Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Tart Cherry Pie Filling





8 pints and 1 12-oz. jar of tart cherry pie filling
Source: Steffen's Cherry Orchard
Recipe: Tart Cherry Pie Filling, p. 174, Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, 2006
Note: Instructions weren't clear about dividing juice from cherries. I drained juice and used 4 cups and stored the rest and added the cherries in straight from the colander. There was definitely more juice than the extra four cups in the recipe. The filling was very thick...consider draining cherries, use four cups for sauce, store four cups and add rest back to the cherries before dumping them in.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Frozen Peaches




2 gallon zip-lock bags of frozen peach halves
Source: Tree Ripe Citrus
Notes: didn't peel peaches this year, need to decide of this makes smoothies fuzzy

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Peach Slices in Light Syrup




28 quarts of canned peaches
Source: Tree Ripe Citrus
Recipe: Peaches in Syrup, p. 150, Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, 2006
Notes: 28 peaches, 28 peaches, 30 peaches, 27 peaches

Frozen Cherries





4 quarts plus a bit of frozen cherries
Source: Steffen's Cherry Orchard

Sunday, July 14, 2013

More Strawberry Freezer Jam




7 pints and 1 half-pint of strawberry freezer jam
Source: JenEhr Family Farm, picked June 2010, prepped for freezer jam and frozen
Recipe: This recipe but without lavender and lemon zest.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

6 pints of strawberry freezer jam
Source: JenEhr Family Farm, picked June 2010, prepped for freezer jam and frozen
Recipe: Sure Jell Strawberry Freezer Jam




Dehydrated Cherries



1 quart and 1 pint of dried cherries
Source: Steffen's Cherry Orchard
Recipe: drained pitted cherries in colander before spreading on trays (got a good-sized bottle of yummy cherry juice for the fridge, too)
Notes: next time use screens on dehydrator trays, as they dried the cherries drooped and wrapped themselves around the slats

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Spirited Cherries




7 half-pints of spirited cherries
Source: Steffen's Cherry Orchard
Recipe: Spirited Cherries, p. 155, Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, 2006
Notes: used approx. 7-1/2 c of pitted cherries, had about 1.5 pints of juice/syrup leftover

Steffen's Cherry Orchard

This morning we did U-pick cherries. We picked four 5-quart buckets with roughly half and half of Montmorency and Balaton varieties. I packed up two five-pound bags for the freezer which will become tart cherry pie filling, three cups in the freezer to make Summer Solstice Preserves when we get more Tree Ripe Blueberries, six dehydrator trays for dried cherries, and a batch of Spirited Cherries. Of course, there were some for snacking, too.Yum!

ETA: picked one more bucket on 7/15/13 for frozen cherries.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Dehydrated Blueberries


almost 5 pints of dried blueberries
Source: Tree Ripe Citrus
Recipe: Prick with toothpick and dehydrate at 135°F

Blueberry Butter




5 half-pints of blueberry butter
Source: Source: Tree Ripe Citrus
Recipe: Blueberry Bonanza, p. 60, Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, 2006
Notes: 2 half-pints left from 2011; used three Tattler lids and two regular lids; two Tattler lids did not seal. When I reviewed the Tattler box, it recommends fingertip tight before processing and then fully tighten when removing jars from bath.

Frozen Blueberries




3 quarts of frozen blueberries
Source: Tree Ripe Citrus
Recipe: Freeze flat on wax paper lined cookie sheets the package

Blueberry Syrup



3 pints and 1 half-pint of blueberry syrup
Source: Source: Tree Ripe Citrus
Recipe: Blueberry Bonanza, p. 60, Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, 2006
Notes:  4 pints left from 2011; Tattler lids; one pint jar did not seal - drip on rim?

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Blanched Sugar Snap Peas





2 quarts blanched sugar snap peas
Source: Blue Moon Community Farm CSA

Blanched Broccoli





2 quarts blanched broccoli
Source: Blue Moon Community Farm CSA

Tree Ripe Citrus

Today was the first visit of the Tree Ripe Citrus truck. I bought five 5-lb boxes of blueberries and three 25-lb boxes of peaches and made: