Summer Canning 2015
 

Still have so much to learn!

I plan to make some peach butter very soon. If I buy organic and put them in the food processor first, can I use the peals? I don't mind removing them, but if they have some nutrients without chemicals, I'd like to keep them.

Re: Summer Canning 2015
 

i keep the peels on my apples for apple sauce and apple butter, so i would assume it is fine:shrug3

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I have done peach jam and left the peals on. It was great.

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:popcorn

I'm hoping to do some pressure canning this summer, in addition to strawberry jam, salsa, and whole peeled tomatoes like last year. I need to get a pressure canner first... :)

Re: Summer Canning 2015
 

SCORE!! Went to the farmers market to one place that has organic peaches. When the guy was getting the basket out of the big cooler, dd noticed a basket of plums. I asked how much they were and he said they were very ripe and he would just give them to me. Well, very ripe plums = plum butter by morning....for the cost of the honey that goes in. Epic win for the newbie.

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We went strawberry picking this morning. That should be strawberry jam, strawberry kiwi jam and strawberry lemonade concentrate by this evening.

Re: Summer Canning 2015
 

Next week starts strawberry season here....I have rhubarb and will be making strawberry rhubarb jam....yummy.
I haven't needed to make jam for a couple of years as what we had, has lasted this long.
ds has asked for blackberry jam, also.
We used to get peaches from an elderly man nearby, but he was called home by the Lord this winter. So will have to see if his daughter will be handling that.

Re: Summer Canning 2015
 

Just got notice that ours ends this week .... it's kinda fun to see the regions differences.


Canning lesson of the week. When doing peaches 30 sec isn't enough, but WOW does the 60 seconds in the boiling water make a huge difference in getting the peals off. Now maybe it's the state of the peaches (some had to be tossed), but it was such a wonderful thing to not sit and peal for hours to get the job done.

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If peaches aren't fully ripe then they take a bit more to get peels off! I am looking forward to fresh juicy strawberries that actually have flavor....the ones in the store don't have any flavor, imo.

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The ones I picked didn't either. Either too tart or mostly flavorless. Very disappointing! I made 12 pints of strawberry lemonade concentrate and 4 half pints of jam. I put close to 15 cups in the freezer for later.

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How do you make the lemonade?

Re: Summer Canning 2015
 

6 cups of berries
4 cups of lemon juice (fresh is better)
6 cups of sugar

Purée the berries and put in a large pot with the lemon juice and sugar. Heat to -90 degrees. Don't boil. Skim foam. WB for 15 minutes. The recipe says it makes 7 pints but it only made 6 for me. Mix one pint of concentrate with 3 pints of water (more or less water to taste)

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Got a message today that the berry patch is having a two day 'emergency' picking tomorrow and Saturday. They had planned to open next Friday, but there is concern that if we get forecast storms after all this intense heat, the berries will split.

If I get enough to make two batches of blueberry butter, 80% of my Christmas stash will be DONE. :)

Re: Summer Canning 2015
 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/06...d794a2d117.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/06...b57a88ce3f.jpg

Strawberrie rhubarb jam made at my mom's today. We picked it all in her yard.

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I like your jars!

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This is one my mom had, we didn't process it but I don't expect the jam to last long.

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Last Tuesday I THOUGHT I had canned green beans. Today I took the results to the compost pile. Not sure what I did wrong but I will try again......after I stop pouting.

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How did you do it?

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Water bath....apparently you aren't suppose to do it that way :shrug3 I may not have left enough head room if you can use the water bath. I might just freeze them next time :shifty

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Oh ya. Unless you are pickling, all vegetables have to be pressure canned. They don't have enough acid to be water bathed safely.

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Ah.....freezing it will be then. I don't have a big freezer and I'm concerned we will have hurricane concerns this year so I was hoping to have things done so that I wouldn't have to worry if the power was out. But my mom has a big freezer where I can put them, so.....

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This week's canned items to take the farmers market will include tomato pepper jam, peach jam, blueberry lemon marmalade, and (probably) plum jelly and rose petal jelly. I sell pretty much everything we can get made in a week's time each week, and so I'm forever looking at empty shelves for my own pantry. :(

---------- Post added at 07:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:07 PM ----------

Waiting for figs to be ripe....probably mid-July. Then, there will be fig preserves, fig jam, and fig everything. Oh.... I forgot to mention that I'm also making a marmalade with watermelon rinds this week for market. It does pretty well. I may also try a pineapple/some other fruit combo as I've had requests.

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I don't do any traditional canning, but I ferment and save a lot of fresh stuff in the summer. I did some dilly green beans and carrots over the weekend, and I'll be doing some kraut soon.

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I canned diced potatoes and several pints of pineapple. The potatoes made home fries a snap and so much faster. I hate the peeling though!! I heard from someone that they liked my lilac jam so that was nice. I actually eat that just off the spoon. A little nibble here or there when I want something sweet.

Re: Summer Canning 2015
 

Figs are in season here, so I've made fig jam and strawberry fig jam. I plan on making whole fig preserves this week as well as trying to come up with a jalapeno fig jam. :yum

---------- Post added at 06:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:45 PM ----------

Also, we were given local peaches at the market today, so there is more peach jam and peach butter in my future as well. :)

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A friend called and said her plum tree was dropping plums and she is out of the country. Kids & I went and picked with another friend. We got 40 pounds total! Free! I didn't have time last week to fully process/can them so I pitted and froze in 4 cup allotments. They will become plum jam and plum sauce. I have 7 bags. She has more plums but I don't have time this week to even pit and freeze. :(

Re: Summer Canning 2015
 

I'm going to be canning chicken tomorrow. I'd also like to try canning spaghetti sauce with hamburger but I'm not really sure. hamburger is so expensive I just can't afford to waste it if we don't like the texture.

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Tomorrow is market day. So far, we have watermelon rind preserves, peach & blueberry jam, and peach butter. I'll be canning whole fig preserves, spicy bacon barbecue jam, and (maybe) pear honey.

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Where do you get your watermelons for rind? My dh likes watermelon rind pickles, but anymore the melons skin is so thin there really isn't any rind.

Grapes are on sale this week. We bought about 16 lbs and are freezing most of them. It has been so hot here they will be a welcome cool treat.

Bought more rhubarb at the farmer's market today. Will cut & freeze that.

Oops, just realized this is a canning thread. I'll be canning, but I freeze as much as I can too.

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The big commercially grown melons (especially the little seedless melons) seem to have almost no rind anymore. We usually get home grown melons or melons from DH's work (he's a farm manager at a living history farm). Sometimes we buy them from a roadside stand. We live near the watermelon capital of Texas. :yum

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That makes sense. :yes I'm going to have to look harder.

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oh.....help.... We went to a farmer's market Monday and dh was looking at the muscadine grapes. There was a big basket and I said, 'oh, we can get those and I'll make a butter!' Now I realize I don't have a good idea how to do that :nails Do I need to get the seeds out? Remove peals or just put in the food processor? Any suggestions?

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I would probably run them through a food mill to remove skins and sends.

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I'm late to answering this question, but I'll try. Muscadine skins are very thick and full of tannins and other yucky things. The seed is huge and actually somewhat oily in the grape as well. I have never successfully made anything with them other than juicing them for jelly. That being said, muscadine jelly is one of the best things in the world to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with. :yum

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I've canned in the past, but honestly have found that just freezing is so much easier. :shifty So that's what I do for the most part. :yes

I have a bunch of frozen grapes from the past. I thought the kids would eat them frozen during the summer but they haven't really taken to it. Is there anything else I can do with them? I hate the just throw them away. :think They are seedless. How hard is it to make grape jam?

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I think jelly is what its going to have to be.

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Frozen grapes are great in smoothies!

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I came up with something I'm calling Persephone's Dream for farmers market on Saturday. It's a combination of persimmons, pomegranate juice, lime juice, and candied ginger. It is AWESOME :yum if I do say so myself! May be my best jam creation in a while.