Whatcha Makin'? Summer Canning 20016

[kklibrarian]

I can jams, jellies, and preserves to sell at a weekly farmer's market, so I make a lot of stuff that never ends up on my family table. However, what I am planning for home this summer is.....

Spaghetti Sauce
Field Peas
Salsa
Pickles
Strawberry Preserves
Peach Butter
Fig Preserves
Watermelon Rind Preserves
Blueberry Peach Jam

Peaches are just coming in and dewberries are finishing up with blackberries still to come. I'd love to get enough blackberries to put up filling for pies and cobblers in the winter, but we will have to see. I need to find time to pick strawberries as they are ripening now too.

I would love for you to share plans and recipes for your canned goods as you decide what you are putting up this summer.

[RiverRock]

I want to come back to this post. I have a freezer full of good intentions from last year (prepped fruit for jam, chutney, etc...) and now other foods are getting ready to harvest. I have rhubarb that needs to be picked (rhubarb relish is something I've made in the past) and strawberries that are starting to ripen. It's just the start of canning season where I live.

[CelticJourney]

First a question: how long do canned items last. I have lots of peaches and pickles left from last year

Salsa is a BIG thing here. DD2 makes it and I help her can it.
Peaches, pickles, tomatoes

I've already done strawberry butter for Christmas gifts.

[Mother of Sons]

I made some lilac jelly but didn't can it. I was going to can a bunch but I'm gone all week so I'm not sure there will be any left when I get back. Same for the pineapples I bought. My kids love home canned pineapple. I need to can a ton of chicken and some stews for dh but I'm not as enthusiastic as I used to be about it. That's how my cooking life goes though. I do need to make more salsa and apple butter for sure this year.

[ViolaMum]

You guys have some wonderful lists! I'm getting hungry just reading about it.

What do you can in a water bath and what do you reserve for pressure canning? I used to do a lot of tomatoes and pasta sauce, but I was told NOT to do the sauce in a water bath canner. (It was something about the acidity, I forget exactly.) I don't own a pressure canner, but I DO have a huge freezer, so I stopped canning the sauce and just freeze it now.

We usually try for a big tomato harvest, so that I can put some up for the winter. I really want to make pickles this summer. Dh had great luck with hot peppers last year and wants to do some more this summer. But none of this produce will be in for awhile yet. I really wish we had berry bushes! (Or cherry trees that actually produced cherries. )

[RiverRock]

I use a pressure canner for tomatoes, chilli and soup. I have never canned homemade stock before, but I think that will be better than freezing stock. I would use my pressure canner for that, too. I've canned salmon with my mom, using the pressure canner.

Everything else I can is in a hot water bath. I know it's against current recommendations, but I don't put jam in a hot water bath. I use the long boil method and pour hot jam into sterilized jars...like my mom taught me. If I did what my grandma taught me, I would pour melted wax on top of my jam to seal it.

[Mother of Sons]

All meats must be pressure canned. It's very risky to eat water bathed meat.

Jams eh. I personally always water bath because it lowers the risk of mold and other spoilage but it's not a botulism risk like meat or vegetables.

[derdsgirl]

Canning season has begun here. I split five flats of strawberries with a friend and we spent two days canning. 48 half pints and 25 pints later (over 6 gallons!), we have 10 varieties of strawberry jam:

Regular with honey as a sweetener
Regular with sucanat
Lavender with honey
Lavender with white sugar
Mint
Balsamic pepper
Balsamic thyme
Chocolate with coconut sugar
Chocolate with sucanat
Chia refrigerator jam

Off to a good start. Tomorrow is a blueberry u-pick. The plan is to freeze those, but we may can some too.



Plans for the future include:

Tomatoes (whole and sauced)
Salsa
Green beans
Pickles
Relish
Applesauce
Apple butter
Pickled beets?
Pumpkin?
Watermelon preserves?

The last three depend on if we get a good enough harvest out of the garden and feel up to it.