Grapes~ Making Juice and Jam Without any Waste

I have a juicer that is underutilized in our house.  Mainly because of the clean up.  Although it can be put into the dishwasher, the machine does require some scrubbing beforehand.  It's often easier to wash it by hand.  Washing by hand is probably better for the cutting blade as well. 

The juicer makes great juice.  My son really likes fresh grape juice.  With this in mind, I decided to preserve some grape juice and make jam at the same time.  When you juice fruits and vegetables there is pulp discarded.  This pulp can be used in making things such as cookies, muffins, soups, and salsa, to name a few suggestions listed in the manual.  I have generally given the pulp to the chickens.  In the past I have juiced a combination of fruits and vegetables and didn't think the combination would taste well in any recipe.  Therefore, the chickens enjoyed the added vitamins it provides. 

I had bought grapes on sale and was wanting to preserve some of the juice.  As I was cleaning out the pulp I was thinking there had to be a use for this... and it hit me.  Why not make it into grape jam!  So that's what I did.  This is now the second batch I have made.  Grapes were on sale again, so why not make more!

When juicing grapes I choose seedless red grapes so there aren't any seeds in the pulp.  The pulp I then turned into grape jam.  In doing this there was no waste to discard. 

Juicing the grapes

After I finished juicing the grapes I strained the juice through a metal strainer, placed in jars, and processed for 20 minutes in a hot water bath. 

This is the pulp along with some juice.

I heated the pulp and processed according to the directions on the Ball low sugar pectin package. 

 I ended up with 4 cups of pulp for the jam.  I added a slight amount of juice according to the directions, sugar, and pectin.  Bottled and processed for 10 minutes, shutting off the burner and letting the jars sit in the water bath another 5 minutes before removing to cool.

Grape Jam

Grape Juice

More Canning

I made what is probably the last cutting of my rhubarb for the year.  I decided to make Rhubarb Simple Syrup and can it for use in in the soda stream this winter.

My parents were nice and brought me in some of their tomatoes so I could make more salsa. I had no idea how long it would take to complete the project.  I was up until 1:30 in the morning on Saturday.  I ended up with 25 pounds of tomatoes, which was transformed into 5 cases of salsa!  I still have a few more Mrs. Wages Salsa packets, so I may not be finished yet.  

More tomatoes were delivered today which I plan to make into pizza sauce.  I won't try and do the entire batch at once this time.  I'm going to try and spread the work out over a couple days instead.  Before I tackle more tomatoes, I have grapes that need my attention.  I plan on making grape juice and jam.  It's a good thing I stocked up on peanut butter.  We may be eating a lot of PB & J sandwiches if groceries get much higher this winter!

On another note, I opened my first jar of pear jam over the weekend.  It's very good!  I have more pears on order to pick up at the store to make into diced pears and jam.  I'm going to try a chunky version of jam with the next batch.

Here it is....my tag "garage" sale pressure canner!

Isn't is shinny! And it only cost me $20.  What a bargain!   I had my dad check it out before attempting to use it. He replaced the seal for me and said it should be good to go.  It came up to pressure great when he tested it out. 

Yesterday I asked my mom to come in and help me, christen it with me. It has been a long time since I had used a pressure canner.  Twenty one years, at least, and that was with my grandmother's help.  Honestly, the thought of using one alone made me leery.  Having someone give hands on directions to walk me through it was just what I needed.

Since I had made the chicken broth a few days ago, I really needed to get it canned.  In case any of you are wondering,  no feet were used in my broth.  I don't butcher my own chickens, not to mention couldn't bring myself to use the feet for broth.  The chicken carcass was enough for me to handle.  I ended up with 8 quarts of broth. 

While we were waiting for the pressure to go up and down on the canner we also made diced pears in light sauce using the recipe and method found here: http://busterbucks.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Preserve-Fresh-Pears    We didn't use a melon ball utensil as indicated.  We just peeled and removed the core with a paring knife. We diced the pears in larger pieces rather than cutting them into halves.  I wanted smaller, bite size pieces ready to eat. 

In addition to canning the broth and pears, we made pear jam using Ball RealFruit Pectin. 

Don't they look yummy!

 

 

This pectin allows you to either not use sugar or add a little so the jam isn't too sweet.  




With all of the canning I have been doing, I now need to find a place to store it all!

Peach Dipping Sauce

I have had this book for a couple years.  I was thumbing through it looking for some ideas for preserving pears and came across this recipe for peach dipping sauce.


I had some frozen peaches in the freezer that were past their use by date and decided this would be a good way to use them up. The peaches were just starting to turn a little brown when thawed and since they would turn brown when cooking, that shouldn't be a problem.

I diced the peaches and onions as instructed.  Placed them into a pan along with the spices and cooked until tender.  Once the peaches started getting soft, I used a potato masher to mash the larger pieces.  Once they had cooked a little while longer I got out the big gun.

The hand mixer.  I rarely get to use it and forget how great it works.  It's like a power tool for girls.  I felt  a little like Tim Taylor from Home Improvement when using it.  I almost had the urge to grunt as he did.

 Just look how easy it is to puree with the hand mixer.  It reminds me of baby food.  If only they would have made these when my son was a baby.  (Maybe they did and I didn't think to use it for that).  Making home made baby food would have been so easy!  The food processor just didn't do the job. 

 

I had prepared my jars before hand and placed the seals in a pan to heat up.  

  This gadget is wonderful to help remove the lids from the boiling hot water. 

It is made by ball and has a magnet on the end to pick up the seals with.

Once the sauce was boiling it was time to place it into the jars.  I used jelly jars so we could open a small amount each time we wanted to enjoy the sauce. 

I ended up with 10 jars.  I am not a big fan of cloves, and if I make this recipe again I will cut down on the amount of cloves added.  Just tasting the sauce made we want to go out and get some chicken nuggets or chicken tenders to dip into this sauce.

I have been a busy beaver lately

It's raining today.  It has been over a month since we have received any considerable amount of rain.  Unfortunately, it's a little too late for my garden.  I am hoping to get another cutting on my rhubarb and the rain should make that possible.  It will also help yard.  We have had to resort to watering our yard, so we didn't loose it completely.  The yard had become dry and very brittle.  You could hear it crunch when you walked on it.  The normal paths taken to water the beds, and take care of the chickens were starting to become more dirt than grass at this point.  The rain is a nice and slow steady shower.  Just the right amount to allow the water to soak into the ground at a good pace.

I have been a busy beaver lately.  I am starting to feel as if I am nesting, and I know that's not possible!  Maybe it's gearing up for winter.  Friday our family went to a cattle sale.  I had went to the sale barn as a child with my grandfather and have fond memories of those times.  Crazy me, I made a comment to my husband that I thought that was something we should do with our son.  He happened to have the day off and there was a sale going on.  Just my luck.

We got up early and headed to the sale, which was a 45 minute drive away.  The aroma when we arrived smelled just like my grandparent's place.  It brought back a lot of memories.  Needles to say, my son wasn't as impressed.  We watched as they auctioned off all ages of cattle as well as breeds.  We were able to get an idea how much beef was selling for if we ever get an acreage and decide to raise a few for meat.

It was a little disheartening to watch a mother cow and calf sell together, only to have the  calf brought back in to sell on its own.  The poor thing wanted its mother and was freaking out because they had taken her away.  A little while later a newly born calf was brought in by itself.  I kept nudging my husband to bid on it.  He told me to stop or they are going to think we are serious. I told him I was serious, which he knew.  He asked where I was going to put a calf.  I am sure I could come up with somewhere.....  We didn't get it, despite my desire to take it home.

I went to a tag sale with some friends on Saturday. Nicole had found so many neat things at a recent one to outfit her new house, she convinced me to go with her.  This was out of the ordinary for me.  It was merely a glorified garage sale.  You show up early and wait in line to get a shopping number.  This meant getting up early.  Something else I don't care to do.  My husband and son went with me.  I had looked through the pictures online and saw a pressure canner as well as a White sewing machine I was interested in.  I enlarged the picture of the pressure canner and thought I could see a $2_. I was hoping it was marked $20.  If so that was a good deal.  New pressure canners sell for around $200.  We arrived before Nicole and I waited in line to get my number.  I was 7.  After we got our number we then had to wait until 8:00 to be allowed in. 

During our 45 minute wait Nicole dared me to go ask where the things I was wanting were in the house.  She said one of the guys running the sale wouldn't tell you.  I took this as a challenge.  I went up to one of the other guys and asked about the pressure canner and things went forward from there.  The people outside not only told me where the things I was interested in were, such as the basement, they told me exactly how to get to the basement stairs from the front entrance, and where I needed to go once I got down the bottom of the stairs.  From then on, I was on a mission.  If you have ever went shopping with me, you have found I generally have in mind what I am looking for, and once I find it, I'm done.

At 8:00 we lined up and were let into the house in order of our numbers.  Nicole was let in a few people behind me and had other things she was looking at.  I quickly passed the older gals and headed straight for the basement.  I may have even been the first one down there.  My son went with me to carry anything that needed carrying.  The canner....  We found it, it was marked $20.  I opened the lid as my son held it to make sure it was as nice looking inside as it was on the outside, and off to the sewing machine we headed.  I found it, ripped the bottom half of the tag off of it and headed upstairs to find Nicole.  I was done, except for a small pyrex dish I spotted while walking through the kitchen.  It was $3.  Now to settle up, and have my husband pack up the sewing machine.  It was actually for my mom.  It came with a neat sewing table as well all for $65.  I will have to post pics of both the canner and sewing machine when I can get them taken.  All in all it was a good day for bargains!

Making Salsa~ The easy way!

I was given a bunch of tomatoes from friends ( around 18 pounds) and wanted to find a way to use them.  Another friend suggested salsa.  I didn't have peppers or onions from my garden and the thought of buying them to make salsa seemed a little expensive.  She said no, you don't need anything but tomatoes.  You just buy a packet that has everything else in it.  When she started saying Mrs... I knew exactly what she was talking about.  Mrs. Wages makes a variety of mixes to make pickles, spaghetti sauce, ketchup and so much more.  I have used the packets for pickles before as did my grandmother.  I really liked them, so why not try the salsa mix?  She suggested I get the hot, but I chose to try the medium.  Good choice.  Even the medium is spicy for me. 

My salsa ended up costing me nothing, other than time and energy to make it.  The tomatoes were free and when I went to purchase the packets they were on sale for $2 each.  After I was already on my way to the parking lot, I noticed they rang up at $2.39.  I went back inside to get the money back that I was overcharged and she handed me over $7 back.  She said it rang up incorrect, so it's free.  Score!  I didn't intend on receiving it for free, I just wanted the overcharged amount back.  But FREE is good too!  Makes me feel like buying more packets to make even more!  Each packet will make 5 pints. 

Follow the directions on the packet.  You need to place the tomatoes in boiling water and then a cold water bath to remove the skins.  Core them and cut into chunks.  The directions said to cut into large chunks, however, we prefer smaller pieces of tomato in our salsa.

Once you have them all cut up you add vinegar along with the packet mix.  I had enough to make three batches.

Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.  

Fill your jars and place in a hot water bath for 40 minutes.

 Remove and let cool.

With this recipe you don't have to can the salsa.  You can eat is as soon as you have completed simmering it, or even freeze it.  I chose to use jelly jars versus pints for our family.  This way we can open a jar and use it at once instead of possibly having some go to waste. I ended up with 24 jars of salsa.  One larger jar that I filled to eat right away.  My son loved it.  I told my husband we no longer have to go to Chili's when I want chips and salsa.  We have our own right at home.  I don't like most of the salsas you can buy in the store.  This comes as close to Chili's salsa as you can get.  I am thinking we will need more to get us through the year, so I am going to be begging friends for more of their abundance of tomatoes!

Not Just For Canning

I am sure many of you have one of these funnels sitting around.  Maybe you use it once a year when you can fruits or vegetables.  I know I used to, until I placed it with my other funnels.  I use this funnel almost as much as I do my others.  I use it when I am filling a jar with rice or grain to keep it from spilling over the edges.  I use it when I measure my home made cleaners.  I also use it when I am saving broth and pouring it into a container.  It saves messes, and saving me from making a mess to clean up, saves me time!