We have been covered up in work lately. The garden has been ready to harvest. It's been a strange year. We had so much rain since spring which is a good thing and can be a bad thing. The early rains we got were a little too much and drowned out some of the garden. We replanted the green beans, pinto beans and black eyed peas. The green beans did OK. Not as much as some years. The pintos were awful. From what we planted we only put up 9 quarts.
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We usually get 3 or 4 times that much. The rains also did a number on our fruit harvest. We got just enough plums to eat fresh. We did get enough peaches to freeze 6 quarts. That is not much considering we have 6 trees. The apples we usually get at least 3 bushels and one year we got 17 bushels. We only have the one tree. This year we only got 1 bushel. So I thought I would show you how I canned cinnamon apples.
I start by filling a dishpan with water and add citric acid. I buy it in bulk from SanFranciscoHerb company. (click the link to go to the site). I mix in about a half cup to that much water. I then peel, cut them in quarters and core and put them in this water. This keeps the cut apples from turning brown.
The apples this year were a tiny bit wormy. I don't worry about it. I just cut around the wormy section.
Next I put my clean canning jars in the oven on 200F. and clean rings and new lids in a water pot and bring to a simmer. 
Next I put water, sugar and cinnamon into a pot. I use the ratio of 2/1. 2cups water, 1cup sugar. Then I add several tablespoons to the water. I just don't worry about measuring it as we like lots of cinnamon. I also use cinnamon flavoring. I also buy these in bulk.
I bring this to a boil and gently simmer for 1minute.
The pot looks kind of gross but that is the cinnamon. I have not yet scraped the sides. Once it has simmered 1minute. I add the apples. I don't measure how many. I just try not to overflow the pot. I continue to push the apples down into the syrup until it comes back to a boil.
Our apples are granny smith and they tend to mush easy. So I do not boil these. Once they come to a boil, I turn off the heat. You mainly want them to heat through. This keeps them from floating in the jars once canned.
I then can them up in quart canning jars. I do use the off type canning jars for these if I have them because I have a lot saved from using other bought products like mayonaise, etc. They work fine in a water bath. I would not pressure can in these. I do not fill my jars completely full of apples. After bottling the apples, I then add the syrup from the pot. I make sure I clean the screw part and around the top of the rim before capping. Using a clean damp wash cloth I dip in vinegar to disinfect and it in turn disinfects the rims. I tighten the rings and Then the jars are transferred outside to the canner. Sonny does this part so no photos. He water baths them for 20minutes. The canning books call for 40 but any longer makes these type apples go to mush.
Here is the finished product.
We set them on the picnic table under a fan to cool and then transfer to our pantry.
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One thing Sonny and I enjoy is a homemade pizza. My next post will show how I make one. In the rest of this post I'm showing some photos of our homestead.
Front view with patio area
Patio area. The upper section is our cook shack. We do our canning and grilling there and we eat out there as well when it is nice outside.
Straight front view of the house.Someday I'll tell you the story of our house and try to find old photos.
another front view. We used to have a huge iris bed in front but getting older, we decided we wanted to focus on a food garden. I did move many bulbs to the side of the drive and then gave the rest away.
This is our garden earlier in the season. I took this photo from the front yard looking northeast. We keep an electric fence around it. Our fruit trees are scattered from there up the hill to the left of this photo.
We have 6 blueberry bushes. 2 are very old and 2 are a little younger and then we have 2 really young bushes. Our older bushes were so overgrown and needed the old wood pruned out. So this is after the pruning. They are about 1/3 the size they were before. The big bushy tree behind the top photo is our big fig tree and it is loaded this year.
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I have some other news to cover next time as well about our self-quarantine. Later for that. In the meantime, I have been spending time on youtube. I could spend hours but have a few homesteading ones I love. This link is for the one that is my favorite. They are a homestead in Georgia. I think they have only had their place for 2 years or so. The woman is a joy to watch. Her accent is really southern and so I can relate. Their site on youtube is
Homestead Heart. Click the link to check them out.
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Time to close. and as always.
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