What are you canning now?

[ducksanddoxies]

Oh

I have used cornstarch in apple pie filling( despite the USDA warning) but it ended up losing its thickening ability and became "watery". WyoDreamer has the best idea. Can slices in juice, drain it , and add your thickener before using. It is crazy that the Clear Gel is so hard to find, but, it is.
Today I canned a few jars of bread and butter pickles. I am getting plenty of cucumbers, but never enough for a full batch of pickles. So, I have been canning a few at a time and refrigerating the brine until I'm ready to heat it up for the next batch.
We have a crazy amount of pears right now. I am trying to do a couple of five gallon buckets a day. Today I made Chunky Vanilla Pear Sauce and Maple Vanilla Pear Butter. I already canned two crockpots full of "plain" pear butter last week. My house smells delicious!

Oh that sounds delish!

 

[wyoDreamer]

The favorite thing I made with pears was Pear Jelly. That was good stuff! I cooked up the skins and cores with some extra pears I had and got a lot of juice out of them. I didn't like the spices in the pear butter - I am going to try it as a substitute for oils in a white cake mix one of these days - kinda like using apple sauce in a cake mix when your on weight watchers. Never tried that either...

 

[PlaidBattleAxe]

I'm getting my canning on again this year---finally! I've done a couple jars of bread and butter zucchini chips, using Splenda instead of sugar. I wasn't sure how that would go, but honey said "they taste just like Mom's"...high praise indeed from him

. I bought a lug of peaches to make peach salsa, but somehow in the time since I bought them and tonight, about half of them have mysteriously vanished

. So, I'll make the salsa, but maybe not actually can it, just stick it in the fridge and eat it fresh. Looking forward to getting back into the canning, the shelves were looking pretty bare!

Do the zucchini chips come out like pickles (crunchy)? I'm inundated with zucchini, and have 20+ gallon freezer bags put away already.. I just got home from a business trip, and have got bunches more to use up and preserve. I looked into canning cubed zucchini with tomato chunks, but these zucchini chips sound like a nice alternative!

I harvested 4.5 lbs of gooseberries. Made several jars of jam, gooseberry scones and mixed berry muffins.

Apples starting ripen. Will use some for applesauce, the rest for cider.

Our figs are still way tiny.

I'm envious! My gran always had gooseberries growing in her backyard, and I've been meaning to get some starter bushes and have my own patch. I need to just do it! Those are awesome looking berries.

The favorite thing I made with pears was Pear Jelly. That was good stuff! I cooked up the skins and cores with some extra pears I had and got a lot of juice out of them. I didn't like the spices in the pear butter - I am going to try it as a substitute for oils in a white cake mix one of these days - kinda like using apple sauce in a cake mix when your on weight watchers. Never tried that either...

I've only made pear butter and I wasn't super keen on it either. Did you flavor it with anything or just keep it plain pear jelly? I can usually get a bunch of pears for not too much money around here, and I'd like to make something with them... just not more pear butter lol

 

[wyoDreamer]

It was just straight pear, the recipe was from the Ball Canning book and since I had the juice I figured I would try a batch. It turned out sweet but not too sweet and had a really nice mild pear flavor. My neighbor asked for a second jar, well hinted for one, her husband doesn't like pears, but he ate most of the jar by himself.

 

[jomoncon]

Pressure canned my very first batch of purple hull peas today. It was a small batch of only 7 pints, since I wanted to see how they would turn out. I usually freeze them, but freezer space is getting tight. Just had a taste of one & it was great! Pressure canning my field peas will be the way to go for me. Besides purple hulls, I also have a small crop of zipper cream peas that are starting to ripen.

 

[3goodeggs]

I liked the taste of the ones I did too! I was not sure because all I had ever had was bluelake greenbeans.
You have been very busy!
Don't forget to take a breather!

 

[KentuckyMom]

...

The favorite thing I made with pears was Pear Jelly.  That was good stuff!  I cooked up the skins and cores with some extra pears I had and got a lot of juice out of them.  I didn't like the spices in
the pear butter - I am going to try it as a substitute for oils in a white cake mix one of these days - kinda like using apple sauce in a cake mix when your on weight watchers.  Never tried that either...
[/quote
I didn't try the pear butter in the Ball Canning Book with orange juice ( that sounded strange to me ) but I made a batch like I make apple butter and then found another recipe that called for vanilla and maple syrup in the pear butter- can't beat that combination! I have saved some peels and cores to make pear jelly too. I did that last year with apples. That does make GOOD jelly. When I made the pear butter I didn't peel the pears, ran it through a food mill, and saved the leftover sludge from the peels and cores for the chickens. They were happy!

 

[PlaidBattleAxe]

Quote:
I give so much of what I would have winded up composting, to the chickens now. I bet they loved your leftover pear sludge. I've given mine the leftovers from veggie canning, but I'm looking forward to getting the fruit portion of canning started and all of the awesome leftover chicken treats to come.

 

[3goodeggs]

I used to look at the canning peelings, and the garden waste and think,"What a waste," Now I think,"the girls are going to love this!"
If I had more of anything than I had time to process before it started to go, I always beat myself up. Now it is okay because it is chicken food.
My happy little dispose-alls.

 

[kittydoc]

My husband has canned a dozen quarts of white pickles this year. We still have canned tomatoes from last year, so the birds are getting most of them. Over half our garden is chicken treats!