Canning

This year has really been a year of canning for me. It started back in January when the food co-op I participate in offered a case of pickling cucumbers. I thought that since I had done it with my mom when I was young I could do it by myself now. :) I did some research online and decided my course of action. The cucumbers were not as small as I would have liked but I canned them anyway. On average I was able to get 4-5 cucumbers per jar.

All my pickles minus 2 jars

The next thing I canned was salsa in February again I decided to can salsa because the food co-op offered a 20 pound box of tomatoes. I bought some roma tomatoes at the same time to supplement just in case. So I ended up making 3 varieties of salsa from the co-op tomatoes, I think they were beefsteaks, and a different variety from the romas. I got all my salsa recipes from the USDA guide to canning. Ironically the recipe made from the roma tomatoes was our favorite. 

All my salsa

Aren't they pretty?

All set up for the salsa tasting open house

Sometime in February I made blueberry lime jam with my friends Amanda and Jenelle at Amanda's house. I didn't get pictures of that but I do have my canning on display in my kitchen below and you can see the little jars of jam. I totally stole the idea of putting my canning above my cupboards from Amanda and I love how it looks and we're more likely to use it since we can see it.

So in March the co-op offered cases of apples, of course I was on a role by then I got an entire case of apples to can. I was originally going to make applesauce but the apples turned out to be granny smiths, so instead I decided to make apple pie filling. My friend Jenelle had also bought a case of apples and so together we made the apple pie filling. It turned out delicious! So far I haven't made a pie with it, but I have made many apple crisps. 

Together the two pictures below are two cases of apples turned into pie filling

Since I had done the blueberry lime jam in a group I discovered the fun of canning with people but also the advantages of multiple people canning. It's so much easier to have each person responsible for certain things in the canning process and it makes it go faster. Strawberries came on sale and Amanda and I got together and made strawberry jam and also a few batches of strawberry freezer jam. Then there was a lull in can-able produce available from the co-op. 

Then in May my friend Megan really wanted to make salsa. She had tried my salsa that I made back in February and loved it. So we got together and stayed up into the wee hours of the morning making salsa. 

So in June my friends Megan and Melony wanted to learn how to can and specifically wanted to make more salsa. Luck was on our side and the roma tomatoes were on sale again but there were also lots of berries on sale too. The week we were planning on canning the co-op offered cases of peaches for sale, so I got two. We got the peaches the Saturday we were planning on canning but they weren't quite ready so we just did salsa and strawberry jam with plans to come back on Thursday and can the peaches. 

I had bought blueberries, blackberries and strawberries and decided that since I already had blueberry jam and strawberry jam I wanted to make syrup with my berries. So Tuesday I took my blueberries and blackberries over to Amanda's house and we made my syrup. 

Thursday we got down to the business of peaches and we canned some peaches, and made pie filling, jam and syrup with the rest of the peaches. Again I forgot to take pictures of everything on the counter but all of my canning is now on display above my cupboards in my kitchen. 

I have decided that since all my cupboard space is taken up with canning, we have to eat a bunch before I'm ready to can again. Although we do want to do canned chicken next and I may have to make an exception to the space issue if we end up doing it soon. :)