Category: Farm

And the shelves fill

Yesterday’s tomatoes, became today’s pizza sauce. I still don’t have the lids I ordered, still can’t purchase anything but wide mouth ones locally, but I grabbed the 8 regular mouth ones I found on new jars in the basement and made pizza sauce. I tripled the recipe which says it makes 2 half pint jars, but from experience, I know it makes more than that, so I put 8 half pint jars in the biggest stockpot with the strainer basket, that is all that will fit and all the lids I had. It was set to boil to sterilize the jars and later can them and I poured boiling water over the scored and cored tomatoes in two batches. Once one batch was peeled, cored, and diced, the seasoning was added and it started cooking down as I added the second batch of diced tomatoes. When it is a rough sauce, thick enough for pizza, it is ladled into the jars, sealed, and put in the water bath to can.

The sauce filled the 8 jars and there was a pint left, so it was put in a wide mouth pint with a new lid and it will go in the freezer with the pasta sauce, peas, and beans.

I will make pasta sauce from the remaining tomatoes that are harvested this season, there were several more turning pink that I saw when I went out to let the hens out this morning.

As I write this, I hear the satisfying pop of sealing lids on the counter in the kitchen. There will be 15 half pint jars on the shelves and the pint in the freezer. With the quarter pint that went into the freezer with the last batch, that is more than enough for a pizza a week for the next year.

The Tomatillos from yesterday, though enough for a batch of sauce, were frozen until I get more lids. Son 1 likes the Tomatillo/Jalapeno sauce as green salsa, so I will probably can it for him to use, the first batch will provide enough for my cooking needs. As the Tomatillos are producing prolifically now and will until a frost, I will probably make a batch of Tomatillo Pepper jam which is a good substitute for a barbeque glaze or as a condiment on a Charcuterie plate. Then any more after that will just be frozen for soup or canned halves in quart jars for the same purpose. They can be added to chili or pozole.

Yesterday morning, I took stock of the dry goods in the house, consolidated jars, washed a dishwasher full of dusty jars, and made a list of pastas, soups, rice, and cereals that can be bought in larger quantities and stored so that we will have to make fewer trips to town if Covid increases here or if we have a bad winter. We will make a large grocery run this week and then keep a close eye on the daily reports on both the virus and the weather. I worry a bit that so much has been frozen with the hurricane that is about to slam Texas or Louisiana with current tracking showing it may turn east after landfall and hit us with some wind and rain next week. We don’t have a generator to keep the freezer going. If I were to plan this house again, the water catchment system that was to be used to water livestock we never got, would be exchanged for a whole house generator that would at least keep the freezer, refrigerator, and well pump going during power outages. Though I don’t like canned vegetables, if I could get lids, the pasta sauce in the freezer could be thawed, boiled, and canned. First we couldn’t get toilet paper, flour, and yeast. Now you can’t get canning lids. I have never canned pasta sauce in wide mouth jars, and usually use pints, but I might can it in wide mouth pints, and if I can get my hands on a dozen regular mouth lids, I could do quarts, I have plenty of jars.

The garden continues to provide. Last night I opened a jar of last year’s applesauce and noted it was canned on 9/19/2019, so it is only a few short weeks until the fruit on the trees is ready to harvest and make into fruit sauces and jams.

Minor roadblock

Day before yesterday, after dinner, the tomatillos were finely chopped, onion, garlic, jalapenos, lime juice, salt, chili flakes added to a pot to make the simmer sauce. The recipe says it makes 2 half pint jars and I was doubling it, but it looked to me like it was going to make at least 5 or 6 half pint jars after it cooked down. Because it was a small quantity canning, instead of the big canner, I just pulled out the largest stockpot that had one of the deep strainer inserts and started heating up the jars and water. Grabbed the box of lids and a hand full of rings and started setting up. When I opened the box of lids, there were only 4 left, scrabbling through the basket, there were wide mouth ones still boxed, but no more regular mouthed ones. We turned everything off and drove down to the village store, they always have canning supplies. Well, they didn’t and said they can’t get them. Generally when I can, I write in marker on the lid, the contents and date made after they have cooled, and I save a few used lids to use on jars of leftovers or ones going in the freezer as they don’t have to seal. The drawer of used lids had three that weren’t written on, maybe I hadn’t canned with them. I marked those three lids and used them, the recipe had made 6 half pints and 1 quarter pint jar. I figured if for some reason they didn’t seal, I would know which three jars they were and just stick them in the freezer.

All 7 jars firmly sealed, but I was left with the issue of not being able to get lids. The grocer in town doesn’t have any, the village store doesn’t have any, I won’t go to a big box store in these times. About a decade ago, I bought reusable canning lids and wasn’t very happy with them so I sold them, but hoping they have improved, a went online and purchased a few dozen to have on hand. I still have wide mouth lids, but don’t can much with them.

Late yesterday afternoon as I was making dinner plans, I realized that the window sill full of tomatoes either needed to be frozen or used, so I scored the blossom ends and poured boiling water over them and set about to make pasta sauce. There was an eggplant in the refrigerator and an 8 oz container of fresh mozzarella, so eggplant Parmesan seemed like a good dinner option. The tomatoes were peeled and chopped, the oregano I picked a couple of days ago, a handful of drying basil leaves, a bit of fresh Thyme and Rosemary, some onion and garlic and all set to simmer while I prepared the eggplant for the oven. A slightly drained ladle of the chunky sauce was put in the bottom of the baking pan and while the sauce continued to simmer down, the eggplant baked and a pot of water boiled for Cappelini, a salad made, vinaigrette mixed and dinner was ready. The extra sauce was put in widemouth pint jars with plenty of headroom to expand, lidded and put in the refrigerator overnight to cool down. This morning, they were added to the supply of pasta sauce already in the freezer. I would prefer to make enough to can at one time, but the tomatoes aren’t coming in fast enough for that and there are no lids. With the chest freezer in the basement and the refrigerator freezer, I will just freeze jars this year.

When the reuseable lids arrive in the mail, I will can more pizza sauce with the next batch of tomatoes and have lids for Asian pear marmalade later in the fall, more tomatillo sauce, and applesauce if the deer don’t get all the apples. They have eaten the lower branch tips and all of the apples they can reach. They don’t mess with the Asian pears though.

The garden is providing fresh beans again, a bag shared with daughter who couldn’t find seed for a second planting. I will pick them again today or tomorrow and blanch another batch for the freezer. I am always thankful for whatever the garden gives. The more I freeze and can, the fewer groceries I need to buy shipped in from parts unknown during the off season. I started a dozen spinach plants indoors since it is slow to germinate and the weeds are quick to germinate in the heat and rain, I want to be able to find it when it is planted outside. If we don’t have an early frost, we should have beans, peas, carrots, spinach, maybe a few kale plants to carry us into the cooler weather. There are a few more ears of corn forming, I hope they are more developed than the 4 that were from the first two surviving plants. I don’t think planting sweet corn is worth my time when we don’t care for it frozen and I can purchase it 2 for $1 or $1.50 during the season. Maybe I will return to planting popcorn next year. We will have to purchase our pumpkin for pies this year, every time I planted seed this spring, something ate the small plants before they were more than 4 or 5 leaves in size. Last year, the 3 plants nearly overtook the garden.

Keeping Busy

As event after event have been cancelled for this year, I must keep busy.

All of the fiber festivals have been cancelled, some are trying virtual; the Agricultural Fair in our Village, the huge street fair in Blacksburg, the retreat that I love to attend, the trips to visit our kids and to the vacation spot of my youth, have all had to not be held this year for the health and safety of the proprietors, vendors, and the participants.

Added to this, the weather has not be typical. I am generally not mowing grass this time of year, or only doing so rarely, but it has rained and rained some more and in a week’s time the grass gets so tall and so thick that the riding mower has trouble getting through it. Last evening, after a dry day, the front and part of the east side yard were mowed and it was as tall as if I hadn’t mowed just a week ago. I will try to finish today once the dew and fog burn off. The rain has made this a cucumber, pepper, and basil year, but the tomatoes are not doing very well. My single leader up a tall pole idea was good, but they are too close together, shading each other and being shaded by the asparagus ferny tops. We will get enough for pizza sauce, maybe one more big pot of tomato sauce, but not the quantity of years past. The refrigerator and shelves are full of pickles. Two more baskets of basil are drying, one already dry and jarred for winter.

The oregano was pruned and put in a basket to dry and the plant moved from the half barrel to the herb bed in the new walled garden while the soil was still damp.

Enough tomatillos were picked today to give me the quantity needed to make a batch of simmer sauce and since about a half dozen more jalapenos were clipped, it will be the spicy version. That will be made later today as dinner prep is easy tonight.

The summer reading has been mostly Appalachian fiction, some of it historical fiction, and a book recommended on the spindle group in a conversation.

When not cooking, gardening, or reading, I continue to spin on the Jenkins Turkish spindles. I find the process soothing and calming and can spin anywhere; in my stressless chair, on a porch, in the car, in the kitchen while waiting for the next step in the cooking process.

I guess I will have to find a use for all the yarn I have created since I won’t have Holiday markets to vend in this year. Many of the yarns are in my Etsy shop, but it isn’t seeing much activity during this time either.

At times I stay busy, at times I get low and cry over the losses, especially not being able to visit with our children and grandchildren. We are ever so grateful to Son 2 and his family for reaching out and making a stop near enough for us to meet our youngest grandson, even though it was masked and socially distanced. I know we aren’t alone in this, but that doesn’t make it any easier to accept.