So I finally got started on Canning Season 2011! After a trip to Costco I had a giant-sized flat of big juicy ripe strawberries. And as you canners and jammers know, with produce you have to get right to work.
So on probably the freaking hottest possible day of the year, Cupcake and I put up a batch of strawberry jam. We use the low-sugar recipe. Not really for health reasons, although less white sugar should be my goal if you know what I mean. But mostly because wonderful ripe summer fruit doesn't really need all that sugar.
So in my vintage apron we got to work. Cupcake mentioned that I looked just like some 1940's Mom jarring up the garden bounty. I mused that the big difference was I was cooking on electricity inside my air-conditioned home, not sweating over a cook stove in a 110+ degree kitchen. However, remember my musings on summer kitchens? I really want one now. It would be my escape. My house has what my sisters and I call a "one-butt-kitchen". Our unit of measure is our own hereditary ample rear ends. I actually have more like a "1/2 butt kitchen". So a project like canning takes good planning, iced tea, and cold air pouring out of the floor vents.
Now that I've proven my prowess with canning, I think I'm ready to buy a big 'ol pot that will hold lots of jars, not just 4-5 jam sizers.
Watch for later developments as I make raspberry jam, peach butter, salsa jam, and tomato sauce!
Also - the neighbors told me I can help myself to their apple tree in the Fall so Apple Butter coming our way!
11 comments:
Canning = freedom!
Next step to freedom - seed saving!
Nice work and nice apron!
Do you also go free under your vintage apron? Must be quite a jam session in the kitchen! :)
Will you post your low-sugar strawberry jam recipe? I'd love to try it!
Nice cans.
I've always been afraid of canning. I've heard stories of people being paralyzed by eating food that was canned incorrectly...Or maybe that's always just been my excuse.
Cute report on your jammin, Margaret...!
The first picture looks like that gal is canning testicles.
Oh I so miss my grandma's canned fruits! I can't even eat toast and biscuits anymore without shedding a tear. Not sure why none of us ever took the time to learn how she did it. I guess we were too busy eating it by the jar full. I tell ya, Smuckers ain't got nothing on grandma's home made preserves!
I have canned exactly zero this year (except for two jars of pickled refrigerator radishes), as my cherries & currants were nonexistent, and we're pretty much eating the rest. We're expanding the garden next year, so maybe...
I do still hold out hope for beets and serrano peppers, though. It appears that I will have buckets of those, and lord knows you can't eat a ton of those very quickly.
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