Preserving Your Harvest

[Sammster]

Oh, you eat them as snacks - just straight like a box of raisins?

How else do you use them?

I've never used sun dried tomatoes, so don't have much idea how to use them. Technically, I tried a bag or two many years ago - not very successfully - so not "never".

I could do a search but it is nice to hear how real people like to use them.

I dehydrated tomato slices a couple years ago. Wasn't sure how to store them, so I put them in the freezer. I used them, layered in lasagna, along with my usual ingredients. So yummy!!

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

So, I'm running out of jars, so I dug out some really old ones so I could finish my peach syrup.
This was a bad idea; the bottoms fell out of 2 and made a huge mess out of everything in my kitchen right at supper time. Need to get some more new jars.
I canned 13 quarts of peach syrup now down to 11 quarts, and 11 pints of homemade cinnamon applesauce.

 

[tripletfeb]

So, I'm running out of jars, so I dug out some really old ones so I could finish my peach syrup.
This was a bad idea; the bottoms fell out of 2 and made a huge mess out of everything in my kitchen right at supper time. Need to get some more new jars.
I canned 13 quarts of peach syrup now down to 11 quarts, and 11 pints of homemade cinnamon applesauce.
View attachment 3652376
View attachment 3652377

What do you do with the peach syrup?

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

What do you do with the peach syrup?

We put it in Sweet Tea and Lemonade to make it peach flavored.

Some people said they use it on ice cream and other things, but we haven't tried that.

 

[Sally PB]

Has anyone here grown sweet potatoes? I dug mine yesterday, and they are in the green house now, curing.

The water on the (dirt) floor is to raise the humidity.

A couple questions... IIRC, they need about 6 days of heat and humidity. How do you know when they're cured?

Maybe they get up and dance...?

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Has anyone here grown sweet potatoes? I dug mine yesterday, and they are in the green house now, curing.
View attachment 3652384
The water on the (dirt) floor is to raise the humidity.

A couple questions... IIRC, they need about 6 days of heat and humidity. How do you know when they're cured?

Maybe they get up and dance...?

I don't know anything about sweet potatoes other than I like to eat them! That's an amazing harvest!!

 

[Sally PB]

That's an amazing harvest

Yeah, I was blown away! The size on some of those...

The first time I tried to grow sweet potatoes, I planted them in my heavy soil garden, thinking they'd like it up on the hill where they get an extra hour or two of sunlight. Nope. I got nada.

This time, I planted them in my sandy soil garden, and they LOVED it! I really want to do the curing step right, and honor what those plants have given me.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Found this @Sally PB

To cure sweet potatoes after harvest, you need to12345:

• Shake off the soil then lay the tuber in a warm (80°F to 90°F/26-32°C), well-ventilated place for about 10 days, longer if the air temperature is cooler.
• Curing tubers in perforated plastic bags will keep the humidity high.
• Hold the roots at 85 degrees F with 90 to 95 percent relative humidity (RH) for 4 to 7 days.
• After curing, reduce the storage temperature to 55 to 60 degrees F at 80 to 85 percent RH.

 

[CedarLane]

So, I'm running out of jars, so I dug out some really old ones so I could finish my peach syrup.
This was a bad idea; the bottoms fell out of 2 and made a huge mess out of everything in my kitchen right at supper time. Need to get some more new jars.
I canned 13 quarts of peach syrup now down to 11 quarts, and 11 pints of homemade cinnamon applesauce.
View attachment 3652376
View attachment 3652377

Would you share your recipe for the Peach Syrup?

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Would you share your recipe for the Peach Syrup?

It was however much peach juice and double that of sugar.
So, 8 cups of juice, 16 cups of sugar. Then boil it for 10 minutes. Mine foamed up a lot so I tried skimming that off the best I could.
It was a crazy recipe, but I think it turned out good. 1/2-inch headspace for 10 minutes.