food processing

[sonya123]

Ok so I have an overwhelming amount of vegetables and fruit right now to do "something" with. They won't stay good enough to sell at the market that long and I have been using some every day for lunch.
What do you do with your extra garden stuff?
I truly don't enjoy food processing. I love cooking, and I love selling stuff at the market, but I have to do something with what's left after that , which is considerable. Potatoes ( not dug up yet) and onions are easy, you just harvest them and store them, but what about all the extra vegetables? I spent hours a few days ago making 8 and a half jars of crab apple jelly. It tastes very good, I could sell it but will probably keep it, but my gosh what a hassle that is! You have to cut the apples in half and remove stem and end, boil them in water, strain, add sugar then boil the jelly for a long time . Then the jars have to be washed and sterilized , then you water bath can the jelly. The worst part is cutting up the tiny apples. My back hurt from all that sitting and bending.
Cucumbers: just how many pickles can you eat? We eat them and like them, but I don't need 10 quart jars of pickles a year . I only have 2 cucumber patches ( a few plants) but they have so many of them on there I just dont know what to do with them. We had a whole box full at the market, sold like 10 because EVERYONE is selling them right now
Tomatoes
zuccini , don't even get me started on those, bread casserole stuffed freezing them
and now I have 10 large cabbages to do something with. I will make kimchi but not sure if you can freeze cabbage?

what do you do with your extra produce ?
maybe I need to have smaller gardens ?

 

[Amish Heart]

If we're not eating it fresh, I either freeze it, can it, dehydrate it, or freeze dry it.
Or I use it for animal food.
If it's a way lot extra, I also offer it to neighbors. Was given sweet corn and garlic this last week.

 

[Chaosdawn]

I feel your pain with the crab apples. I made quince jelly one year when my friend gave me a bunch of quince, which are basically like small hard apples. My hands were raw from the peeling and cutting by the end. It made a delicious beautiful rose colored jelly but never again.

I don't mind canning but I freeze most of what I can't/don't want to can. Sometimes I'll dehydrate stuff but my house is wired weird (on the list to fix) so I can't use my dehydrator if the air conditioners are running. But then I have a small garden so not too many extra veggies.

 

[snappy1]

I freeze or dehydrate until I get to it to can it. I believe that you can make pectin from crabapples so you don't have to buy sure gel or certo. Off track, but I just read that if you cut up a green apple into any jam or jelly, it will act as pectin. Haven't tried that yet.
As to processing, don't know what I would do without my processor to shred, chop or slice. I even have a back up of the exact same one in case parts go out. I am aware that if there is no electric, that changes.
I also have cutting gloves for using my mandoline. Those have saved me some injuries!

 

[sonya123]

I don't have a food processor or dehydrator . I am not sure dehydrating would work here. It is very humid and we have no Ac, so the food might not last. There is just no DRY place to store anything during the summer. This year is particularly humid yuck
Just found 2 jars of canned pasta sauce with goat meat I made last year, need to use it up.
I can a lot of tomato sauce because I use a lot of it and it tastes better then store sauce. But that is a lot of work also. I have stopped peeling the tomatoes for it which makes it a lot easier. The peel sort of cooks away anyways. I do try to sqeeze out some of the seeds and liquid

 

[elkhound]

all the squash and zukes just blanch and freeze.

cukes...use them like squash and zukes in stir fry.theres a dish stir fried with crush pepper some make.

maybe ideas here for you

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_home.html#gsc.tab=0

 

[Amish Heart]

Use an apple peeler when having apples to peel. It goes real fast. And if dehydrating apples or canning apples, it's a more uniform shape.

 

[SheepDog]

I can or freeze our surplus and tomatoes are easy because my oldest son eats them raw. Everyone has more zucchini than they can use and similar with cucumbers. We can tomatoes diced and we use them in soup, sauces, chili and rice. We don't can sauces but we have all the ingredients. We have meats in the freezers but there is also canned meat on the shelves.
We have a dehydrator but it is less than satisfying. I'm going to get a large freeze dryer instead of another dehydrator.

 

[sonya123]

done today:
2 large bags of green beans in freezer
3 large bags of cut up zuccini
2 large bags of shredded zuccini for bread
2 large bags of cabbage ( first time I am freezing cabbage)
1 half gallon jar of kimchi made
1 half gallon jar of pickles
and I still haven't touched the tomatoes or done the dishes

 

[Weedygarden]

Cucumbers: just how many pickles can you eat? We eat them and like them, but I don't need 10 quart jars of pickles a year . I only have 2 cucumber patches ( a few plants) but they have so many of them on there I just dont know what to do with them. We had a whole box full at the market, sold like 10 because EVERYONE is selling them right now

My daughter makes pickles almost every year and this amount of pickles might last her a month. Seriously. She makes pickles because she loves them, but consumes them quickly. I often buy her a jar of Clausen's just because I know she loves them and consumes so many of them and there has been a challenge finding Clausen's brand in the last couple years. When I see them, I buy her a quart.

 

[elkhound]

 

[elkhound]

cooking them

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Wel now you know why convenience foods were such an easy sell as far back as the 50's. Putting back food is very time and work intensive. It's nice if you can get some satisfaction out of it, but no matter what, it needs doing.

By the way, you don't need to sterilize jars before canning. They just need to be clean.

Why? Some may ask.

It's because canning is the process of sterilizing the entire contents of the jar, and by default, the jar itself. Pre sterilizing the jars adds nothing to the safety of the finished product.

 

[sonya123]

Wel now you know why convenience foods were such an easy sell as far back as the 50's. Putting back food is very time and work intensive. It's nice if you can get some satisfaction out of it, but no matter what, it needs doing.

By the way, you don't need to sterilize jars before canning. They just need to be clean.

Why? Some may ask.

It's because canning is the process of sterilizing the entire contents of the jar, and by default, the jar itself. Pre sterilizing the jars adds nothing to the safety of the finished product.

I follow the instructions in my canning book that came with the pressure canner. For water bath canning ( jelly ) it says to sterilize the jars first. For pressure canning you don't. I think the temperature in water bath canning does not get high enough to kill toxins, so you sterilize for 10 minutes . It's not a big deal , I need the hot water in the canner anyways....

my mother made jelly all the time, she never sterilized anything and didn't water bath can it at all. She made the jelly, put it in jars, and put parchment paper with a rubber band around it on the top. When it got modly, she would scrape the mold off the top and we would eat the rest....that didn't seem strange to me as a kid....lol, still alive

 

[elkhound]

I follow the instructions in my canning book that came with the pressure canner. For water bath canning ( jelly ) it says to sterilize the jars first. For pressure canning you don't. I think the temperature in water bath canning does not get high enough to kill toxins, so you sterilize for 10 minutes . It's not a big deal , I need the hot water in the canner anyways....

my mother made jelly all the time, she never sterilized anything and didn't water bath can it at all. She made the jelly, put it in jars, and put parchment paper with a rubber band around it on the top. When it got modly, she would scrape the mold off the top and we would eat the rest....that didn't seem strange to me as a kid....lol, still alive

growing up family made jelly and used every left over jar from store there was. especially the peanut butter jars back then. they didnt can either and only poured wax on top ...lol...its a wonder we are alive.

 

[Amish Heart]

I have a whole lot of that wax. Our jelly always had wax on top

 

[angie_nrs]

Perhaps you could ask friends or neighbors if they would be interested in some free food to can? You provide the food and they can provide the labor. Tell them you will provide your own jars, they can provide theirs, and if they can the food to give you half or a third or whatever you think is fair. Most people who can fruits and veges have gardens, but some don't for one reason or another.

I have a friend who is a canning queen. If I had extra, I'd make her that deal and she'd be good with it.

I typically do what you did and just freeze it in bags if I had extra and eat it though the winter.

 

[JustMe]

Here everything gets canned, dehydrated or in the freezer. Get a dehydrator, it may take longer to get dry in a humid climate, but once it's dry quickly get it into a container of sorts......ziploc or jar or whatever that is tight fitting to keep moisture out. As long as it's kept sealed or exposure to humidity is kept to a minimum, it should be fine.


Cukes........dill & sweet pickles, dill & sweet relish, bread & butter pickles
Zukes.....froze or dehydrated
Tomatoes......sauce, diced, homemade Rotel (tomatoes & peppers), ketchup, bbq sauce, marinara, pizza sauce, salsa........also dehydrated in slices, or powdered.
Cabbage......dehydrated........we don't like it much, but you can also make kraut.

You could also make some kind of chow chow or 'end of the garden relish' using a mix of whatever you have, including green tomatoes.

 

[sonya123]

Just used up my last jar of pasta sauce with goat meat I made last year yesterday. Still tasted really good. I will make more of that this year ( tomatoes garlic ground goat herbs salt sugar)
Today I am going to make 1 jar of Sauerkraut. I didn't like it as a kid but haven't had any in so long maybe I will like it now, or someone in the family will eat it. If not I will add hot pepper flakes and turn it into kimchi....
My mom used to make smashed potatoes, sausage and kraut all the time
I have offered some veggies to the neighbors

 

[Heartbroken]

I've been overwhelmed by taking on too much canning before. I get a lot of satisfaction out of seeing the full jars in the pantry, but man, is it a lot of work! I was reading something, can't remember where, and it said to try to concentrate on a certain thing each year. Once I thought about it, it made a lot of sense. Last year I put up nine bushels of corn (don't remember how many pints that made) and around 70 quarts of tomatoes. I still have plenty of each left, so this year I'm going to concentrate on beans and pickles. It seems to make it easier to set up to process one sort of crop and just do tons of it, rather than switching it up and resetting the kitchen. Not much help to you this year with the variety you're getting but maybe something to think about for next year. And even in a humid climate dehydrating can be a help. You'd just have to be careful to get it packaged into jars as soon as it's done and sealing them tightly.

 

[PopPopT]

In no particular order.

Find another farmers market. Our big one is on Saturday, great location, but we aren't able to set up there any other day. But there are a couple of other options locally if we need to set up mid-week. Maybe there would be for you, too.

Stop growing stuff that overwhelms you. If you have already preserved all the pickles and sauerkraut you want, don't grow any more cucumbers or cabbages, at least not in quantities to have an overabundance. We grew and sold a bunch of green beans this year already. MANY quarts in jars on the shelf here. I'll probably tear up the green beans this coming week, though, maybe will plant a small late batch just for market, along with a few small plantings of a couple of other things, field peas, maybe some fall shell peas, stuff like that. Things like broccoli, cabbage, stuff like that gets succession planted so that we always have a little coming. Sometimes broccoli and cabbage can be forgiving of letting it in the ground a few more days to be fresh for market, too. Sometimes.

Grow other things than the popular ones. From years ago, I had thought potatoes and green beans wouldn't sell at a farmers market. They do. (I need to do better at succession planting those two things. I'm learning.) Last year, I couldn't give eggplant away at the market. This year, I can't keep up with the demand. No one is growing celery. (I have some planted but it's not ready yet.) No one is selling strawberries. (I have a patch of everbearing strawberries that give a little pretty much till frost, not just a few weeks around June. We've been selling a few and hope to sell more.)

Grow things that aren't as perishable. You mentioned potatoes. They're highly unromantic. But they keep for quite a long time.

Grow a few things that take all season to get there. Sweet potatoes are one. Garlic is another possibility but here that gets planted in Oct and harvested in Jul, kind of counter-intuitive for people planting gardens. Not bad $ once you get going, either. Another that we grow some of for ourselves, peanuts. (Probably not worth it from just a money standpoint but I enjoy growing some, plus, the peanut butter is the best I've ever had.) I keep the raw peanuts in the freezer.

Get yourself a cold room. It doesn't have to be 33 degrees. Some stuff won't like it that cold anyway. But if you set it at something like 50 to 55 degrees, a good many things will be pretty happy there for longer than they would be at room temp. We have an old freezer on a thermostat that keeps things cool but not cold. Others use a CoolBot and a window air conditioner to cool an insulated room. (I wanted to do the CoolBot. I have the freezer. Maybe someday I'll get it done.)

Stretch the ends of your seasons and contract mid season growing. Do more to have early stuff for market if you want to do that. For instance, if you can transplant corn here, you can just about name your price at the farmers market, IF you can have it by late June. Nobody does here. By mid July, everybody has it and I have no interest in competing with those selling it for $4/doz. If you want the sweetest carrots, plan and plant this fall for spring harvest. They'll be super sweet and your customers will love them. Once the summer crops come in, lots of people will likely have them and I don't have much interest in competing with them, either.

Just sharing a few thoughts from off the top of my head. Good luck!

 

[Dani]

I follow the instructions in my canning book that came with the pressure canner. For water bath canning ( jelly ) it says to sterilize the jars first. For pressure canning you don't. I think the temperature in water bath canning does not get high enough to kill toxins, so you sterilize for 10 minutes . It's not a big deal , I need the hot water in the canner anyways....

my mother made jelly all the time, she never sterilized anything and didn't water bath can it at all. She made the jelly, put it in jars, and put parchment paper with a rubber band around it on the top. When it got modly, she would scrape the mold off the top and we would eat the rest....that didn't seem strange to me as a kid....lol, still alive

These are the types of stories we need to hear about!!

 

[sonya123]

In no particular order.

Find another farmers market. Our big one is on Saturday, great location, but we aren't able to set up there any other day. But there are a couple of other options locally if we need to set up mid-week. Maybe there would be for you, too.

Stop growing stuff that overwhelms you.

Grow other things than the popular ones.

Thanks for your ideas!
I do have some comments back. The crab apple tree was here when we got here and almost nobody buys any at the market. I have buckets of the things , the sheep and goats eat some but I dont want to feed them too much of it.

As for more markets: we are an hour away from the closest one we go to. I don't want to do any more driving than we already do.....plus the stuff I have extra off everyone has and don't sell much. I already skipped the yellow squash ( I swear those things are not veggies, they should be classified as weeds!!) , and only planted 3 each zuccini and cucumber plants. They just produce a lot here.

The cabbage I grew for us, it generally doesn't sell well either. I hope it freezes well.

What sells well here is beets, green beans, tomatoes, bread, eggs and meat

There is a few vendors that sell only greens of all sorts and a lot of variety so I don't grow more than we can eat or freeze. I love salad of any kind, so I grow a lot of it, but it bolts in the heat here really fast, just put more seeds out for fall

 

[snappy1]

I hope it freezes well.

I can a sweet n sour coleslaw mix that everyone who has tried it loves! No mayonaise, although it could be added when opening. No one has wanted to add it.