The garden is bursting, fish are flopping on the boat deck, and fruit is ripening all throughout the garage... keep that canner running!This week during fish camp, the girls have been helping put up over 80 Qts of Peaches and 80 Qts of Pears with Mom. The shelves are filling up fast!
We've been drying alot of fruit, too. Peach, apricot, and plum fruit leather, along with dried peaches and pears. Its tough to get around in the kitchen this week! At least the house smells great - who cares about alittle clutter.
Look at all those tomatoes, too. This is about 1/3 of what our plants put out.
With all of the tomatoes, we have been cooking up spagetti sause, Salsa, and tomatoe soup. Can you smell the tangy sause bubbling on the stove?
On breaks back from Fish Camp, the rest of us jumped in and helped peel the rest of the pears. After dinner, we turn on a movie or radio, and hang out peeling, cutting, and stuffing the sweet fruit into jars. About every 3rd fruit gets eaten right there...
We use a big, 2-burner propane stove to keep the fruit moving along. Its nice that this can handle 2 batches of 14 Quarts water-bathing outside and out of the way. This lets us run the canner inside the house for all the salmon we are canning.
Mom's gotten really creative this year, too. Here are some pears along side some "Cinnamon Syrup Apple Slices" we tried. Basically, fresh apples canned in a Red-Hot Candy syrup.
Yumm!
Here's another exciting new recipe - "Peppery Pear Salsa" Yee-Haw! Sure looks festive, doesn't it!
It tastes FANTASTIC! Very mild but with a sweet, sharp taste of green and red peppers. Time to cook up some omletes...
The dried peaches are especially good. The produce and fruit are delicious this year.We get most of our fruit from a friend who travels weekly to the Tri-Cities in WA and brings back truckloads of fantastic fruit and produce. Good prices and great fruit.
The red-hot apple slices turned out so good, we're trying the same thing with some Pears. Can't wait for Christmas for all the festive food.
Here is the final Peppery Pear Salsa. The dried Mustard and other ingredients have mellowed the bright colors...Alot of these items make great gifts and are fun to take to parties.
We're also working on Pickled Beans, and have alot more salmon to can. All the canning makes for late nights, but it will sure be worth it all year long.
Canning is NOT a big money-saver... but it is all about the quality of life. You can't buy food this good. So come on over and lets eat!
