canning & pickling

[FarmGirl]

Is anyone going to can or pickle their garden this year?

I have a couple hundred tomatos about to turn ripe on me right now, so I'm trying to get prepared.

I'm going to can stewed tomatos with different spices, tomato sauce, salsa, chili sauce and spaghetti sauce.

I'm also going to pickle cucumbers - bread & butter, dill, and sweet.

I'm going to can a bunch of carrots.

I'm going to pickle beets - if they ever riped! I have my doubts about them.

I'm going to make apple butter and peach butter (my grandma has apple and peach tree trees). I'm also going to make applesauce, apple pie filling, and apple jam.

I have my work cut out for me, but I'm really look forward to it. Its been years since I've canned or pickled anything, so I hope I don't screw it up :D

Anyone else have big canning and pickling plans?

[meliz]

Hey FG do you have a canner? I plan to try my hand at salsa again.. last year only 1/2 of my jars sealed properly... grrr.... how did I mess up??? My mum, the Queen of Canning, doesn't know what I did and I made it under her supervision. Would also like to make some raspberry jam... tho I am afraid I have missed the raspberry crop. Hopefully this w/e I will be able to get some.

Apple butter?? MMMM mmmmmmm.... is that actually butter??

[FarmGirl]

i have a water bath canner from Ball.

You've never had apple butter?!! Holy moly are you missing out! It's not a butter, and there is no butter in it - it gets its name for its super smooth texture they say. Here's a recipe and picture of it. (http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000119apple_butter.php)

It's funny you say that about the raspberries - I wanted to make rasp. jam also this year, but my mother-in-laws bushes all died :(

I wonder what you did with your jars so that they wouldn't seal. They're not the old jars are they? Lot's of people are saying now that the older jars don't seal correctly - something about the thinness of the lip not fitting properly with the "new" (they were designed in the '40s) lids, because they are getting worn down from so much use. From what I have heard, the old Ball jars do this a lot.

Hope you have better luck this year!

[meliz]

Oooo... yum... I thought it might be like maple butter, which I think does have actual butter?

I think you're right about the jars too. They were my ma's old faithfuls, of course they work for her for eons... I have also heard that the new mason jars suck compared to what they used to... that the rings they now make are duds or something?

Geeze... what got your MIL's rasps? That's crappy. I could live on raspberry jam...

[FarmGirl]

I'm pretty sure maple butter is made with butter. I love that stuff!

If your jars are really old, that might be the problem. I've read somewhere that you can get them fixed, but I don't know who or what or how.

I just bought all new Ball jars (I only use Ball - the Ball mansion is in my hometown, and they are just the nicest people you could ever meet). Hopefully I won't have any problem with them!

I don't know what happened to my mil's rasp. One day we were out looking at them, eating a couple of the first ripe berries, and a couple of days later the plant was completely dead. Nothing else in her garden died, so its a complete mystery - I'll be hearing for years about the raspberry plant that died.