urbandryad

Pulled the lacto cucumber pickles out of the crock. They're really great, not too salty, lots of flavour, not hard-sour and a little bit fizzy. The recipe was: a handful of garlic cloves, several bay leaves, some black peppercorns, and many dill heads. Brine poured hot (just not boiling) over them at (half cup canning salt to 3 quarts water, imperial measurements bother me, what % brine is this?). They were in the crock 2 weeks at fairly warm (woodstove heated) temps.

I made a brandied applesauce, just applesauce with brandy and a trace more sugar than usual.

I also made an apple muffin recipe out of applesauce:
Cream 1/2 cup butter and 3/4 cup sugar. Add an egg and vanilla. Add 1 cup applesauce. Add 1/2 tsp soda, a bit of salt, some nutmeg and 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 2 cups flour (I used whole whear). 350F for 20-25 minutes. They're pretty good, even without baking powder. This is a half recipe, the whole recipe made something like 30 muffins.

Then mom came up and I canned 25 lbs of tomatoes: roast at 400 for 40 minutes, slip skins off, pack, add citric acid, pressure can @ 5lbs for 40 mins or 10 for 25. They don't seem to have separated, which is nice. There was a little siphoning.

I also was given a bunch of peeled garlic. I put a jar of it to ferment with 10% salt brine. Again brined hot, it's bubbling away.

Then I put up three jars (2 1.5L and one gallon jar) of carrots, jalapenos, and some garlic in a 5% brine (note this is a pickling 5% brine which does not factor in the weight of the veggies). Hopefully they'll start bubbling away soon.

My intention with the fermented things is to pasteurize them at 180F if I run out of fridge room.

Then I have 25 kgs of cabbage and another 6lbs of jalapenos, I'm going to mix cabbage and "some" jalapenos for my sauerkraut. I'll definitely have cabbage left over.

I also will have a bunch of carrots left over, the plan is to eventually can them as glazed carrots (2 cups brown sugar, 2 cups water, 1 cup orange juice, carrots go into the jars cold, pour the syrup over them hot, pressure can 11lbs for 30min.

Desert Hills, the farm market I've been buying from, makes me pretty happy.

Then this coming weekend will be a butcher, so I'll be canning some chili and some pork in wine sauce (adapted from beef in wine sauce) or Italian sausage and putting up more bacon, coppa, and prosciutto. I have a bit of spruce syrup to go in that. I also should do some pork jerky with the syrup from cowboy candy. That would be amazing smoked.

Those pickles are bubbling away! I put them in 1L (and one 1.9L) mason jars, the kinds with necks, and today loosened the ring on each lid for just a second-- enough to let the pickles outgas if they were pressurized. I did not lift the lids or anything. As I opened each one, bubbles rushed to the surface, and the most lovely smell filled the room.

I only just read that the blossom ends of even whole pickles should be trimmed off to prevent softening, and I didn't do that on mine, so we'll see how it goes.

I feel like more than a dozen 1L jars of whole sour pickles is silly for one person, so I picked up a bunch of narrow-necked 500ml pint jars with the intention of making fermented pickle chips. I also want to do some cooked ones with vinegar, maybe with some cayenne in with the dill. However, my last brine sat in my cooking pot just a little too long, and stripped the finish off the pot some (it was the extra brine, so it didn't then go into the pickles, thank goodness).

I made a second batch of butter peaches, and need to make SO MUCH MORE. I will, however, only buy organic butter for this, and it is expensive, so I'm now hoping the cool weather will slow the peaches ripening until payday. I will say this, though-- fresh muffins and a bowl of extra butter peaches with a mug of milk is perhaps the best lunch I have ever had. Those peaches are thus far worth every penny.