It's been simmering all day

[Mrs. Hoppes]

I have 50 pounds of tomatoes that I am trying to turn into spaghetti sauce to can. These have got to be the juciest tomatoes on the planet because there is STILL a ton of water. I've taken out several GALLONS by now. I used some to cook beans and rice for canning. I gave a big bowl to the chickens. I used a bit as water to cook up the pork sausage. I still have tons of water left over and still more in the pot. What was two HUGE stock pots is now all in my medium sized stock pot.





The green is basil from my garden.

[Mrs. Hoppes]

Yes, I know. My counter and stove need cleaning. The pink on the stove is from the peaches I canned earlier today.

[lawdog30]

you were a very very sheltered as a child were nt you

[Mrs. Hoppes]

What makes you say that?

ETA: I'm laughing at your comment because I was anything but sheltered.

[lawdog30]

well from what I have seen and heard from you and the pictures I have seen you must not have been much of a hell raiser

[Mrs. Hoppes]

I was raised in foster care from the time I was 9 and I aged out. Longest stay in any one placement was 5 months. No one liked me much when I was a teen-ager. Cops, case workers, or foster homes.

I outgrew that and grew up and decided that there are more important things in life than "borrowing" foster parents' cars or running from cops or seeing how much I can drink before vomiting or passing out. (Or being rushed to the hospital for alcohol poisoning.)

I have also decided that given how I was as a teen-ager, I am either going to put my children in cryogenic chambers when they hit 12 and thaw them when they are 30 or do extensive research on medications that can inhibit the stupidity gene that wakes up when puberty hits.

[lawdog30]

well I dont think you are going to have much to worry about with what I have seen

[Looker]

Mrs. Hoppes...

I like your canning. Reminds me of my late grandmother, which btw was the only grandparent I had most of my life until she died in 2001. My "bee-baw" (grandpa) died when I was 5, and both my maternal grandparents were dead before then.

Seeing your peaches brought back memories of my youth. My grandmother used to can everything the rain would grow in her garden, and distribute it to everybody on the planet. The family used to sit on her back patio and "snap" green beans and process other veggies while we visited. She made this stuff called applebutter that was better than a PB&J... man...

Thanks for the memories of a dear old lady.

[SgtCHP]

I will bet the fragrances in your home are such as to remind me of a time when I was a youngster. You keep it going. Nothing like home canned veggies and fruit. With today's microwaves and such, canning is becoming a lost art. Your children should feel blessed being raised by a mother who enjoys, or at least performs, to the interest of their health and happiness. Good luck!

[Mrs. Hoppes]

MMMM..... Apple butter. I turned the last of our apple butter into breakfast syrup a few months back when I ran out of applesauce. (All home canned of course.) I'm also down to only 2 quarts of pumpkin butter that I have to keep hidden from the children until the next big batch of zucchini bread that I make.


I do enjoy it (even though it is hard work) and the children enjoy helping. I make it a part of homeschooling. They learn not only basic nutrition from the hands on stuff, but also the value of hard work and long term gratification.

One of the things my husband and I talk about is our worry that our children won't understand having to work for a living because neither of us work outside the home. They don't see the example. Then someone reminds me that what my children see and do on a daily basis is having to work for a living. If they want to eat, they have to work. (Milking and feeding animals, planting and harvesting, gathering eggs, slaughtering chickens, taking goats in, etc.)

And speaking of homeschooling, I need to prepare this weeks math and writing assignments.

[Mrs. Hoppes]

I will bet the fragrances in your home are such as to remind me of a time when I was a youngster. You keep it going. Nothing like home canned veggies and fruit. With today's microwaves and such, canning is becoming a lost art. Your children should feel blessed being raised by a mother who enjoys, or at least performs, to the interest of their health and happiness. Good luck!

What's funny is we did not have a microwave until about a year ago. We had no use for one so we didn't bother. Then I went to make mozzarella cheese. Every single recipe I came across called for microwaving. I kept saying to myself "people have been making mozz cheese long before microwaves. Where are these recipes?" Could not find them. So, we broke down and got a microwave just so I can make mozzarella cheese. The only cheese that I make that requires a microwave. All the other cheese I make I can do at room temp or on the stove.

[Tinga]

My Grandma used to can like crazy every summer. Jellies, Jams, and preserves. I loved the smell of it rolling through the kitchen. I wish I had the time to can also, but hopefully I'll be getting that deep freeze I want for hunting season. :P

[Smurfette_76]

We can pickles and jams and tomatoes. We put up peas, corn and beans. I have spent a many a day listening to country music and puttin up foods. You aint the only one, sugar...tedious work, I don't "love" it but I do love those vegetables in a stew come winter time.

[Mrs. Hoppes]

I have 9 pounds of green beans sitting in a paper bag on my counter waiting for canning. I'm going to have Charlie snap them tomorrow. He did a good job last year. If course he and I probably ate more than we canned. LOL

With vegetables, I love doing raw pack because it keeps so much of the goodness in it.

And you are so right about winter stews. I love them. I make HUGE batches of them and after dinner is cleaned up and everything, I can the rest. Makes for quick, easy, healthy meals on busy days.

I do the same thing when I make General Tso's Chicken. I make a huge batch and can the rest. (Not including the rice.)

[Smurfette_76]

I prefer deer stew (backstrap cut into small chunks). Especially when it's so cold outside...you can smell it cooking as you get to the front door. I use the tomatoes I canned, along with the corn and beans. Add some carrots and taters...simmer all day...UMMMMM

My husband like to put a roast in the crock pot with vegetables and let it cook all day.