Made By Gina's Custom Creations

Made By Gina's Custom Creations
Celtic Morning

My Spoonflower

Monday, September 16, 2013

A Season for Canning!

Last year I learned how to make pickles.  This year I learned how to make jams and jellies.  And all in all I love to do both.  In fact, I love canning in general!
This year we have been so fortunate when it came to fruits and veggies...between friends and family who have given us cucumbers, green beans, cherries and some apples, and then the fruits from the trees in our own yard and the wild grapes I found along a country road this fall, and even some overloaded apple trees along the roadsides...we haven't had to buy any fruits or veggies for canning at all!
I've been busy off and on for the past two months making jams & jellies, pickling dilly beans, pickles and other veggies, making apple juice and sauce...WHEW!  I'm starting to get burnt out, but it's not over yet!  While in Michigan this past weekend, we ended up picking more apples from trees in the wild, because the apples were so sweet we couldn't pass them up!  And tomorrow morning I am going raspberry picking with one of my quilting friends!
It has truly been an amazing year for the abundance of fruits and vegetables, and we are so appreciative for it all.  Our root cellar is full, but it doesn't stop me from preserving and sharing some of it with others as well!
I did tell my family that we don't need to buy any jam or jelly for the next year or so!  LOL!
Here are all kinds of pictures to show some of the things I canned this fall so far...

7.16.2013 - FIRST CAME THE SOUR CHERRY JAM...

  One of Brian's best friends, Bill, and his wife Linda, graciously allowed Brian to pick as many cherries as we wanted from their sour cherry tree, and I ended up with even more jam than what's pictured below.  This picture shows what I got made before running out of pectin...


7.29.2013 - Next came...
30 qts & 17 pints of pickles, and 6 pints of dilly beans 

These came from cucumbers I got from my parents' pickle farm, and the green beans came from Tea Pot Quilt & Garden Center in Montello, WI.
The pickle recipes I used are: Grandma's Dill Pickles (Taste of Home), Spicy Dill Pickles (Emeril Legasse), Bread & Butter Pickles (Taste of Home), Claussen Kosher Garlic Pickle Copycat, and Polish Dill Pickles from a Mrs. Wages pickling packet.

8.14.2013
Then Brian's brother, Duane, gave us all these cucumbers and dill from his garden, including some green beans that aren't pictured, so I had to make more pickles and dilly beans!
 31 quarts, 25 pints & 1 half pint of pickles!
Varieties of pickles I made on this 2nd round are: Sweet Gherkins, Grandma's Dills, Fast Favorite Garlic Dills, Aunt Agnes Garlic Dills, Old Fashioned Garlic Dills and Emeril's Sweet & Spicy Pickles. (All recipes were found either online or in my Taste of Home Canning & Preserving cookbook).

9 quarts and 1 pint of dilly beans

8.21.2013
From apples I picked along the roadside, I made Spiced Apple Rings...



8.25.2013
Wild Grapes I picked along a roadside...
 ...became Wild Grape Jelly

8.30.2013... 
Left to Right:
Burgandy Wine Jelly, Boone Farm Blue Hawaiian Wine Jelly, Honey-Chiante Jelly

9.4.2013
Pear Jam from the pear trees in our yard...

9.7.2013
Dilly Beans & Pickled Peppers

9.9.20137 pints Spicy Pickled Beets
14 pints of my Grandma Klemp's Pickled Beets recipe.


Ground Cherries from Brian's brother, Duane's garden...
Freshly picked...
 After Brian husked the ground cherries...

9.11.2013
Brown Sugar & Maple Ground Cherry Jam...
...Plum & Ground Cherry Jam
(plums were picked from the plum trees in our yard)

9.11.2013
Best Apple Pie Jam

9.11.2013
Garlicky Pickled Mixed Veggies...
 ...all garden fresh veggies used: carrots, green & yellow zucchini's, onions, hot banana pepper, cucumber and green beans. Recipe can be found on pg 15 of Better Homes and Gardens 2013 Canning magazine. The recipe called for a few other veggies, but I could only use what we had on hand.
9.12.2013
2-1/2 Quarts of Home Canned Apple Juice (on the left); 8 Pints & 1 Quart of Applesauce

No comments:

Post a Comment