2016 Preserving Tally

Hey, I'm actually being a good kid and remembering to start the tally promptly this year, woot!

1/21- 25 8oz jars of pickled mushrooms. Love it when they are on super sale and I pay 90 cents per bucket instead of 2.70. Plus I used homegrown garlic and herbs, so total cost for that many jars was around 25 bucks once I include vinegar (which was on sale at the time), pickling salt (it was a freebie), peppercorns allspice and bay leaves which ran around 50 cents max for it all, and the canning lids. I didn't count jar costs since all of these jars have been used several times now and have pretty much been paid off and then some :) Excellent way to start off the tally, I might be picking up some more mushrooms while they are on sale :)

1/23- another 21 8oz jars of pickled mushrooms- I almost was tempted to get more, but hey, at some point I gotta stop, lol. I didn't use the last two tubs of fresh mushrooms, choosing to use them for dinner instead. And hitting Hardings, they had 10 oz packs of shelled edamame on clearance for 99 cents each- three of those went into making 5 8oz jars of pickled edamame, and 1 8oz jar for the fridge.

January Shopping. Boxed pasta has been on sale 10/10. Citrus season has started, first clementines, then grapefruit and navel oranges, then lemons and limes. This goes on through the beginning of Febuary. Some decent canned soup deals. Avocado sales start with good looking very hard ones 1 buck each.

2/6- sugar was on sale, picked up three 4 pound bags. Made one bag into vanilla sugar, using five vanilla beans. Yield 2 quarts, one pint.

3/?? didn't do any preserving. Rather, worked on eating the hell out of the preserved food, use it up. The usual butter sales around Easter didn't materialize, though other baking goods were on sale. More citrus and random produce on sale. And of course beef brisket was on sale. Pork saw good sales too.

4/6- dehydrated 2 bunches of celery. Sugar snap peas were on sale and made two Milwaukee jars of pickled snap peas, one just regular, the other an Asian. Still got a couple more bags, but oops, finally and seriously out of onions?!?!!?

4/7- Hardings had frozen corn on sale, 88 cents a pound. Four pounds are now on the dehydrator.

5, 6, 7.. too much going on, no preserving done. Even flubbed a batch of dehydrated mushrooms. Butter as finally been on sale in July. 

8/1- Picked up a half bushel of beets for 15 bucks. 8 half pints of pickled jalapeno slices, 12 pints of gingery pickled beets,  6 pints of regular pickled beets, 6 pints of spicy pickled beets, and quart of weird watermelon syrup.

8/2- 5 two pound packages of asparagus vacuum sealed and in the freezer .

Came to a realization that though I am real good at writing up tally, I totally suck at including information like where and price of produce, recipies used, and where my homecrafted recipes are filed.  And often, how stuff turned out. Will be keeping way better notes, and track of recipes from now on.

8/20- 12 pint jars of pickled brussels sprouts. They were on sale at Meijer for 2 bucks a pound- normally four bucks a pound. 6 pounds/12 bucks yielded jars at generous adjusted other ingredients price of 1.50 a jar. Price in store for pickled brussels sprouts? 6-8 bucks a jar. Used Food in Jars recipe.
Two Milwaukee pickle quart jars of tangy lime fridge pickled zucchini spears. Picked up  zukes for 88 cents a pound. Two jars plus generous adjustment, buck a jar. Can't even find such a thing at stores, but other fridge pickles sell for 5-7 bucks a jar. Crafted my own recipe after not being able to find last years pickling notes about this one.

8/21- half dozen jars of sweet and sour red pickled onions done- used food in jars recipe, and locally grown red onions that were cheap. Three trays of hot banana peppers and 7 trays of mushroom slices on the dehydrators. 8 ears of corn whole shucked and roasted dehydrating in the oven, about 2 pounds of raw corn. Corn was 4/1.00. And 6 quarts of corn stock, maybe 6 quarts, it's still cooling down, lol.

Eating notes: We cracked open a jar of the spicy beets. Yes, young, I know. But they were really good, will be doing that again. A month or two aging on them will be even better. And sigh, the last jar of dilly beans from last year is finally open and half gone. Since my green bean crop was pretty much null due to how dry the summer was- I'm going to have to keep my eye open for sales and good beans.

9/12- two gallons of ham stock in the fridge, awaiting bagging and freezing up.

Eating and buying notes- the savory pickled beets and the fridge lime zuke spears are delicious. The processed green cherry tomatoes are chucked, they were extra not good- fridge ones were ok, but not worth wasting the fridge space on.
Picked up 10-3 lb bags of yellow onions at Hardings, B2G3F. Picked up yellow and green beans, $2/Qt, petite brussels, shucked- $5/2 Qt at the farmers market.

9/13- one quart each of chili mix and mexican seasoning and one pint of cajun seasoning made.

9-17- 7 pints of spicy yellow wax beans, 7 pints of dilly green beans, 7 pints of Sweet and Sour Red Onions, and 6 pints of pickled Brussels sprouts canned up.

9-20- One quart each of fermented brussels sprouts, and fermented brussels sprouts kim-chi.

10/15- 14 quarts of turkey stock made and in the freezer.

10/29- One cube tray of nasturtium flower pesto, two cube trays of nasturtium leaf pesto done.

11/13- one quart of fermented cherry bomb halves with garlic and onion started. One gallon batch of fall kimchi started- tatsoi ribs and leaves, chinese cabbage ribs, bok choi ribs and leaves, purple and green kale ribs, onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, and a large amount of "beer garden" radish I pulled out today. One quart will be treated with dehydrated lime slices when I pack them off into fermenters tomorrow.
The fermented BS's of both kinds turned out tasty as hell. The kimchi version especially so. Decided to give it a second try :) Since most of it came from my garden, as well as the cherry bombs, I'm calling these jars freebies :)

11/18- packed the kim-chi today- half gallon jar. Picked up a two pounds of brussels sprouts to make another round of BS kim-chi. With the weather blowing in, I'll be able to harvest a lot of wee BS's to round out the batch.

11/24: half gallon jar of brussels sprouts kimchi started. Half gallon jar of fridge pickled mushrooms made, one gallon tub of anti-pasta veggies started. 

Unfortunately, between work, personal garden failures, and failures in other local growers gardens- it was a pretty sorry year for preserving.