" Putting Up"

 

It's fruit preserving time !!

From the Water edition of TAPROOT magazine (buy HERE) is a great set of fruit recipes to preserve jams and relishes, using Pomona's Pectin, which is a low methyl pectin allowing you to use maple syrup or honey instead of refined sugar !  ( Pomona's Pectin is sold and recipes are HERE).

So I did the Strawberry Vanilla Jam with Maple Syrup and oh.my.goodness.
It is so yummy. Here are two jars , I ended up with 7 half pints and a pint to eat strait up.
On waffles.
Oh yes.
Check out that headspace. I was suppose to leave 1/4 inch and I left over an inch. Yipps.
They all sealed, but I froze 4 and fridged the rest.

MMMMMmmmmmMMMM.



So.then.....

WE pick APPLES  !
These apples are from the tree out at Daddy's House.
And Mamma's. :)
They are big tart delicious juicy apples.

Dear Hubby bought myself a pressure canner , It's my first time ever using one.
And while I will admit a bit of rapid heart beat when putting the jigger thing on
and seeing the pressure mounting up and thinking of explosions and such, all is well
as you can see and I can't wait to use it again ! This first batch is canned apples in a
light sugar syrup ( I use organic non bleached organic cane sugar ).
They called for a 1/2 inch headspace and after canning they rose right up to the top.
Is that what the empty space is for ? Growth and expansion ?  Must be.

This was half the basket of apples, and It yielded up 8 pints. To be used for baking, cooking, eating, whatever. You might be able to see, I have some rather largeish air bubbles that remained. Woops. Is that an issue? They all sealed. Only one jar was funnishish looking and I put that one in the fridge and will eat soon. Aah, the joys of canning ! Apples were really hard work. REALLY HARD WORK. Lots of standing and peeling. My hands and back were aching. We've got 5 apple trees here at our house and a plum tree just loaded with fruit. I have been watching " PRESTO CANNING " on youtube. Green Beans look really easy. I love Green Beans.