National Center for Home Food Preservation(Canning, Curing, Drying, Fermenting & Pickling) https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html
One publication there is the Complete Guide to Home Canning. Another reliable source are the blue book of canning cookbooks. Anything from a modern testing kitchen with food safety test equipment is trustworthy. Those old canning recipes from 1930, not so much. Misc recipes found on the web, nope. Botulism is real and real dangerous.
One general rule is that you can pressure can most things at 15 lbs for 90 minutes however altitude matters but you’ll learn about that in the USDA complete guide to canning. No ingredients that swell should be used in a recipe, rice, pasta etc. Those can be added after opening the jar and while making the meal.
Head space is important. That would be the air gap at the top. 1/4” 1/2” 3/4” & 1” are generally used but it depends on canning jar size and food being canned.
Things are heating up again in Southern California as it always does the last two weeks of August and into the first of September - hot temps and hot winds - mid 90s for days on end, 97 today, tomorrow and Monday.
Not good for gardens...
Trying to keep everything from drying and/or burning up.
Lucifer Lily moved to a shady area, which it seems to prefer:
Figs are exploding in the heat - I mean actually exploding!
Penstemon from my "native plants" garden:
Shady area in the front yard, plumerias and vincas:
And finally:
Happy Back to School (and so glad I'm retired!):
Happy Gardening!
I just filled my huge dehydrator with red sweet peppers for making paprika.
11 large stainless steel trays are all full. I cut them into half inch squares to speed up the drying.
Last week I finished making several quarts of dried tomatoes using an Italian heirloom variety special adapted for that role. It takes a lot of tomatoes to make a couple dried quarts. I am going to make tomato powder that I use in place of tomato paste.
Now is the time of the year when I start drying for powders and chopping for sauces and pickles.
Quick down and rity rundown of current status here in the Pacific Northwest.
Tomatoes going gangbusters.
Beefsteak, Chelan Heirloom, White Tomasol, Indigo Rose, Brandywine, Black Krim, Black Icicle and a couple of other varieties all have fruit set (zone 8b so we are behind a lot of you folks) and some are beginning to ripen.
Brussel sprouts starts and popping but nowhere near ready. I have to thin them out.
Rainbow chard, flat leaf Italian kale, collard greens all kicking ass now. Collard greens were sad and doing nothing but I cut them waaaay back almost down to nubs and they loved it.
Volunteer broccoli from.last year growing line crazy but no heads forming yet. (Taking suggestions.....if you know how to fertile to get those broccoli heads to start forming let me know.)
Eggplants aplenty. Took a 5 gallon home depot bucket to work for the coworkers. Still have another half bucket to blanch and freeze.
Bell peppers, Poblano, Jalepenos, Giant Marconi, Caperino, and Round of Hungary all doing quite well....Shishito are a little behind the 8 ball.
Now that the prime growing season for WEEDS is winding down, and we had a good long rain yesterday, I was out in the garden yanking some of them up.I didn’t get too far but it felt good!
I saw some of the tomato plants - through the weed growth - and though not very productive, they look pretty nice! The issue is I have to make a path through the six foot tall dense weeds to get to them. One of the bush beans I planted turned out to be a pole bean, and has a half dozen beans up too high for the deer to get - so I’ll get those and do them up in butter and garlic.
Quite pitiful, but at least I got that damn fence up finally. It looks like a Frankenstein fence, but it should ward off darn near anything but a bear!
Despite both of us having had COVID last week, we’ve pretty much recovered this past week, and have at least been harvesting.
Spousal unit sat next to a gal at our Legion/Legion Auxiliary meeting on the 9th, who subsequently test positive; also her husband, a Legionnaire, was hospitalized on a ventilator; he died Thursday.
We developed respiratory symptoms late the next week, but chalked it up to the heavy smoke in the air. Mrs. AR went in for a scheduled procedure, and tested positive; I wasn’t tested, but was definitely infected. She’s been issued an official release letter by the state health dept this past week. I’ve been using Ivermectin all week. I’m still a bit weak, but basically over it.
ITMT, the garden has only minimally suffered. Yesterday, we pulled & stripped about 1/2 of the black seeded green beans that were drying on the vines. Last night & this afternoon, we shelled them. The pods had half filled a 5 gallon bucket. There’s also an equal amount of white seeded vines.
The corn got canned, though it was a few days past prime, but still sweet.
Squash has kept the food bank supplied, but then had to be neglected: several giant stuffers out there waiting to be picked. Also need to pick cukes; it’s been about a week since they were last picked.
Potatoes are dying back; dug one totally dead Yukon: got 3 huge spuds from it, and some little ones. So far, these are the best taters we’ve had in years.
The Fall peeas are up & growing.
It was another miserably hot week here in Central Missouri. We got one small rain shower, but it didn’t amount to much.
I got a bit of weeding done in the garden, and picked several gallons of pole beans, but I don’t get too ambitious when it’s pushing 100° outside. Forecast is for cooler temps and some rain this week, which would be good. It’s time to get a patch worked up to plant some green salad.
