What are you canning now?

[Terri O]

My plums are starting to drop...last year I gave them all to a wine maker and he said there was not enough "meat" on them. The plums are the size of pullet eggs. Any idea hw to use them or increase their size? The trees are pretty old. Thanks--Teri O

 

[KDbeads]

Well, I attempted to make pear preserves but I am having a horrible time getting anything to set/gel today

2 batches of pear glaze instead..... last batch is in the water bath right now, pics later......

 

[KDbeads]

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2 words.....

Plum Butter

 

[Mac in Wisco]

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I was wondering the same thing. I did five quarts today and it was a little on the thin side. I figured I should have juiced them a little first to get rid of excess liquid. I also figured if I boiled it down it would just turn into sauce instead of remaining a little chunky. I ended up just ladeling the thicker stuff off the bottom and left a lot of the liquid.

 

[Kismet]

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In the spring when they first start to form, perhaps you should thin them - I don't know whether you do this already. Pick off and discard two-thirds of the fruit, leaving plums every four to six inches - that should allow those remaining to get bigger.

I did that to my peach tree (this is its first year with peaches - very exciting) and it helped a lot, although the peaches were still on the small size. I was thinking it was because it was a young tree and that peach size would increase with age. But, now I am thinking that thinning is the real key - I should have been more ruthless.

There is a golden plum tree at school with pullet size eggs (of course, no one takes care of it at all and the kids swing on it, etc.). I have used its plums for fruit leather and for plum butter. What a lot of work though, skinning and pitting, for such small fruit. Delicious, though!

 

[JimWWhite]

Not canning today but drying peaches. We came back from the moutains up in SW Virginia yesterday after riding our bikes on the New River Trail and stopped at the farmers' market near Hillsville, VA and found they had some beautiful, very large peaches for $15/peck. Teresa has a large Excalibur 9-Tray dehydrator and she'll fill up all the trays with peach slices but by the time they're done she'll make on about a gallon jug of dried peaches. But then she'll use her vacuum sealer on the jug so I guess technically she will be 'canning'. She made some last year and we had peach pies all winter long. And the dried peaches were like candy!

 

[vfem]

Yes, I have more canning today... but I'm about to make some sun dried tomatoes in my car since its been so hot lately. So off to slice up the hunreds of cherry tomatoes I have going like crazy... Then I'm going to store them in olive oil in the fridge until I need them.

 

[vfem]

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Well these are all brand new, so I bet it was a crack I may not have seen. There is a first for everything!

Now back to my banana butter!

 

[hunterjumper999]

I got 15 CASES of pint jars today!




FOR 30.00!


they were mis marked at WalMart. apparently the person who stocked them did not take down the 2.00 sign from the plates...i hope i didnt get them fired! But boy am i glad!


thats 180 jars! Freezer and Non Freezer variety!

 

[bockbock2008]

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