What are you canning now?

[NanaKat]

I sterilize my jars in the oven, for the simple fact of I have hardly any counter space(one counter on either side of the sink). I like it because I can just leave them in the oven and fill as I go.

On a side note, making apricot leather today, and probably tomorrow if my oven doesn't hurry up. The recipe says it can take up to 20 hours. I would use my dehydrator but I don't have the nifty little paper things that people use to make leather. Any ideas on that?

Do you do the lids in there too? He had the whole thing rubber seal and all.

Use freezer paper....slick side You can line your cookie sheet with freezer paper and then cut strips with scissors after the fruit leather is finished.

 

[NanaKat]

Today, I've finally caught up on this thread since last year.

@BeeKissed do you scrape the cobs after cutting off the corn kernels to make creamed corn? If so, do you can it with a tomato slice or freeze it?

So far, we have been canning soup starter with the tomatoes, peppers and onions. Bread and butter Jalapenos are a favorite too, Will be putting brussel sprouts in the freezer this week.

This year there were no sand plums or possum grapes again so putting up juice three years ago has kept us in jelly.
The elderberries are loaded and harvest on those will begin the end of this month. We transplanted plants to the garden two years ago and have a nice bed of them. The patch by the woods on the natural aquifer is loaded too.

The blackberries in the pasture have suffered some by the lack of rain in Central Oklahoma, but hubby has been using the scoop on the big tractor to carry water from the ponds to the different sections of thorn blackberries we call DNA berries.
This morning we picked 3.5 gallons of berries in two hours and they are cooling on the stove so I can run them thru the ricer to can the juice for jamelly. I prefer to make jelly in the winter so the heat keeps the kitchen warm.

It is getting a little warm here so may have to postpone making sauerkraut until November. We are down to a case and will have to ration it. In June 2014, we put up 250 pounds of cabbage as kraut. The best kraut was produced in the 20 gallon crock and the two 5 gallon crocks. The 8 and 10 gallon crocks were okay.

Our apple trees will be ripe in September so really looking forward to applesauce and pie filling.
Edited to add four 1/2 gallon jars of juice and sieved pulp.

 

[Christabean]

Fun and inspiring thread!! I planted a bunch of immature fruit trees this year, but only a plum, fig and apple are good producers. Here is what I've done with the first of the figs and just about all the plums (got three quarts of prepared plums in the fridge for adding variety when the main fig harvest and apple season come up):

That's four jam batches, mostly full pint jars. From left, Mixed Plum & Fig (with some cherry plums I foraged on walks home from school with my kids), Plum w/ Moscato (my favorite!), Fig & Plum with red wine (narrowly saved from burning!), and Blueberry-Plum with ginger & brown sugar (tossed in a Costco bag of frozen organic blueberries since my sister forgot to bring me strawberries from her local place).

I will definitely be trying apple pie filling this year!

 

[Raech]

Looks delicious. I have never tried fig jelly before but I might just have to now. If i can ever get enough stuff and time, I will be making jelly this year.

 

[appps]

Fun and inspiring thread!! I planted a bunch of immature fruit trees this year, but only a plum, fig and apple are good producers. Here is what I've done with the first of the figs and just about all the plums (got three quarts of prepared plums in the fridge for adding variety when the main fig harvest and apple season come up):

That's four jam batches, mostly full pint jars. From left, Mixed Plum & Fig (with some cherry plums I foraged on walks home from school with my kids), Plum w/ Moscato (my favorite!), Fig & Plum with red wine (narrowly saved from burning!), and Blueberry-Plum with ginger & brown sugar (tossed in a Costco bag of frozen organic blueberries since my sister forgot to bring me strawberries from her local place).

I will definitely be trying apple pie filling this year!

I am so jealous! Would love to be able to have a great harvest like that. I planted an dwarf apricot and a dwarf nectarine last year but remains to be seen if I end up with any fruit or if the fruit fly get it all.

 

[Christabean]

I'm lucky that someone planted this plum at least 30 years ago! With the drought and heat wave in CA last year, and pesky squirrels, we only got one bowl of fruit. So I think it had lots of energy left from last year, and my area had a nice cold (relatively!) and wet winter. I worked out that this harvest was about 20 times last year's. Unfortunately we had some broken branches so this was the best we'll get for awhile.

I now have some asian pears getting ripe. Anybody have any canning recipes for those? I heard they don't cook well, but others say they make applesauce?

 

[NanaKat]

I'm lucky that someone planted this plum at least 30 years ago! With the drought and heat wave in CA last year, and pesky squirrels, we only got one bowl of fruit. So I think it had lots of energy left from last year, and my area had a nice cold (relatively!) and wet winter. I worked out that this harvest was about 20 times last year's. Unfortunately we had some broken branches so this was the best we'll get for awhile.

I now have some asian pears getting ripe. Anybody have any canning recipes for those? I heard they don't cook well, but others say they make applesauce?

A great pear butter can be made from Asian pears. It is a very smooth butter. I use honey, ginger and a bit of cloves in mine. Cook like you would apple butter.

 

[Christabean]

Thank you, NanaKat, I'll try that! I also found a USDA hot pack recipe for just processing them blanched in light syrup. I'm excited to try both, though my asian pears are super tiny this year; probably should have thinned them out.

 

[rancher hicks]

RancherHicks was having problems with his strawberry setting as well. I can not remember how he rectified it.
It is in this thread, maybe this time last year?
It seems to me it was a pectin problem. Liquid vs powdered?

Funny I should drop in.

1. Not all strawberries are good jam berries. One kind I used were grown Hydro and very sweet. Strawberry/Rhubarb not red enough nor did it set good.

2. I think that powdered pectin is better than liquid. Perhaps it's just not boiled enough.

3. Even if I get the temp it can be not quite right. Though my Gooseberry is set to firm and very tart. Will dump it and do it again.

4. Some fruits have more pectin than others. The acidity of lemons and lemon juices varies. This according to Americas test kitchen.

5. I dropped in to say I picked Currants, but not having enough Blacks mixed them in with the Reds. Too I had a few gooseberries so tossed them in too. Haven't made the Jelly yet. Any thoughts?

6. Picked the Reds today. The birds had gotten some but not all. Got 4 cups with a few blacks and about 10 gooseberries. Still have some Reds to pick. They weren't as big as I'd have liked. Any advice or is that perhaps the variety.

7. I do have two black currant bushes that the berries are still green. I have two varieties. One has ripened now. Consort might be the variety. The non ripened has different leaves. Crandall is the variety. Not many berries this year but next should be better. The first variety did much better this year. I was thinking of mulching with horse manure after the harvest. Any advice on that? Blacks are bigger and a healthier currant.

It seems Crandall is a very late ripener with large fruit and may require trellising. We shall see. The other I have may be Consort. Though the site says nothing good about either of them. I got them at Country Max. I may order new varieties next spring. If the Consort is the variety I have it seems okay to me. It's berries are pungent enough. Not like the red at all.
NRFIC is the site.

8. The Jostaberries were a bust again. Not a single berry. I've been advised that they're not as prolific as black currants but similar so why bother growing them?

9. Claims that the European varieties are good but how would I get any of them. Too Idaho had banned Black Currants due to disease that can affect five needle pines.

10. Black currant leaves can be used to make tea. Anyone have any info on that? Maybe some variety is better or others are not good for tea?

11. Black Currants are said to fight cancers?

 

[bauerdog]

Picked a whole bunch of wineberries and turned them into jam tonight!