Let the Canning Season Begin!

Canning season is in full swing around here...

The blow picture is the average pick that Jonathan brings in from the garden - he picks at least once a week - usually every other day. As you can see we have been over run with cucumbers - which I love! So far I have made two batches of sweet pickles, a batch of lime pickles, two batches of bread and butter pickles, two batches of Clausen dill pickles (knock off recipe from food.com), strawberry lemonade concentrate, and salsa. I'm so excited because our first tomatoes finally turned red and we were able to pull them off the vine last night. Might I say DIVINE!! I had to do something with them, so I whipped up a batch of salsa last night and it was pretty good, but I'm ready for the rest of the tomatoes to come in so I can try other types of salsa, canned tomatoes, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, and the like.

I have been making sweet pickles for several years now and this year is no different. It's an easy recipe and I love the end effect. They are so delicious to eat by themselves, on hamburgers, or my favorite - in chicken salad.

 The first 14 days is very easy - cut up all the pickles, boil 11 cups of water with 1 cup of non-iodized salt, allow to cool and pore over pickles - let sit for 14 days.

After they reach 14 days, I wash the pickles, taking off the mold on top along with getting rid of any pickles that are too soft to continue working with and any that got mold on them.  I then proceed to wash the rest of the pickles, put them back in the jar, add 1 T of Alum, and cover with water.  For the following three days, (after emptying the Alum water after 24 hours) I add three cups of sugar each day, then proceed canning in a water bath as normal.  Super easy and so worth the effort!

This is the first year I made bread and butter pickles.  These are FANTASTIC!! I got them off a website * I can't remember which one, but I love them!  I think this is my new favorite pickle.  It only made a small batch, so I had to go ahead and make another full batch to get us through until next summer.  

 Another pickle I tried this year for the first time is a Lime Pickle.  I got the recipe from the Blake's when we lived in Martin.  I can't wait to try them.  It made a huge batch - That is a 2 gallon container full of cucumber's and covered with lime water.  They were easy to make as well :).

 After sitting overnight in the lime water, I cleaned them really well, added them to the pot, made the brine, and then canned them. Easy as Pie!

 I have always put my pots in a water bath before filling them, but it makes a mess and I always seem to burn myself, so when I found this handy tip, I used it the entire time I was pickling and I LOVE this concept - I just take all my jars and put them in the oven at 200 for about 10 minutes, and then it's ready to fill.  So much easier than dealing with the water more than needed.  I still put my tops in the pot with really hot water, but this is an awesome way to do the jars.

 Water Bath time :)

 This was my second batch of sweet and sour pickles.  They are so yummy!

 This is my pantry - well on my way to filling it up and having us ready for the year :)

I know that putting up food is not for everyone, and honestly I have never put so much up as I have this year - but if the Lord is blessing us with a garden that is so full, I should be utilizing it and taking every effort to save us money for the winter months.  So far I have put up about 80 ears of corn from our garden this year - I freeze this, along with squash, zucchini, blackberries, green beans, green peppers, and I am even trying to batter the squash, zucchini, and okra to try frying this winter.  We shall see how it goes!  My goal this winter is to eat our veggies that I have put up for the winter and purchase as little/no fresh produce that we have grown in our garden.