What are you canning?

[lcertuche]

Well last week our church blessed the members with cases of fresh strawberries and grapes. I canned strawberry preserves and grapes for juice. I froze a lot of both strawberries and grapes. I will probably make more preserves and some grape jelly. If I can keep the Wildbunch out of the freezer. They keep sneaking frozen berries. I especially love frozen grapes in the summer. Icy, sweet little orbs of goodness! Hopefully I can get more canned for room in the freezer before the garden gets going.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Good, a fresh "what are you canning" thread. Glad you started a fresh one. These tend to be pretty popular.

Managing freezer space can be a big challenge here. I can fill it up with chickens I butcher, I freeze a lot of stuff from the garden, and I store stuff before I can it. Sometimes that may be picking blackberries or mulberries or who knows what else until I get enough to make jelly of jam. I store veggies specifically to make soup. I'll store gallon bags of tomatoes until I get enough to can them. I store some seeds in the freezer to keep them fresh. I'm in good shape right now but before too long cauliflower, chard, kale, cabbage, and broccoli will start to go in. And I'll start putting chickens in there early July.

During our recent weather my wife was gone for a week with her relatives so I was home all alone. I couldn't get outside in all that weather so I canned two batches (18 pints each) of chicken broth, seven quarts of vegetable soup, and two batches of Bay's dandelion jelly recipe (10 half-pints total). Hopefully I won't be canning anything else for a while. I should be caught up.

 

[lcertuche]

Boy howdy Ridge you've been busy! I gotta get some stuff out of my freezer before too long. I like to can chicken and chicken broth. It's so handy and I love the taste of it.

 

[lcertuche]

Here are some of the strawberry preserves and grape juice I canned. I did about four batches and put the rest up in the freezer (for now).

 

[lcertuche]

I canned a batch of dried beans last night and this morning.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Not canning but I blanched and put some kale in the freezer.

 

[lcertuche]

It is all good!

 

[lcertuche]

Our church blessed us with much produce yesterday so this is what kept me busy.

 

[ninnymary]

Those jars look beautiful!

Mary

 

[lcertuche]

Plums I canned Saturday. I used the cold pack method so there is a lot of juice. I'm canning a batch of strawberries right now to free up some freezer space. I canned a lot of strawberry preserves but everyone keeps wanting some so I may need to make some more.