Foodie Group- Canning

Just realized my last post is in the wrong forum. OH WELL.

Just bought 16 lbs of Strawberries for $1.99/ 2 lbs. This is the cheapest I have gotten them in more then 4 years.

Going outside to do some garden work, then putting in a good movie and start dicing up strawberries for jam. This worked so nice for the Strawberry Rhubarb jam I made at the start of the month so I am going to try it this year and add Lemon zest and juice to each batch and see what happens. It should keep the color better.
 
3 batches of Strawberry jam done for the year.

It is now an official canning season,because I have my read badge of duty with my annual strawberry jam splash burn on my wrist.

Did the jam different this year and the taste is good and the color bright.

In stead of 6 cups pureed and 5 cups sugar and pectin, I did 8 cups non packed diced and the zest and juice including pulp but no seeds of 1 large lemon per batch. Once I diced a batch of strawberries I poured the lemon over the berries and that should have stopped the dark oxidation. Then I used 4 cups of sugar and pectin.
 
Buying up the supplies and getting ready for canning. The cherries are starting to come in, so it is just waiting for the price to become reasonable.
 
I drove 125 miles today to go pick cherries form the orchards that supple the big stores all over the country.

Now to get the kitchen supper cleaned and start making Cherry jam and maybe even some dried cherries, with the 40 lbs of cherries I brought home.
 
Processed 5 lbs of Bing cherries into the dehydrator today and working on prepping the rest for Jam. Hopefully will get it done tomorrow.
 
Taking a short break from canning 30 lbs of Raspberries. 1 1/2 flat batch of berries in the freezer for IQF berries, and the first of 4 batches of jam done.
 
Raspberries are done. Last batch of Thompson raisins are done. First batch of Blueberry jam is done, and the IQF berries are in the freezer. Now to go out and pick wild Cherries to can.
 
I found a safe place (for my screwed up knees and hip) to pick wild cherries today. I got enough of both wild wood cherries and Ferrel Dark cherries to make one batch of each.
 
Cherries are done, and I picked up another flat of Blueberries. The joy of berry canning season. there is just enough time to clean the kitchen and get ready for the next batch to do. Boysenberries and Marian berries will be coming in later next week.
 
egor said:
I got sweet dark cherries the other day. Then this morning I got 7lbs. of Rainer Cherries, so tonight I will be pitting cherries until ????

Then more likely then not I will be making at least three batches of sweet cherry jam tomorrow.
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Egor, my folks used to go to the Door County peninsula in eastern Wisconsin to get Bing cherries for “canning” when I was young. My mother was a biology teacher and had the summers off so they always had a large garden and froze and canned much of its produce. The cherries were a bit of a different story. They had some large glass jugs, probably between 2-3 gallons, that they would place the cherries in whole with stems after they were washed. Then these jugs were filled with brandy and sugar and capped to make what they referred to as “cherry bounce”. After a couple of months It made an excellent liqueur that was a nice after dinner drink. The bounce part of the name came into play when people would eat the cherries, which had a tendency to absorb the alcohol out of the brandy, and led to those eating them to bounce off from walls and other stationary objects. I think it’s about time that I carry on an old family tradition this fall.
 
Spent today canning Marian Berry Jam and syrup. Plus I bagged up the IQF berries I started Saturday.

Tomorrow morning First thing I will go get 3 1/2 flats of Boysenberries and start the process all over again.
 
I got 4 flats instead and still did not have enough for everything. however I did save a big bowl of the Boysenberries for a mixed berry jello salad and a boysenberry crumble that I ate why to much of it. BURP!!!

P.S. did I ever mention that my grandfather helped Walter Knot develop the Boysenberry in the 1920's
 
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They were not on the list, but I found free stone peaches for 99 cents a pound, so I got a bunch to make jam last Friday.

So when I went to make the jam this morning I found that my wife had indeed eaten some of them EVERYDAY. But not only that, so had the kids. Good for them that they are finally eating fruit, even if it is behind my back. (but I can't really say anything, because I remember getting chewed a new one when I was a teenager, because my brothers and I each had one (Enter Fruit Dad brought home for his Lunch) EVERY TIME WE WENT THROUGH THE KITCHEN)

So anyway for my noon time adventure into the unusual 102 degree heat, I went out and bought 1/3 more this time and sorted through what was left of the first run and got enough to make two batches of chunky peach jam. Plus I used some of the not quite ripe ones to (taste good but on the hard side) to freeze for peach cobbler this winter.
 
So I was going to pick cucumbers today and to my surprise they have not opened the u pick yet. I had made time to do pickles this week so I was a little bummed out until I saw they had local harvest cucumbers sorted into the size that I wanted. Big time saver.

I did a batch of Preserved lemons with the surplus small lemons I got, just finished the 2nd of 10 steps on the 4 day crock sweet pickles and finished the last batch of water bath on the the big bread and butter pickle chips.

Tomorrow I will do the two batches bread and butter slices and grind up all of the scrap pieces for pickle relish. I will also need to go harvest home grown Walla Walla onions for the last batch, so I might as well do the Walla Walla onion pickles while I am at it.

Normal summer canning season. But what the heck sleep is over rated anyway. I have to get up at 6 am to do the third step on the sweet pickles, with the forth step around 3 and the fifth step about 1 am Sunday, and of course that is the one that you have to poke each of the 200 little girkens with a fork about 4 times each. Then make the start of the sweet sauce to put on them. Only to get up 8 hours later and add more vinegar and sugar to the sauce.
 
Picked the first scattered ripe tomatoes and in an attempt to better train the Vines I knocked off several green tomatoes last night. So this afternoon I made the first batch of green tomato salsa.
 
Had a busy weekend canning corn relish and different types of pickled beans. This week end will be just as busy. The grapes are ripening, so I will be making raisins and jam. Plus there is another small batch of tomatoes ripening.
 
Busy canning for the next few days.

Yesterday I took the second batch of Hemrod raisins out of the dehydrator and got it wash to start a third run today. I made a batch of Manly Salsa last night. Its turned out real GOOD (fire tickle in throat) 8 Thai and all the seeds and a cup of meat from about 10 plabano chili peeprers.

This morning I harvested the last of the Hemrod, what few suffix red grapes, and a large bowl of Seedless concord grapes.

I am taking a break because I just spent 3 hours de-stemming all of the hemrod's and working on the concords to fill the dehydrator. I am about 2 cups short of finishing that project, but my fingers are so wrinkled, and cramping I had to stop. Will get the dehydrator going , fix dinner (with fresh picked walla walla onion rings) and spend the evening de-stemming grapes until I just cant anymore. then get up in the morning and start all over again making jam and going out to pick another large bowl to repeat above process. At this point the clusters are not entirely rip, but the (&^(&*%%(*(&^ sugar ants are eating the top once faster then the bottom ones ripen.
 
I spent another 4 hours stemming the grapes that I picked. I did get enough to fill the dehydrator and then I filled a two quart bowl with berries and a 13 gallon garbage can with stems. I do not think I have enough for even one batch of jam at this time so I will have to go pick another large bowl and see if I can get that and hopefully enough for a second batch of jam. I sure I will not have enough for the 3 batches of raisins and 3 batches of jam I was planning for.
 
I thought pitting cherries and de-stemming grapes is a pain in the butt, but now I can add removing the dead flours off of Elder berries is right up there.
 
Having a hell of a time right now.

So damn smoky here that I have not gone out to water the garden (not much left to water but still). I had to wash out the cat box today so I watered the garden in the middle of the day (not good under normal conditions) and I have another picking of tomatoes that will be ready by Friday.

The problem is that I have no, can not find any, regular canning jar lids. I have hit up all of the neighbors, and have 10 packs on order through Amazon but they will not arrive until the 23rd.

I may have to say no to making the last two batches of salsa and just make tomato base and freeze it until I can can it, but I do not think I have enough room in the freezer.

What to do?????
 
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