This weekend was a bit of preservation time for some of my harvest. Starting with tomatoes. Usually as tomatoes come in (I pick them when they first blush and let them ripen inside) I will juice them (remove skin & seeds) and freeze the juice until I have enough to run the canner. I don't know exactly what I started with, but I ended with 27 quarts of tomato juice. This was after boiling the juice to about 50% of the starting volume, my little burner was running almost nonstop on Saturday. Still had a batch in the water bath when this photo was taken: And last time I mowed, I picked up a bunch of pears that had fallen. These were supposed to be 'Bartlett' pears but I don't think they are. These are hard and grainy, but have great flavor. Well, last time I had a good harvest like this the dogs ate most of the pears from the bucket. Not this time. I'm in the process of making some 'pear moonshine' and 'pear wine'! Here is the wine fermentor: and the 'shine (or what will be 'flavored hand sanitizer' aka moonshine for the home distiller) Both of these have already started fermenting. The 'shine I estimate will finish around 12-15% ABV then will be distilled to something higher and finished off. I've also freeze dried more sweet peppers, yellow squash and zucchini then we'll use in a year.
that's the coolest post iv seen today. well done. in my dumpster diving days we scored a big box of mixed dried fruit the wine was awesome!
The wife has caned what I grow for years. Unfortunately tomatoes did not do well this year. Waiting on my peanuts-- be another month or so --wife will can boiled peanuts---it's a southern thing
yeah, my tomatoes were off to a very slow start. we had a wet and cool spring so they just did not want to grow. Had a rabbit take out all of my green beans when they were sprouting. Far fewer squash bugs this year, so that's a good thing. Something I did different with my tomatoes is that I grew them on arched cattle panels. Previously I used the panels for growing green beans but we found we like the bush variety better (apparently so do the rabbits). I really liked weaving the tomato plants on the cattle panel, makes it easy to see and pick the tomatoes.
Speaking of tomatoes after hurricane Hugo in 1989 it brought something called bacteria wilt that kills tomatoes plants. I tried every variety no luck even tried grafting tomatoes onto eggplant. Finally found a variety called Neptune that is bacterial wilt resistant and that is all I grow. Last couple of years have been trying other varieties and having some luck thinking maybe the wilt is finally disappearing. All my neighbors have had the same problem.
What a fantastic post, truly inspiring to see such a full-circle approach to preserving the harvest! Turning tomato juice into 27 quarts of future meals, freezing peppers and squash for the long haul, and even turning imperfect pears into wine and moonshine... that’s real prepper ingenuity right there. Your ability to stretch each harvest, juicing, freezing, fermenting, distilling, is exactly what self-sufficiency is all about. I bet that “pear alcohol” will be even better than expected, and you’ll be sipping on flavor and accomplishment this winter. Great job. And thanks for sharing. You’re living proof that a little elbow grease and creativity can turn any garden bounty (even the “wrong” pears) into something valuable. Count me inspired and very thirsty!
Just harvested some of the peanuts I planted. The wife will be making boiled peanuts and canning them. For you yankees boiled peanuts are a southern thang
