I haven't been ambitious enough to can yet but I freeze berries and dehydrate just about everything else - apples, fruit leathers, peppers, cabbage, squash, tomatillos, tomatoes......
It used to be old school but with the price of produce and the focus on eating local it's becoming cool again
I primarily can fruit (peaches, sweet cherries, sour cherries) and salsa, dills, hot sauce. Oh, and jams (different kinds). In the past I've done tomato sauce, tomatoes, etc. but I admit that I generally just buy canned tomatoes from Costco now. I'll freeze berries and dehydrate cherries, tomatoes and herbs. And my most recent kick is smoking. Last weekend I had my second attempt at brining and smoking a turkey (turned out quite well) to make my own lunch meat. I'll be trying to smoke a blade roast next weekend.
Since we are on a low carb diet, I've canned tomato juice, whole tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, salsa, ketchup, pizza sauce, grape jam, peach butter, canned apple pie filling, beans, peaches, pears, green beans and froze corn and peaches. I made most of the stuff with light sugars syrups, splenda or splenda blend. I will not do the ketchup again because it takes to long, but the flavor is great and it is so thick. I mix the ketchup and ground horseradish together to make my own cocktail sauce. Is it worth it in the long run? Yes, but what hard work. LOL!! Because of the spring rains and then the summer drought all of my produce came from other peoples gardens and that was not fun. My DD decided, after I'd given all of my extra canning supplies to the Amish that she wanted to can for the first time in her 38 year life. YIKES!!!! Been and interesting and busy summer.
I don't do either, however, I know people who do applesauce and it comes out very well. I would think that apple slices would soften too much with the sterilizing. To keep the colour I'd add either lemon juice or vit C crystals. Or make it like my mother does (with skins tied in a bag to get a pink colour). My canning book says hot pack - sterilize pints 25 mins, quarts 30 mins.
Thanks for the link. I just started canning and love it! I canned some applesauce. I am thinking about how to use my green tomatoes before the frost gets them. I found some receipes on making and canning relish from green tomatoes. I may try this.
We have a guava tree that produces a ton of guavas every year. Last year, at one point, I had five large mixing bowls filled with guavas on my counter. This particular variety of guava doesn't cook well, so just about the only thing I've figured out to do with them, other than just eat them (and I eat plenty, but there's only so many guavas a person can eat on a restricted calorie diet), is to make guava jelly. Last year I put up 100 jars (half pints) of jelly. Regular guava, raspberry guava, pomegranate guava, cinnamon guava, vanilla guava, cardamom guava, strawberry guava, ginger guava, cinnamon ginger guava, cinnamon raspberry guava, chardonnay guava... Towards the end of the season, I would just stand in the kitchen and look for stuff I could throw in with the guavas. Basically from the end of October to the beginning of January, I spend every weekend putting up jelly.
In addition to the guava jelly, I make other types of jams and preserves. I've made plum jam and apricot jam and Meyer Lemon marmalade.
And I make pickles (but not cucumber pickles, only other kinds of veggies). I've made pickled okra, pickled asparagus, pickled beans, and pickled cauliflower. I even made some pickled plums. This year I'm hoping to do some more okra and some eggplant.
Oh, and I've made green tomato salsa with the end of season green tomatoes from the garden. That comes out fantastic.
Last edited by BlueToBlue; 10-19-2008 at 04:32 PM.
Does anyone can or put up their fruits/veggies?
