Canning season is slowing ending 2021

[Broncosfan]

We haven't canned no way near what we usually do. Probably a big mistake but time was short this year. I would say we're still 250 plus jars including what we dehydrated. So we're still eating good! Boxed up yesterdays fixin's 13 quarts of green beans, 14 1/2 pints of apple butter. Also included a pic of weekends dehydrated bell peppers. We still have more pears to can and another batch or two of apple butter.1701517016

[hawgrider]

Way to git er done Bronco!

[Chiefster23]

I really slacked off canning this year. I only processed about 30% of what I normally preserve. I just couldn’t get into it and I’m just hoping I don’t regret doing more. But there is only two of us so we don’t really need much. My food stocks and preps are pretty deep so we should be fine.

My garden is all finished except for bulls horn shaped sweet peppers. These I harvest ripe-red and stuff with Uncle Charlie’s sausage. Then vac pack and freeze. I will have at least 2 dozen of these in the freezer this season.

[Mad Trapper]

Looks like you've got a pretty good haul!

I didn't put up much this summer, garden struggled with too much rain, we got 14" in July, about 27" up til now. Just in 3 months.

Dam Bear got a lot of my peaches and blueberries......

I've still got beans and cabbages so, dilly beans and kraut will be next. The pole beans will keep going until we get a frost. Have not seen the 30s yet here supposed to tomorrow, but not a frost.

I haven't done much meat canning, but a good fall hunting, I might get some practice. I uaually vac seal my meats and got a big freezer

[Inor]

Figuring out the garden and the fruit trees has been the biggest challenge moving to the desert. We only planted one watermelon vine this year but got 17 BIG melons. We also got a buttload of cantaloupe. The 'maters have been going crazy lately. We up to over 3 gallons of tomato "mash" with at least as many still on the vines! We planted 2 kinds of corn this year: Heirloom corn and "frankencorn" that we got at hardware store. Some kind of worms got the corn and we were able to only salvage 2 ears for us. The donkeys did well on corn though. The hot peppers and sweet peppers went nuts as usual. The sparrow-guts did not give us anything. We could not find any seed potatoes last spring, so no 'taters.

The raspberries and blueberries all died within a month of planting them. That is the second batch of raspberries and blueberries we have killed. Other folks grow them here, so I know they grow here. But we just kill them nearly as soon as we plant them.

The dogs ate all the horseradish.

We had a very late frost last spring, after most of the trees already had blossoms. So we did not do well with the fruit trees. We got 2 almonds from 2 trees - not 2 pounds, exactly 2 almonds! We got a few pomegranates, not many, but at least something. We did do okay on apples for as small as our trees are. The apples were not big enough to do anything with beyond giving them to donkeys. But the trees grew like weeds this summer, so I expect next year we might actually be able to use them for something. The cherries, apricots and pears did nothing.

Meh... All in all, we are making progress learning to grow stuff in the desert, but the learning curve is a lot steeper than either of us expected.

[Jester-ND]

grasshoppers and drought cleaned out everything here but the tomatoes and peppers.. canned a bunch of beans we got free from neighbors, grasshoppers stripped the blueberry bushes and elderberries clean too.

[Mad Trapper]

Figuring out the garden and the fruit trees has been the biggest challenge moving to the desert. We only planted one watermelon vine this year but got 17 BIG melons. We also got a buttload of cantaloupe. The 'maters have been going crazy lately. We up to over 3 gallons of tomato "mash" with at least as many still on the vines! We planted 2 kinds of corn this year: Heirloom corn and "frankencorn" that we got at hardware store. Some kind of worms got the corn and we were able to only salvage 2 ears for us. The donkeys did well on corn though. The hot peppers and sweet peppers went nuts as usual. The sparrow-guts did not give us anything. We could not find any seed potatoes last spring, so no 'taters.

The raspberries and blueberries all died within a month of planting them. That is the second batch of raspberries and blueberries we have killed. Other folks grow them here, so I know they grow here. But we just kill them nearly as soon as we plant them.

The dogs ate all the horseradish.

We had a very late frost last spring, after most of the trees already had blossoms. So we did not do well with the fruit trees. We got 2 almonds from 2 trees - not 2 pounds, exactly 2 almonds! We got a few pomegranates, not many, but at least something. We did do okay on apples for as small as our trees are. The apples were not big enough to do anything with beyond giving them to donkeys. But the trees grew like weeds this summer, so I expect next year we might actually be able to use them for something. The cherries, apricots and pears did nothing.

Meh... All in all, we are making progress learning to grow stuff in the desert, but the learning curve is a lot steeper than either of us expected.

Inor, most important thing with blueberries is soil prep well in advance of putting them in the ground.

They like a loose, moist, but not wet soil, and need a pH of < 5.5, 4.5 is optimum. If soil is too alkaline or calciferous they won't do well, they don't like calcium. Do a soil test spring before you intend to plant and adjust things from there.

If you need to lower pH elemental sulfur works best but takes while. Soil bacteria utilize the sulfur and produce sulfuric acid, slowly. Depending on soil type and pH, you can calculate how much sulfur you might need to add.

Take some rotted manure from the animals and mix it with peat moss and the topsoil. If you've added sulfur keep it moist so the bacteria do their thing with the sulfur.

If you've got tiny blueberry starts, you can make a proper soil mixture and grow them in containers until you have a site ready. Just don't let them dry out. I've got some that have been potted 5-6 years now that I didn't get around to planting this spring, they put out good berries.

You being in the desert a good acid mulch will help retain water, weather in the ground or potted. Not sure if you have access to pine needles but that's what I use for mulch, got huge white pines in my front yard and rake up a couple of pickup truck loads each fall. What I don't use goes into a rot/compost pile that makes ideal peat substitute for making new plantings.

Sorry to get off topic Broncosfan.

[BucketBack]

Well, the Sinus Queen and King are not doing so well today, after the Township brush hog hogged down all the ragweed along the ditches.

Plus the corn is 100' from where I'm typing this

Closed the windows, and starting the second to last batch of Romas this morning.

Probably make some more chili sauce, maybe 3 pints, since I like a pint from time to time.

As soon as the field corn is ready before harvest, we'll "Coon" some to full up the fish basket which feeds the bushy tails.

[BucketBack]

Did up 8 pints and 2 1/2 quarts of Chili Sauce from store bought Romas, because the first batch was soo good.

[1skrewsloose]

I'm a noobie to this canning stuff, really appreciate the knowledge I get from all the prepper and canning threads. Thanks guys, kinda nice to learn stuff without even having to ask, not that asking is anything difficult.

[MountainGirl]

I'm a noobie to this canning stuff, really appreciate the knowledge I get from all the prepper and canning threads. Thanks guys, kinda nice to learn stuff without even having to ask, not that asking is anything difficult.

I'm a noob too - always kind of wanted to do canning but my life was always moving around the country so never really had the chance. Now, settled and retired, I do. Also, like you said in that other thread - canning only takes power once. Freezer is great...but... my time on the mountain taught me that the only thing you can really rely on is skills - and the things that DON'T require electricity/propane/etc (or even solar/wood) to sustain/maintain. Old ways. Traditional. Primitive. Soooo.... I figured since we have power (for now) this is the time to start emptying out the freezer. Oh..we'll still use it some, for sure. But I want some canned up meats to go with the sufficient supply of beans and rice... and some shelf-stable butter. Ya know? LOL

I'll be doing some dehydrating too... even got a hand pump (brake bleeder) to vacuum-seal the dried stuff in jars for longer term storage. If there ever was a good time for us to be doing this stuff - it's now. IMO. :)