What are you canning now?

[ducks4you]

My skin is thick enough to weather a midwestern winter with outside chores all winter. I think I can handle evidence of a new and perhaps distant relative.

 

[ducks4you]

I have been canning off and on for Months, now.
I discovered that when you can jelly, don't assume it didn't gel. Here is some grape jelly that I labelled, "runny," but it jelled perfectly after it sat in the pantry for several months. Yeah, we're going thought it.

 

[ducks4you]

Pork broth. Funny, DD talked me into pressure canning broth, and I started this last January. She told me that "the woman of the house" always kept a broth pot going over the fire in the fireplace and would put any old meat, bones and vegetables into it.
I started This broth last Thursday!! So it's been cooking in a crockpot for 5 days!!!
VERY rich looking.
I had a package of thin pork chops. DH didn't want them bc they were thin.
DD didn't want them, either.
I decided to cook them up in my crockpot with onions and potatoes, then I intended to eat one and then package up the rest for my lunches. I took out the remaining 4 porkchops and put them on a plate in my microwave to cool off and not be chewed on by any cats.
Then...I went to bed.
Dogs ate good on Friday!!
I saved the potatoes and some saucy bits for the dogs for later, then I took all of the pork bones back to the crockpot.
I added older celery, some onions leftover from a hamburger meal and added water.
I Kept Meaning to can this broth over the weekend, but never got to it.
DH wanted me to come to the office yesterday, so I moved the crockpot to the stovetop to cook in a safer place than the counter.
Anyway, I am babysitting the canner and this helps me practice. Can't seem to get the psi to stay at 11--it's at 14psi--still works.
If you have any suggestions as to how to set the burner, I am all ears.
Btw, when I made pork ribs a few weeks ago, instead of cooking them in water for an hour before grilling, I used pork broth and water. It made SUCH a difference in the taste!!
THEN, I took That broth, cooled it down, filled pints and water bath cooked it for the dogs. 7 jars of doggy bliss and none of them smelled like they had gone "off."
I made a chuck roast, following DD's instructions, where I used the crock pot to cook the vegetables in beef broth first, then sear the roast in oil, THEN adding the broth and other vegetables to the bottom of the dutch oven and bake.
Cheap cut of meat. BeYOND delicious!

 

[ducks4you]

DD ordered broth and a quart of tomatoes to bring for dinner tonight. I picked a wide mouthed quart and when lifting it the lid came off.
Even though it smelled fine, I couldn't use it. It was a late season canned jar, canned last October.
Too bad. This hasn't happened in a long time.

 

[Ridgerunner]

DD ordered broth and a quart of tomatoes to bring for dinner tonight. I picked a wide mouthed quart and when lifting it the lid came off.
Even though it smelled fine, I couldn't use it. It was a late season canned jar, canned last October.
Too bad. This hasn't happened in a long time.

Good decision. If there is any question, toss it.

I wash my jars after they cool off. Unscrew the ring and use a washcloth in warm soapy water. I'm not afraid to scrub the threads with that cloth. I know the lid is on tight and the jar is clean for storage. I've never taken a lid off washing them I wasn't suspicious of to start with. If a lid came off later like yours did I'd know it had leaked.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

I'm on a canning marathon here. I finally finished beans! Woohoo!
We bought some peaches from a local orchard and I've been canning those. Canning peaches is a sticky job!
Today, more peaches will be canned and maybe even some pears.

 

[ducks4you]

I'm on a canning marathon here. I finally finished beans! Woohoo!
We bought some peaches from a local orchard and I've been canning those. Canning peaches is a sticky job!
Today, more peaches will be canned and maybe even some pears.

NOTHING is as sweet as a ripe peach!!! They taste just like somebody dipped them in sugar syrup.
Very jelly!!!
2022 looks aGAIN like my peach tree didn't produce.

 

[ducks4you]

TOMORROW and Sunday, DD's and I are cleaning up the pantry. It has dirt on the floor from the kittens rifling through a windowbox where I tried to grow in the 2020-2021 winter, and nothing is well organized.
DD"s decided I needed help AND Eldest DD would like to know exactly WHAT we have at the "Ducks Store", since she bought ahead on items like salad dressing, pickles, etc., and the broth And last year's tomatoes AND the old quarts of grapes and cherries and apple juice in jars destined to become wine.
My old (gifted) and rocky dining room table will stay. They disassembled, then reassembled it In the pantry, but the old (Law School) kitchen table will be toast after the weekend, and the newish round particle board table that DD's bought last year and gave to me (which I also water sealed before putting it downstairs,) will come out and maybe go back.
Then, there are some jars of things like strawberry jam, which got burnt somehow in the canning process and need to be dumped outside and the jars cleaned, and that will happen, too.
Then...there are new quarts never been used and stored pints and 1/2 pints (all clean with lids and screw tops) that need to be counted and re stored. We will probably plant my laptop in the main basement and play music all day.
I have been ORDERED to take their black bananas and turn them into bread (cooking now,) and DH insists on an apple pie--made soon--as payment.
I will report back (on my thread) as to progress, and I HOPE that it looks good enough for pictures.

 

[flowerbug]

I have been canning off and on for Months, now.
I discovered that when you can jelly, don't assume it didn't gel. Here is some grape jelly that I labelled, "runny," but it jelled perfectly after it sat in the pantry for several months. Yeah, we're going thought it.
View attachment 48991

if in the past you have experienced runny grape jam you can pick some of the grapes more on the green side and those will have more pectin in them. i've never used pectin on concord grape jam (i don't make jelly from concords ever).

i could happily eat bunches of concord grapes off the clusters as i'm picking and processing them. i like the mix of tart and sweet and the different textures. the seeds i just swallow whole and let them drop out the other end.

 

[ducks4you]

I should say that youngest DD's boss gave me a Lovely dining room table last year, VERY sturdy, rectangular and, I think, cherry wood, probably 40 yo. It has a few dings, and we had to glue some of the wood that supports a leg, but I have NEVER had a new dining room table, plus I always keep a plastic tablecloth on it.
My broth is always labelled on it by DH. At that point I don't wanna do amy more work except putting it away.
About to go water my beds before we get going today.