Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: August 19 ~ 25, 2018

[ReneeT]

Good evening, All! Hope this finds everyone doing well

It was a work weekend for me, so very little got done at home. I did get a call from our group buy coordinator and picked up some silver dimes as well as a few older silver dollars, so at least I got a tiny bit of prepping done!

I picked up a bushel of peaches at the orchard on Friday; Hubby got them laid out on towels on the island counter yesterday to ripen a bit more. After I get home from aqua aerobics tomorrow, we will make a couple batches of peach jam, and then water-bath can the rest. I will cut them in quarters, then cut each quarter in half. As I'm peeling the peaches and prepping them for the jars, I will set aside any odd shaped pieces to puree with a bit of lemon juice to preserve their color, then put the puree on my fruit leather sheets in the dehydrator to dry.

When canning the peaches, I use a medium syrup of 1 cup sugar to 2 cups water; anything lighter does not keep the peaches firm in storage. If I were going to can them to keep for longer than 1 year in the pantry, I would go to a heavy syrup of 1:1 sugar/water. We are about out of room in the freezer, but I may try to squeeze in a half dozen bags of peaches.... I also plan to run up to the orchard on Tuesday after aqua aerobics to pick up another bushel - if I'm gonna have a sticky mess in my kitchen, I might as well get it all over with at once - and have something to show for it

What to do with home canned peaches? Well, we eat most of them as-is out of the jars; when the grandkids are here, I have to open 2 jars for a meal! We use the canned peaches in cobbler, peach shortcake, and to make peach dumplings; and I also like to use the syrup left in the jars to flavor/sweeten my tea.

Hubby picked and ran a second steam juicer load of our Marchal Fouche grapes today, gaining one half gallon jar plus a pint jar of juice. We'll drink the pint this week with breakfast; we will make grape jelly from the half gallon of juice I made on Friday plus the new one; and will also run at least one more load of grapes through the juicer tomorrow. I also need to go out and check the Concord and white grapes out by the garden to see if they are ready to juice.

It is going to feel really strange not to have the boys underfoot the next couple of days since they are back to school, but I have to admit that I will likely get a lot more accomplished around home; well - other than making memories, which can't be overrated

Off to bed so I have energy enough to accomplish all I want to get done tomorrow.... Take care all; wishing you all a blessed week!

 

[moldy]

Gonna be a very busy week. Renter's stove went out, so I need to deal with that tomorrow. DH tried to fix it today, but the stove, and the replacements, are old and the wiring is brittle. Better just to get a new one. The retirement house we are working on - the basement had some water leakage, so I need to deal with that tomorrow as well. I'd like to get some cleaning done up there (construction-type mess), but I"m not sure of the timing.

DH and a friend made 14 gallons of cider yesterday while I was working before getting rained out. The apple harvest is on - and about a month early. Which means I am behind in getting freezers defrosted for the year.... Wednesday, more cider making is on the agenda. The corn is just about ripe and needs to be done up - along with all the regular stuff like laundry and cleaning.... and work.

 

[ReneeT]

That durn gainful employment just gets in the way sometimes, doesn't it, Moldy

Peach plans got moderately disrupted yesterday - I got a couple batches done, but then had to stop to take the grandsons to their dental appointments. Between this and that, I was gone from home for nearly 6 hours. Once I got home, I just cut up the few peaches that had to be taken care of right away and tossed them in the fridge to eat fresh. Today, I went up to the pool, got home and was getting ready to start on the peaches again when I got a message from the 1st Grade teacher; I'd taken in some snacks yesterday on my way to pick up the boys and told her if she needed anything else, to let me know. Well, there was a little girl in the class who needed some flip-flop type sandals to wear at school as she had a blister on her heel that they were trying to heal up, and they could use some water paints as well. Then I discovered my pectin was out of date - if it had been anything other than peaches, I probably would have gone ahead and used it, but peaches are sooo ticky about their pectin! I zipped over to town and then realized that the teacher hadn't mentioned a size for the flip-flops - no matter, they were on clearance for 50 cents for the plain ones and $2 for the fancier one so I got a mix in various sizes. Last year when older grandson was in first grade, there was a boy in his class whose feet were bigger than mine, so I went from younger grandson's size of 11-12's up to 5-6's. I snagged the watercolors plus a few more classroom snacks that I had coupons for while I was there..... And I even remembered to get my pectin - woo hoo!! Dropped the school stuff off, then on the way home, a friend was behind me and honked at me a couple times, so I pulled over in to the sale barn to see what she wanted - she wanted to tell me the sale barn was serving chicken and noodles for lunch; bet y'all can guess what I had for lunch And then she talked me into a piece of chocolate pie.... Which meant I had to take at least a short nap before I got started on those peaches this afternoon - I did get another 3 canner loads done; plus have a 2 quart cassarole dish of peaches in the oven - I'll mix up a sweet biscuit dough once they are bubbling hot and drop it by spoonfuls on the top, then finish baking til done. Reckon if I set it out on the table and mention putting a little vanilla bean ice cream on top of it, Hubby won't pay too much attention to the fact that I'm serving it with leftover pork bbq and 'tater salad from last night's supper!!

I still have enough peaches left to make a couple batches of jam tomorrow - just need to remember where I put those fancy jars I got from daughter's friend.... I have a doctor appointment early tomorrow morning and plan to meet the girls at the pool after I get done; trying to decide if I want to run on up to the orchard for another half bushel of peaches or not... I work Thursday and 8 hours again on Friday, then have a football game Friday night that I'm sure the boys will want to go to, which means they will likely come home with me - don't think I'd get many peaches put up with them underfoot on Saturday - especially since there is a airshow in the offing! - so I may just wait to pick up peaches on Saturday instead; they'd be ready to can by Sunday afternoon or Monday, I'm sure.

Reckon I'd better go carry the peach peels/pits to the compost pile, then get all these sticky canning towels thrown in the washer - you folks all take care out there; stay safe!

 

[Old Gray Mare]

Spent part of the day fighting the rain, mosquitoes and birds for the elderberries. Spent a piece of time this evening cleaning and destemming them. I'm hoping they don't mold tonight in the fridge before they can be made into tincture. I know you're not supposed to pick wet berries but we've having so much rain I'm afraid that if I don't pick they we will not get any. Seriously weird weather for August here. Usually we are in a drought praying for rain.