What are you canning now?

[silkensunlight]

Well look at it this way, either way you're doing a good thing for the environment by planting nice green trees! LOL. I love fall shopping at the garden center. We got lucky this weekend and got raspberry plants for $2 each. It was great. Now to figure out where to plant them so the chickies won't eat them on me!

 

[mickey328]

Wow, that's a heckuva deal! Can you say...chicken wire? LOL...I'd put a little chicken wire fence around the berry patch. Wonder how long it'll be before you get fruit...probably year after next if not next year. Yum.

 

[silkensunlight]

yeah I thought it was a great deal since the plants were about 4-5 feet tall and already had red berries on them. We got an early variety and a late variety so that the work would be split up..LOL I'm hoping for a small taste next year and a good crop the year after. Chicken wire is my friend! Deer netting too. It goes a long way for the same price as wire, but it doesn't hurt so much using it, and it isn't so visible in the yard.

 

[mickey328]

Good point...I'm often covered with scratches and pokes from the wire. We had it long before we had chickens; we use it to temporarily keep the dogs off new plantings. I never thought about deer netting...while we have a small resident herd near by, they never come near our yard.

 

[silkensunlight]

Ok so I did 17 pints of applesauce yesterday and did 13 1/2 pints of ketchup today. My question is the juice i took from the cooked apples yesterday is very very thick and has almost no flavor...what's the deal with this and can I do anything with it? it's so thick it coats a spoon...thicker than simple syrup. It doesn't have much flavor at all. I'm afraid the apple I got aren't very good and it's disappointing since I still have 2 bushels to do. Any suggestions/ideas?

 

[mickey328]

You can add water to thin it down and some lemon juice to perk it up a bit. You might also throw in a can or two of frozen apple juice concentrate. I think you can get it just plain...with no sugar added. Not quite the same as just from your apples, but at least you'll be able to use it.

 

[silkensunlight]

I thought about that but I also thought maybe I could boil it down some more and make pectin with it? These are obviously under ripe apples, and since it is pretty "slick" maybe it would work. I just wouldn't know how much to use in a recipe. I made apple crisp with some of the apples tonight and the flesh was green as I peeled them and it took over 1 hour to bake.

 

[chazen328]

I know it's not canning but I'm super stoked. We found a stand of trees that are black walnut. Walnuts for free!!! Woo hoo!

 

[Pozees]

Put my cranberry jelly up in 6 1/2 pints and most of a pint - will the most of a pint be okay or is that the one we should open immediately to use?

 

[mickey328]

Actually Chazen, you can can the walnuts...it'll keep them fresh without freezing them. That's a great find...they're hard to come by!

It should be fine Pozees. The process works best with very little air in the jar, but it works regardless. You might find the top gets a bit dried out, but you can just lift that part off. I'd just make sure to use that one first so that it has less chance to dry.