Getting ready for the first cold weather

The forecast is showing cooler weather, some rain and possibly even snow, which we have been praying for to help the firefighters with the Elk and Pack Trail fires. I hope the forecasters are right and we get some good snow to stop both, but that also means I have some things in order that really need to be done before the cooler weather gets here. 

On Monday, I cleaned the garden, picked all of the tomatoes and put them in boxes. They will come in the house to ripen or be used as green tomatoes. I normally make green tomato salsa with them, but this year a friend suggested making green tomato preserves. I asked him for a recipe and all he could tell me was that his mother always made it. I have some old canning books, from back when nothing was allowed to go to waste, so I did some looking to see what I could find. 

With the tomatoes out, Rick also dug the sunflower stalks, after picking what heads still had seeds in them, though most were already picked clean — the birds have been working on them for the past couple of weeks. Of course, that’s what we plant them for and it is fun to watch them. The rest of the heads will be put out to dry, then stored and placed on platform feeders through the winter. The squash, corn and melons are done, and Rick will get that patch cleaned up soon. 

Now to the inside work. Mostly getting the stovepipe cleaned and ready to fire up the wood stove. I know a bird came down the chimney this summer and died in the stove pipe. It is probably stuck either in one of the elbows, or in the bottom of the smoke chute. So the pipe has to come apart from the stove through the elbows to the roof box. It is a dirty, messy job and I don’t like doing it, but it is part of getting the stove ready for winter. 

And somewhere in this time frame, I have to get the windows washed. I can hardly see out of most of them. The ones in the kitchen and living room are the worst and they are the ones I look out of the most. 

When that is done I will feel like the house is ready for winter, but I still have some canning to do. Things like apple jam, salsa, chokecherry jelly and maybe some more apple jelly. 

Oh, and I still have three roosters that need to be butchered and cooked while the rest of the chickens need to be moved to a new coop. Then I can say I will really be ready for winter. 

Green Tomato Preserves

When looking for a recipe, my old Kerr canning book (circa 1945) said to use the same recipe as ripe tomato preserves, only no need to peel, so here is a recipe that can be used for both — 

5 lbs. (11 cups, quartered) green or ripe tomatoes

9 cups sugar

2 lemons, sliced thin

If using ripe tomatoes, scald and peel, then quarter. Green tomatoes do not have to be peeled. Add sugar and let stand overnight. Drain off juice and boil rapidly until it spins a thread when dropped from a spoon. Add tomatoes and lemons, boiling until they are thick and clear. Pour into sterilized jars, add caps and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.