Preserve the Harvest

Journal for 2017

A pretty robust year and a good harvest. Everything was a little behind this year. We're not sure why as we had a hot and wet summer.

Asparagus Soup — 16 quarts
Our second year for canning this soup. We've come to really like it. We got half of our 25 pounds from our friends at King Orchards and the other half from Altonen Orchards We are looking for someone who can provide us bulk pricing as the retail cost of these is rising too much each year.

Rhubarb Relish - 6 half-pints
Last year we made a ton of this and gave it away as gifts. This, just enough of ourselves. It's strange, last year we canned this a week earlier and almost missed the harvest, this year the rhubarb is just now coming in.
;
Rhubarb Chutney - 8 half-pints
A first time recipe for us. We love chutney and thought to add some variety. We already do up Tomato Chutney and Apple Chutney and thought this would be a nice addition. This recipe is only slightly different than the Rhubarb Relish, very similar.
Rhubarb Jam - 6 half-pints
Another first time recipe for us. We are not big jam eaters but thought we'd try it. It uses honey instead of sugar and we liked the flavor, not so sweet that you lose the slight tartness of the rhubarb. Have to see how it works out.

Pickled Asparagus - 4 quarts
Asparagus is at the very end of harvest. Last week when we were getting the rhubarb from King Orchards they had samples of recipes out. One of them was pickled asparagus, which was quite tasty, so we decided try and make some. We got six pounds of asparagus but it only made 4 quarts, stange.

Apricots - 12 quarts
We got a lug of these from our friends at King Orchards . We hadn't made these last year and I had forgotten how easy these are to can. They look delicious.

Cauliflower Soup - 14 quarts
We got a really good deal from our friends at Altonen Orchards on the bell peppers and cauliflower! Thanks! Our oven is broken so we had to do the peppers and cauliflower on the grill! Fortunately the weather was nice. Every harvest we are surprised at how expensive ingredients are. This year red bell peppers were selling for $2.00 each! That's just insane. Next year we are going to grow our own.

Corn Chowder - 16 quarts
One of her favorites. Once again, even in harvest, prices are way too high. When I started canning in the early 2000's, I could buy corn at 13 ears for a dollar. That's 8 cents an ear. This year they were selling at 50 cents an ear!

Pesto - 23 half-pints
All homegrown basil again this year. Mixed almonds and walnuts this time around, and a little exta garlic - why not? Needed to add a bit extra oil with the almonds as they are less oily than other nuts, but it all came out delicious!

Red Lentil Soup - 13 quarts
A new recipe for us. We tried it out on Thursday, everybody liked it so we decided to add it to our soups! It's very easy to make but we have to be careful not to make it too thick.

Peaches - 14 quarts
We know we sound like a broken record but we are amazed at how expensive food is even here at harvest time. $52 a bushel for peaches!!! Fortunately we were able to get a good ripe half-bushel from our friends at Altonen Orchards for only $14 which is not too bad. The peaches are beautiful and perfect ripeness for canning.

Ribolitta - 14 quarts
Excellent chard, huge kale and really huge cabbage! Everything was perfect until I was putting the jars on the shelf and realized I had forgotten the tomatoes and the garlic! Oh my. Have to see how it turns out. Update: The garlic is not a great loss but the tomatoes...oh. I've been adding half a jar or even a full quart of tomatoes, it helps.

Pears - 15 quarts
Beautiful Bartlet Pears from Altonen Orchards . Almost perfect in their ripeness. As always, pears are a less messy than peaches but a little harder to core. Gonna be wonderful, though.

Onion Soup - 12 quarts
This was really late in the year but, back in November we had a myocardial infarction (heart attack), a renal infarction (kidney failure) and a 4V CABG (quadruple bypass surgery) and were in the hospital for quite a while! Still, the soup turned out delicious and we are very glad to be around to enjoy it!