Canning season '09

It is that time of year again, well almost. I have been taking stock of what is left in the pantry from last years canning. Hmmmm there is a lot! I have decided to make a few changes this year. The apricots from last year taste really great but the light syrup I made turned into heavy syrup. It is nasty nasty stuff! A friend of mine does honey instead of sugar for her syrup and I think I am going to give that a whirl. The cherries the kids loved however they look unappealing to me so I rarely open them. (They turned dark over the last year and kind wrinkly!) This year I will get twice as many cherries but dehydrate most of them. Same with apricots. The blueberries flew off the shelf as well as all the jam. Iactually had to buy store bought jam this year......ICKY NASTY stuff! So that will also have to be bumped up. The blueberry was by far the most favorable so I will need to make a lot more of that.

Overall though we used a lot of what I put up. Its a matter of fine tuning everything I think. This year I am making it a priority to get my pressure canner fixed so that I can do a bunch of soups and veggies. Its my #1 thing to do in the next few weeks. (And really how hard is it to buy a new seal and pressure gage, I was just lazy last year!) To make life easier this year I was given a victorio strainer for Christmas (woot woot!) so I will definatly be making gobs and gobs of tomato sauce and apple sauce.

So since I totally deleated last years posts (what a dumb moment for me) here is the list I did last year. If it is in green it is long gone! Not to bad huh.

Canning/Preserving 2008
20lbs apricots FREE
3 dehydrator trays
5 pints apricot nectar
8 Qts apricot juice
48lbs of peaches $32
Froze all peaches, ate a few!
Carrots approx 30-40lbs
approx 10lbs cold storage
3 trays dehydrated carrot slices
12 pints frozen carrot slices
Broccoli approx 1lb
1 tray sliced dehydrated
Zucchini approx 14lbs
8 qt bags shredded zucchini
shredded Zucchini 5 dehydrated trays
10 trays sliced dehydrated
13 lbs blueberries @ 2.00lb
10 pints 2 quarts whole berries
8 pints blueberry jam
1/2 gallon bag frozen whole berries
30 lbs Apricots @ 1.30lb made:
21 quarts halved/quartered fruit
5 pints apricot jam
20lbs Cherries @ 1.30lb made:
Cherry marmalade 4 pints
Cherries 9 pints 6 quarts whole
Strawberries 8 gallons @ 3.75 gallon made:
1 gallon frozen whole berries
5 quarts whole berries in light syrup
1/2 gallon sliced frozen berries
Strawberries 14 pints jam
6 pints whole tomatoes
18 quarts grape juice (free!)

The fruit stands open here in a few weeks starting with glorious organic strawberries. Oh baby! Then it will be blueberries and cherries. I tell ya life doesn't get much better than fresh fruits and veggies. If you are in Idaho check out this link to all the upick farms in the state. And here is another one for Idaho (I haven't checked if the lists are the same) If you are anywhere else in the country check out this link.

Happy fresh season everyone!