Hello From WV !!

[wvsnowflake]

Hi Phorum Phamily!
Well I am back in WV , I have been really busy! Since coming home I have re built a porch, re tiled the bathroom... I have canned 19 quarts of tomatoes, 22 pints of green beans, made 25 pints of apple sauce, 12 half pints of apple butter, 12 quarts, and 9 pints of peaches, ( i have another bushel of peaches yet to can,) I have frozen 2 bushels of corn. and we picked 5 gallon of black berries and made 6 pints of black berry jelly... I re painted the living room and put up a wall mural ( have to post a pic.) Tore down an old coal shed, and have been slowly working on moving things from my old trailor here to the house.. Today we cut down 5 trees not big ones but they were leaning toward the house . we have weedeated and all around cleaned a lot of trash that was throwed in the weeds.

Hubby and son are still in Bemidji , MN until about next thurs, then they will come home for a bit. I still need to get in my winter wood... Wish me luck there.... well I better scoot, I hope you all have had a good summer and your gardens did well. Hope to pop in more often....
here is my latest project...

[wvsnowflake]

I was just wondering has anyone ever dried tomatoes or fruit? I love sun dries tomatoes but haven't been able to find out how to dry them or which tomatoes to use... I was also wondering if any one ever canned walnuts in a syrup? I buy them occassionally for sundays but they are expensive and I have 2 walnut trees, so if I can figgure out how to can them it would be wonderful!

[wvsnowflake]

Well I dried me some maters last night... Worked purty well. Least ways now i know how to do it! Still lookin fer the recipe for canned nuts. Canned another 20 quarts of peaches today... gotta nuff sweets fer winter.. Now just need some meats... Catch yall later

[Pharmer Phil]

WV, please elaborate, how'd ya go about drying yer mators?

[wvsnowflake]

Well it was much simpler than I thought !!! I went to mother earth news and looked to see if they had anything on drying them... And lo and behold they did It said to steam blanche the maters ( after cleaning them ) or put in a microwave with a little water to blanche them. ( which I did ) then I sliced them in half and put them in my dehydrator over night and in the morning I had dried maters ! They are so sweet in flavor ! I love adding them to pasta I add them, and diced maters, onion, white wine, and shrimp to linguini pasta makes your mouth water !!! Oh and dont forget the red pepper flakes !!! good and spicey ! Any way here is the link for mother earth news. I love to read all their good tips. You should dry some and make pasta ( or they are good in a salad you can rehydrate with some good olive oil )

www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2008-08-01/How-To-Dry-And-Freeze-Tomatos.aspx?utm_medium=email&utm_source=iPost

Here is the second link>
www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2008-08-01/How-To-Dry-Food.aspx
ENJOY !!!