Sunday, September 11, 2011

I've been canned....

You know how the story goes in the Scriptures about the Fishes and the Loaves of bread being multiplied??... Well that is how it has been for me with my canning this season.

In between being sick... I have managed to can over a hundred jars of jam this year.  Our neighbor gave us some blackberries a couple of times and we picked them and paid for them a couple of times in Sandhollow.... I was very disgusted because one of the containers we picked the berries went moldy on me and I was going to make more jam and couldn't... that very same morning that that happened, Raelene came home with a small bowl of blackberries from our neighbors down the road.  I was able to can 20 small jars of blackberry-rhubarb jam out of that small bowl and only 2 small stocks of rhubarb!!  Can't tell me that wasn't a miracle!! 

Then a good friend of mine texted me last weekend and asked what I had been up to, I said making jam and she asked if we needed plums.  I was so excited to get plums!  Ross and Jerry came home with 2 bushel of plums....!!!  I juiced a bunch for syrup and made a bunch of jam...

So here are the kinds of jam I made this year so far....
blackberry
blackberry-rhubarb
strawberry-rhubarb
apricot pineapple
strawberry-apricot
plum
plum-blackberry

I made 15 pints of Blackberry-rhubarb syrup and will make strawberry-rhubarb syrup next...
and plum syrup is coming up as well.
Also made zucchini relish.... ( at least I know that if we had to we could live off the jam,and pickles....he he)

I have given away some already... I don't know how not to.. honestly!

Then Ross wanted dill beans... which I have never done before.  So here is another miracle.  I had less than 7lbs of beans and after packing the jars as tight as possible I ended up with 16 pints of dilled beans and was only supposed to get 6!!

Thanks to a dear sweet friend of mine for letting us borrow her nice camp stove and huge canner ( btw, where did you find one that big??)... I have been able to get more done in half the time!  Thanks Heather!! 

Now I am dilling zucchini instead of cucumbers... I found a really good recipe.  So I have 21 pints of those and of course I have given one of those away and a couple more in a few days. 


I haven't even gotten to the tomatoes or the pears yet.... But I am so thankful that I have been able to do this!!!  I feel good knowing that I am learning new things and building up our food storage.  And besides, they look pretty in their jars!!  Plus I love giving them to family and friends for gifts, Christmas is coming up before we know it.....

Happy Canning Y'all!!

4 comments:

Matt & Corrine said...

I am so impressed!! Way to go! I'm so glad you're feeling up to it. That's the best part of all! Love you!

The Kelly Variety said...

Good work! I just mat a lady who has a strawberry farm and they have strawberries ready in October so looks like I'll be doing jam as well!

Parley and Anna said...

Wow! That sounds awesom!

Anonymous said...

They look so yummy and beautiful. Thanks for sharing. Love you!

Mom