Almost Done Canning Potatoes

I know I shouldn’t feel bad but I do feel bad when I hardly blog all day. I also know that life goes on and no one is sitting by the computer patiently waiting for a blog post but blogging has been such a big part of my life for so long . . it’s like some part of my day is missing if I haven’t blogged yet.

Anyway . . this morning we had to run up to the Mennonite area to look at the greenhouse and show them where we want electric outlets. Good grief, Vince . . two outlets, an overhead light with a switch, a fan with a thermostat . . I didn’t care where the outlets were. They know not to put them too far down because of water. So, we went over east of Carthage, talked to guy who does the wiring. He put two “x”s on the frame to indicate where the outlets go and . . we were out of there. Vince wanted to run by the Mennonite grocery . . for what, I don’t know because he didn’t buy anything. I grabbed a container of smoked paprika because (1) I don’t like it and don’t keep it, (2) Every recipe I’ve looked at lately called for smoked paprika so I might as well try it again.

From there, he wanted to go to Aldi so we went to Aldi. Then he wanted to run by our bank, so we did that and I stayed in the car while he went in. Then he wanted to stop at Lowe’s so he did that while I stayed in the car. He got back and said “Is there any place you want to stop?” I told him . . no, and if you stop anywhere else, I’m leaving you there and I’m going home! Then he still wanted to stop at the restaurant down the road and eat. No! I have pork chops out and I’m cooking!

We got home, I cooked lunch/dinner . . it was about 2 by the time we ate, then I started peeling potatoes.

Not all of those are from today. I don’t have an empty spot in a box for quarts so that quart is left from yesterday’s canning. So far, I’ve canned 30 pounds – 34 pints and 8 quarts. There are 20 pounds left. I’m going to can 10 pounds tomorrow and save 10 pounds for us to eat. So, tomorrow, unless I decide to take the day off from canning, will be my last day of canning potatoes.

So far, we’ve only processed 10 pounds of the carrots – 40 pounds left to go. 🙁 I’ll never buy that much at once again . . but I will since I can only get it once a month.

Six quarts of freeze dried carrots. These will be used for soups, added to whatever recipes call for diced (or sliced) carrots but mostly, we’ll use these for healthy snacks. They’re so crunchy and so sweet and so delicious.

You probably won’t notice but I had to get a new vacuum pump. Vince rigged up an old pressure canner with a vacuum pump so I can vacuum 7 quarts at once. I can also vacuum seal half gallon jars in it. The vacuum pump was probably 6 or more years old and it’s had a ton of use. It started spewing oil on the tops of my jars and inside the canner. Vince said “They’re not expensive . . I’ll just buy another one instead of trying to figure out what’s wrong with it” and he did. Tonight was the first time I used it and it worked perfectly. Vince is pretty good to have around! 🙂

It may not be obvious but the carrots on the right are smaller. I use the little hand held chopper for this kind of chopping and it makes this job so much easier. The carrots on the right are the ones we bought here from the farmer. I use the smaller ones for carrot muffins and the larger pieces for soups, stews, etc.

Tomorrow, I hope to get another load of carrots in the freeze dryer. Ten pounds fills up the four trays perfectly but in the amount of time it’s taken the freeze dryer to dry 10 pounds of carrots, I’ve canned 30 pounds of potatoes.