Items
Tag is exactly
canning
-
2021-08-08
Green Tomato Pickles
Due to school closures because of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020, I finally had time to start a vegetable garden. This was something that I had wanted to do for years, but by the time I was out of school in June and had the time, it was too late in the season to begin. As a side note, the fact that school buildings were closed in no way means we teachers were not working hard to try to continue the education process for our students. The pandemic did change how we taught, though, giving me more time to finally begin my vegetable garden. This story is specifically about my tomato plants and the green tomato pickles I made from them. I originally began my tomato plants from seeds on my kitchen windowsill in April. In mid-May, when they were about 8 inches tall, I transplanted them to a raised garden bed. This was my first experience growing a garden, so I overdid it with the number of vegetables I attempted to grow in my 4’ x 4’ space. Besides the tomatoes, I planted green beans, carrots, onions, beets, squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. The tomatoes and squash took over and that was all I got. For some unknown reason, the first set of blossoms on the tomato plants didn’t produce any fruit. Late in the summer, I finally started to see some fruit, and it was early September before I was able to harvest any. At that point, though, they exploded with fruit. I live in the high desert north of Los Angeles and our weather is not quite as mild as the rest of LA County. We go our first freeze in mid-October. At that point I harvested about 5 lbs. of green tomatoes. A friend of mine had the same issue and decided to make green tomato salsa. I decided to make green tomato pickles. I used a combination of recipes. I have a Little House on the Prairie Cookbook that I experiment with from time to time, but I modified some of the spices that recipe called for because I wanted dill pickles. So, I played around with it until I had what I wanted. They were excellent! Then I did one more thing that I had never done before. I experimented with hot water bath canning so that I could preserve them longer. I ended up with eight jars of green tomato dill pickles, some of which made their way into Christmas gift baskets for friends and family. All of this was because I had more time on my hands due to COVID-19 and California’s Stay at Home order. -
2020-10-21
Canning lid and jar shortage of 2020
I can wholly relate to this article. First the shortages of many items such as hand sanitizers, toilet paper, and food in the first few weeks of the pandemic. But after this summer's growing season, I found myself with a lot of vegetables to can and no jars and/or lids in my local stores. I did not keep extra on hand nor did I think to get any until it was time to can. I did find some in Louisville on websites, but I refused to travel there since the numbers were very high. I eventually ordered some with no guarantee it would arrive before my vegetables went bad. But, in the meantime, I would check the stores in hopes a shipment came in before my online orders arrived. My vegetables and fruits needed to be canned or a whole season would be lost for what I could not freeze. I know it sounds silly to some people and the least of worries for others but for me, it was almost a half a year effort. It was food for my family for the next coming months. Next year this will be a funny story but for now, I will add this to my “The Year of 2020” list. I know many people will not see the humor in this but who knew canning lids and jars would be such a hot item. But it in a way does make sense since we were forced to stay home and be creative with our time until we reopened as a society.