Monday, July 25, 2011

Canning season starts.

Well, canning season has started. I've been able to can a few things so far this year. In June I started with strawberries that my niece picked. We, my neice and I, made strawberry lemon jam and just plain strawberry jam. They both turned out great.

 Strawberies ready to make jam.
 Strawberry jam.
Strawberry-lemon jam.

Then I picked cherries with Jennifer, and made cherry jam and cherry preserves, then made a pie and put the last of the cherries in the freezer. The jam didn't set up at all, it was a no pectin added recipe. I'm not sure how the preserves are supposed to be, but they didn't do what I thought they would either, the pie was good and I'll probably be able to make another pie with the frozed cherries I have.
 No pectin added cherry jam.
 Cherries.
 Cherry preserves.
 Cherry preserves a different view.
Cherry pie, it was a little sweet but I liked it anyway.

July 23rd Jennifer and I took our kids to a harvest for green beans. It was fun and we picked quite a bit, about 5 1/2 5 gallon buckets. I brought home almost 2 buckets full. I made some pickled, Dilly Beans, green beans with nearly half of them, I'm going to blanch and freeze the other half.

Dilly Beans.

I'm looking forward to canning more fruit and maybe even more vegetables if I can get a pressure canner.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Cherries.

Today my friend Jennifer and I went out to pick cherries. It was with Salem Harvest, which sponsors harvests to harvest fruit and vegetables from professional farmers as well as private people who have fruit trees, vines or bushes that produce more than they can use. We harvested cherries from an orchard that had been professionally picked before, what we harvested was what was still green at that time. We donate at least half of what we pick to the local Food Share and get to keep the other half for free. This was my first harvest, I can't wait for the next one.

I am tired, but part of that is I went to bed late, around 2:30 this morning, and got up early, around 7:30. And part of it is that I'm not in very good shape.

Now I have a 5 gallon bucket nearly full of cherries. I'm planning on making jam and preserves. I don't think I'll have enough to put some up in light syrup this time, but there might be another cherry harvest soon. I'm looking forward to picking pretty much anything else. Blueberries, peaches, apples, pears, maybe even some vegetables.