Canning Adventures

Here is our canning so far....nowhere to store the jars as yet but they are done.......Alan just went to the store to get more pints/ jelly jars......he's into sugar free jam now......(.the gallon container on the left is vinegar for pickles...)
I woke up to him puttering in the kitchen, slicing peaches for peach jam, he then cooked the peaches until they were soft and put them through the food mill...
added sweetener, lemon juice and pectin...a big pot is cooking right now..so no photos of the finished product..we both decided quarts of peach jam was a bit much..hence, going to get the pints and jelly jars

He had already made a Fig Conserve......which we hadn't tried before and were pleasantly surprised..a conserve is just jam with other goodies added...this recipe includes chopped pecans (which he forgot to put in) two chopped lemons, and crushed pineapple..he must have got up really early!

I was woken to the delicious smells coming from the kitchen...and was treated to an English muffin with some of this delicious conserve + coffee

Think I'll keep him!

Here is the Fig Conserve recipe...

2 lbs. ripe figs
1 cup crushed pineapple, small can
2 medium lemons, cut into small pieces.. peel and all
1/2 t. salt
1 cup chopped pecans
sweetener..add to taste..we used 3 cups of Splenda..

Wash figs and cut into pieces. Mix with pineapple and lemons..put into a large pot with equal amount sugar (or other sweetner) and the salt. Bring slowly to the boiling point and simmer gently until thickened. Stir in nuts: put in hot jars. Makes about 5 jelly jars.....we doubled the recipe.....and also water bath processed the jars...can't see to going to all the trouble of making jam to have it spoil.......10 minutes in the water bath canner will do..

More Canning and a Surrey!

Nancy, Huggins Haven is selling this wonderful little surrey ......if you are interested, please check it out
This is so cute and restored would be a real treasure....I didn't know these things even existed until this morning...I read that Art Linkletter promoted them in the 1950s..so cute! as a kid, I would have loved this...
Here is a photo of one fully restored..

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Here is the second part of the canning series, explaining the two types of canners...right now I just have the water bath one which we bought at Walmart to replace the one that was lost in the fire.....we haven't replaced the pressure canner, I am not sure if it was ruined or not..the seal is probably compromised.....not all Walmarts carry water bath canners...we had to go to 3 before we found one...alot of the employees didn't know what we were talking about.....
the new pressure canners are not as scary as the old ones....you can do so much with them and once you understand how they work, its not difficult.....its nice to can homemade meat spaghetti sauce which is nice for not only spaghetti but chili too....in fact, you can store  your own homemade chili this way too!
I am going to can more tomatoes today..have about 4 gallons but they cook down...tomatoes use the waterbath canning method and you add a little acid to each jar with the tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar..modern tomatoes are not as acid as the older varieties and need the acid to keep them fresh and the color good....protects the tomatoes against spoilage.....its nice to add your favorite herbs to the jars too..basil is nice and a few garlic cloves.
canned (or bottled if you are English) food lasts indefinitely...but is better used within a year or so..my kids asked me if the jars would last as long as the peaches did in the movie, "Holes" ...its questionable..I wouldn't want to eat 100 year old jars of peaches, would you? but they did and called it "Smoosh"