Apple butter, part 2

So if you read Saturday's post, you know I left off with a crock pot full of local apples.

Three hours later I had the best applesauce ever.

Five hours later I had runny apple butter.

At that point, I transferred it to the stove to boil off some of the liquid for an hour.

I processed in a hot water bath for ten minutes and have the equivalent of four pints of apple butter.

Really incredible stuff.

Today, I filled half the crock pot with apples with the same basic honey/spice recipe to get some more apple goodness.

Some spiced apples. Maybe applesauce. If some remain, apple butter.

Yield: 2 pints spiced apples and turkey sausage with apples in the crockpot for dinner.

More corn salsa

We opened the corn salsa Saturday night and it was so incredibly delicious that everyone in the family agreed we should make more.

So while I went to work at Target Sunday, hand washing greasy pizza hut pans, my husband and daughter went to Buzas and got corn and extra tomatoes and peppers.

They bought 3 dozen corn, 2 tomatoes, 2 green peppers and a spicy pepper for about $17.

That yielded a dozen ears for eating, and 2 bags of 2 cups of corn for the freezer and a double batch of corn salsa (once I added the produce from my garden).

Today's corn salsa yielded 6 1/2 pints and 2 full pints.

And this all has me thinking how I'd love to have a canning set, spoons, a skillet and a pot for gluten free vegan cooking so I could be assured of the purity of my food and share with friends.

Canning Ball Fiesta Salsa

I have two very similar goals when it comes to my canning. 1. To save what we can't eat fresh out of the garden and 2. To save the excess of fresh produce we may get into the house.

I'm a novice canner and a half-baked gardener so I try to get some quality food for my family and to use that food to the farthest extent.

But I'm a small batch canner and I don't see that changing. In about two hours, I can make a few pints.

Not the drinking kind.

Today I'm using Ball's Fiesta Salsa mix to season some garden veggies into salsa. Someone gave me the mix.

What they called for and what I did ate slightly different.

We chopped:
- 3 huge tomatoes from the farm stand
- 3 tiny tomatoes from our garden
- 2 small peppers from our garden
- not quite 1/4 cup red onion
- 1/2 cucumber from our garden
- 1 large glove garlic

Yield: 6 cups

In my large Le Creuset saucepan I mixed:
- 4 tablespoons white vinegar, 5% acidity
- 2 tablespoons strawberry basil vinegar
- 1 packet Ball Fiesta Salsa mix
- 3/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Add vegetable/tomato mix. Heat to boiling. Simmer 5 minutes. Pack with 1/2 inch headspace.

I have 2 pints (one with more liquid than I'd like) and 2 half jelly jars. 35 minutes in boiling water canner.

Fruit canning

We went to Piazza Farm this weekend for produce, including the best New Jersey watermelon.

Today we made a light syrup of sugar and local honey to can mixed fruit.

Our yield was 3.5 pints. Our fruit included: three peaches (one very large), two plums, two red plums, two white nectarines, two nectarines and a pear.

Waiting impatiently for them to come out of the hot water bath.

Nettle tea and pie

Since I'm concerned about my iron intake, and my iron pills have been swapped for a multivitamin, I am making nettle tea in the French press.

Breakfast will be nettle tea with local honey and a slice of sweet potato crunch pie from the Pocono Cheesecake Factory and a few almonds.

Zesty egg wrap

For my breakfast I scrambled an egg from Klein Farm, placed it on a small flour tortilla with Klein Farm's garlic cheddar and greens. I added Archer Farms Raspberry Salsa and a slice of Morningstar vegetarian bacon. Served with sun-brewed unsweetened, decaffeinated black tea with organic rose hips.

To the farm

We went to Kline Farm today for eggs. We bought more than that. I had $36 cash and spent $29.

The haul:
- local honey
- lettuce
- carrots
- kline's maple vanilla yogurt
- kline's garlic cheddar
- kline's bacon cheddar
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 dozen eggs