Canning Tomatos

[SwampDonkey]

MY mother also has sliced them and frozen them for years, no cookin, no sugar. She also makes apple sauce which can also be used in pies or crumble, or whatever. She always froze tons of it as we had a big freezer. Now she does smaller batches for her and dad. Our favorite was always the 'New Brunswicker' , then the 'Yellow Transparent'. I have an old wild apple tree on my woodlot which is good in October after a heavy frost, tastes and cooks up nice and foamy like both the varieties mentioned above. I suspect this tree was planted because its next to an old house I could remember when growing up. It was the original house of the folks that got the land grant. Its long gone now, but father used to keep a horse there back in the 70's when cutting wood. All this talk about pies, I had to make a raspberry pie from my garden berries yesterday. :D This summer they had set heavy fruit, and great big berries. My father has an ever bearing variety that has green fruit now and probably ready in a week or 10 days from now.

[Engineer]

Hey y'all,

Just a general question:  how does one add all this great info about preserving foods to the knowledge base?  (maybe under the recipes section?)  Or, is a general search of the forum going to dig it up just as quickly in, say, six months or a year?

 ???

[Tom]

Usually someone will put it on the knowledge base.  Go to the top of the page and click on  "Knowledge Base".  You wil be taken there so that you can see for yourself.  If you find something is missing that you would like to add, feel free to do so. ;D

Click on the submit do-dad and just go in there try it.  It's easy.  If you think you screwed up, leave me an IM and I'll fix it.   The only thing you can do is create a duplicat.  You can't delete or edit so take your time.  It's a SIMPLE system. :D

[Linda]

Patty,

I talked to my Grandmother.  She remembered that they did use the canned apples for pies quite often.  They just drained most of the juice off and added thickening and spice.

It sounds like Minnesota_boy and Swamp Donkey have an easier method though.  Work smarter not harder. ;)  

Sometimes the old timer recipes are more work, because nobody was brave enough to try something that might fail.  My Grandmother grew up during the depression in a very poor family.  To waste something was terrible (tried and true was the only way for them).

I'm always trying new things, I think I will give the easier freeze method a try myself.  I'm always looking for a way to fit more into a day! ;D

Thanks everyone for your input, lots of great things to try on this thread.

Linda

[Paul_H]

It occurred to me a few years back that fridges and freezers are relatively new.My parents were both born in the early 1930's and I asked them when they first remember having freezers in their homes.(around 1954)

Butter and milk were kept for a day or two in a hole about 4' deep,with a wooded lid covering it in the back yard,but there were a few dairys near town so they didn't stock up like we do.They did have ice boxes,and my dad helped unload ice from the boxcars and store it in sawdust when he was still school aged.

When a cow or pig was butchered,it was shared with neighbours,and was reciprocated when somebody else butchered.So they didn't have access to a juicy steak once or twice a week like we do,but a fresh chicken was always near by.

I was having a coffee several years back, with Orville, an oldtimer that grew up with my granddad.Orville was getting way up in years and a bit of senility had set in.Out of the blue he asked me if I knew how many deer you could get into a barrel ??? I thought  "oh,oh,smile and nod politely"

Anyway,he went on to explain that if you did it right,you could fit nine deer in a barrel.He went on and described how they would de-bone the meat and put down a layer,followed by a layer of salt,more meat and so on...

I was amazed that all this was everyday living, less than 15 years before I was born.We grew up having roasts,steaks,hamburgers, ice cream and strawberrys always as near as the freezer,along with many kinds of frozen vegatables.

I'm glad to see that there are still lots of canners and picklers out there.We can some fruit but I have to admit that we rely heavily on electric freezers.Pull the plug on us and we'd be in a mess.

[Kirk_Allen]

Patty,
I canned a bushel of apples today 8) 8) 8)  

Thats right everyone!  I DID IT ALL BY MYSELF!  Kerry, my wife is at the farm this weekend and I had to get this bushel basket done so this batch was all about ME ;D

If you pick up a copy of the Ball  or Bell?  canning book there are several ways to do apples.

I cored, pealed and sliced these then boiled them in syrup (Sugar & Water) for 10 minutes then canned them.  1 bushel made 12 quarts of apples.

Now they can be used in the future for apple sause, apple pies etc.

One of the recipes did have cinimon in it.  Let your imagination flow.  

Dont forget to use "Fruit Fresh"  to keep the apples from changing color on you.  

Kirk

[SwampDonkey]

Paul is right about the freezer thing. That's why the apples and tomatoes and all was canned. My grandfather had an icehouse out back, he would get ice from the river in winter and fill it with layers of sawdust in between. The ice kept until mid-july and they kept their milk and butter and meat there. They used to salt pork in barrels as Paul said. And in late fall and through the winter they hung a beef or deer and just cut off the green and got to the good stuff underneath. Why would there be green? Well there are alot of free thaw cycles in winter time in my area so this allowed little critters to become active. Until we had freezers this was done by many generations before. ;)

I once asked grandmother if she missed 'the good old days'. She said the good old days is right now. All she could recall about that era was hard work and little pay and there was no way she wanted to go back to those days. Her and grandfather used to remines about some good times too of course. We have a picture of them both after retirement in the 70's with one of grandfather's dogs and mother always says this was the best part of their lives.

[Patty]

Do you think a little lemon juice would work as good as "fruit fresh" to keep the apples from turning?

[Linda]

Patty,

My fanny farmer cookbook says that lemon juice can be used as a substitute for ascorbic acid (or the commercially prepared ascorbic acid mixtures like "fruit fresh)."  It has one caution though; Some fruits may have their flavor slightly affected by it.  If you have it you might as well try it.

Linda

[Linda]

One more note in Fanny Farmer:

Apples and pears are usually steamed to help prevent darkening.

Maybe you could experiment with a couple of different ways and see which ones work best.

Keep us posted!

[Minnesota_boy]

Certain varieties of apples darken very quickly while others hardly discolor at all.  I usually slice my apples into a water bath with a little lemon juice but I'm not entirely convinced of how much this helps.