Compost tumbler and canning jars!

     I've had a certain compost tumbler on my amazon wish list for at least 6 months and the reviews were great, but the price was hoverify between $90-$100. I checked my list and it was on sale for $67 and some change. I hopped on that right away and I'm super excited. The instructions weren't great, but luckily it was pretty easy to figure out with the help of a YouTube video I searched for. It is the yimby brand and I've already put egg shells, coffee grounds, apple peels and cores, a paper egg carton, and a whole bunch of other stuff in it.

     In addition to the sale on the tumbler ball jars were also on sale (on amazon as well.) I got 12 half pint, 12 pints, and 12 quart for around $26. If I'd been thinking I would have used my gift card and gotten $5 off. 

     I bought some more Jonathan apples and turned the caramel apple jam I made before into a recipe for pie filling. It looks good and I'll get to see how it turned out later this fall.

Lots more canning to finish off the summer

                               From this:

To this: 

In just about 4 hours. 

     First I cut an "x" into the bottom of each tomato and put them one at a time into boiling water. After about a minute to a minute and a half I moved them into an ice bath. I peeled them and then cored them with my handy dandy tomato corer (made it much faster!) I cut them into quarters and pureed them in my ninja blender. 

   

    I moved them to my big old stock pot, added my ball pasta sauce spice mix, and brought it to a boil. I reduced the temp to a simmer on medium in order to reduce the liquid. I'm not sure exactly how long I ended up on the stove for, but it was at least an hour. 

    I them put them into warm quart jars and processed them for 65 minutes in my electric water bath canner. I feel like the sauce could/should have been reduced a little more (probably at least another 30 minutes) but overall I'm satisfied. I can doctor it up a little bit when I actually cook dinner with it. Maybe add a little tomato paste and a bit more spices.

     Back in June I made some pickles and they were a big hit, so I wanted to get a whole bunch more made for the winter. I made 4 pint jars of bread and butter pickles and over 20 quarts of dill pickles. Most if them were slices but I made some spears as well.

     A couple of weekends ago I went to the local pick your own place and picked 20 pounds of Jonathan apples. It was way more than I intended to get, but I quickly had 3 ways to use them all up. I decided to make caramel apple jam: http://www.alattewithotta.com/2013/09/carmel-apple-jam-in-ball-freshtech-jam.html?m=1

Applesauce: http://www.freshpreserving.com/applesauce-recipe-%7C-how-to-make-applesauce---ball-fresh-preserving-br1126.html

And Apple butter: http://kristagilbert.com/amish-crock-pot-apple-butter/
     With the apple butter I ended up having to reduce the liquid in the oven at 250-300 for about an hour. Next time I will just remove some liquid before pureeing the apples. I also altered the caramel apple jam recipe by prepping the apples in lemon juice and water before hand and adding 3 tablespoons of lemon juice to the actual recipe as it was cooking.

     I am going back to pick some Granny Smith apples in October. I'll be using them to make apple pie filling, but canning season is winding down for now. I've made a lot of new recipes this summer and the results have been pretty good so far!