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Friday, October 17, 2008

LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES

If you don't know by now. I am 47, Oops I mean 48, and now learning to can and preserve food. So this is kinda do what I say not what I do kind post.
I have always had a small garden. I know how to garden. But now I want to be able to eat year round on what we grow our self. Or find local. Like this bushel of Red Delicious apples.I searched on the Internet for ways to preserve them, so I found this.
Preserving Fruit Color:
There are three ways to keep apple flesh from turning brown before and during freezing: (1) dip slices in a solution of 1/2 teaspoon of ascorbic acid to 3 tablespoons of cold water,

(2) soak them in a solution of 2 tablespoons of salt and 1 gallon of water,

(3) steam-blanch them for 1 1/2 minutes and cool them in ice water before freezing.

So I chose to use the salt in water, but I also added a splash of lemon juice to the water as and extra precaution. This worked great.
I got hubby to help me peel and I bought a tool that core and quartered.This was allot of work for one day so I just did 1/2 of the bushel this way. I laid them out on
freezer paper to freeze so they would be easy to pull out of a bag with out being froze
together.

This is the result. I should have used 2 layers of freezer paper to separate the layers . And I should have checked on them and bag as soon as the were some what frozen not completely froze together.
So I tried to pull them apart by hand. Burr my hands were frost bit. And I was not Heman. I need more muscles. Ha Ha.
So to save the day I got out the trusty hammer. Wrapped it with a paper towel.
And whala It saved the day.

Now I have 1 gallon &4 quart bags of frozen easy to use apples.
Plus from the peel I have 1 quart of juice to use for jelly. And 1/2 gallon of peels to feed to my chickens.
Mistake #2 I put 2 bags of fresh apples in in the freezer with 1 bag of fresh tomatoes. They sorta froze together. So now I know to keep them away from each other to freeze.
These bags were done the #3 way of blanching and freezing.
Here is a video to show you how to make Jelly from the peels.
Tonight I will tackle the other 1/2 and make apple sauce

When this is over, I can take a break and join hubby for some TV watching.

I love Show and Tell Friday it is hosted by Kelli at There is No Place Like Home

35 comments:

Wendy said...

What a lot of work. You do deserve to chill out and watch some TV!
I enjoyed watching you work in your kitchen.

Unknown said...

Hi
Great tutorial! I may have to try this one day!
diane

KrisMrsBBradley said...

Hubby and I just started preserving food from our garden last year. We've done mostly canning, and some freezing of veggies. This year we really went all out and have a pantry full of jarred tomatoes, salsas and jams!

It's fun, isn't it?

Lady Katherine said...

Have fun canning, it makes it go more easly. Your seeds are in the mail.

Yellow Rose Arbor said...

Wow, aren't you smart! I love home canned and frozen foods, but not enough to work that hard! LOL! I'm from a long line of home canners, but don't do it myself! (My loss!)

Katherine

Tammy said...

Ah, we're never too old to learn new skills! You'll enjoy the fruits of your labors even more because you did it yourself.

Anonymous said...

Wow the apples look delicious. They were beautiful apples to begin with - before the peeling started. Wish I was ambitious enough to do this kind of thing.
Charlotte

Janet said...

I love apples - what a brilliant way to keep them and to use them in different recipes...I'd love to be able to do this too - maybe I'll get up enough courage to try! Thanks for the inspiration!

Linda C said...

I have a tree full of red delicious apples that are coming down this weekend! --thanks for the tutorial. I just may try that. I usually make a lot of apple pie and give them to my married kids and kids at college. I might try freezing some now.
Great show and tell!
~Linda C

Michelle said...

I think I would have probably just did what the kitty was doing at the end. :) Glad you are learning...more than I can do! Hehe! I would love to learn to can sometime though. :)

Have a great weekend, Grammy!

Lisa Cobler said...

That's a lot of work. Great post!

Pink Slippers said...

Those apples look good! And love the kitty picture.
Wendy

Unknown said...

Thanks for visiting, and also for sharing your "experiences" so we can learn too!

Barbara said...

you see...we are never too old to learn news....
kisses barbara

Anonymous said...

I need to do that with all my apples! I love your kitty pic!
Blessings~
Gail

Anonymous said...

Look at the shine on those apples, I bet your kitchen smelled great, I love the smell of cooking apples.

Betty said...

What a worker you are...but what rewards...growing up I didn't know too much about freezing and canning but after marrying and moving to the country it became a way of life....so much satisfaction in preserving food for our families....

Thank you for dropping in to visit me and commenting.....Betty

aspiritofsimplicity said...

I do think some TV watching is in order.

Linda said...

I made some cherry preserves once which were delicious but, my what a lot of work. If you want to see some real green living, rather on the edge, check out this blog. Go back a couple of years. What she has done is amazing. Not my cup of tea but fascinating.
http://frenchtoastfrance.blogspot.com/

Gail said...

Ball Blue Books are the most wonderful books for food preservers. Although it seems, you need no instruction! Great job and great posting.

Manuela@A Cultivated Nest said...

You know, I always just slice my apples and squirt some lemon juice on them and freeze. I've been wanting to tackle canning and jelly making too - you're never to old to learn something new. So way to go! You deserve a nice break!

Manuela

Mom2my10 @ 11th Heaven said...

Hi Grammy, regarding the Make It From Scratch Carnival, I'm actually not sure what a trackback URL is, but I just entered my homepage address there and it worked fine. If that doens't work, please let me know...

Elena said...

Wow, this is great infromation. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Susie Homemaker said...

Everything good in life is worth working for...that said, put your feet up girl...you deserve it!

Thanks for the visit...
Susie

Brandy said...

I love to can too. There is such a sense of accomplishment once you are done. Also the satisfaction is awesome when you eat the fruits of your labor all winter long!

Michelle said...

Grammy,

I have something for you at my blog! Have fun!

Anonymous said...

I froze pumpkin for the first time last year, but haven't used it all yet. Oops!

Thanks for sharing what you are learning!

Zaroga said...

Wow... quite a show & tell. You are getting the hang of it just fine.

Our family has gardened and preserved food for many years. We had about a 15 year break of gardening while my husband worked at a tire plant. He is now retired and the garden has returned. While he worked at the tire plant we did pick-you-own.. so we still preserved food. I'm having back problems now, so most of the preserving is up to him. He made me some pear preserves a few days ago. All I did to help was put the lids and rings on :-) I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful hubby.

You raise chickens... we did that for a while and I hated it.

Chief Family Officer said...

Wow, I'm so impressed! I never thought of freezing apples this way before - I'll have to try it myself.

Carla said...

LOLOLOL!! Funny stuff! Thats how we learn right? From mistakes. My mom says, if you learned something, it wasn't a mistake. Kudos to you for trying, for being creative, for succeeding, and sharing! I hope you and yours have a wonderful weekend (and enjoy the fruits of your labor:)
LOVE THAT KITTY!

Carrie said...

Wha a treasure of apples you now have for making wonderful treats.

Anonymous said...

Funny that I came across your blog today through "There's no place like home", because at the age of 42 I just did my first "canning" this past week with some beautiful Concord Grapes I picked at my dads' house. 18 half pint jars, and I'm very proud of myself! Hope you're having fun!

Unknown said...

Thank you for stopping by my blog and for sharing on yours. Blessings,Mica

Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet said...

Ugh on frostbite! Thanks for the great tutorial! :D I need to do some freezing of mine, too. :D

Lisa Knight said...

I tossed my cores & peels already, I should have boiled them for juice, next batch!!!

I never thought of freezing the slices for pies & such, I just made apple sauce. Lots of applesauce!
Thanks for the tips