Prarie-love -

Wouldn't it be nice if we could exchange fruit. I could use more apples, more berries, less oranges, limes, and citrus. The oranges fall off the trees, and I have to compost them. Durn.

When I go to the mountains, they charge me a "pretty penny" for their produce - which is OK - but now with the gas thing, it is harder and harder - and prices are not what they once were. We used to find places with huge bins of fallen apples and pears, for lots less, but no more.

Living in cities is getting outrageous! I'm still fuming cuz they doubled my water bill the past 2 months. So. Cal. does import a lot of its water through aquaducts and reservoirs - but some years we get little rain at all, so it is a problem - and tooo many people moving in - eager to find their place in the sun.

But I guess we all have our gripes - and I'm still doing much better than some - really find canning a great way to save on the food bills (and my sanity).

awm03 - about the marmalade - that sounds like a great recipe. Just happens that I took out some pork chops to thaw last evening for today's cooking. That recipe is very timely. Will give it a try - (must find a way to use that marmalade). Thanks.

I also found a recipe for marmalade nut bread, and have some macadamias and almonds to spare. My newly planted almond tree produced a handful this year. One of the problems, however, is that it is right next to the bee hive.

If I take a pole fruit picker, the nuts fall on the hive, and the bees get a bit perturbed! Consequently, a lot of them drop and get lost in the ground cover. LOL. (Why do I do these things?).

Bejay

4 quarts of apple pie filling. I'm still having problems with bubbles appearing after the processing. Clear jel is thick and the bubbles do not want to rise. I'm not sure clear jel is worth the problems.

6 half pints of a onion pepper relish. It is pretty. I used yellow, red, green and yellow green peppers with white and red onion.

14 quarts grape juice
11 quarts stewed tomatoes
10 pints apple sauce

I'm almost finished canning for the year. Just sauerkraut to can next week and Apple Peel jelly, if I get time. The pressure canner is put away and I scrubbed my kitchen floor today.

not sure I can think of everything.
1.whole deep freezer full of vacuum seeled chili peppers in different varieties and some fruit for canning later in winter
2.lost count of how many jars of chili peppers in vineger (several cases atleast)
3.a few cases of peaches in light syrup
4.2 cases of caramel apple jam
5.2 cases of strawberry jam
6.2 cases of strawberry/blackberry jam
7.2 cases of hot/sweet confetti jam (doubled recipe using liquid pectin with no probs)
8. case and half of pineapple pepper jam
9.3 cases of habanero peach preserves
10.case of quart jars of garlic cloves in vinegar

I am sure there is more I cannot think of and I know that my canning season in only beginning..:)
kendra

kendra, wow. I'm glad your just starting but I'm already in awe. I cannot imagine canning 300 to 700 jars as some of the ladies. I'm glad your going to be around because I have a fall garden and hope to can more tomatoes and salsa.

That is a lot of "hot stuff" Kendra. I'm amazed too. How do you use it all? Or is some for gift-giving?

I got 3 local-grown big fryers (5-pounders) for .59 per pound so parted them out - a package of thighs, one of drums, one of wings sans tips, 3 packages of boned skinned breasts then took the remainder and made a big batch of stock. I got two quarts and 12 pints; the last batch just came out of the canner. Also rendered 1 1/2 cups of beautiful pure chicken fat for sauces, gravies, maybe some savory crusts.

Roasted and peeled some of the last red sweet peppers from the garden with more to come. Beef stock is next.

Carol

17 pints of sauerkraut.
Tomorrow apple rings.

Tomorrow I'm working on applesauce. I think it is interesting anyone would put up all that chicken stock. I don't use chicken stock but a couple of times a year. May have to rethink it.

LOL....Actually the non hot stuff is for gift giving. BF and myself love hot food and actually I normally make a "hot" version of all the plain fruit jams for us and we give the plain fruit ones away.
I knew I would forget something, I also have 12 of the 1gallon vineger jars stuffed with fresh herbs from the garden and then filled with vinegar. 6 basil, 2 thyme, 2 tarragon, 2 sage We let them sit in a cool dark place for months to a few years and the vinegar is fantastic with the herb flavor infused thoroughly.
We sat down last night and figure between freezing, jarring, and jamming of hot chili peppers, we have processed atleast 200 pounds of them.
I haven't done any pickles this year yet but I usually do alot of Bread and Butters, Garlic Dill, and Hot Garlic Dill.

It just shows how different our needs and preferences are that what one person can't imagine using another uses all the time. We couldn't possibly use up that much hot jam or all those peppers. But the chicken stock gets used all the time - soups, sauces, risotto etc. etc. For me it's a fundamental.

Carol

This morning was a gal pickled jal slices. Will be dried slowly at 115°F until ready to powder. Aprox 3-4 days.

Why there isn't a similar commercial powder on the market I can't imagine. Only Lemon Drop (C. baccatum) powders have gotten more positive response from my friends.

jt

I draw such inspiration from you all! I get so hungry reading this post.

I had hoped for a year with lots of freshly canned salsa, but 2006 was not my garden's year... This spring the flooding rains came (three times) and planting was very late. (But the grass seed my DH spread up hill from the garden just before the rains flowed into the garden and did beautifully all planting season!) Then the deer came and munched away on my late, tiny, sad tomato plants. In past years they had left the garden mostly alone. And finally, what little was left was greatly enjoyed by the hornworms.

I anxiously await a fresh start in 2007, and in the meantime I am enjoying your bounty. So thank you!

Very productive Sunday here:

27 pints of dill pickled green tomatoes
25 quarts of dill pickled green tomatoes
13 8-oz jars of Roasted Green Tomato Chipotle Salsa
8 pints of Roasted Green Tomato Chipotle Salsa

Can you tell we had our first hard freeze? LOL. Picked I don't know how many pounds of green tomatoes that we'll enjoy all winter long, and the family helped to put them up. With 2 months to go before the new baby is born, I don't think I could have done all that myself in one day.

Still have several pounds left of large ones to slice and freeze for fried green tomatoes this winter, and about 10 pounds to make a green tomato jam.

Leigh

I also had a productive weekend. I canned 7 quarts of KatieC's beef burgundy, 2 quarts and a pint of additional beef broth, 7 pints of pear mincemeat (nice flavor but I'll peel the pears for the next batch!).

Can you tell that I put beef in the freezer last weekend, which is why I canned beef burgundy, the broth was made from some nicely roasted soup bones.

I have a batch of pear preserves sitting in sugar right now, thanks to readinglady's recipe, I just love those darned things, and another half bushel of apples to make the rest of Dad's applesauce.

I also pressed 8 gallons of fresh apple cider yesterday, that'll go into the freezer too, whatever we don't drink!

Annie

Put up 4.5 quarts of pear pie filling and the last for this year.

Hey, look, I even have pictures of "what I put up". LOL

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And my freezer...

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Annie

I'm impressed, envious and awed with the output, closet and jars without rings. But, I cannot read the labels.

Belinda, I seldom label anything other than that which I give away. I do have labels on the lids of some jars and I write the year on the top of every lid.

However, I can easily tell the dill pickles from the sweet chunks, or the sauerkraut from the tomatoes, so I don't label the things I have for my own use, other than jams and jellies which can look remarkably the same if it's blueberry or sweet cherry.

That is my basement, BTW, I store all my canned goods there. It has a cement floor and walls, but is not finished, just has those rough shelves for my jars.

Annie

Just finished 6 small jars of smoked, salted green peppers for the Mexican dishes we like to eat. Also have some fresh cilantro that is volunteering, so decided to try the freeze in the ice cube trays technique. It really made a difference in some of the frozen salsa that I put up - this summer, when tomatoes were still with us - but ran out of fresh cilantro to finish all.

Also have about 20 nice red ripe ancho drying on the window sill - the last of the garden. I may still have enough for another batch of enchilada sauce - really liked the way that turned out. Some of the fatter ones may not make it completely dry, so perhaps can salvage by making them into pimentos and freezing.

My electric bill was quite high for the months that I used the coils for drying stuff, so am hoping to perfect an outside drying set-up before next year's bounty starts to come in. I'm sure I could find a way, but it has to be easy, (like not having to make too much fuss bringing stuff inside, etc.) if I'm going to make the change.

Our freaky weather - foggy, and some heat - may make my cool weather crops bolt - but so far all are looking good, and I think my Remay covers are helping to protect from the WCB - glory be!

Have enough limes ripening to try the lime jelly.

My nice cupboards full of canned goods are beginning to thin out - my son is a big eater, and it is really gratifying that he really LIKES this stuff.

Also want to get a few more apples and pears if I can break away. Those chunky types that were posted awhile back, looked mighty nice. Most of my sauce is thin - but tasty nevertheless.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

We had a big pepper jelly session at a friend's house yesterday. They will be sold at the charity craft fair. We made:
10 jars mock H&D "Racy Red Pepper Relish"
11 jars habanero gold (except only hot red peppers since no habaneros here)
11 jars surejell pepper jelly
There were 5 other ladies and it was really nice to have help with the chopping - and especially the cleaning up.

I have been waiting until gardening season is over to post my list. I am always behind on everything. We don't remember to put everything in our database, but this is most of what we did. Just looking at this list that is 167 jars of stuff, and I am sure we missed several things. Still plenty of frozen fruit that will become jam this winter sometime, and also goes into fruit smoothies every day.

Annie, sorry I didn't notice your request for the cinnamon pear topping sooner - I posted it to the Pear Sauce - variations thread recently. I thought maybe it was from you, must have been Linda Lou, it was for apples and of course I changed it further by taking out some sugar.

Marcia

red (pitted) cherries 1 pint
tomato sauce 38 quarts (mostly spaghetti type sauce)
tomato juice 4 quarts, 1 pint
rhubarb sauce 3 quarts, 3 pints
black raspberry/gooseberry jam 9 half pints
black raspberry jam 6 pints, 6 12 oz., 7 half pints
peaches 12 quarts, 3 pints, 2 smaller jars
grape juice 3 quarts
mango sauce 5 pints, 5 half pints
watermelon juice 6 quarts, 1 pint
cinnamon pear topping 7 pints
caramel pear topping 6 pints
peach-apricot jam 8 pints
peach/fruit salsa 7 pints
peach pepper salsa 11 pints
peach/tomato salsa 12 pints
chunky tomato/tomatillo salsa 7 pints
pickled cauliflower w/other vegies 2 quarts, 1 pint
pickled bell peppers (some hot, some just garlic-y)n at least 25 jars probably more

P.S. I can't take credit for all of this, my hubby did most of the salsa, tomato sauces, peaches, and pickled peppers, with my help usually, and sometimes without. I make all the jam and fruit sauces and toppings, that's my area.

Another canning marathon today. All for the craft fair again:
5 jars raspberry jam with chocolate (one jar didn't seal, good or bad depending on how you look at it - man that stuff is good!)
3 pints apple/rosehip jelly
10 jars (assorted sizes) quince apple jelly

I sitll have crabapple cinnamon juice in my freezer. My kitchen is a sticky mess. It is funny how two batches of the same thing can behave differently. I split the quince jelly into two batches. The first one went along as normal. The second batch started to try to "climb" out of the pot and developed big white globs. It must have had more particulates. It looked like I had dumped pectin in without stirring. Once I got those skimmed out, it quit trying to climb out of the pot and acted like the first batch. None of these batches had commercial pectin and they all set up just fine. Between the thermometer and the plate test, I did ok today. Oh, and I have been having fun making labels in publisher. I'll take some photos before we sell them.

Wow Marcia --

I am awed. And I must ask -- I didn't know you could can watermelon juice. It is one of my favorites -- how does it taste after canning? Does it still have that freshness? And how do you prepare it?

Emily

I admit it isn't a whole lot, especially considering the awe-inspiring amounts you gals are producing - BUT - yesterday, I found a special on pumpkin - $1.50 for a big one.

So, after steaming, scraping out the insides and running through the food processor, it yielded about 8 half pints. It was so flavorful, I may go get another one or two, for making pies and especially those nice pumpkin waffles - served with fruit and sour cream - YUM!

It rained today - actually fell wet stuff - it doesn't happen often, but always feels so strange when it does.

Made a nice cozy kitchen - with pumpkin steaming in the oven and making nice smells.

The bok choy is "busting out all over" and soon to be stir fries - mixed in with some shrimp and nice dried cherry tomatoes - from last summer. Um, um.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Well, I don't know if this counts or not, but I've baked, puréed and frozen the meat of several large Hubbards; parted out, wrapped and froze chickens, wrapped and froze a bunch of beef and also bacon (in 8-oz. packages). Made 24 oz. of boiled cider, 18 fruitcakes, a batch of pear preserves.

Our Hubbard squash is so moist this year there's no hope of retaining chunks for canning.

Carol

Home canning for pumpkin? I wasn't aware that it was safe to can. Must assume that you are freezing it? Sugar pumpkins are quite different as compared to the ornamental types you see as carved pumpkins. Sugar pumpkin types are usually squat and smaller than their other more popular for halloween types.

Your right - I did freeze the baked pumpkin - and they were regular pie pumpkin - lots of flavor to them.

My garden hubbard squashes failed me this year, but still have fond memories of 2 years ago, when they were "busting out all over" and I didn't think I would ever use all of them. Now I'm hooked - especially on those waffles. I've never tried making pumpkin butter with them.

Made ice cream again this a.m. - (probably doesn't count either), but gotta keep the kitchen busy - so it won't cool off before I have another canning find. If all goes well - (so far no worms) it will probably be sauerkraut.

Bejay

Just for clarification, pumpkin can be canned. Also any similar winter squash except spaghetti squash, which disintegrates.

However, pumpkin can only be canned as cubes, not purée, and must be pressure-canned, 55 minutes for pints, 90 minutes for quarts. The prohibition is against puréed pumpkin, which includes seasoned mixtures like pumpkin butter. Those must be refrigerated or frozen.

No "canning" here; just holiday baking. Today I made crust for 10 pies and my first batch of Thanksgiving rolls with two more to go.

Carol

Re: Watermelon juice. I looked around online and asked questions here, decided it didn't have enough acid on its own. So I added lime juice to it before canning. Have to admit that it doesn't taste nearly as good as the fresh stuff, or the frozen cubes of juice I also make. But there is only so much room in our 2 freezers that can go to watermelon! I will use the juice in fruit smoothies. I normally put lime or lemon juice in my smoothies, the tartness adds a nice tang, so when I put the canned watermelon juice in, I just have to remember to leave out the extra lime juice. I am still working on the frozen cubes and hunks of watermelon.

I get heaps of produce free and can't always give enough away, so wind up with things like 7 watermelons. The record was about 3 weeks ago, had over 75 cases of stuff, mostly peaches and nectarines. Luckily through freecycle was able to find homes for most of it.

Just canned 7 pints of peach jam 2 nights ago, and 5 half pints of partly seeded black raspberry jam. Trying to empty out the freezers a little before the holidays.

Marcia

Hi canners,
I'm impressed by everyone's efforts, whether big lots or small.

I'll add to this when I finally finish the 1 & 1/2 bushels of apples still in coolers on the porch into: apple slices for freezing, apple sauce and slices to dehydrate.

But so far:

-------Cranberry/Apple/Pineapple/Orange & Lemon Relish/Sauce- 10 of the 12oz jars, 8 pints and 4 half pints;

-------Garden Salsa- 14 pints;

-------Granny Smith unpeeled apple chunks with nutmeg & cinnamon, gold raisins and dried crancherries - 13 pints, and also 2 Qts frozen flat in ziplocks for the freezer.
(This is a great tasting recipe adapted slightly from the Ball Complete Book of Preserving. It's fantastic heated in the microwave and served over any cake product, whipped creme on top.....mmmmm;

-------End of the Summer Dill Pickle (cauliflower, carrots, small cukes in chunks, onions and celery)- 8 pints (this was the first time I used pickle crisp- I put it in 6 of the pints and left 2 without it so I can see the difference. Thanksgiving makes 8 weeks on the shelf, I can't wait to try);

-------Hot V-8 type Tomato Juice w celery & onion- 13 pints;

-------Mint Jelly- 4 half pint jars;

-------Pickled Corn Relish- 1 QT, 8 Pints Amish style w thick mild 'sauce' and 8 pints cumin and hot Indian style (using a 'Pickle Masala' from the Indian store, very bright red and yellow color, great taste, VERY HOT);

-------Peach Jam- 42 half pints;

-------Peach Topping (jam that didn't set all the way)-8 half pints;

-------Sliced Peaches in syrup- 12 pints;

The last was
-------Strawberry Jam (from the strawberries I cleaned & hulled and froze individually in the summer)- 16 half pints.

-------I have 2 baked peach pies in the freezer, 2 qts sliced peaches, as well as 8 qts of cooked soup and many pints of gravy.

-------from the dehydrator a few pints of early apple slices, some banana chips, some jars of the Italian flat leafed parsley.

Now if I can just stop leaf blowing and gutter cleaning- a gift from our wonderfull woods, then I'll get to the apples, and oh yes- I was going to try beer mustard for small gifts, but I read a few posts here, now I'm not so sure...any successes with canning mustard would be helpful.

Reba

The citrus is coming on strong this year. The oranges are especially sweet, considering the time of year - as they are Valencia - a juice type. I still have that recipe for orange jelly on the top of my list, but still haven't gotten to it.

I did can 4 half pints of lime jelly, using a recipe for lemon. It called for quite a bit of prep work - cutting off the peel, and scraping the pulp - but the flavor is outstanding. The color suffered somewhat - turning out an amber color, to which I added a drop of green food color - and that helped from a cosmetic standpoint.

The lemon honey recipe that zemmaj so kindly posted - is still waiting though, mainly because I didn't have quite enough honey. I think that recipe will be better from a consistency standpoint, as the one today is a bit soft. Perhaps it would have been better with some liquid Certo in it, but I can live with it as is.

The mandarin oranges are turning orange and sweet with the cool nights and have frozen 6 half pints of peeled, trimmed fruit in simple syrup. Will be nice for heavenly hash recipe or on pumpkin waffles.

My nice canned chicken is gone, so have chicken breasts thawing and will make a few pints tomorrow.

Just my 2 c's. Otherwise, a bit slow here.

Bejay

This seems to be my "season" for canning - sorry gals! I sat back and cheered you on earlier this year, remember?

Well - hate to follow up my own post but ---

Six pints of canned chicken - much easier the second/third time around.

Another 6 half pints of mandarin oranges - in various bases, some water, some syrup - frozen.

Making lime pectin - and still in the experimental/squeezing stage, but all seems well, slow to extract. Will recheck recipe today and perhaps reheat to hurry things up a bit. Also freezing lots of nice lime juice cubes for later summer time berry jam making and juices.

Fun, fun.

Bejay

I got a little canning in over the weekend, I canned 12 pints of chunky sugar free applesauce for Dad out of a half bushel of Red Delicious I've had in the garage.

Yes, I know, Red Delicious doesn't make the best sauce but they're plenty sweet so Dad doesn't add any sweetener and doesn't complain that it's too sour. I think it's a bit bland, but he's happy so what the heck!

Annie

hi :-)

i've been hanging out here for a while (snagging all of your great recipes), but haven't posted until now.

i haven't had much opportunity to can over the last several years, but this year i did 12 pints of applesauce from local macintosh's. i'd forgotton how much work canning is, lol. i plan to can some cranberry sauce soon.

i also froze the little pumpkin that my stepdaughter painted at school, lol. it was about the size of a typical pie pumpkin, but i don't think it was. anyways, it made about a quart of pulp and is now in the freezer. :-P yesterday i baked a couple of locally grown buttercup squashes and they're not in the freezer as well. they only made about 4 pints of puree. i was expecting more. maybe i'll need to get more. :-)

i've always just done bwb canning, since that's what i grew up with. my grandmother had done some pressure canning at some point, but by the time i was old enough to remember she had purchased a freezer and used it for anything that couldn't be bwb canned. i've always been nervous about the prospect of doing it myself, having grown up on horror stories of exploding pressure cookers, not to mention botulism, but ya'll make it sound so safe and easy. when i'm home for the holidays i'm going to see if grandma's old pressure canner is still around (and if so, if it's in usable condition). if not, i'm going to have to save up and buy one for next year.

Just salvaging the last of the turkey with 4 quarts of broth. I used a mirepoix of carrots, onion and celery, some fresh marjoram and bay leaf from the garden then cooked all day and overnight. It's the richest turkey broth I've ever made. I made a big kettle of turkey vegetable-noodle soup with leeks, carrots, celery, garden onion and turnip with some of the broth while the 4 quarts of plain broth were in the canner.

Bejay, I hope your lime pectin experiment turns out well. I've never tried lime, only lemon.

Carol

wildcrafts, welcome to Harvest! It's way more fun to post than just to lurk, I think you'll like it here.

Definitely check out that pressure canner, it really opens up a lot of possibilities and you don't have to worry about cooking everything if the power goes off, it'll all be safely canned. Not that it stops me from filling up MY freezer. LOL

Annie

Yeah!! Our craft fair is over. I ended up making 6 jars of crabapple cinnamon jelly to go with all the other varieties. In all I had 6 dozen jars. We sold every single last jar. Several other countries also had jars for sale. They didn't completely sell out of theirs. I chalk it up to my Sam's Club/Costco marketing trick of placing a tasting station next to the display. Here is a picture of my display. There are few more jars that were place elsewhere on the table. The pepper jellies were the most popular. The sale started at 10 (9 for the volunteers). The pepper jelly was gone before 11.

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Wow, Melly. What an impressive output and attractive display!

Carol

Melly, that is an attractive display, I like all the different colors of lids and covers. I'm not surprised you sold out, I'm also more likely to buy something if I can taste it first.

Annie

Melly - that was very clever - I admire your marketing ability, so attractive.

Wildcrafts - about that pressure canner. If it is an old one, be sure if it has rubber gaskets and valves or dials to have them replaced or checked. From your post you didn't say, but the old Presto canners have rubber rings,
pressure valves and dial gauges that can be replaced just by contacting the company (have a web site). Welcome to the Forum - it is a lot of fun.

Readinglady - Still wondering about my pectin. I obtained about a cup of it, and it is in the freezer. Haven't decided just how to go about using it. Most of my strawberries from last year have been eaten, so must find something else to try it on.

It looks very cloudy - like cream color and thick. So it apparently will not make a clear jelly for a finish, unless it clears on cooking.

Your right, it was a bit gooey - and I squeezed it a lot, so perhaps I overdid it and got too much pulp out. It was a labor of love at that, and if I do a lot of it, I will find a way to speed up the process - somehow.

Did yours turn out cloudy?

Otherwise, couldn't bear not having turkey - was invited out, so missed all the left-overs. So my son went out and bought 3 small Butterballs and some on-sale pumpkins - guess that will keep me occupied tomorrow. So now, I get to make broth after all - and will try to can some, as have a lot of empty jars now.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Yes, it was somewhat cloudy. However, when I used it in the pineapple marmalade, the end result was quite clear. It may be there's a dilute effect when the other juices and ingredients are added.

Also, I've seen recipes that use only a couple of tablespoons of this pectin stock to boost the jelling capabililities of the other ingredients. After all, even low-pectin fruits have at least some. So that probably wouldn't be enough to make a significant difference in the clarity of the product.

I'm glad to see you're following this through. It will be interesting to see how things turn out. Also how you like the flavor of the lime. You might consider using it in something like a blueberry-lime preserve. Frozen blueberries should work very well in combination.

Carol

thanks annie and bejay :-)

i don't know anything about my grandmother's pressure canner, other than that she had one at some point. i'm hoping that it's still there in the basement somewhere (my sister owns the house now). i can't imagine that anyone else in my family would have claimed it. lol.

it seems like remember reading, years ago, that you have to boil any low acid foods that have been pressure canned before tasting them. i get the impression that most of you don't find that to be true. is that correct?

regarding the diy pectin.... i have an old recipe for making pectin from underripe apples--including the peels and cores. have any of you ever tried this? would it give an apple flavor to the resulting product?

thanks for the welcome :-)

lissa

Hello Lissa,

Welcome to the forum. I think you'll like it here. I hope your family's pressure canner is usable. Most pressure canners have long, long lives. It's just a matter of checking and sometimes replacing an inexpensive part or two, as long as it's a common brand.

I included a link to Bejay's earlier post. She was asking about citrus pectin, but I provided a comparison to apple pectin, which is more common. Certainly you can make your own. Apples are easily available and make excellent pectin stock. Some people make a strong stock; some make apple jelly, which can then be used as regular jelly or can be used with other fruits to help them jell.

If you look around the forum you'll find lots of interesting threads. When you have a question, just ask away.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Using and Preserving Natural Pectin

Lissa, my own pressure canner is at least 35 years old, probably older, it was my Grandmother's. I've replaced the gasket once, but other than that, it's fine.

As for boiling low acid foods, I believe the experts "recommend" boiling for 10 minutes before tasting. I believe if they are properly processed that step is not necessary.

Annie

Annie's right, Lissa. I forgot that question. Boiling for 10 minutes is a "belt and suspenders" approach. All the reputable sources today say boiling is unnecessary if you've followed current safe canning guidelines.

Carol

Ok - after my lime pectin extraction (used a flour sack for a jelly bag - no flannel handy) -

I used it to make 7 half pints of orange/mandarin jelly with lime pectin.

Also - froze another 4 half pints of peeled mandarin oranges in water base.

6 pints of canned broth from turkey parts - very flavorful for gravies and soups.

Still a lot of limes and mandarins on our trees. I want to make more pectin and freeze for summer use. I don't think the slight bitter taste from the pith will interfere with other fruit flavors too much. It was undetected in the orange/mandarin jelly that I used it in.

The garden is holding up well, inspite of heavy Santa Ana type winds and actual 40 degree temps a few nights ago. The lettuce took a "hit" but everything else seems OK. Now back to near 80's again.

Bejay

I'm not sure if the pectin you made will hold up well to long term freezing. If its stored in the fridge, it may be a better choice. The commerical stuff is packaged without any cold storage temperatures, and can last a year or two. I don't believe that they use any preservatives either..

10 jars 12 oz of green tomatoe salsa. A freeze has finished my tomatoes for the year so I'm glad for this little bit.

Ken - I used the frozen pectin from the last batch of orange jelly - to make 5 half pints of lime jelly. Turned out quite well - consistancy, taste, appearance - very satisfied with it.

Now in the process of "oozing out" more pectin from the lime peels left in this batch - and will freeze again. Will let you know how it stands up - as I won't make any more citrus jelly - and will test it on spring/summer fruits - berries - or? (whatever needs extra pectin for set).

Hope for a better crop of boysenberries this year - the vines look promising.

Bejay

Boysenberries are my favorites. Tried growing them several times and even was told Zone 6 hardy, but none ever survive a winter here. Its good to know that the citrus based pectins do hold up well to freezing. As this is quite true with Pomona pectin too, due to it also being citrus based. Pomona has no expiration date. I have seen regular Certo and Sure Jel just break down once frozen. The freezer jam pectins you see are a mix of regular and citrus based, so they do tend to hold up better once made into a freezer jam.