Homestead Canned Goods

I've gathered a selection of pics of the Homestead's canned goods we've done over the summer and fall, starting with the blueberry jam we did earlier in the summer.

Blueberry Jam

Blueberry Jam is one of the easiest fruits from which to make jam.  All you do is wash, pick out the stems, mash, toss in the pot with sugar and pectin and cook up jam!

Blueberries awaiting mashing and cooking.

Blueberries being mashed.

The raw turbinado sugar from Trader Joe's we used.

Blueberry jam cooking.

Checking to make sure the jam is jelling well.

Peaches

We went peach picking again this summer and got over 100 lbs of peaches that we ate, froze, gave to friends, and turned into yummy peach jam and raw pack peaches.  Below we are canning the raw pack peaches.  To do this, you peel and slice the peaches and make a hot syrup.  We used raw, local honey for the hot syrup, added water and boiled.  You tightly pack the raw sliced peaches into the hot canning jars, then pour the hot syrup into the jars, put the lids and rings on, and put them in the canner. As you can see from the photo below there are several jars awaiting the canning process.   These are so wonderful to have in the middle of winter on a cold day!

Raw Pack Peaches awaiting canning in the canner.  You can see the quart jar in the background with the green & white funnel that has the peaches in it.  The hot honey syrup is being scooped out of the pot to be poured into the jar.

Applesauce

My last post was about making applesauce.  Here's the finished jars below.  The darker spots in them are the cranberries.  We may get more apples in early November and can another batch before Thanksgiving. 

Our Canned Applesauce

Cranberry Sauce

This is another easy fruit to can.  Fresh cranberries are only available in the stores late October-November so I stock up and freeze what we don't use right away.  Wash the cranberries, pick out the stems and other junk, toss them in the pot and add water.  Let them boil and add sugar.  I like to use the raw turbinado sugar from Trader Joe's.  When the cranberries boil they make the most satisfying popping sounds!   Let the mixture boil gently for awhile, until a spoonful of the sauce jells up on a cool plate.  You don't need any added pectin like you do for the jams since there's plenty of natural pectin in the cranberries.  Can it up and enjoy eating later and giving as gifts!  I don't have any pics of the cranberry jam we made last year but will take some with this year's batch.

Applesauce

Fall is the time of year to pick apples so that's what we did, went out to the country and picked apples at an orchard near our friends' farm.  We made applesauce from the apples and now a dozen quarts are canned, waiting to be given as gifts and eaten!  I make my applesauce with cinnamon, Trader Joe's organic raw turbinado sugar and the secret ingrediant...cranberries! I don't know how much of the cinnamon, sugar and cranberries I put in-I do it by taste to get the right about of sweet and tart!   I prefer to use fresh cranberries, but frozen or dried work well also.  I will probably do another batch of applesauce in the near future!

This year I tried making apple butter in the crockpots.  I cooked the apples for well over 24 hours on low and the house sure smelled great!  I added some cinnamon and sugar, once again to taste.  My crockpots are 3 and 6 quarts, and when it was all cooked down, I got 4 pints of apple butter, which wasn't enough to can.  It was easier to make it in the crockpots so I didn't have to watch and stir it much.  It was still quite a bit of work for only 4 pints but we have been enjoying it.  Perhaps I will try it again this fall and just can some of it to keep longer.  Right now I have the apple butter in the fridge, where it will keep for awhile.  

One of the apple trees loaded with yummy apples!  

I think this was a Jonathan apple tree if I remember correctly!

I like to mix the varieties of apples I use in the applesauce to blend the tastes.  I like most varieties, except for Red Delicious, which, despite their name, don't taste too delicious to me!  

That's what's been going on in this Suburban Homestead lately!