WHAT ARE YOU CANNING TODAY?

[CrealCritter]

I'm not much of a canner - I mainly babysit the water bather or pressure canner for my wife. But I like fermenting... beer (I don't hardly drink beer anymore), pickles, cabbage, etc... I just sat down from putting together approx 2x 4 gallons of hot dill garlic and regular garlic dill pickles.

Here's hot garlic dill pickle spices (cherry leaves, dill heads, garlic, habenero & mustard seeds)

Pickles in 5 gallon food grade bucket

And pickles held under salt water brine with a dinner plate, 1/2 pint canning jars and the screw top lid.

 

[CrealCritter]

My wife has a big ole pot of sweet relish on the stove. I'm pretty sure she cans (water baths) it. IDK I'm not allowed in the kitchen much. I do know she puts it in 1/2 pint canning jars. I just know the whole house smells real good right about now

We picked a 50 gallon yard tote of pickles yesterday so she's working away at them.

I just noticed I caught our outdoor guard dog stealing a tomato - he's a tomato thief -:lol

 

[CrealCritter]

Here's the garden carrots my wife "put up" as she calls it a few weeks ago. I think we'll have enough make it though the winter. I know these were pressure canned because I baby sat the pressure canner a little bit for her.

 

[Beekissed]

My wife has a big ole pot of sweet relish on the stove. I'm pretty sure she cans (water baths) it. IDK I'm not allowed in the kitchen much. I do know she puts it in 1/2 pint canning jars. I just know the whole house smells real good right about now
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We picked a 50 gallon yard tote of pickles yesterday so she's working away at them.
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I just noticed I caught our outdoor guard dog stealing a tomato - he's a tomato thief -:lol

I love all your pics!!!! And I seriously love it that you babysit the canners for your wife...so sweet. Keep 'em coming and I hope you enter a few of these into the Pic of the Week contest, as they would surely win.

I have tomato stealing dogs too, which is one reason my dogs are not allowed in the garden....nigh steal ya blind if you let 'em! One season I was waiting for that first big tomato to ripen...you know how that is, you are thinking of how good that thing is going to taste on a sammich? Watched it, waited, went out one day and that huge thing was just gone!

So, waited for the next one...figured maybe the flock had gotten it. Nope...caught the mutt red-pawed carrying that big ol' Brandywine out of the garden. Up went the fence and the pooch has never been allowed in my garden again. He was also stealing sweet corn, potatoes, peppers, etc.

 

[CrealCritter]

I love all your pics!!!! And I seriously love it that you babysit the canners for your wife...so sweet. Keep 'em coming and I hope you enter a few of these into the Pic of the Week contest, as they would surely win.

I have tomato stealing dogs too, which is one reason my dogs are not allowed in the garden....nigh steal ya blind if you let 'em! One season I was waiting for that first big tomato to ripen...you know how that is, you are thinking of how good that thing is going to taste on a sammich? Watched it, waited, went out one day and that huge thing was just gone!

So, waited for the next one...figured maybe the flock had gotten it. Nope...caught the mutt red-pawed carrying that big ol' Brandywine out of the garden. Up went the fence and the pooch has never been allowed in my garden again. He was also stealing sweet corn, potatoes, peppers, etc.

I have to have an electric fence around my gardens. Our property backs up to the Shawnee national Forest and I have no control of that critter wonders out of there and into the gardens. That's the main reason I have a 100 % out door guard dog. Here's some kind of Shepard mix and makes his rounds around the place like clock work.

I did want to say yeah my wife does a little bit of canning - snicker. She's a canning whirlwind I would say. Who ever invented the pressure canner was one smart person. It's like the greatest invention ever!

Here's her empties just waiting to be filled with goodness

 

[tortoise]

That's a beautiful shelf of jars!

I'm jealous of your cucumbers! I don't think any of my cucumber plants survived in my garden this year. Are you willing to share your pickle recipe? I'm looking for a no heat recipe. DH was happy with my 50% water 50% vinegar no heat pickles, but then he didn't like the spice blend. The previous batch he didn't like the texture but he liked the spice blend. ... I used the same spices both times.

 

[CrealCritter]

That's a beautiful shelf of jars!

I'm jealous of your cucumbers! I don't think any of my cucumber plants survived in my garden this year. Are you willing to share your pickle recipe? I'm looking for a no heat recipe. DH was happy with my 50% water 50% vinegar no heat pickles, but then he didn't like the spice blend. The previous batch he didn't like the texture but he liked the spice blend. ... I used the same spices both times.

Still trying to learn how to use the site - I'm on a mobile device and I must say who ever develop this site did a great job. It's perhaps one of the best I've seen for mobile compatibility.

That being said of course I'll share my recipe. Please bear in mind these contain no vinegar at all - they are fermented. I like to let them ferment fully for "sours" but you can also do 1/2 sours and all points in between - how ever you like for sour taste. The key to maintaining crispy-ness or crunchy-ness is the tannin acid contained in the leaves. I have lots of wild black cherry trees on the property so I use cherry tree leaves, but oak tree leaves will also work as will grape vine leaves.

The basic recipe is here ---> http://www.wildfermentation.com/making-sour-pickles-2/#0

The basic recipe makes great sour garlic dill pickles your husband may really like these. I've tweeked the basic recipe over the years to my familes personal taste and add more fresh dill heads than the recipe calls for and omitted the black peppercorns and added mustard seed.

But other than that it's pretty much spot on. Of course you could spice it up a bit and make hot pickles by adding hot peppers also.

Oh as you can see in the photo - I use a plastic food grade bucket with a food grade screw type lid. If I had a oak barrel I would definitely use that instead that way I wouldn't have to add leaves.

I'm not mean... i really wished your cukes done better. But ours are really doing well this year and are basically trying to make a jungle. I have really good success with --> http://sustainableseedco.com/heirlo...wisconsin-smr-58-pickling-cucumber-seeds.html. You only need buy the seeds once and let a few grow huge and get orange then cut them loose from the vine and seed them for next year. You'll have several hundred seeds to plant.

Here's what my pickle patch looks like this year.

1 of the 6 - 8' tall tee-pees

If I can be of any more assistance please let me know. I'm no pickle expert by any means... but I can try and help if you need it.

 

[sumi]

Goodness, all those jars of produce looks amazing! And the pickles… Any chance you can charm your wife into sharing her relish recipe?

 

[Beekissed]

WOW. Your wife is productive on that canning! And those strong shelves...I'm drooling those shelves!!! I'm betting you built those?? Excellent build, excellent stores. Kudos to you both. Just beautiful to see all those gem colors lining those shelves...good wife you have there, but I'm sure you know that.

And those cukes!!!! Just beautiful!!! If you don't mind me asking....where abouts do you live?

 

[lcertuche]

I've never heard of adding any leaves but grape so thanks for sharing.