Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Putting it by






It's harvest time all right, and today since it was cool I decided to do my first canning session of the season. I made 9 1/2 pints of apricot jam today out of the apricots that Chris froze while I was on my trip. I also made 6 cups of pesto and an apple pie! Somehow that amounted to an entire day in the kitchen. Poor Eliza fell asleep at the table waiting for me to bring her some more yogurt while I was stirring the jam to keep it from burning.

I've also figured out how to use the solar oven to dry tomatoes. I put them on three racks and then prop the door open about 2 inches or so with a rock. Even with the door open the temp inside still gets above 200F. I've been drying the Supersweet 100's and the Yellow Pears in addition to the Romas. It takes about 8 hours. They turn out really well but I have to watch it because the ones on the top rack will burn before the bottom ones are done. A bit of shade for the top rack is probably in order. No drying today though because we had another full day of clouds and rain. It's really unbelievable weather.

3 comments:

~Crystal~ said...

I definitely would love some of that jam...would even pay you for it. I also would love to come out and learn...PLEASE...I need the skills...remember. heehee
Crystal

Chris said...

Don't worry, there will be lots more canning before the season is over. The jam I made the other day came from two bags of apricots--I think we have at least four more!

Jenny

Madeline Rains said...

You're inspiring me to get back into the freezing. i froze a bunch of our tomateos into sauce but need to do the pesto and the peppers this week. You did so much in one day! Wow!