Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Harvests - Figuring What You Need

Good morning and midweek to all.  It is a very cool and refreshing morning in my neighborhood.  Coolest morning in a couple months.  Enjoying it for a couple days - then it gets back to hot, hot, hot!!!  They say some of the hottest of the year to come!

Let's talk a bit about harvests.  We all need to put goods back while we can.  Some grow their gardens and others buy from farmers direct, or get things from CSA's or farm markets.  Conversion is often hard to figure out.  So today I am showing a few charts that may help.

AS ALWAYS if you can't easily read them - please click on each picture to enlarge.  I copy them and it always looks bigger & clearer when I copy, than when I publish!!!!

FOR CANNING OR FREEZING - Preparing for fall/winter



Here are some charts to aid you in the kitchen:



These last 3 were photo'd from the back of one of my favorite cookbooks.  Great charts and handy to have the info on hand.

Again, sorry they aren't clearer just looking at the screen.  They do brighten and clear when looking at each one separately.

I always like knowing how much what I have harvested will get me.  Whether canning, freezing, or just cooking.
I hope these help someone to know what to buy or what their harvest will supply.
Tis the season for harvesting all the fresh goodness you can!!!!!!!  Winter will soon be upon us!

Have a wonderful day!

30 comments:

  1. Pinned all your graphics ! It's sometimes difficult to know if you have enough for canning.

    Hate so see the heat return. Ah well, that's the way it is.

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    1. Good - hopefully they will help. Yep, summer isn't done yet!!!!

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  2. I love charts like these Cheryl. I have similar in one of my cookbooks and I refer to it often this time of year. It is the time of year that I feel I am always dehydrating something or canning something. I do freeze berries and various peppers but not much else. Enjoy this cool weather while we have it.

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    1. Good. They sure are handy. It is that time of the year!
      Today is bliss!!!!!!

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  3. Debby in Kansas USAAugust 16, 2023 at 9:02 AM

    I think this is our last cool morning and then we go back into the kiln for the next week. Plah! <-- my nephew used to say that when he didn't like something lol! So funny how those kid things make it 8nto a family's own language! My brother said 'more better' and I still say it a lot. You can't believe how many people correct me lol.

    My only harvest is the junk 8m pulling out of the basement!! Honestly, I'm feeling a bit greedy that I thought I needed all this. The one thing I've really debated about...and maybe someone has a suggestion.. is my wedding gown. I have no kids and my niece is a married mother of 3 lol. Admittedly, my dress is exquisite. All silk and light as a feather. What do I do with it?

    Alright, back to food harvesting! I'll carry on and wonder why I saved a pile of school newspapers!

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    1. Debby, I made dolls for all my nieces and used their mother's wedding dresses to make the clothes for the dolls. I've also made christening gowns out of wedding dresses. From ball gown type wedding dresses my family always made bassinette skirts out of them. Perhaps something keepsake for yourself that is useful like pillows or pillow shams, even cutting making a white on white quilt from it since it's all silk. Pinterest may have some ideas for you. Cookie

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    2. Debby, what about the bridal pillows that the rings are carried on during a wedding? Not sure if people do ring bearers anymore, but that would be a sweet way to share the love. Also garters?

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    3. My plan was originally to cut off just the train and make a baptism gown from it. After I lost the baby and didn't get pregnant again, I decided not to cut it up at all. I'm not close with any relatives so I'm hoping to find a church charity where it will be altered and used. It has long sleeves, but a perfect bodice for the popular strapless look. I had the sleeves added because I'm traditional lol. No sleeveless and strapless in church, ever!! Thanks for chiming in. I have a ring bearers pillow to donate, too lol. My mom made it. Gah, so much stuff.

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    4. Oh, Debby, sorry you lost a baby, too. I had 3 miscarriages and a very tough time getting pregnant in the 1st place. I think donation is a great idea!

      On a lighter note, I come from a long line of collectors. My maternal grandfather had a full basement full of stuff. He worked at a factory building large mining equipment and liked to tinker, so had every tool and size of screw, bolt, nut you could think of. But he also had boxes of odd stuff... in retirement he drove a school bus for awhile; there was one big box marked "right hand gloves" and another marked "left hand gloves" in his basement. He had a box of sunglasses. Another of eyeglasses. Winter coats in every size and color you could think of. Whole boxes of hankies.

      When we were moving from Ohio to another of Hubs' jobs, that one in CA, he refused to pack up the stash of bleach washed, sun dried plastic nursery pots I'd saved. Since his retirement and our move here last year, there are some 20 unmarked boxes in the shed we still have to go through. You're in good company when it comes to stuff. --Elise

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    5. Elise, We have been here for 4 years and I still have totes to go through.

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    6. You could donate so a new bride could have a lovely dress for little money. I like the idea of making 'angel' gowns for hospitals too. Many babies die at full term and it gives a lovely gift for the parents to use in burial.
      I am sorry you lost a baby. You too Elise and all the others out there.

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    7. Debby, My designer dress and veil was lifted out of the heirloom box when our second born was engaged...The dress had been heirloomed but apparently with all of our moves there was a tiny hole that developed that allowed air in. Well, most of my dress disintegrated before my daughter's eyes! The sleeves literally fell off! I couldn't do anything but laugh. All of that money for a designer dress made in France and there ya go...I cut all of the lace and pearls off and placed everything in a shoebox for safe keeping after washing in Biz bleach. The dress had also turned brown! Looked like a real scary movie! LOL The veil was intact as well as the slip also, those now in shoeboxes also wrapped in tissue. One day I'll figure out what to do with it. : ) Maybe make a pretty little doll dress for my little grand daughter one day or a handkerchief when she marries one day, or maybe even add the trim to one of her dresses I make for her one day.

      I really like Cheryl's idea, that would be such a loving gift. If mine were made from soft silk like that I would probably do that.

      I'm sorry for the loss of your babies, Debby and Elise, I had one miscarriage and our second born has had several, our youngest has had one too. Heartbreaking.

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  4. That qualifies as "Wonderful Wednesday" info, Cheryl. :-)

    It's been cooler here in the mornings, too. Just a tiny bit chilly. From now though October it will be bi-polar weather... some day summerlike and others autumn-ish. By late October winter arrives. We had a beautiful sunrise this morning! Berry colors splayed across the horizon.

    These days I do more freezing of produce than anything else. Also, I buy when there are super sales on canned goods. Safeway has their 50 cents each if you buy 10 offer, which includes, all Signature Select tomatoes, Hunt's pasta sauce, S & W beans, and Libby's canned vegetables, as well as Starkist tuna. Limit of 20 items. No other good sales there this week. Yesterday I was able to get a case of 12 extra fruit blackberry pie filling (Comstock Premium) for $8.49 from Amazon. Basha's sales this week also aren't stellar, but seedless green grapes are 98 cents lb. and Utah peaches and pears are $1.58 lb. There's yogurt on sale at both stores, but...

    Blue and Poppy LOVE the yogurt I made using a tub of plain, organic Greek yogurt as a base. They like vanilla; I used just 2 T. sugar (dissolved in 2 T. hot water) and 1/2 t. pure vanilla extract for 2 cups as a 1st trial. Each gets a little yogurt twice a day and think of it as a treat. It's really for their gut health. They seem to like my batch even better, so that's encouraging.

    As Debby said, back to fall harvesting! --Elise

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    1. P.S. Poppy got a weigh in at the vet yesterday and is 25-1/2 lbs. at about 6 months old. The receptionist remembers her and Poppy doled out the love!

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    2. Yep the days will be all crazy for the next couple months.
      My goodness, what a great deal on the pie filling!!!!! That is fantastic. All the others are good - but that is crazy good.
      Poppy is growing up - getting to be a big girl.

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  5. Thanks for those charts, Cheryl. I went on a hunt for bushel conversions for a chutney recipe back in the day & keep them in a cookbook. I've learned to estimate end results by the size of containers used when picking or cleaning, i.e. the white colander filled with snipped beans yields 7 pints, just enough for the canner pot. Beans were processed a few weeks ago. Waiting on tomatoes for canning and salsa.

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    1. Mona, I do the same thing! I know how much of what fits in the cookers and how much I can can with it!!
      Salsa is on my agenda this week. Hope the charts help!
      I am all about making things easier.

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  6. I remember those days when I was harvesting a bushel a day out of the garden, and I had to get it done up before the next day. I am grateful now for my little garden and it is still too much.

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    1. Those were the days!!!!!! Yes, it is hard to do the little garden these days = but it sure does taste good!

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  7. What I've been seeing all summer is "A pint is a pound the world around." It's been very close. My 10# of roma tomatoes yielded 12 pints o spaghetti sauce -- but I'd addd onion and peppers, which probably added a couple of cups to the sauce. That certainly helped me figure out how many jars to have ready for canning.

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    1. I had not heard that saying - but a good one to remember. Thanks.

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  8. Love those charts. Very handy to know what you are going to get.

    God bless.

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  9. Thank you for the handy charts Cheryl! Many times we need this info! God bless you Cheryl, have a sweet evening! ~Amelia

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  10. I love looking at cookbooks and the charts and substitutions they have, especially older cookbooks. These are great!

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    1. The older books are a wealth of information in my opinion. Mom and grandma had it going on!

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  11. Oh my goodness, Kitchen Math!!! I love it, can you please tell us the name of that cookbook? I need to get myself a copy of that baby. Louise

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    1. I thought since it was back to school time - we should have some fun as well!
      Actually it came from my beloved and much used - Meals in Minutes - Gooseberry Patch book. It has so many good ideas and useful tips.

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  12. I made a crockpot of tomato soup this morning as we still have so many tomatoes. I dropped two microwave containers to my daughter's fridge for granddaughter who is at work. There is still plenty of soup to freeze. Think someone mentioned freezing colcannon on one of your posts, that's next on the list as we have lots of curly kale. Think the freezer is more economical full and it means lazy lunches during the winter.

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