My summer learning project has come to an end... and to a whole new beginning! I love canning, and so does Himself.
We are already talking about next year. Our garden is planned for canning and we will be hitting the Amish produce auction regularly (we haven't managed the time this year...at least not yet).
I have canned two different types of strawberry jam without any instructors to help. I decided that I want to do small batch preserving. So much easier doing pints and half pints plus you can do all sorts of different recipes for variety.
I had 8 pounds of strawberries we'd picked to work with. They were already pre-cut, so that made it much easier. The big deal was cooking them down...
...and cooking...
Not ready yet...
OK my darling husband... it's YOUR turn to stir...
Then all of a sudden they were done! Into the hot water bath for the allotted time.
DING! Time to take them out. (Isn't that a cute little half pint jar?)
First stop - the counter to dry the lids so I don't drip all the way across the kitchen.
Then to the table to cool. Three pops and I was in happy land... they had all sealed!
This batch is honey-sweetened strawberry thyme jam.
And the four on the outside is my second batch: vanilla strawberry jam.
Four more pops and I'm hooked on small batch canning.
OH! If anyone has a really good tart dill pickle recipe to share, I would love to have it. We aren't much for sweet pickles (except sweet Gerkins... love Gerkins) so we'd like something more like a deli pickle.
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