Does anyone can. We have done peaches, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches again, muscadine grapes, tomatoe sauce, salsa, and crushed tomatoes. We go apple picking this week and will start on apple sauce soon. For the first time I now own a pressure canner and plan to try some small batches of beef, chicken and low acid veggies in it. I understand it is easy to over cook veggies in a pressure canner. Anyone else pressure can veggies. Suggestions, Favorite items to can this way?
Pressure canning is the only way I do my veggies. I've done green beans and corn. I've also done apple sauce, peaches, and blackberries. My favorite site is www.pickyourown.org Is has wonderful illustrated step-by-step canning instructions for just about everything!
I have canned peaches and apple butter. I have frozen blackberries and blueberries. I have so much canned stuff from the past couple of years, I didn't can vegetables this year. I do wish I had canned some salsa.
STRAWBERRIES! How interesting is that! I've never heard of canned strawberries! I always freeze mine. (I've got jars of apple sauce cooling as I type, and am heating up my pressure canner for green beans!)
When I can the Straberries, I usually quarter them and put them in a pot of syrup then cook them until soft. I then put that in the jars. It is like a desert topping. We can add it to vanilla icecream for milkshakes, pour it over cheesecake or cake, or make daquaries from it. I also make jam and some smoother version of the syrup as well. the smoother stuff is nice for putting in a cheese cake filling or to make the nice squiggly lines on a plate and for decorating deserts etc. I make a syrup concentrate from rapberries that can be used as a thick topping, or filling or a soft jam. Addig a little water yields a nice syrup for pancakes or waffles and decorating desserts. A half pint jar in the icecream maker with a little tonic water makes a great sorbet. Sorbet, ditto the strawberry syrups. I also made some from blueberry a couple years back that is good as jam or syrup as well, but we don't use as much so I skipped for now. I have some peaches that came out a little too soft, well way too soft. I think I over processed them. I might open them up and make some jam/syrup from them then reprocess. I also might have over done a batch of apple sauce jars and will later cook them down into apple butter. It will be my first try. Waste not.
We did not do anything this year :cry: I usually do some pickles, at least one fruit and some applesauce. We did not even get the garden in this year. Things just got too crazy this year. I am hoping I can get organized enough that next year I can do a whole bunch.
We are through canning for the year, or so I thought. A lady just told me she makes sweet potato butter. Freddy is really wanting to try that.
Not canning, but when my mil passed away last year, she left her Kitchen Aide mixer. My sil managed to get it (big joke in the family!), but I've been borrowing it for Christmas cookies. I'm using it like crazy while I have it, making balls of cookie dough and freezing them.
