What are you canning now?

[urban dreamer]

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Why not try refridgerator dill pickles? I made these last year and they turned out AWESOME!

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1836,149166-247206,00.html

Wish I had read this earlier! The recipe I have for dills used 50 cucs. So I divided everything by7 since I had 7 cucs. I went ahead and canned them and they look ok, but only time will tell next month when we finally open them!

 

[TerriLaChicks]

dot n'dave :

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Making strawberry jam last year I found this site: http://www.pickyourown.org/jam.htm
Every batch I made came out perfect! I even made a triple berry jam that we gave away as our wedding favors.

BTW, that apple butter looks heavenly! That will definitely be a autumn project this year!

Awesome site! thanks for posting the link to it!

Put up 7 quarts of dills today. Cukes still in full bloom so guess there's more ahead.

On the down side, the lemon citrus lost all of their fruit before our drought broke, so no lemons this year. Will have to make up for it with something else. Any ideas, anyone? will regular store lemons work for preserving?​

 

[Kim_NC]

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Mine JUST came on FedEX delivery yesterday....waiting on the porch when we returned from the farmers market.

I threw about 7 lbs of sweet cherries that were leftover from the market into the juicer last night....stems, pits and all (just wash/rinse the fruit). An hour later they were steamed to juice. Ended up with 10 cups of very dark, thick cherry juice. I've been making jellies from it this morning.

All of the leftover fruit is held in the steamer basket....it's going to the pigs this morning as their daily treat.

I gotta say, I'm already happy and impressed. No more straining-jelly-bags-overnight-messes for me!

ETA: I paid $56.65 (including shipping) to an Amazon.com seller for the Back to Basics Steam Juicer (new in factory box). The seller shipped and had it on my doorstep in only 4 days. It lists for 69.99 and is in Wally World (I rarely spend money there) for 59.99.

 

[TipsyDog]

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I have one and I love it! Wonderful for making clear jellies. My favorite are the red and black currents and without a steamer, you'd get all those little seeds in the jam, sooooo jellies it is! I also use it to make the juice and then add sugar to get a syrup. My DH uses the syrup to add to his water all year. Raspberries work really well for syrups.

 

[Kim_NC]

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I have one and I love it! Wonderful for making clear jellies. My favorite are the red and black currents and without a steamer, you'd get all those little seeds in the jam, sooooo jellies it is! I also use it to make the juice and then add sugar to get a syrup. My DH uses the syrup to add to his water all year. Raspberries work really well for syrups.

Would you share a syrup recipe? And do the syrups thicken at all using your method? I found a couple recipes online, but they're just the fruit juice and sugar. I'm thinking they would be thin. I would like to make something slightly thickened that would pour well for pancakes, waffles, ice cream, etc.

 

[TipsyDog]

KIM: Yes, it is just fruit juice and water, but you'll have to cook it down with the sugar to make it thicker. They still don't come out thick (like maple syrup). Perhaps the correct word is "concentrated". A strong flavor and quite sweet, but we only add a little to a glass of water. Hope that helps.

 

[Kim_NC]

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Thanks for your help!

Your comments gave me a brainstorm idea on this. I have this recipe for substitute corn syrup. :

Corn Syrup Substitute

2 c. white sugar
3/4 c. water
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
Dash of salt

Combine all ingredients in a heavy, large pan. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and put cover on it for 3 minutes to get sugar crystals off the sides of the pan. Uncover and cook until it reaches soft ball stage. Stir often. Cool syrup and store in a covered container at room temperature. It will keep for about 2 months. Makes almost 2 cups.

SooOOooo....I'm going to try making this recipe using the fruit juice in place of the water. I may have to tweak it a bit, but think I can come up with something with the perfect thickness to pour for pancake fruit syrups. Then I could just can the plain fruit syrups in pint jars, open and make pancake fruit syrups as needed during the year.

Wish me luck!

 

[MissPrissy]

Cherries and peaches!

It's on my blog today.

http://bigredcouch.com/journal/

 

[CKMom]

Hopefully someone here can help me.
My DH's grandmother taught me to make canned strawberry jam 25 years ago. It did not involve water bath canning at the end, I simply sterilized, filled, capped and turned my jars over for 5 min, then set upright and left for 24 hours. This method though I know was not the "norm" worked for me until last year. I had a whole batch of jam get moldly. This year I decided to try waterbath for 10 min. I put my jars in the rack and after 3 min. had them break. The water was boiling and it was a stock pot. This made me sick, as I thought I was doing it right this time. So... what the heck did I do wrong, and how should I process the rest of the 11 pounds of berries I have.

I have been told to just make freezer jam, but I don't think my family would go for that. After excellent jam for this many years I have to master this whole canning thing...

 

[Dragonfly Ranch]

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Not sure why jars would break. Did you have them on a rack in the bottom of the pot? I'm also assuming these were Mason type canning jars

Sandee