Wednesday, July 31, 2013

More canning in processs.



Location, At Home.

A little catch-up is in order.

Clyda’s sister Candi left for home today. I think she enjoyed her stay. I know she and Clyda were busy all week as the car was rarely in our drive way.

We are still canning cucumbers. I’ve lost track of how many pints and quarts we have done. Today I started a batch of freezer pickles. They are sliced and need to sit in the refrigerator with salt sprinkled on them over night. Tomorrow I will heat vinegar and sugar plus a few spices to pour over them and then they sit in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 days. We will put them in jars and then the freezer on Saturday or Sunday. The first batch we made sure was good. We have already eaten one jar.

I still have more cucumbers in the RV refrigerator which are nice and small and would make good dill pickles if I could only find some dill. Hard to find right now.

Tomorrow I need to renew my driver’s license. At my age, it requires a written exam and an eye test. I will wait until later in the day and hope the line isn’t too long.

Lots of other stuff going on but I will wait until some things get resolved before I report on them.

Monday, July 22, 2013

Busy with canning.



Location, At Home.

I took the truck in this morning for a lube job. I also wanted them to check a noise I have been hearing. They said it isn’t from the engine but might be the differential or the tires. I did replace the tires some time ago and that’s when the noise started. Just maybe!

I took a picture of Craig’s vertical cucumber patch.


Rather unique don’t you think? We have lots of cucumbers so that means lots of canning. Unfortunately we got rid of all our 1 quart canning jars several years ago. They were taking up room in the garage and we didn’t think we would use them again.

Today Clyda ran into a women in the hardware store while she was looking at new jars. The women said not to buy any as she had lots and Clyda could have them. Long story short, we drove to her house and got several boxes of jars. Some may not be usable but those will go to recycling. The remaining will be used I am sure before we are done with this canning season.

So far we have freezer pickles which are very good but we have limited freezer room. Also made bread and butter pickles and dill pickles. We used up our dill with the first batch we made but a friend gave us a huge bouquet of dill for our second batch. We need to make pickles again about Wednesday.

Off to see the twins tomorrow and pick up Clyda’s sister Candi at the same time. She arrived here last Monday but took the train Wednesday morning to visit a friend further south and stay with Chelsea and the twins for a few days.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

It is hot!



Location, At Home.

OMG! It’s hot!

We are having “sundowner” conditions tonight and the temperature has climbed 10 degrees or more in a matter of minutes. Outside temp is 90 degrees at 8:30 PM. It was about 74 degrees when the “sundowner” started about 6 PM. It is one of those times when fires start. I hope people are aware of that and use caution.

A “sundowner” occurs when winds come over the mountains towards the coast and heat up because of the change in pressure. We have wind warnings until midnight tonight.

On other news; Clyda finished the batch of pickles from last night. She made up a liquid of pickling spice, sugar, and vinegar and poured it over the pickle slices. After bringing it to a boil she put the pickle slices into pint jars and water bathed them for 15 minutes. All the lids “popped” within a few minutes after they were removed from the water bath.

We have company coming on Wednesday for dinner so I think we will “test” the new pickles on them. We need to do this to make sure they are fit to eat before we make more.

With all the heat this evening I am sure the garden will produce an abundance of vegetables tomorrow.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Canning season is in full swing!



Location, At Home.

It’s canning time!

I mentioned in my last post that the cucumbers would be ready soon and are they ever. Craig has been picking them by the pail full along with zucchini and yellow squash. He is also getting a handful of green beans and a few snow peas. We had green beans for dinner tonight. Very good!

Clyda has made a batch of freezer pickles which taste much like bread and butter pickles and they were very good. She put them in pint jars and froze them. She also made open jar dill pickles in a 1 gallon sun tea jar. Those we have in the refrigerator and eat them every day. Really good also!

Today she made bread and butter pickles along with another batch of dill pickles which will be canned in a water bath. We just can’t keep anymore pickles in the refrigerator.

 Craig slicing pickles.
A batch washed and ready to make dill pickles.
Fresh made jelly and two batches of pickles.

Unfortunately with all this canning we used up all the dill we had planted. Finding dill is a real problem here. We will check with the farmers market tomorrow and hope someone has some.