Canned
I can things.
I seem to have started in 2004 or possibly the year before. I made too much of a jam and wanted to preserve it so I bought a box of small, 4 oz, Ball Jars and followed instructions.
From humble begining things grow.
Above are the jams, jellies and marmlades, well there is also tomato juice, some stock and a couple of pickles there as well. Those blue boxes stacked up are empty ball jar boxes.
That is mostly pickles.
And that is more from the tomato's point of view.
And those jars above are mustards.
These are hard to read, but
Rocky Watermelon Pickles
Cantalope Pickles Watermelon Pickles
I've a nephew named Peter who really likes my watermelon pickles so he has his own brand.
Mustards
And of course tomato products, the outside jars are four different sauces, and the middle is our version of V-8. We put about 36 quarts of that up each fall.
The bottom is red currant jelly, blueberry jam and sour cherry jelly. Then rasberry and a duplicate (I'm doing something else in the back ground which I'll post a link to soon and though I might need two). The top is Jersey Peach.
Now the other thing I've got going in the back ground is 30 lbs of beef bones slowly simmering away. But that is another day.
Now Pixie at You say tomahto, you say tomayto with the help of Rosie from Rosie bakes a peace of Cake is running a contest. I will admit I didn't quite read the instructions correctly, plus I'm not that happy with the quality of the pictures. So I will get a few better ones in the next day or two and post here as well as post my marmalade recipe, but I wanted to get this up.
Warner, you crack me up! I thought I was anal - well you sure have me beat. I just canned 12 pints of chicken stock last week & am wondering what my next project will be. With only 2 of us, it is hard to use up all the food I process. Will probably can some more things for the kids.
Kathy
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I canned 32 pints of dark beef yesterday and got as much from the remoulage (2nd simmer). And that doesn't count the 2 pints we used for dinner last night. I don't expect to do beef again this year, but don't think that will last a year.
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Wow! I wish I had that much in my pantry. You need to submit that to Lydia's perfect pantry because that's amazing.
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It is really handy. I've tried vegetables, but except for beets, they simply are better either frozen or commercially canned. We use almost no fruit so it just isn't worth it.
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Wow! I am beyond IMPRESSED. I wish I would do that. I bet everything tastes wonderful too.
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Well if it doesn't taste good when we use it we don't try again. Other than beets and the tomato items, vegetables don't work well, freezing or drying seems better.
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Very impressive! How big is your garden? (You may have shown it in your post on your land and such, I can't remember at the moment.)
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Much of that is a local farm stand, our garden is a couple of hundred square feet, but I don't have all that much time to spend on it.
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My eyes popped out of my head when I saw this- Yowzers- You two are truly experts!
Just to clarify it isn't a contest but a raffle of a book- sorry! Still hope you'll share a wonderful jam recipe with us.
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Wow, that's pretty impressive. How did you get into canning? I know no one who cans, other than Do's hippy sister who got started with the encouragement of a local farm that she gets her veggies from. Of course, she's also the type who buys her own wheat grinder on impulse. So it's all very mysterious to me. Maybe once we stop moving every year and can actually accumulate stuff.
As for Charlottesville, unfortunately, we didn't eat at any restaurants there! However, highlights in the area are Montecello, UVA campus, the plethora of indie bookstores around Main Street, and the wineries all around that offer free or cheap tastings (Barboursville, White Hall, and Keswick are all excellent and an easy drive out of town). If you're up for a longer drive, our favorite restaurant in the mid-Atlantic is the Joshua Wilton House in Harrisonburg. I kid you not, we prefer it to any place we've been in Washington D.C.; but it is an hour away from Charlottesville. If you're sticking to Charlottesville, try to find a restaurant that serves Polyface Farm products.
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Thanks for the resturant, my wife is checking it now.
It started out making jams and marmalades. Hot water bath canning, which is fairly simple.
Then we found that the local farm stand was selling tomatoes, which were past looking good, but still good for $12/bushel. We then started canning tomatoes. The pickles really started last summer and somebody on another BB (americastestkitchen.com) got me into canning stock.
I have no intention of getting into wheat grinding, although I do some baking.
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Raffle is fine, my cooking is fine, but decoration and fine touches are difficult for me. I don't do free hand well, and a lot of pastry is free hand.
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Alright, I officially love you (but only in the preserving envy place.) My husband and I just started down this road and we have a number to post. (Some are already posted.) Mostly, I envy the fact that instead of boxes of junk or a pool table, you have turned your basement into a preservation chamber. Someday...
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Dude. You are a madman! I can all kinds of stuff, too, but the sheer variety and volume is very, very impressive. Do you get through it all in a year?
And the stocks: All pressure canned, yes? I gotta start doing that. My box freezer is LOADED with various critter stocks...
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Yes the stock and a lot of the stuff with tomato is pressure canned. I use the big Presto and think I paid about $100 for it.
We don't get through the marmalade or pickles in a year, but that stuff does keep a couple of years. I bought 40 lbs of Kirby cukes last summer and did something like 9 different pickles. I will only need to do the curry pickles and the sandwich sliced dills this summer, I will probably add a couple more varieties and some more vegetables this year.
They make great gifts, my hand surgeon gets a couple of jars every time I see him. And the neices and nephews never leave empty handed.
I do have boxes of junk in the basement, which I am trying to clean out and there is space for a pool table, but it is more likely that space will end up as ancillary cook book shelves.
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Oh my goodness just look at all those wonderful preserves they are really stunning!! Many thanks for partaking in this event
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Hey, this is a lot of canning, that s for sure. If I was you, I would lock myself up with those and I am sure I d be fine for how long, three years ?
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