It’s THAT time of year. You plan for it, you dream of it, you drool for it, and then you grouse about it; harvest time. Our garden is terrific this year. And all of a sudden, it’s hitting me square in the behind! I started out dinking with a batch of mixed vegetables, then the carrots I’d thinned. Again. Pretty laid back. Then IT happened.

Everything is ripe at once. Oh my! Cucumbers, green beans, dragon’s tongue beans, peas, onions, carrots, and very soon the corn and tomatoes. Cool! But I’m also trying to take care of Mom and help Tom out on the additions so we can have it ready for a wood stove, come fall. Fall, which is roaring down on me like an out of control freight train.

Tomorrow, they’re even saying the F word on the weather radio. Yes, possible scattered pockets of FROST! EEEK! My corn really needs two more weeks; some is still immature, like my tomatoes. I’ll try to cover what I can, but the corn patch is just too big to do anything with. I’ll just have to pray about that. The root crops will be fine, but my melons, squash, corn, and beans are in peril, not to mention my wonderful tomatoes. Now where is that huge tarp?

Tune in next blog and we’ll all see what happens! Wish me luck!

Readers’ questions:

Canning meat

I’m going to try pressure canning some beef this fall for the first time. I need to pick up cans yet. Can you give me a rough estimate on how many cans it takes, say like about how many pint jars for every 10 pounds of beef? I’ll be packing with broth.

Ellie Boast
De Smet, South Dakota

It really depends on what you are going to be canning. For instance, if you put up deboned steaks, packed fairly tightly into a wide mouthed jar, you’ll get more ounces per jar. However, if you do like I did today, and canned meatballs in tomato sauce, you’ll get less per jar because of the type of product. Out of 10 pounds of ground beef, I got 9 quarts and three pints of end product. If I had been putting up chunks of roast or steak, I would probably have gotten about six quarts because there would have been less liquid because the larger flat pieces fit tighter together than stacks of meatballs. — Jackie

Food storage

I just received the newest issue and look forward to reading your article on dehydrating with a fine tooth comb. I recently used some dehydrated chili on a backpacking trip and it came out GREAT! Now I am inspired to do other stuff for quick and easy meals with very little storage.

Sharon Payne
Buena Park, California

I would suggest insulating your shed, not only to keep it warmer in the winter, but cooler in the summer. Adding ventilation, via vents or a small attic fan/vent will also do much to help keep air moving and cut down on humidity. Make your shelves out of 2″ thick lumber. I’ve seen a lot of storage shelves made out of 1″ material and they all sag and threaten collapse sooner or later. This also goes for store-bought book shelves. The only ones I’ve used with success are the ones that hold my popcorn tins with dry flours, noodles and dehydrated foods in them. These don’t weigh as much as do my stacks of full canning jars in the pantry. On our old farm, I had shelves in my basement made out of rough-cut one inch lumber and one night there was a terrible crash. Yep, one of the shelves had broken, dumping jars and jars of food on the cement floor! What a mess. Let my mistake help you to not make the same one. Your shed idea is a good one. I would probably add a sturdy locking outside door…or even NOT have an outside door if the shed is accessible to your kitchen or house. In the years to come, food just might become a real target for thieves. — Jackie

Potato seeds

Well, we got the tire, did everything according to direction and are now waiting to harvest our crop of potatoes. However, can anyone tell me why our potato plants have small “tomato” looking fruit on them? Looks like a tomato but smells like a potato! We do have a couple of tomato plants hanging upside down close by but I wasn’t aware these two would cross-pollinate, let alone bear fruit!

Mallory J. Babcock
Troy, Pennsylvania

Your potato did NOT have an affair with your tomatoes! These are potato seeds. They follow the blossoms. Although when we plant seed potatoes, we plant parts of the potato, itself, potatoes CAN be raised from seed. It isn’t as sure a thing as using cut potato sets, though. The seed must be truly mature to be viable, which takes a long growing season. Some seed won’t produce the true variety you want and it takes a long, long season to start that seed indoors, then move the individual plants out; more work less dependable results. You can just ignore the seeds and not worry about them a bit; it’s a natural process. — Jackie

Fig jam

My mom has a fig tree bearing enough fruit to make fig jam for a year. If I cannot do all at once, can the figs be frozen, then used? If not, do you have a very easy recipe that does not require a lot of time to do?

Connie Aldredge
Fountain Valley, California

Yes, you can freeze your figs and make jam later on, when you have more time. A lot of people do this with other fruits, as well, including berries, cherries, plums, and others. Sometimes this time of the year gets pretty hectic, doesn’t it? — Jackie

Concord grape jelly

This is my first attempt at making concord grape jelly, well any jelly for that matter. I followed the recipe which called for 4 cups grape juice 1/2 cup water and 3 cups sugar. I followed the instructions, step by step, with the water bath, and used a thermometer to make sure the water was hot enough (it said to cook it until it was 8 degrees above boiling) the first batch was very watery so I thought maybe I didn’t cook it long enough so i cooked it again and it is still very watery. Should I throw the jars out? (I got 9 8-ounce jars) (I pretty much picked the vines clean so we wont have any more this year) or can I add more sugar and recook or should I use the pectin stuff and how much? What a mess. My husband said we can always used it for “grape syrup on pancakes.” Any advice would be appreciated.

Wayne & Carol Pitsenberger
Sevierville, Tennessee

You started with a harder way to make jelly; with no pectin. While grape jelly often sets well with no added pectin, sometimes it takes a little experience in getting the jell point just right. You want to boil it down till when you dip up a spoonful with a clean spoon and hold it above your kettle, the jelly oozes together, making a sheet instead of drops when it pours back into the kettle. Yours probably didn’t reach this point. But don’t throw it out. Pick up a box of powdered pectin. Then get ready to make jelly again. You’ll need bottled lemon juice. To each quart of jelly, dumped into a large saucepan so you can wash and sterilize your jars again, you’ll need 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, 2 Tbsp. bottled lemon juice and 4 tsp. powdered pectin. Add all that in another large saucepan and bring to a boil, mixing well. Add your jelly and bring that to a boil, boiling 1/2 minute. Pour out into your sterilized jars and put hot, previously simmered NEW lids on the jars and process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. This will set for you. Until you get more experience, why don’t you use powdered pectin and use the recipes in the box. After quite a bit of success that way, you can try different methods and you’ll probably succeed quite well. Enjoy. — Jackie

Jars not sealing

I have been doing a lot of canning and have always used the Kerr/Ball lids. Today I was hauling more jars to the shelves and I noticed that on a few jars the lids had unsealed. These jars of peaches have been stored for a few weeks. I was going to take my corn to the shelf too and noticed 2 more jars where the lid unsealed. Am I doing something wrong or is this a bad batch of lids? I am very careful about wiping jars and making sure there is enough head space in the jar.

Cindy Hills
Wild Rose, Wisconsin

It is possible you got bad lids, but I really don’t think that’s the problem. Did you simmer your lids? Once I was in a hurry and just kind of like dipped them into the boiled water. Mistake! I had several jars in two batches that didn’t seal. Are you only tightening your rings “firmly tight”? Another time, I was in a bad mood after fighting with the kids on a hot day. I guess I took out my frustration on the rings; they were REALLY tight. Yep, more unsealed jars; the jars couldn’t exhaust like they should. It’s a wonder I didn’t break jars! Because you had failures with both pressure canned and water bath processed foods, I wouldn’t look at your canner for a problem like a gauge that was misreading. I know things like this are frustrating. I hope you have much better luck in the future. — Jackie

Canned meatball recipes

Will you please share the recipes for your meatballs and the different sauces you have canned them in? I have been canning everything I can get my hands on, since buying my first pressure canner this spring, and have enjoyed every minute. If it can’t get away from me, I put it in a jar. I love hearing those lids ping and pop! Since I’m starting out new, I’ve had to purchase jars, but our local Ace Hardware is selling them for $7.00 a dozen until the end of August, so each payday I buy a few more. Everyone else is selling them for $12, so I’m getting as many as possible from Ace. I just wanted to say thank you for encouraging people to try new things. I’m having such a wonderful time.

Rosemarie Wesolek
Mahaffey, Pennsylvania

I’m having fun canning right now. I first made meatballs, using institutional sized cream of mushroom soup, diluted with water mixed with the drippings from the pan I cooked the meatballs in. I was frying my meatballs in two frying pans but a friend told me she put hers into a roasting pan and baked them. They brown on all sides with no fussing around turning them over all the time. I did that today and it worked great! My meatballs in mushroom sauce goes like this: I used 10 pounds of hamburger (on sale, of course!). To that, I mixed 1 cup chopped onions, 1 Tbsp. black pepper and 4 Tbsp. seasoning salt. I smushed that in well with my hands and formed up the meatballs. You can also mix in cracker crumbs or oatmeal and eggs, like you do meatloaf, if you wish. Bake the meatballs in roasting pans at 350 degrees, until just done; they shrink down. Pour off most of the grease. Dip the meatballs out with a wooden spoon and gently slip into wide mouth canning jars. While the meatballs are baking, heat 2 family sized or 1 institutional size can of cream of mushroom soup and half a can of water in a large saucepan to nearly boiling. Add your pan drippings, diluted with another 1/2 can of water. Pour this into your mushroom soup and mix well. Ladle this over your meatballs, to within 1 inch of the top. Process at 10 pounds pressure for 90 minutes for quarts or 75 minutes for pints. If you live at an altitude over 1,000 feet, consult your canning manual for instructions on adjusting your pressure to suit your altitude.

Today I made meatballs with green peppers and onions, with tomato sauce. I simply added chopped green peppers to the other recipe and mixed in well, topping the full jars with home canned tomato sauce from last season.

Tomorrow, I’m making Italian meatballs, using garlic, onion, basil, and oregano and using the tomato sauce. Instant spaghetti meatballs! It’s so fun!

Remember, all meat products are processed for the same time, so you can use any recipe you like. — Jackie

This has been a busy week! The garden is doing itself proud. Stuff out there is looking awesome. Now if we just don’t get a sneaky frost! Will’s pea patch (aka new strawberry bed) is nearly waist high and I picked a market basket full on Sunday. I spent the afternoon, pleasantly on the porch, shucking peas while Mom pointed out this and that flower in her vast houseplant collection. She has fancy begonias, miniature African violets, hibiscus, succulents and cactus, to name only a few.

Then on Monday, I picked green beans, onions, huge carrots and a bucket full of potatoes (from only 2 hills!) and set to cutting them up to add to the peas to make mixed vegetables. I even cut up a few yellow summer squash to add to the mixture. It turned out great. I got 10 quarts and 18 pints, all totaled. And that’s just a start. Wow are they pretty jars!

Today I put up meatballs in mushroom sauce. Our local market has hamburger in bulk on sale for $1.69, so I’m buying several 10 pound rolls to can up different flavors of meatballs; the mushroom soup ones, tomato sauce with green pepper slices and Italian. I did a few last year and they were a huge hit with everyone. I just loved them! So after I do the hamburger ones, I plan on grinding venison at hunting season and doing more meatballs! Mmmm. And quick meals, too!

All the time this has been going on, I’m helping our carpenter friend, Tom, work on our new addition which will house our wood stove. It’s a pay-as-you-go situation; I earn some cash, pay Tom, get more done, wait, work, pay. But I won’t owe a soul when it’s finished…even though it does take longer that way. It’s so satisfying that way. At night I go out there and sit, enjoying the night breezes, the crickets and gorgeous stars. Ah….my beautiful backwoods…..

Readers’ Questions:
Canning tomatoes

Alexander Bellos
Mt. Sinai , New York

Your tomatoes are fine, despite tiny air bubbles; they’ll go away as they find their way to the top of the jar. As long as the jars sealed you are just fine. Enjoy your tomatoes! My first ones are just now ripe and I’m so excited! — Jackie

Wheat bread

You may have already covered this but I am starting my food stock and would like to practice making whole grain “wheat” breads. I see the recipes call for bread flour or white flour. Can breads be made from wheat flour alone? I want to stock just the basics.

Scott Haman
Lambertville, Michigan

Bread flour is simply high gluten white flour. Yes, you can certainly make bread out of plain or whole wheat flour. Whole wheat flour alone makes a very dense bread, but actually I prefer it to white bread. If you like a lighter bread, use some (or all) white unbleached flour or add gluten to your recipe to boost its rising ability. I don’t stock gluten in my pantry; I’m satisfied with my bread. I either use all or part whole wheat flour, but I do sometimes make white bread too. It depends on the occasion and my whims! — Jackie

Garlic seeds

I Went out to pull the garlic and most of the stems had a little bunch of very small cloves at the top. Are these seeds for next year? They are too little to peel and use. Then discovered that the onion tops had done the same thing. Are these tiny onions able to be planted and grow the real thing?

Gail Erman
Palisade, Colorado

You CAN plant those tiny bulblets this fall and get garlic and onions next year. The catch is that they won’t produce as large a bulb as do those resulting from planting a clove of garlic or an onion set or plant in the spring. My onions that I thought the deer had eaten last year came up this spring so I let them grow. And they are doing the same thing yours are; tiny sprouting bulblets on the flower stalk. In nature, the stalk bends down and the tiny sets contact the ground and root….much like walking onions do. Then they begin to grow and overwinter to go on to produce seed next year. Of course you can use the bulb or onion, even if it is a bit small. And you can chop up the green leaves to use like you would chives. At any rate, they are lots of fun! — Jackie

Tomatoes taste odd

I planted several varieties of tomatoes, mostly beefsteak, early boys and girls, however I got a couple of odd ball varieties from a yard sale which had no tags. After an odd start to the growing season the tomatoes are coming on. I picked some and when I tried them on sandwiches the skins had a perfumy taste which wasn’t good. I thought maybe I had lotion on my hands but then next day I picked some more and they had that same taste. Now, not all the tomatoes have that taste. I did add some potash around the bases about a month ago at the recommendation of my neighbor who lives across the street. He had his soil tested at the University of Minnesota and potash was lacking around here. Could this be why some of the tomatoes have an off taste or maybe it was my mystery tomatoes? My husband and I have been looking forward to our own tomatoes and now I’m a tad put off by them. Any ideas?

Laurie Hammer
Blaine, Minnesota

Boy Laurie, I’ve grown tomatoes for (gee!) fifty years, and I’ve yet to have perfumy tomato skins. I doubt that your potash had anything to do with it. I really can’t figure it out, either. Maybe you can slip the skins off the offending tomatoes and either use them that way in sandwiches or can them up. Maybe it’s just the skin? (You didn’t spray your tomatoes with a soap based organic insecticide, did you? Just an idea…. — Jackie

Growing fruits and vegetables in Montana

We just bought some raw land at 6400 feet in the Garnet Mtns. of Montana. We plan to spend a few summers out there building our homestead before we move out there full time. I’d like to begin planting fruit trees and berries so they will be producing well by the time we make the big move. Any suggestions about what and how to plant. We are fortunate; we have a west facing slope and a few nice springs that were still bubbling in August of this year.

Lyn Ankelman
Thorsby, Alabama

You definitely need to fence your garden/orchard area. When we first bought our place way up in the Elkhorns, in Montana, I planted a bunch of tomatoes and peppers to get a head start. Unfortunately, the elk thought that was nice of me. When we made our next trip up, they’d pulled each and every one up out of my Wall’o Waters! So I made a scarecrow (scare-elk) out of some of my husband’s sweaty used clothes. I even had it hold a gun-shaped branch. In the morning, I went out to the garden, feeling very smug. No plants and hundreds of milling elk tracks. And my scare-elk was lying face down in the middle of it, with muddy elk-nose prints all over the white T shirt! Yep. Then we fenced! For our main garden, I used lodgepole rails, six feet tall and never had a critter jump in, although we had abundant elk and moose. Our larger garden, we just had surrounded with chicken run 6′ high on one side, 5′ high jack-leg fence with a barbed wire on top on two sides, and a regular barbed wire fence 5′ high on the other. That worked, or they were tired of laughing at me. In much of the West, cattle have free range and if you don’t want them around, you have to fence them out. If you don’t, you’ll have constant battles with them trampling your flowers, yard and garden. Fortunately, cattle are easier to fence out than their wild cousins.

I used a fire in my wood range in most years, during the summer, in the cool of the morning or evening. BUT when there was a dry spell, I did not. You’re right, a spark from your stovepipe could ignite the whole woods.. I took the precaution of tying a screen over the top of the stovepipe, just in the summer, just in case. You need to use your judgment. I used the propane stove when there was fire danger or if it was just plain too hot to cook with wood. Have an exciting adventure — Jackie

Canning jars

My husband and I will soon be moving to the country where we plan on doing a lot of gardening and canning. We want to invest in some canning jars and are trying to decide/research wide mouth versus regular mouth, quart versus pint, etc., and were wondering if you would mind sharing about what percent of your canning is done with regular mouth jars and what percent with widemouth? Do you have a preference? Also, about what percent quart/pint jars do you use? Lastly, out of curiosity, we were wondering about how many jars total each gardening season an experienced gardener/canner like yourself cans?

Peggy Gallagher
Garland, Texas

Good questions Peggy. I use both wide mouth and regular jars, pints, quarts, and half pints. Each has their uses for me. I try not to use many wide mouth jars because the lids are SO expensive! But for some things, such as large pieces of meat and some things that don’t readily slide out of jars, the wide mouth jars work much better. For instance, today I made up a batch of meat balls in mushroom soup to can. I used wide mouth jars so that the meat balls won’t break up when I dump them into a pot to heat. I can most things both in pints and quarts, as sometimes there are just two of us eating, but then at other times, I am feeding three or four people and pints are not enough. I find that half pints have plenty of uses. For instance, I’m canning a lot of meat in them to use as flavorings in, say, scalloped potatoes and ham or a casserole. It makes the meat go a long way, making the best use of it. I also can up some vegetables in half pints so I can dump this or that into a mixed dish without having leftovers. I’d say that right now I can about one third quarts, a little more than one third pints, with the remainder, half pints. While I never deplete my pantry, I probably can up at least 500 jars a year. I don’t can tons and tons at a time, but I just keep doing medium and small batches, pretty much year around, as the seasons and store sales allow.

Don’t let that figure scare you. Remember that there are 52 weeks in a year, so that’s not a huge amount, eaten each week. Don’t think that you must buy new jars, either. Pick up all the good used ones, CHEAP, where you can; yard sales, notices on bulletin boards, ads in the paper, word of mouth. You’ll be amazed at all the jars out there just waiting for you! Good canning! — Jackie

Installing a hand pump

We are signing the papers today on our place in the country. It is only 2 acres but I have finally have the opportunity to do more than micro gardening. I hope you can help because no one I have asked seems to understand what the question really is. The house is in the Ozark Mountains (central to eastern). The well on the place is 100 ft deep and cased down that far as the previous well had collapsed and he didn’t want to re-drill again. I have been trying to find out if that means the well is 100ft deep and there is water in it, water surface is not 100 ft down, OR if it means the surface is 100 ft down. The reason is I would like a hand pump for future power failures and most have 100ft in the description. It could mean the difference between one that is affordable now vs one that must be saved for. Can you help?

Stephanie
Corning, Arkansas

Congratulations on your new homestead! Generally, when it is said that a well is 100 feet deep, that means to the bottom of the hole. There is usually water up in the hole, much further, say, 30 feet or so. I can’t be sure, of course, that this applies in your case. The best thing would be to talk to the owner or real estate agent and ask them point blank, how far down is the water level, and how deep the well actually IS. Then you’ll have your question answered definitely. Having a hand pump for a well is a great idea for power outages. Be sure your casing is large enough to allow both your electric pump pipes and the hand pump to fit. — Jackie

Drying flint corn and tomatoes with split skins

I have two questions:
1. I planted flint corn for the first time last year, but most of it got a bad case of smut before it was able to dry out. This year, the corn looks great and it looks like it’s ready to be dried. Based on what I’ve read, I should let it dry on the stalk, but I’m wondering if I can harvest it and dry it in a more controlled manner instead to avoid things like smut or insect infestations. We live in an ideal climate for outdoor drying on racks or screens, so would it make any difference to do it that way?

Robin Dodge
Val Verde, California

As long as your corn is dry, you can snap off the ears and dry them wherever you wish, as long as there is plenty of good airflow. The corn is dry when you can’t shove your thumbnail into a kernel. It will continue to dry after this, whether on the stalk or on racks/screens or hanging in your barn. Yep, I know what the canning manuals say. I use cracked tomatoes, and just cut out the cracked part, watching for any signs of mold or spoiled tomatoes. You don’t want to can these! Canning manuals err on the side of caution, in effect keeping us safe from possible mistakes and misjudgments. Some people would probably can up rotten, moldy tomatoes without the warning, I guess. Use common sense and you’ll be fine. — Jackie