Back in June, I posted my canning list for the coming season. It looked like this:
- home canned tomatoes
- pickled green beans (made last year and loved)
- apple sauce (attempted last year and failed, as seen below)
- spiced apple rings (made last year successfully)
- brandied pears
- dill pickles
- peach chutney
- tomato-basil jam
- raspberry jam
- pear & ginger preserves
- pear vanilla jam
- peach butter (made last year successfully)
- blueberry jam
If you were following along this summer, you know that my list of completed canning projects looks like this:
- dill pickles (17 jars)
- pear vanilla jam (4 jars)
- bruschetta in a jar (6 jars)
- apple sauce (which leaked again and ended up in our freezer, again)
There are a lot of reasons why my canning motivation went down so much once the season really started. I lost interest in some of the recipes I originally wanted to do. I got a better handle on what kinds of canned goods Brian actually likes (jams with seeds and chutneys are not high on the list). We made so many dill pickles that pickled green beans didn’t seem necessary. Even though I always hope otherwise, canning projects frequently take entire afternoons and sometimes it’s hard to make the time for that. I decided not to give canned goods as Christmas presents this year. We need a bigger kitchen. Still, I think Brian and I are fairly content with what’s been put up for the winter and hopefully next year my motivation will be better. As far as our household is concerned, canning season is over for the year.
From the looks of my Reader, however, canning isn’t going away any time soon (which is good, because I still need to make good use of these canning supplies).
The Simple Dollar crunched the numbers to find out whether you can really save money by canning. A lot of it has to do with how much you’re paying for the produce. Also, I’d argue that its worth it to spend money on things that are important to you, such as local, homemade, organic food.
A piece on Grist talks about the rise of home canning and why Americans are returning to canning their own food.
Food in Jars (my favorite source for all things canning related) has a recipe for Bartlett Pear Chutney with Dried Cherries and Ginger. Sounds delicious, but I’m not sure what we’d ever do with it.
Also from Food in Jars, an important reminder: it is unsafe to can pumpkin with a boiling water canner. Disappointing to some, but I’m okay with supermarket canned pumpkin.
From NPR, a story of weddings, canning and blackberries. Even if I’d been into canning 3 years ago, I don’t think I would’ve canned jam for all my guests. Then again, sometimes I do crazy things so I might’ve considered it.
Want to make your golden beets last longer? Try pickled golden beets from Serious Eats (hey, that rhymes!)
I totally meant to do some canning this year with some of the veggies from my garden, but I didn’t can a single thing! Fail! lol It sounds like you guys did a great job with your canning projects. That pear vanilla jam sounds especially tasty. :) Which canning project did you think was the easiest and/or most fun?
Thanks for stopping by, Diana!
I think pickles (either cucumber or green bean) are the easiest because the produce doesn’t need much prep and the brine is easiest to make. The jam wasn’t difficult though and I’d never made any jam before.
Its amazing to think that it’s already October and the harvest is soon coming to an end.
It looks like you canned a fair amount – some is better than none, and there’s still time!