Payson Canyon:



I loved the red leaves. I took this from the back seat of the car. This tree was so close I could almost touch it:




Deer on the side of the road:




We stopped in the Black hawk camp area for a picnic lunch. This area was kind of neat because every camp or picnic site had a hitching rail for horses. There were a few horses and mules up there. I've always sort of liked horses.
This is mom and dad:


Mount Nebo (also called the 'Magestic Mountain')



We stopped at an overlook and got out of the car:




On the way home we passed through Fountain Green. Mom showed us where she lived for about seven months as a nine year old girl. There's no house or barn here anymore; just a dry field and some trees.


Mom shared some of her experiences in Fountain Green. She had to eat a lot of muttin (lamb) and she didn't like it much. She was glad when they left there.


We made another stop in Mount Pleasant. That little town has a very nice museum.
We came out through Spanish Fork Canyon. They drove us back to Sandy and they went back to Salt Lake City.
Nice day!!

Plum Jam

Today's project was plum jam.



The 4 jars on the left had a tsp. of butter added to the cooking stage and resulted in an attractive, clear gel. The 4 jars on the right were done without the tsp. of butter and they came out a bit foamy.


I found several good recipes and after studying them I took some small liberties to suit my own taste.
My own recipe looks something like this:
1 batch= 6 cups of blanched, pitted, peeled and chopped plums
2 tbls. lemon juice
1 1/2 pkgs. no sugar needed pectin
1 cup honey (instead of 4 cups of granulated sugar)

I had 24 med. plums which made 12 cups of chopped plums.
I ran two separate batches since every recipe said to keep the batches between 6-8 cups each. This is so the pectin can set up.
I also put half of each batch through my blendtek mixer so that it was part smooth and part chunky.
The jam was poured through a funnel into the jars which had just come out of the dishwasher. The lids were soaked in very hot water.
Finally I put all the jars in my steamer canner for about 20 minutes.

Peaches

Today I did a tiny peach canning project. I've never done them before and I wanted the experience. I used just eleven store bought peaches.
I did learn something important too; peaches shrink! Next time I'll be sure that every slice is laying on it's side and I'll squeeze as many peaches into a jar as possible.


My next little project will probably be jam. That should be super easy.

Salsa

My tomato plants did so well that I had to find a way to use all the tomatoes. The best way was to make salsa. This recipe used 30 tomatoes and made 20 pints. It was surprisingly simple; just blanch and peel tomatoes , chop a lot of things, and then simmer for a couple of hours . I put all the jars through the dishwasher, filled them and then sealed them with my steamer.




When I got done in the kitchen I went and found my son and his younger sister out scraping old paint off of the trim on our smaller upper deck.
Having grown children is so nice. Sometimes they're very helpful.

Applesauce

I've just finished making applesauce. It took me a couple of afternoons to do this. In the end, I have 19 quart jars, plus 12 pint jars, counting one that was eaten already. I would have had 20 quart jars, except one jar broke in the steamer and I threw it all out. I didn't want to feed glass to anyone.



The apples came from mom and dads trees.
My next project will probably be Salsa. I need to use up all the tomatoes that I'm harvesting from the yard.