Monday, August 12, 2013

fun in canning land

I did post about the peaches...its the grapes and blueberries I neglected to share.
Red grapes. Beautiful yummy sweet grapes. You know where this is going right? If not... I'll share it.
Grapes with color lose their color when canned.
yes.
I have anemic looking grapes.
I have grapes doubling as eyeballs.
I have grapes I don't know if I can eat because of how they look.


Then there were blueberries.
I had frozen them. They still looked pretty. I defrosted them under warm running water. I cold packed them.
One siphoned. I had purple water.
In every jar there are a large number of berries I can see that have split. It's hard to see any though...because they stain the syrup a deep purple.
Almost black.
I doubt they are god for much more than pies.

And above all...I had a blast doing it.


And of course the obligatory pic of the eyeball grapes


Peaches tomatoes and pickles oh my

The adventures continue. I know I haven't posted in awhile but life has been busy busy.
I don't think I shared adventures in peaches. 60 lbs to deal with oh my. I canned peaches, mango peach,jam, strawberry peach jam, pineapple coconut jam, strawberry mango peach jam. What fun we had. A good friend came over and helped. It's always much more fun with friends.

Saturday Lee and I went to Carver farms. We picked cucumbers and summer squash. Zucchini, tomatoes and yellow squash. After that we headed up to Green Bluff. We got beans at Eleven Acres farm. Then we decided to head up to Mt. Spokane and check out the campground there. Dry, hot, small, but I love it up there. We had a great day.

Yesterday I made tomato sauce. It looks really thin in the jars and may not be good for much more than soup...or to dump out. 9 jars and only one didn't seal. It's in the fridge to be used asap.

Today it was pickles and the adventure really begins.
I searched for the camp stove...and can't find it. I thought it was in my trailer which is at my aunt and uncles. I whined on facebook. Halfway through canning them my sister in law says it's in your mom and dads trailer. bah humbug. My 23 quart takes a ridiculous amount of time to heat to boiling, even with the lid on, like over 30 mins.
I also didn't want to heat up the house. Oh well. So get them all sliced and speared, brine poured in, and into the water bath. About 30 mins later the timer goes off(started timing after the water came to a full boil). Andddd...nothing. It all went just as it should have. perfect. easy. No lids popped off. Everything looks beautiful. I have no stories to share to make you laugh.
 I do have a picture of todays work though.