Another Canning Update

7/19/10:  20 pints of GA peaches, canned in white grape juice;  19 of which sealed (my friend Cori canned along with me while our kids played;  we all had a blast!);  Presto recipe
7/24/10:  3 half-pints of peach-white grape jelly, made with the juice we cooked the peaches in on 7/19 ;  Sure-Gel no-sugar recipe;  I used no sugar at all (you can choose how much to use) and (big shock!) it's quite tart!;  Sure-Gel recipe
8/7/10:  4 pints of dill pickles (2 with garlic;  2 without);  BBB recipe

When Aaron (age 6) saw the pickles spears neatly packed into the wide-mouth jars, he asked, "how'd you do that?!" as though I had turned water into wine, which naturally filled me with pride.  He had been expecting pickle "coins".  

Slow canning month due to travels and a torn-up kitchen (we got new flooring and fridge this week - I'm in heaven!).

I'm eagerly anticipating apple and pear season!  I had also hoped to can some of our raspberries this fall (normally we only freeze them) in the form of jam and pie filling, but I'm not sure we'll have a crop at all due to way too much rain.  :(

Raspberries

This is my favorite time of the season -- raspberry time!  Our fall-bearing raspberries have been slowing starting to ripen, a few here and there, over the last few weeks.  Audra, Aaron, and I go out into the backyard and fill up on them, one by one.  Yum!  No bucket needed.  When there are too many for us to snack on at one time, we know that the season is in full swing!  Today I picked about two cups' worth with my little 19-month-old panhandler by my side (the only currency she accepts is brambles).  Believe me, the two of us could have polished off all two cups right then and there, but I hid some of them from her instead, so that I'd have some to bring into the house.  I sure hope no one is allergic to bee stings, because there are zillions of bees out there.  They seem to mind their own business, though a couple weeks ago I was stung in the cutting garden.

When any quantity of berries makes it into the house, I rinse them, quick-freeze them individually on cookie sheets, and scrape them off into gallon zipper bags.  It's easy to add more berries to the bags as they roll in.  We enjoy them all winter in smoothies and baked oatmeal.

Raspberry

Jazzberry

Razzamatazzberry

Berryband 

Merryband

Jamming in Berryland

Raspberry rabbits

Brassberry band

Elephants skating 

On raspberry jam

~ From the children's book Jamberry by Bruce Degen