Tuesday, September 4, 2007
The Homemakers
My new neighbor Tisha and I spent a large part of the holiday weekend canning and pickling. While we knew it was a lot of work, we really had no idea how much it would be.
On Saturday morning, we went to the St. Paul Farmers' Market. We bought a box of tomatoes, a bin of cucumbers, and a lot of shallots, cauliflower, chilies, peppers, and other such things.
Have you ever peeled a box of tomatoes? It takes HOURS. Ever peel shallots? Hours again.
(Not even close to a box of tomatoes)
(That's a lot of shallots to peel)
Luckily the cucumbers only needed to be soaked, for 12 hours.

After two days of work, we finally ended up with this:
Not Shabby.
There are pickles, two bottles of which have become refrigerator pickles because they didn't seal.
Here's a close up:
Unfortunately, some of the garlic turned blue:

We also made Acharro, or something like that. Sri Lankan for various pickles.

We made two kinds of tomatoes. Regular, without spice:
And some made as a Sri Lankan spicy pickle:

A lot of work, but it was worth it, I hope. As long as no one gets sick or dies, I'll call it a success.
On Saturday morning, we went to the St. Paul Farmers' Market. We bought a box of tomatoes, a bin of cucumbers, and a lot of shallots, cauliflower, chilies, peppers, and other such things.
Have you ever peeled a box of tomatoes? It takes HOURS. Ever peel shallots? Hours again.
(Not even close to a box of tomatoes)
(That's a lot of shallots to peel)Luckily the cucumbers only needed to be soaked, for 12 hours.

After two days of work, we finally ended up with this:
Not Shabby.There are pickles, two bottles of which have become refrigerator pickles because they didn't seal.
Here's a close up:
Unfortunately, some of the garlic turned blue:
We also made Acharro, or something like that. Sri Lankan for various pickles.

We made two kinds of tomatoes. Regular, without spice:
And some made as a Sri Lankan spicy pickle:
A lot of work, but it was worth it, I hope. As long as no one gets sick or dies, I'll call it a success.
Labels: canning, pickles, tomatoes
Comments:
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I haven't heard anything. I didn't have time to call the bus company today, but hopefully I have the time tomorrow.
Did you try blanching the tomatoes? We did peaches at my mom's house and the skins came off lickety split after blanching.
We blanched the tomatoes. It worked fairly well for the ripe ones, but not so much for the underripe ones. Plus, there were just so many tomatoes.
that's a mighty fine looking deck you took those pictures on. jeez, you should have asked me about canning. after years of doing it with my mom, i would recommend "run! run away from the tomatoes like the wind!". then again, i'm food lazy but wild bird feeding motivated. we got a hummingbird yesterday, and, i kid you not, a hawk in our backyard two days before that. is your schedule open the weekend after this coming one? maybe we can grill, drink, and count chickadees in st. paul....
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