I have been canning juneberries for about a month now and need to
accelerate because soon they
turn too soft and are just mush in my hands. They make an excellent
drink as I usually put some
currants with them.

The sour cherry harvest began Monday of this week, and today is
thursday. They are not fully ripe
and I try to pick them when fully ripe. With good tree management
cherries can be almost worm free.
When I started in 2001 about 3/4 of the cherries had worms in them,
but as I picked them through the
years, my picking has thus eliminated the worms from a life cycle and
so only the occasional cherry
has a worm in it.

I try to eat as much fresh as possible, and only can the excess. I
should manage to can 200 quart
jars this summer. Cinnamon applesauce is going to be the bulk.

Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

wrote:
I have been canning juneberries for about a month now and need to
accelerate because soon they
turn too soft and are just mush in my hands. They make an excellent
drink as I usually put some
currants with them.

The sour cherry harvest began Monday of this week, and today is
thursday. They are not fully ripe
and I try to pick them when fully ripe. With good tree management
cherries can be almost worm free.
When I started in 2001 about 3/4 of the cherries had worms in them,
but as I picked them through the
years, my picking has thus eliminated the worms from a life cycle and
so only the occasional cherry
has a worm in it.

I try to eat as much fresh as possible, and only can the excess. I
should manage to can 200 quart
jars this summer. Cinnamon applesauce is going to be the bulk.


I should comment on my history of canning of fruits and tomatoes for
it may save someone else
the hassle of a learning-curve and all the time and money wasted.

My canning history started about 1985 or 1986 and I thought I needed a
pressure cooker. How so
foolish I was about canning. So I bought an expensive pressure cooker
and packed jars with fruit
and under the pressure cooker. My first batches in 1986 had many
broken quart jars, probably I
had the heat too long. Anyway, a huge waste of time, money.

Then I learned that it was stupid and foolish to have a pressure
cooker when all I wanted to do is
can fruits and tomatoes. The acid in those foods is strong enough that
all I needed to do is heat
the fruit or tomatoes to a boil and then pour them into a quart jar
and the heat will seal the lid.
The acid in the food will allow storage of those jars at room
temperature.

So my canning procedure these days is simply prepare the fruit or
tomatoes and then bring them to
a boil and simply pour the quart jars full and then screw down the
lid. Now I reuse the old lids and when
I open a jar I am careful as to how I open it with using a can opener
so that I can reuse the very same
lid in the future.

When I first started canning using the pressure cooker, I broke very
many jars. Nowadays I may break
one jar during the entire year of canning 300 jars. Sometimes the
pouring of the hot liquid can crack
the jar, so you want to pour the jar full in a pan in case the jar
breaks and you would not want the
hot liquid to go flooding the floor.

Now the tools I use in canning other than the quart jar with lid, is
that I use a very big spoon and then
I use a pyrex cup to scoop the liquids and fruits and I use those
funnels as I pour from the cup into
the jar. I also use a paper towel to wipe the top should any liquid or
fruit spill on the top of the jar.

The largest work is picking the fruit and preparing it before canning.
Juneberries are easy and also
apples. But cherries are time consuming because I cut each cherry open
to see if there are worms
and to remove the pit.

I average about 6 quarts a night on a big canning night, and about 3
on a slow night.

Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

On Jul 3, 1:28*pm, wrote:
They make an excellent
drink as I usually put some
currants with them.
Good idea. Currants contain a lot of pectin so if your pectin develops
you may find your juice turning viscous.

I thought I needed a
pressure cooker.
You may only need a pressure cooker at higher elevations.

many broken quart jars, probably I
had the heat too long.
More likely that the lids were screwed on too tight and they exploded
from internal pressure. In the pressure cooker, lids are actually a
one-way valve. Pressure is relieved as the steam blows off and the
cooker depressurizes. When the lids are too tight, pressure equalizes
too slowly in the jars, which after all are built for a vacuum and not
internal pressure. When the jars are out on the counter cooling the
vacuum in the jar pulls the seal tight so no bacteria gets in.

The acid in the food will allow storage of those jars at room
temperature.
I don't believe that is reliably true. Fruit and tomatoes are
extremely variable in their acid content, and that amount does not
guarantee antibacterial action. hence we pour hot wax over the jam and
may not even need a sealed lid.

What you are really doing is pouring sterile food into hot sterile
jars and sealing them up. A dishwasher machine is helpful for
delivering sterile jars right on time and nicely hot. Sloppy technique
or bacteria-laden air can give you a failure percentage, as I recall
less than 1%, with inoculated jars exploding from fermentation after
several months. Botulism is nearly uneard of with home canning, that
was a lie to get depression-era mothers to buy factory canned food.

I open it with using a can opener
so that I can reuse the very same
lid in the future.
Good idea, but watch the resilient seal and don't abuse it. Mostly
people screw it down too tight and the seal gets smashed making
subsequent sealing unreliable. In addition, never reuse lids that have
the coating scratched off the inside. They corrode pretty badly and
spoil your food.

to see if there are worms
and to remove the pit.
Got a problem with protein? Like my mother used to say, "If it's good
enough for a worm it's good enough for me". I guess the moral of the
story is, better an occasional worm than chemicals.

I average about 6 quarts a night on a big canning night, and about 3
on a slow night.

whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies
Hehe, everything is identical in structure, only the magnitude has
changed.

-- Gnarlie
http://Gnarlodious.com/Concept

Gnarlodious wrote:
On Jul 3, 1:28�pm, wrote:
They make an excellent
drink as I usually put some
currants with them.
Good idea. Currants contain a lot of pectin so if your pectin develops
you may find your juice turning viscous.

I thought I needed a
pressure cooker.
You may only need a pressure cooker at higher elevations.

many broken quart jars, probably I
had the heat too long.
More likely that the lids were screwed on too tight and they exploded
from internal pressure. In the pressure cooker, lids are actually a
one-way valve. Pressure is relieved as the steam blows off and the
cooker depressurizes. When the lids are too tight, pressure equalizes
too slowly in the jars, which after all are built for a vacuum and not
internal pressure. When the jars are out on the counter cooling the
vacuum in the jar pulls the seal tight so no bacteria gets in.

The acid in the food will allow storage of those jars at room
temperature.
I don't believe that is reliably true. Fruit and tomatoes are
extremely variable in their acid content, and that amount does not
guarantee antibacterial action. hence we pour hot wax over the jam and
may not even need a sealed lid.

What you are really doing is pouring sterile food into hot sterile
jars and sealing them up. A dishwasher machine is helpful for
delivering sterile jars right on time and nicely hot. Sloppy technique
or bacteria-laden air can give you a failure percentage, as I recall
less than 1%, with inoculated jars exploding from fermentation after
several months. Botulism is nearly uneard of with home canning, that
was a lie to get depression-era mothers to buy factory canned food.

I open it with using a can opener
so that I can reuse the very same
lid in the future.
Good idea, but watch the resilient seal and don't abuse it. Mostly
people screw it down too tight and the seal gets smashed making
subsequent sealing unreliable. In addition, never reuse lids that have
the coating scratched off the inside. They corrode pretty badly and
spoil your food.

to see if there are worms
and to remove the pit.
Got a problem with protein? Like my mother used to say, "If it's good
enough for a worm it's good enough for me". I guess the moral of the
story is, better an occasional worm than chemicals.

I average about 6 quarts a night on a big canning night, and about 3
on a slow night.

whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies
Hehe, everything is identical in structure, only the magnitude has
changed.

-- Gnarlie
http://Gnarlodious.com/Concept

Some good comments there.

My spiel was not to be used by others as a recipe, for I boil my
canning probably for a different
span than some others boil theirs before they pack into the jars. Each
person, I suspect finds
the length of time of boiling that is comfortable for them. For me, I
want to try to get the best zone
of boiling time-- if I boil too long, well I lose the nutrient value
of the food, and if I boil too short, there
maybe the danger of bacteria and spoilage. So I like to save as much
nutrient value as possible
but not so that bacteria grow and lose the entire jar content.

Now I did experience losses of some vegetables such as tomato
succatash (spelling) where I had
a good amount of squash included with tomatos and the bacteria had not
been killed by the boiling
and come to find out one day, a pecular odor and looking at the canns
see a few whose lid is about
to explode off.

After that experience, I occasionally run into the can storage room
and "ping the top lid" to hear
that ringing sound, not the dull sound. If I hear a dull sound, means
the lid is compromised. Compromised
by either bacteria pressure growing inside or compromised by a failure
of sealing.

But a good seal, and the jars can seem to last forever, as some
applesauce I had eaten were 4 years
old.

I believe the terms "cold packing" and hot-packing are used where hot-
packing means pressure
cooking. I suppose a pressure cooker is essential for canning things
like meats and non acid foods
like spinach or potatoes.

Now the coating on the lids is a very much big problem and I often
reuse the lids for about 4 times,
or 4 years in a row before those lids corrode to much black and then
replace the lid with a new one.
The corrosion of the lid is the most vulnerable item in the canning.

Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

This is the first year of a successful juneberry harvest in that I
canned at least 75% of the crop. In past years
one hot day in summer would soften the berries and no longer
worthwhile.

And this is the first year here in South Dakota not racked by a summer
drought, although it is becoming
dry now and where I would have to waste a month in just watering.

The currants are coming on in full force for harvesting and am mixing
them with the sour cherries. About
two weeks from now should be the end of the sour cherry harvest.
Currants are easy to cann with
little prep work. I like the small red ones, the ones I remember in
Canada in mixed fruit. Less likeable
are the black ones.

Soon I should be harvesting the Buffaloberries. Those are an immense
challenge since the thorns. But
their flavor is tremendously strong. They taste like unsweetened lemon
juice.

After the buffaloberries should come on line is the grapes and plums
and apples and apricots. Not many
pears this year; apparently they are biennal in harvest amount.

Then of course the tomatoes should come on line in about early August.

One lesson of advice I can give is to cann only that which is fully
ripe, for canning does not improve
the fruit. If the fruit is unpleasant to eat raw, then canning will
not improve it. I had a bad habit of
canning unripe apples and pears in past years.

And I am not going to bother with exotica fruits like mulberry,
chokecherry, or elderberry. Their taste
and flavor is not worth the time and energy of canning.

My potting of strawberries and lettuce, spinach, onions is working out
swell, even though they require
daily watering. I pack the bottom of the pot with horsemanure so that
water moisture does not make the
bottom of the pot constantly wet. Most of my pots are 3 gallons. The
lettuce is doing exceptionally well
and able to collect the seed for next year.

I am debating on whether to transplant the lilies into large pots next
year so as to keep control of their
environment.

Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

I think you should harvest the Juneberries and mix them with the
unripe Buffaloberries while you are waiting to can them. That would be
the equivalent of using lemon or lime juice as an antioxidant to
retard ripening (crystal citric acid works well too). Usually in
nature there is some hidden mysterious synergy between adjacent
plants. Separate them physically and spoilage is hastened.

In any case, we always used to mix fast ripening fruit with sour
underripe fruit just to give us more time to process it.

-- Gnarlie

wrote:
This is the first year of a successful juneberry harvest in that I
canned at least 75% of the crop. In past years
one hot day in summer would soften the berries and no longer
worthwhile.

And this is the first year here in South Dakota not racked by a summer
drought, although it is becoming
dry now and where I would have to waste a month in just watering.

Well it has been 3 weeks without rainfall so in the past week I have
dropped
everything to start watering. Hopefully tonight, tomorrow and Friday
we have
some rain. If so, then this will be the best summer here ever in that
I was
turned into a waterboy for only 1 week. Last years, I spent entire
months doing
nothing but watering.

Well the sour cherry harvest is over with and managed to cann about
100 quarts,
(100 liters) of sour cherries (some mixed fruits with the cherries).

The Juneberries are long past gone.

That leaves only currants, some gooseberries and buffaloberries.

Now the gooseberries that I buy in the Oregon brand canned fruit are
delicious and was
expecting my fresh fruit to be as good or better. But to my surprize,
my gooseberries have
disappointed me. Their skin is flavorful, but it seems as though their
insides are powdery dry.
Seems as though the skin is the only tasteful part of fresh
gooseberries. Perhaps it is the
variety I have, or perhaps dry climates take a toll on gooseberries.

As for buffaloberries, they are somewhat new to me. They seem to pack
the highest amount
of flavour per size of any fruit I have ever tasted. They are tiny but
feel like I am biting into a
whole lemon. They have a lemony flavour. I do not know if they have
any superlatives-- perhaps
the highest concentration of vitamin C per volume?

But one thing I want to find out if buffaloberries carry any sort of
mild poison, as that chokecherries
contain some poison in their seeds. And the reason I stopped bothering
with chokecherries. I will eat
chokecherries fresh and raw and spit out the seed, but unwilling to
cann or make juice because of this
poison content inside their seeds.

So for the next weeks, I have only currants and buffaloberries to
cann.

Now I am waiting for grapes, apples, pears to ripen for the next
bigtime canning. Grapes are fun to
can for they are little to prep. With apples I usually make cinnamon
applesauce so that the blender is
hauled out and have to use and clean in the operation.

Now this year, the horse and llama are going to compete with me for
the apples, and noticing the
horse already starting to pluck off the trees the low lying apples,
even green apples. They must
like apples so much that they eat green as well as ripe. I do not mind
the horse so long as he
does not damage the apple trees.

Now I am going to have to admit defeat on apricots. When I first moved
here in 2000 I planted many
rows of apricot trees and they have grown very well. This is the first
year in which they have plenty
of apricots on the tree without loss to a late Spring frost. Trouble
is that the apricots never seem to
grow to mature fruit and where most seem to shrivel and die on the
branches. So the climate here
is just too inhospitable for apricots.

But the big harvest this year for me is going to be black walnuts.
This year I should have bushel baskets
and bushel baskest full of black walnuts to harvest, at least
competing with the squirrels.

If I were young again with living in this region and wanting a cash
crop to grow on a large piece of farmland
I would slowly turn it into a black-walnut farm, with rows and rows of
black-walnuts, harvest the crop and
sell it. I can also harvest the wood and sell it. The best thing is
that the land has almost no erosion
of top soil and where I can operate without ever using a motorized
vehicle such as a tractor. That is
if I were young again.

These three lessons, would have served me, if I were young again. (1)
find a crop that saves the topsoil
(2) find a crop that is a plant native to the region, don't do exotica
plants (3) make yearly improvements
on water supply.

I see the local farmers in the area, many of them getting those large
wheeled sprinklers. And good on
them, because the last summers without rain are nightmare summers.
When I see plants wilting, I
do not know who suffers more, the plant or me.


Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies