Have you ever had so many banana’s you didn’t know what to do?  Well, I can’t say that has happened here ..lol..  I love to run into the red banded banana sales.  These are the banana’s that are blemished and imperfect.  A couple of days ago I ran into just one of those sales.  There was two grocery carts overflowing with slightly imperfect nanners.  These nanners were firm and still very edible.  I asked the produce clerk for a box.  I loaded that puppy up.. knowing I had my work cut out for me   I am completely unable to pass up a good, nutritious bargain!

I have a large food dryer.  Today, I loaded it up with banana’s.  The kids love to eat them… Actually, we all love them    They taste like banana bread. 

What you do is peel them, put your finger up the bottom of each banana, splitting it in thirds.  Lay them out on your racks and dry on high.  Enjoy!

P.S.  The rest of the banana’s (the one’s that did not fit on the racks) were put in the freezer for smoothies

It seems like everyday recently I am preserving some sort of food   Today was tomato’s.  I have peeled and cooked down enough tomato’s for 17 quarts of sauce.  I got some of the matoes from my moms garden and the rest came from our own garden.  Up until a few days ago our garden was producing just enough for a meal at a time.  Thankfully,  the production has kicked it up a notch… 

Once I can enough tomato sauce, I will start on salsa and soup.  The kids and I were talking about pickling green tomatoes… has anyone ever heard of that before?  Each year we have a lot of green tomato’s left…  wondering what to do with them all.   Seems like a waste to toss them to the chickens. 

Freshly Peeled Tomato's Ready For Cooking Down

Smoked Tuna, Fresh Off The Smoker Rack..

Not only does our house have a strong ‘fish’ smell after yesterday’s canning project… Today I smoked the remaining Tuna.  Our little smoker holds a pretty good sized load of meat.  I got up early this morning, rolled each piece of fish in the brine and let it sit for 1 – 1/2 hrs. 

Tuna Setting In The Brine...

Well after today’s fish project.. our house will have a ‘Fishy’ smell.  I waded into my 41 pounds of tuna.  I cut it all up and it  went to 1 of 3 places…  a jar for canned tuna, a bowl for a fish dinner or two…  or a bowl for smoking (no, I’m not literally going to roll it up and smoke it…lol…).  Tuna is a piece of cake to prepare for can.  You just shove the raw tuna into jars, add a bit of salt and seal with your lid & ring. 

Fresh Tuna Jarred, Salted & Ready To Seal.

The down size to canning any meats is the processing time.  Most meats take *atleast* 1 1/2 hrs.. some more.  When you have more than one load to process, as I usually do.. it can take all day.  I can tell you it is worth it.  There is no comparison to the store bought tuna.  We will have home canned tuna for the next year.  Tuna sandwiches & cassaroles… here we come. 

Tuna That Has Finished Processing.. Ready To Go On The Shelf.

Each end of summer/fall we look forward to our own abundance of fruit and vegies + sharing others abundance also.  We were blessed with getting to pick a neighbors pear tree.  YUM!  Fresh ripened pears are sweet and juicey. 

The trick with picking bartlett pears is to pick them when they are green.  You don’t want to pick to early and lose some important last minute growth….  a week makes a difference in the size your fruit will become.  Don’t wait too long or your fruit will start to over ripen from the inside out (not to mention the fruit will start to fall from the tree and bruise one or more sides).   With preservation, our family can eat pears throughout the upcoming year.  I will blog as I put up the pears   We have to wait for them to ripen…

P.S.  After picking green pears, you should place them in a single layer on a flat surface (we used boxes).  The picture below is right after we picked them, before I seperated them out.

I have been making pickles about once per week this summer.  Last I mentioned making pickles, I blogged about Dill Pickles.  Today I made loads of pickles..lol.. The kids love them as do we grown ups   I thought I would talk about Bread & Butter Pickles today.  Bread and Butter pickles are a sweet, yummy treat.  The ingredients are sliced, salted and iced for three hours. 

Fresh Vegies Soaking In Salt And Ice For Three Hours

This allows the pickles to remain crunchy… even after water bathing.  The ingredients include – Cucumbers, Bell Peppers, Onions, Garlic, Salt, Vinegar, Sugar, Turmeric, Celery Seeds & Mustard Seeds.  After you drain the vegies and fill your jars with the cuke mixture + brine.. I had to water bath the jars for 5 minutes.

Finished Product

In the background you can see the dill pickles I made today too   I also tried an experiment.  We have an over abundance of peppers.  So, the kids and I picked a big handful of peppers and I pickled them too.  I’ll let you know how they turn out.. lol….

The kids and I headed out to the ranch my parents live on… to look for blackberries.  We hit pay dirt   Unfortunetly, we didn’t get started until about 4pm – the hottest part of the day… I think it was a mere 90 some degree’s.  We got a little picked before my husband showed up.  As soon as he got there… we were ‘inspired’ to become pick’n fools.  Sorry to say we all wilted quickly.  I was not at my peak due to a bee sting I had aquired earlier that day.  It has slowed me down   All in all, we ended up with two of our buckets full of blackberries.  I would say the kids consumed a fair amount too  

Loads Of Blackberries

Each year I gather fruit through the summer for jam.  I prepare and measure the smooshed fruit into ziploc baggies.  By the time fall hits, I will have my freezer full of fruit ready to become jam.  I thaw all the prepared bags at one time to make the jam.

This morning I had a small pile of cucumbers waiting for me.  I went out to the garden and picked the mornings bounty.  This year I planted my own dill… so while I was out gathering cukes, I cut a few dill stalks.  From start to finish I canned 6 quarts of dill pickles in about an hour.  I will can pickles like this into September… just a few quarts at a time, as the cucumbers ripen.  The nice part about growing my own dill is I only had to buy vinegar, salt and garlic.  If anyone would like my dill pickle recipe, shoot me an email

Home Preserved Pickles

It has been a busy few days!  Friday we ran the garage sale for half the day.  The second half, we had to run out to the fairgrounds to submit our entries.  This was the day for entering arts & canned goods.  My oldest son entered a craft project (he painted miniature civil war soldiers and glued them on to a platform to exhibit a battle).  I had three photo’s and 7 canned items (tomato’s, salsa, dill pickles, dill relish, zucchini relish, pear preserves and blackberry jam).

Today, I went through the garden looking for ‘Land Products’ items.  I ended up submitting… Green tomato’s (to submit the red, I had to have 6.. I only could find 4), jalapeno’s, bell peppers, wild plums, broccoli, cucumbers & fir cones (o.k… those weren’t exactly from the garden, but they are part of our ‘land products’….lol..). 

So, with all of those entries we hope to win and get the premiums

Today was just as busy as all other days.  I did all my usual morning chores…  I milked and fed the goats, took care of the chickens.   After breakfast, the kids had a couple hours of homeschool to work on.  I started in on preparing the beets for canning.  It went pretty smoothly – Cut the tops off, washed and boiled them for ten minutes.  While they were cooling, I sorted out the beet greens.  We ate the good ones for lunch… and the not so good ones went to the goats and chickens.  Beet greens are DELICIOUS!  I then cut the beets into bite size chunks, stuffed them into jars and pressure cooked for 40 minutes.  I can’t wait to eat them this winter

After a quick trip to town..  we came home and worked on pricing garage sale items.  I think we are going to pull it off… should be set up for a garage sale Thursday & Friday.