Thursday, August 2, 2012

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard............08/02/2012

This past weekend I finished canning most of our pickles & relish for the year. I made another batch of Bread & Butter Pickles and a double batch of Sweet Pickle Relish for "The Italian". The only pickles that are left to make are some Dill Refrigerator Pickles.

Not the best pic...there was no room in the kitchen for a photo op!

I also chopped and froze the celery that I harvested last week. I was planning to make Eggplant Caponata. But due to a broken pair of eye glasses and lack of nice clothes to wear for work. I spent most of the day on Saturday running around. Ughh..

Tuesday I went to the plots after work and harvested 30 lbs. of tomatoes!! Yippee!!! They are finally coming in!

Since we now have tomatoes, I'm starting to make the Tomato Puree.

What's been going in or out of your Kitchen Cupboard lately????

39 comments:

  1. Congrats on the start of Tomato season.
    I'm still waiting..........

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    1. Thanks Sue, I'm going to be one busy canner!!

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  2. Yeh... tomato canning season! I gotta get my celery harvested and frozen too. I started, but got side-tracked with onions!

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    1. You're one lucky gal to have some good onions!!

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  3. YAY for the tomato season! I also did my first batch of tomato sauce but so far it's been eating them as much as we can raw :) This weekend will definitely be major canning time.

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    1. I think all of us in this part of the country are going to be doing a lot of canning the next couple of weeks!! Yippeee for tomatoes!!

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  4. I've been making pickles and relish too. No tomatoes sauce anymore thought. I've also been drying some herbs and spices. It was a huge basil week.

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    1. Making pickles and relish is time consuming....but well worth it. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't eat tomatoes.

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  5. Lovely pickle and sauce efforts. I am afraid this will be another tomato year where I am lucky if I can get one flush of ripe tomatoes just before the fall rains arrive. While the rest of the country has been in heat and sunshine we had the tail of that stuck jet stream and have barely gotten above 80 a few times this year. I have beautiful healthy plants with tomatoes set during that brief warm up but otherwise just flowering and dropping flowers from the extended period of "too cool for fruit set". We have a warm up for a few days coming I am hoping the tomatoes set - but if they do it will be a mad race to grow big, mature, and ripen before fall. Never could get the poundage here that you do - wish I could but not possible.

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    1. "The Italian" would be one unhappy man if we couldn't grow a lot of tomatoes.

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  6. We've been dealing with a tomato glut at the moment. And still no cucumbers! It's always boom or bust with gardening it seems. I'm glad someone is making pickles!

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    1. Dave, my pickling cucumbers did not do well at all. Most of my pickles and relish were made from our slicing cucs. I try to harvest them young.

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  7. The relish and pickles look great! We started with a new refrigerator dill pickle recipe this year and they were such a hit that I'm not sure we will have enough cucumbers for other pickles. Between fresh eating and these refrigerator pickles we may eat them all up!! We also did our first batch of fresh salsa this week!!

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    1. Aren't those refrigerator pickles the best?? Yippee for all things tomato!!

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  8. Thirty pounds of tomatoes! I could wish for such a harvest. Sadly, I just have a 4x8 foot raised bed with five tomatoes and a cherry tomato in a pot. When we lived in Kansas, many of our friends had grown up on farms where canning was a way of life. The home economist in me wants to get back to canning. Susan

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    1. Susan, We have gotten back to canning and preserving almost all of our veggies. I grew up that way and really don't like anything else. We are so lucky to have been able to get plots at the community garden since I moved here from the farm for My Italian!

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  9. Robin, it all looks great. I don't really need to make any pickles this year except my crock deli pickles and my small pickling cucumbers didn't even germinate. My slicers are just starting to set but they don't work well picked small. Maybe tomatoes in quantity will happen if we don't get frost before December.

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    1. Wilderness, my pickling cucs did not do well at all this year. I have been using my slicers for relish and removing most of the seeds.

      I don't know about not getting a frost before Dec. You can always dream though :)

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  10. pickles and tomatoes...my favs!! look yummy!

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  11. Still awaiting our first ripe tomato

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    1. Sue, I sure hope you get some soon. You have really been struggling with your cool weather this year.

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  12. I am jealous of all the tomatoes you are getting! We are having an off tomato year so I don't know if I will have much to can.

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    1. It's really been a tough gardening year for most. Hopefully you'll get some tomatoes to can this year.

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  13. Sorry about your glasses but glad you are getting your pickles and relish and tomatoes canned up! Nancy

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    1. Nancy, those glasses cost me a fortune! But, you have to see...right? Yes, the canning is getting done.

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  14. Your relish and pickles look wonderful! We only had enough to make a bit of fridge pickles and fermented pickles, then most of the plants got sick and died... My second seedlings are just starting to shoot out the tendrils, so hopefully we'll have a second harvest. I'm so happy for your tomato glut!

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    1. Thanks TS, My pickling cucs died too. But, I'm in good shape in the pickle department. We're happy about the tomatoes too!!

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  15. Did you say 30 lbs of tomatoes? Wow. Ours are still in the waiting line! Are you running out of cold storage space? We definitely are! It sounds like you're doing a great job of adjustment to full-time work. God bless ya!

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    1. Yes, 30 lbs. I bet there's another 30 over there now. I haven't been there in a couple of days. Last year I harvested 90 lbs in a week.

      Thanks for your blessings Jody.

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  16. 30 pounds is a pretty awesome tomato harvest. How many pounds are you expecting for the season? Your gardens are producing well.

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    1. Kris, I sure hope we get 400 lbs. Last year we got 320 lbs and it was barely enough. The tomatoes weren't as nice though.

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  17. That's a lot of canning, with all that you do, where do find the time? Still waiting for tomatoes to come in.

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    1. Norma, I have always had a lot of energy. Not as much as Granny though!

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  18. Lucky you! Fresh tomatoes already? Mine are still green. But as a shameful bonus, I found over 10 lbs. of frozen whole tomatoes in the freezer from last year. I made sauce! LOL!

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    1. Holly, Lucky you to find 10 lbs of frozen tomatoes! Happy Days!

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  19. I love tomatoes on a can or jar. It makes cooking more easier and fast. Its definitely a cooks best friend.

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    1. Hi there Bean Bag, Yes, canned tomatoes are definitely a cook's best friend!! Thanks for stopping by!

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