48 half pints of jams (apricot, cherry, raspberry/apricot, strawberry)
19 1/2 pints of Annie's salsa

Going to pick blackberries this weekend to make more jam.

Annie, the strawberry jam recipe is from Ferber's "Mes Confitures." The spices are, if I recall correctly, cinnamon, cloves and star anise. It's a fantastic jam. Very rich and subtle.

Well, Annie, I guess I won't begrudge you those strawberries given all you and your neighbours have lost this season!

And I keep reminding myself of the joy I had from my sugar snap peas this year, which just went crazy, and the fact that my herbs, which are in pots and usually starting to look a little dry and scraggly by now, are just fluorishing.

Meanwhile, I managed to squeak in

3 1/2 pints of raspberries, frozen

Not much, sigh. The season is winding up and I finally had a bit of time to go to the PYO. I called to see if they had any left, and they said, yes, some, but they're pretty sparse, though I was welcome to come see what I could find. I only had about an hour --- and with my having forgotten my hat, that was all the sun would allow me, anyway --- and 4 pints was all I had managed.

OTOH, the price was right: the owner looked at my collection, and knew how long I'd been out there, and asked me for $2 for the lot. (I then doubled the price of the expedition by buying a Diet Coke at the closest convenience store, I was so thirsty I couldn't wait another minute LOL! I told DH his job next year was to make sure I remembered a) a hat and b) a bottle of water when going to pick berries. DUH--I was so busy remembering my carefully saved punnets and even the box that holds them.)

Sigh. My compter has a little corner window that cycles through random photos stored on my hard drive, and one just went by showing my raspberry haul from last year, in only SLIGHTLY more time spent picking: eight THREE-cup punnets, or about 3 times this year's hauls.

Zabby, feeling berry-deprived this year.

Adding 19 quarts of green beans - the last of which are in the pressure canner right now.

Becki

12 pints of apricot preserves, made with a little mango juice and finely diced ginger. Sweetened with Splenda, honey and, of course, the Pomona pectin. It also put plenty of ascorbic acid as well as some of the acid blend just to bring up the flaver level a bit. The acid helps to give the jam more character, as well as reducing te possibilty of spoilage due to no sugar added. Most of the apricots were from my tree, but I also used few dried from Califoria, as they tend to have more taste and lsee sweet compared to turkish ones.

Another quart of blackberries and 7 pints of wax beans.

And another 400 feet of field fence stretched, 2 gates hung...Oh. wait. that's not harvest! Ugh.

Deanna
(wishing I could send Zabby some blackberries, they're everwhere!)

I'm new to gardening and preserving this year, but I've had a good year so far. Here's what I've put up so far:

10 pints dill pickle slices
8 pints bread and butter pickle slices
22 cups of frozen shredded zucchini
2 cups (dried measure) dried cherry tomatoes
2 dried green bell peppers

This isn't the end. I have enough cucumbers to do at least 12 more pints of pickles and my cherry tomatoes keep coming. I haven't even picked most of the bell peppers yet. My big tomatoes are starting to turn red. I plan to can some of those - especially the romas as sauce.

This is all so much fun!

Here is a link that might be useful: My garden blog

12 quarts of regular dill pickles. These are loaded with my home grown garlic and dill. I picked the last 3 days and ended up exactly with 12 quarts, no more no less. Talk about getting it perfect. My little mini plum tomatoes are finally starting to ripen now too. Watermelons are getting big, and this time I have both seeded and seedless. By mid to late August the first should be ready. The vines are massive now, compared to what they were after tranplanting the seedlings.

Deanna, I'd help you with some of that fence in return, honest!

Ah, well, better satisfy myself with blueberries, currently everyehwere around here...

Zabby

So far this year I haven't done any canning!!!! My cucumbers and tomatoes aren't putting out as much as expected. I have frozen quite a bit of broccoli, Swiss chard, shredded zucchini & summer squash, and beans. I've also dried quite a bit of oregano, parsley & basil.

So far what I have frozen:

17 pints of swiss chard
16 pints of peas
3 pints of pea pods
3 pints of beet greens
3 pints of asparagus/chard pesto
5 pints of cauliflower
2 quart bags of rhubarb
15 pints of green and yellow wax beans
5 quarts bags of sliced zucchini and summer squash
5 pints of shredded zucchini
4 gallon bags of blueberries
4 gallon bags of strawberries
3 quart bags of shredded cabbage

7 quarts kim chee
4 pints kim chee

And, 45 pounds of sauerkraut fermenting. Ready is about 2 weeks.

lynn

I forgot to mention, I store it all in the fridge. I don't think it can be BWB, or pressure canned. (I might be wrong. I sure wish I could)

Lynn :)

Lynn, you make kim chee? I've been meaning to try that, thanks for the reminder.

I've been busy. Elery and I picked 10 pounds of blueberries before we got rained out. I usually pick some for my daughter and my stepmom, we'll see if I get the time this year. Sigh.

We canned 54 quarts of pink half runner beans, one of Elery's favorites, but it's an old fashioned southern bean and needs to be stringed (strung?). Ugh.

I also canned 9 pints of collard greens and 6 pints of pickled beets and we made another 15 pounds of Italian sausage to get rid of this year's pork before we get next year's pork!

I'm trying not to put anything in the freezer until after our reception/party on September 13. We're doing all our own cooking and I need freezer room for pulled pork, homemade rolls and the ingredients for baked ziti. And yes, I'm making my own wedding cake, LOL.

Annie

I'm new.

Two batches of dehydrated zucchini rounds. One batch dehydrated shredded zucchini. One batch of dehydrated strawberries (mostly gone, was I going to store on these or nosh?). That's it for me. Need to do celery this week in the dehydrator. No tomatoes yet, dang it.

Last week I froze 32 lbs. of whole kernal corn, and canned 39 half-pints of peach jam (I got a 25 lb. box of Georgia peaches at the store for $20!)

So far this week I've canned 10 quarts of green beans and 9 quarts of delicious pasta sauce (but I'm still working on getting the spices just right for our taste buds.)

I'm hoping to get a dehydrator soon, and then I'll start preserving all the herbs (along with lots of tomatoes and peppers, and squash and all kinds of other goodies!)

Becki

9 pts of peaches in lavender & vanilla bean syrup mmmmmmm!!!!

25+ lbs. of beans (green and wax)
10 MORE lbs. cukes in relish and fermented dills
21 lbs. blueberries frozen

Deanna

Today was 10 lbs. of green beans, 12 quarts of stewed tomatoes, and 6 quarts of tomato juice. That gives us 52 quarts of tomato juice so far as well as 46 pints of various types of tomato sauce.

Dave

More yellow wax string beans, abot 2 gallons worth. Started picking some apples too. Been getting small broccoli flowerttes off the same plants. Water melons getting big.

** picked 33 lbs of strawberries - made 3 batches of jam, several strawberry shortcakes, gave a few pits away and froze the rest.
** Froze 2 gallon bags of pitted cherries
** Froze 4 quarts blueberry
** Froze 1 pint wild blueberry
** Froze 3 pints snow peas
** Froze 1 gallon blackberry, we also ate lots fresh and made a big cobbler.
** Froze 2 gallon and 2 quart bags of wax beans
** Froze 2 loaves zucchini bread
** 1 batch spiced peaches ( very good!)
** 1 batch spiced peaches and cherries (even better!)
** 1 batch bread and butter pickles
** 1 batch blackberries and chambord
** 1 batch dill pickles (mrs wages)
** 3 quarts crushed tomato
** 5 quarts bread and butter pickles

And I planning on doing something with that bag of peaches and plums I picked up at the farmers market. I'm thinking peach butter,,,

kim

Eight quarts of tomato juice yesterday after supper. The rest of the toms will go for sauce. Insect pests are spreading to all the toms so there may not be enough for sauce until next spring.

Update:
10 -1/2 pints of strawberry jam,
2 -1/2pints of black berry jam.
6 -1/2 pints of Plum Jam. YUM!!!
5 -1/2 pints apricot habenero gold jam
5 -1/2 pints blueberry lime jam
5 pints and 2 quarts of jardiniere
2 pint and 5 quarts of kosher dill pickles
4 quuarts of pickled cabbage with jalepenos
7 pints of salsa
Flowerp

34 pints of black berry Jelly
2 quarts of black berry Jelly
6 pints of peach jam
4 pints of blue berry jam

Sniff and blue berries are gone and about all the black berries.

Love Black berries.

ML

I was a busy gal yesterday:

15 pints of garlicky pinto beans
5 quarts of baby carrots
10 half-pints of pickled garlic
4 lbs. blueberries in the freezer

and today I pick blackberries!

Another 12 quarts of dill pickles. Also still picking broccoli flowerettes, which are blanched and frozen.

Adding:
4 qts. blackberries, frozen
2 - pints, 2 - 1/2 pints, sugar free blackberry jam
3 - pints, 11 -1/2 pints, Annie's salsa.

Deanna

It's only baking, not canning, but finally, I've put up SOMETHING! (So far this year I've mostly been emptying the freezer and pantry.)

Six loaves of zucchini bread

(yes, all from my one baseball-bat-sized summer squash that appeared the week I was away)

Annie,

> And yes, I'm making my own wedding cake, LOL.

But of course you are! I'm just wondering if you've started grinding the flour yet.... ;-)

Sounds like a FABULOUS party. I hope you have a lovely, lovely time.

Carolyn,

Welcome!

Z

No, Zabby, I'm using flour from the lovely people at King Arthur flour (grin). I did put two dozen honey white rolls in the freezer, though, along with four dozen chocolate chip cookies. I'll be making a big batch of homemade salsa for that party too...

In the meantime, I'll be canning tomatoes in about a week.

Annie

I'm late getting started. So far.
40 pkgs. of green and yellow beans frozen
20 pkgs. corn frozen
52 pints of B&B pickles
20 pints of Sweet Dills

More yellow wax beans and broccoli flowerettes for the freezer. These bush beans are putting out at least a gallon of beans every 5-6 days.

apricot butter: 4 half-cups, 1 cup

Really something betweeen a jam and a butter---I got worried it would scorch, and tired of waiting. ;-)

Found 3 packages (1.5 litres each) of Ontario apricots at the grocery store today, and bought them all--- 'cots grow in the NIagara region, but because they have such a short season, and nobody here in my immediate area grows them because our frosts are too late, it can be hard to find them.

They had a pleasant, sweet, taste, but weren't particularly intensely flavoured, so I thought a butter would be a good use as a way to intensify. I added a shot of Frangelico (never hurts, right?).

I think I'll make the rest just into puree. It bet it will taste amazing in the middle of winter stirred into some oatmeal....

Annie, you had BETTER serve your salsa at your wedding party! It was sure a big hit at mine last September!

Z

So far this week I've put up:
20 quarts and 3 pints of pasta sauce
42 cups of frozen chopped onions
1 pint of frozen chopped peppers
1 quart loosely packed dried parsley
1 pint loosely packed dried mixed basil

Mmm - that apricot butter sounds yummy!

Becki

Adding:

6 pints Applesauce
8 jars Banana Jam

Adding:
5 qts. green beans
5 qts. wax beans

Deanna

6 pints of Annies Salsa (thanks Annie for the great recipes!)
5 pints of Peach Twist Salsa
4 pints of Dilly Beans

Melissa

I'm way behind on my bragging rights! In the freezer I have blanched beans, broccoli, snow peas and chard. I have lost count of how many gallon bags of each. I'm having a banner bean year. My tomatoes haven't done so well, so I bought a bushel. I canned 21 pints of tomato basil sauce and 28 half pints of Annie's salsa. I'll be making more sauce this weekend (with my tomatoes).

My cucumbers were a bust for the most part. There were enough to eat but not enough to can. I've also frozen a lot of shredded zucchini in 2 cup increments to make into bread later on.

I've also dried gallon bags of basil, oregano and parsley.

Who, booberry, you've been busy!

Becki, it IS good--we had some on pancakes yesterday for breakfast. It's amazingly coloured, too---really bright, deep orange. Not quite as thick (or dark) as it shd be for a butter, but smoother-textured, more homogeneous, than a jam, and very thick. (Turn the jars upside-down and nothing oozes even a bit.) And really apricot-y. You don't taste the Frangelico but I think it intensifies the apricot flavour.

Zabby

I made a trial half-batch of the plum sauce that Annie (via Katie C) has always raved about, and we taste-tested it on some Asian-style marinated pork chops the other night. MAN, was it GOOD! And such a BEAUTIFUL color! I doubled the hot peppers (and used hotter peppers) in mine, so it had a great kick, too. Here's the recipe that I used for a batch that made four half-pints:

Spicy Three-Plum Sauce (adapted from the trusty Ball Blue Book)

2 pounds pitted and chopped plums, any kind or combination
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup onion (about one small), finely chopped
1 medium jalapeno pepper, finely chopped (I used four small hot peppers, including cayenne, serrano, and Super Chili--a generous tablespoon when chopped--which made this quite spicy!)
2 teaspoons mustard seed
1 teaspoon salt
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Bring all ingredients except plums to a boil in a non-aluminum pan. Stir in chopped plums. Reduce heat and simmer until thick and syrupy, stirring often (this took, I'd say, between 30-45 minutes, until it was reduced by more than half). Mash with a potato masher or blend if you want a smoother sauce (I used my stick blender).

To can: Fill hot, clean jars with hot sauce, leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe rims, adjust lids, and process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes at 0-1000 ft., 25 minutes, 1001-6000 ft., or 30 minutes, above 6000 ft. Makes about 4 half-pints.

*This sauce is great for dipping, as a grilling sauce, or brushed on baked pork chops or chicken.

Enjoy--Gina

Here is a link that might be useful: Lindsey's Luscious Spicy Three-Plum Sauce

Just in the last 2 days I've canned 120 lbs. of Yukon Gold potatoes. This is my first attempt. I sure hope they taste good. They look great. I'm tired of peeling potatoes.......feel like I'm in the Army.

85 quarts green beans
Swiss chard
Mustard greens
Brussel sprouts
Okra
30 qts Tomatoes
140 ears of Kandy Korn (so far) still have 10 rows coming on
25 pints blackberries

I am getting tired. I work full time too!

Adding:
7 quarts green beans
37 quarts, 6 pints, and 2 half-pints Applesauce with varying amounts of cinnamon

Decided to take the day off from preserving today - too much laundry and house cleaning to catch up on!

Becki

two big jars of raspberries in the freezer, about a dozen baggies of strawberries in there too, and I juiced out three gallons of blackberries I'd picked and froze the juice. Also, tons of smaller jars of blackberries for my family on the east coast (where the blackberries have not taken over the world yet)
Tons of dried herbs. Dried mints. and one bag of figs I dried in the new dehydrator.

just a side note: this is my first year gardening and none of my tomatoes or peppers are quite ready to be picked yet. I think I did pretty well so far though!

New here -- so inspiring to read what you all are making!

First summer canning, tho as a child I did all the peeling, pitting, chopping for grandmothers.

So far --

No sugar blueberry preserves
Blueberry preserves w/local honey
Raspberry preserves w/local honey
Apricot/ginger jam
Sour Cherry jam
Sour Cherry jelly
Mango/ginger/raisin chutney
Apricot/fig/dried cherry chutney
Jalapeno Jam
Sour Cherries in Brandy
Tomato Sauce
Frozen blueberries, raspberries and sour cherries
Frozen yellow beans, lima beans and roasted corn
Grapefruit Wine
Walnut Wine

Planning to tackle salsa, dill pickles and ketchup/tomato jam and green tomato marmalade this weekend.

Thanks for all the fabulous ideas!

Cathy

Here is a link that might be useful: Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Garden Designs

34 pints of black berry Jelly
2 quarts of black berry Jelly
6 pints of peach Jam
4 pints of blue berry Jam
3 pints of rasp berry Jelly

picked alot of pears, peaches and apples but pretty much out of jars.

ML

I put up 17 more pints of tomato basil sauce last weekend. There are a few more gallon bags of beans in the freezer. The beans are starting to slow down. I have half a shelf in my big freezer that is just beans from the garden!

I've been thinking of putting up some habanero gold & kiwi daiquiri jelly. I'm having a tough time finding red peppers from local produce stands though. The grapes are starting to ripen. Maybe the grape jam will beat out the other two in priority if I have enough ripe this weekend.

My grapes are a little early this year. I put up 14 half pints of grape jam yesterday. I also canned 4 pints of tomato basil sauce.

6 more loaves of zucchini bread
[OK, really 5 loaves, we might've eaten one]

a 7-litre basket of peaches peeled, sliced, and frozen

Oh, I really want to get the canner out---why do I have all this work to do?

Zabby, hoping her guests coming this weekend were serious when they said they would love to try canning something

Before I ever heard of Garden Web:
8 pints apricot jam
6 pints apricot preserve
12 half-pints sour cherry jam
14 pints and 14 half-pints strawberry jam
8 pints raspberry jam

After I found this discussion board:
3 pints mango chutney
5 pints plum chutney
4 pints plum sauce

After I bought Christine Ferber's Book on August 31 and a whole new world opened up to me:
12 half-pints green tomato with cinnamon
24 half-pints blackberry chocolate orange jam
15 half-pints raspberry chocolate jam
15 half-pints Vanilla bosc pear jam with pine nuts and walnuts
12 half-pints peach jam with black rum
5 half-pints peach melba jam
4 pints mango lime marmelade
5 pints plum jam with anise
12 half-pints Anjou Pear jam with Thai spices
5 half-pints spiced peach jam
4 half-pints of rhubarb jam with honey and rosemary
4 half-pints of white nectarine jam with rosemary
5 half-pints of quince jam with ginger
6 half-pints bartlett pear with balsamic vinegar and spices

I lay my obsession at the doorstep of anyone who ever mentioned Christine Ferber on this website. I haunt the Farmer's Market. I am trying to get my hands on crabapples even this late to try to make my own pectin. I have made my plans for all the jams I can make in the winter - after all, grapefruit, oranges, mangoes and coconut are never/always in season in Calgary.

I bought new wooden spoons to be used only in jam making. I went to Williams Sonoma on my way home from a nasty root canal one day in September and found a hand hammered copper confiture pan, imported from France. I'd never seen such a thing before. It has style and substance. I was feeling mightily sorry for myself, and thus, it now belongs to me.

Everyone I know is enabling me, because of course, they will be the recipients of all this bounty.

Is there a 12 step program? Anyone?

I think we have moved on to part 3 now...