Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Garden's end

It's a bittersweet day. The garden got a killer frost last night. I guess all good things must come to an end.

On yesterday's post I talked about the green tomato pickles. Since we knew the killer frost was imminent, we decided to try our hand at making some.



We picked all that was left which came to about 11 or 12 pounds.




We cut them up along with some onions and sprinkled them down with canning salt. They sat overnight in the refrigerator.


The next day, they were drained and a pickling solution was made.


The end results was 5 quarts and one pint. Now the waiting starts, 3 weeks before they can be sampled.

Here is the recipe we used for sweet and tangy green tomato pickles.


We also canned the last of our turnip kraut. 42 pints. We've done this before and here is a link to previous post on making turnip kraut.


And so we close another canning season with the shelves stocked full. 228 pints, 53 quarts jars, plus 27 qt bags in the freezer full of corn, not to mention the 15 gallons of blackberries. Now if the blacksmith bags a deer, we will be set for awhile!

9 comments:

Annie Jones said...

We had hundreds (yes, hundreds) of green tomatoes to pick when that first frost happened here a couple of weeks ago. We put them on plastic shelves in the basement and covered the shelves with large trash bags to "gas" ripen them. I have to say, it's working amazingly well.

If I'm not mistaken, it's only 2 more weeks until (firearm) deer season! We're down to two packages of stew meat and some venison summer sausage. Time to replenish.

Anke said...

Wow, your pantry looks amazing!

Flat Creek Farm said...

Are your pickles sweet or dill? What an impressive looking pantry! My parents, the "Master Gardeners", didn't even have luck growing turnips this year. They went to Amish country yesterday and bought some. You had an amazing garden year, especially considering the drought! Must try turnip kraut! -Tammy

Deanna said...

You will not go hungry when we get another one of those 20 inche snows this winter, will you? Do you can some of your deer? We have in the past and it really turned out good.

I wish I had thought of it. My grandma used to make green tomatoe preserves. It was so good! I have all of mom's old recipes, so if I run across it, I'll send it to you for next year's harvest.

Hope you had fun at the Halloween Party last night.

StitchinByTheLake said...

I'm glad you included the recipe - I've got a sack of green tomatoes in the refrigerator waiting for...something. blessings, marlene

Cheryl @ TFD said...

That all looks so good, Patti! It makes me almost want to can again. I've kept all my jars! My mother used to make a chow chow with the green tomatoes, it was so good. I made it a few times myself. I found something similar to the recipe at the Bakery in Tipton, so I stock up when I go by there.

Donna S. said...

I am green with envy looking at your pantry!!!

tipper said...

We had a killing frost too-actually a big frost the last 2 mornings. Your stocked shelf looks like Granny's :)

Diana LaMarre said...

I just love the look of the shelves full of canned produce.

I hope the Blacksmith gets some venison to add to the winter stock.