Canning the Abundance

Last weekend I juiced a lot of vegetables and froze it for future use.  Some Like the beet juice and the various greens juices I froze in ice cube trays so I can control the amount that goes into a mixture.  Trust me you only want so much of beet, kale, spinach or parsley juice in your glass.  After I froze the cubes I transferred them to Ziploc baggies so I could use the trays again.  The carrot and apple juice I froze in larger containers like I did the fruit a few weeks back.  And in case you've never had it carrot and apple juice together are superb!

With my juicer (Jack LaLaane) all the pulp is sent into a container out the back and it pretty dry.  I stuffed it into Ziplocs and froze it for future soup bases and used nearly a gallon of it for a big pot of vegetable soup.

There was a generous amount of carrot and greens, a bit of beet and some apple and onion.  I added water and chicken stock.  Then  added some leftover brown & wild rice that had been cooked with lentils, more diced onion, 5 tomatoes and about 10 small potatoes starting to make eyes.  Various spices including some dried red pepper for a kick.  I ate some and canned 1 quart and 6 pints.  

I still had some more left over so I added some more pulp, a big can of tomatoes some sliced left over bratwurst and some barley...along with more water.  I canned up 4 quarts and 3 pints of this.  Ate some more and still have a bowl full in the fridge.

As a side note and a warning:  The fresh tomatoes I added to the first batch, I had planned to eat as is or in a salad.  Humph.  You don't want to know what I paid for these organic, beautiful tomatoes.  I was so disappointed.  They were nearly tasteless and mealy, kind of like an old apple.  Hopefully there were some vitamins in them for the soup because they made a lousy salad.

So now I have lots more soup for the pantry but I'll be out of space for storage after this.  Need to get some wood for shelves to repair the shelf on top that collapsed and I think I will take over the bottom linen closet shelf in the master bath and make it into 2 shelves.  I know food in the bathroom sounds really odd but it is a storage closet built in and everything will be sealed..no ookies.  I have a linen closet in the hall at the other end of the trailer too but that end of the house gets way too hot in the summer.

Went thrifting today...no great treasures but I did get 3 more canning jars, $1.25 for all.  They are so hard to find now.  Late winter and spring are better to find them.  I also picked up a nice 3 yard piece of ecru cotton fabric with a little fleck in it, good for a curtain or maybe a nice winter nightgown, for $1.  And a mostly complete book of marbled paper that I'm sure I will find some fun use for, 25¢.

The weather has turned cold here, it dipped to 45 last night and I stayed nice & cozy under my flower garden quilt last night now that I finally have the binding done.