<p>This makes no sense now that my kids are grown and pretty much out of the house, but I’ve really gotten into canning. It all started four falls ago when a friend mentioned that she was planning on taking a few days off of work to can apples - applesauce and apple pie filling. I was surprised as it’s just she and her husband but she said they really like having homemade applesauce all year long and her kids love her apple pie. I had canned when we were first married, but stopped when our kids were little and they seemed to prefer store bought items to my canned things. However, our family also really liked applesauce and while I often made it from scratch while making dinner, I loved the idea of having it ready by just opening a can.</p>
<p>I had given away or sold off all of my canning equipment in one of our moves so I borrowed my friends canning water bath, her tools, bought a couple of cases of jars and did my own applesauce and apple pie filling. Both were a big hit with the family so I bought my own supplies. </p>
<p>The next year I made bread and butter pickles, salsa and applesauce and tried a different recipe for apple pie filling. Last year I added peach jam, peach salsa and apple preserves to my stock and decided not to do any apple pie filling. I found a fresh apple pie recipe that I really like that’s worth the inconvenience of not using the canned filling. </p>
<p>This year I’ve made strawberry jam, peach jam, peach and tomato salsa and tomato butter. This weekend I’m planning to do some grape jelly. All of the fruits and vegetables are ones that I’ve grown or picked at a local pick-your-own farm. I also decided to do the jams and jellies without pectin which decreases the need for huge amounts of sugar, but also means more fruit for less product. The huge plus though is taste. My peach jam is summer in a jar! </p>
<p>I also tried oven drying tomatoes. I’d sun dry them but the humidity in summer and chance of rain is pretty high in my area. These came out really tasty but not sure if they are any better then the ones I normally buy at TJ’s. </p>
<p>Used to love it, and how it keeps you in the heart of the season, with picking and preserving. No time these days, not much of anyone around to eat the products. I moved here from the southwest and canned my own salsa yearly, for lack of decent options. These days, the commercial salsas are wonderful and varied, as are canned organic tomatoes. </p>
<p>Am curious as to how you make jams sans pectin. Some fruits work, gooseberries, and just yesterday I looked up fig jam, as D returned from France with a love for all things fig. Easy to make, no pectin, and found fresh mission figs at the Asian market a few days ago. Maybe will try that, for her. Funny, in CA and AZ, the figs fall off the trees and rot for lack of eaters. Or did years ago. Here in the north, they are precious.</p>
<p>I don’t do much canning, but I do a lot of freezing of fruits and veggies. If one has a freezer, it’s faster, easier and one can do small batches. This year I froze summer squash, zucchini and beans from the garden. Since the racoons have eaten most of the tomatoes I will buy some “ugly” ones at a farmer’s market. I just peel them and pop them into freezer bags. I’ll also purchase a bushel of peppers and freeze those. I love having them right in the freezer to pull out for stews, sauces, etc. </p>
<p>DH doesn’t like frozen fruit so I generally just freeze blueberries. I also dry herbs I grow. </p>
<p>I did can 16 or so quarts of pickles this year. We had an abundance of cucumbers! I’ve never found a salsa recipe we love so skip that. </p>
<p>I go for easy! </p>
<p>There is nothing like pulling out some “fresh” veggies in February and putting them into a veggie soup or pasta sauce. The taste is much better than what I can buy fresh in the grocery.</p>
<p>I always plant tomatoes so I end up canning them and also making large quantities of tomato sauce that I freeze. I also plant basil and make pesto and freeze it so I can have it all year. I really enjoy having these available to me in the winter when I make soup.</p>
<p>I used to make tons of canned stuff: jams, jellies (hot pepper, fruit, wine and herb, etc), pickles, chutneys, fruits in brandy, dilly beans, BBQ sauce, and so forth.</p>
<p>I haven’t been doing it for the last couple of years because after being diagnosed with T2 diabetes, I basically can’t eat any of it, except maybe the dilly beans. I never used pectin in jams. All you need is fruit with natural pectin, and an acid source. You can always beef it up by cooking the fruit with lemon rind or apple. My favorite jam was rhubarb ginger. I’ve never like strawberry much: too sweet.</p>
<p>I did originally use pectin to make hot pepper jelly, but even that you can make with apples and a jelly bag.</p>
<p>If anyone needs a recipe for something, let me know. I have a number of good preserving cookbooks.</p>
<p>I used to can too - never used pectin either - just berries and sugar. But I have the same issues as above - I shouldn’t be eating sugar and I have no one to can for. I am going to make applesauce this year and freeze it. I just make it with overripe apples and a little water. I don’t think that would can - would it? Don’t you need sugar to act as a preservative?</p>
<p>This was going to be my big year to start canning.( Last year we had loads of tomatoes, which I turned into tomato sauce and froze. ) But it looks like between the varmints and H’s over feeding it’s slim pickings.
However, in a few months, we may have an abundance of cheap apples. The idea of canning pie filling intrigues me. KathieP…Do I make the filling just as I would make it for a pie and then can it? Or is there a specific recipe out there that you would recommend?</p>
<p>I love this person’s blog and here’s her take on no sugar applesauce for canning. [Homemade</a> Applesauce | Food in Jars](<a href=“http://foodinjars.com/2010/09/homemade-applesauce/]Homemade”>Homemade Applesauce – Food in Jars) I used her recipe with just a little tweaking for my tomato butter and it came out very well. It’s not the sugar that acts as a preservative, it’s the pectin or acid. Apples have natural pectin in their skin. In fact, you can make your own pectin out of apples. It’s common to add apple juice to a low-sugar or no-sugar jelly recipe for that reason. </p>
<p>Thanks!! Good to know!!! (especially since I use cornstarch for thickener)</p>
<p>The Grandma Ople comes pretty close to my standard recipe. Except that I have a real fondness for cinnamon and wouldnt make an apple pie without it!</p>
<p>I have been freezing blackberries this summer, I pick a basket full, spread them ona cookie sheet to freeze, then vacuum pack them the next day. Except I keep looking for blackberry recipes to try and have not frozen as many as I planned to, I keep using them, refilling the cookie sheet and using them again!</p>
<p>I got into canning this year. I grew up with my mom canning jams, etc. I have a water bath canner and a pressure canner. To me it’s therapeutic, gets my mind focusing on something different than the daily stresses, and it gives me little things to give away too.</p>
<p>We have fruit trees and a garden, and I live in a rural area with lots of farmers and farm stands. This year I’ve done peach jam, peach salsa, corn relish, eggplant caponata, tomato salsa, watermelon pickles, garlicky mixed vegetables and I pressure canned homemade spaghetti sauce and beef veggie soup. I can make a huge bath of spaghetti sauce, pressure can it, and now on nights I don’t feel like cooking, boil noodles, heat up the sauce and dinner is ready! I’m sending my son back with the spaghetti sauce and soup at school which will give him a taste of home and a break from the cafeteria.</p>
<p>Grilled pork chops with peach salsa is one of my new faves for dinner. And since I host Thanksgiving every year I’ve joked that we’ll be having a canned Thanksgiving if I can figure out how to stuff a turkey in a jar and pressure can it.</p>
<p>musicamusica, I too can’t imagine making an apple pie without cinnamon and nutmeg too, so I just add that. Another thing I do with that recipe is I add the mix the apples into the sugar butter (and spice!) mixture and then dump the whole thing into the bottom crust.</p>
<p>eyemamom, You can a lot more then I do! Have you tried canning chicken noodle soup? I have a pressure cooker too, but it’s really old and I’m a little worried about using it. And I know that would be the only safe method for something like that. You are quite adventurous! I too love pork and salsa in the summer. I made the tomato butter with ham in mind. I bet you or Consolation could help musicmusica out with her piccalilli recipe.</p>
<p>Somemom, I love blackberries! What did you make with them?</p>
<p>My dear MIL just mailed me her large canning pot. Now I just have to find the time to use it. I am hoping to make milkandsugar’s hot pepper and garlic jelly as well as canning some tomatoes. Kathiep- what is tomato butter?</p>
<p>I have not tried chicken noodle soup because neither of us makes a particularly good one. How do noodles hold up under pressure canning?</p>
<p>I have never heard of tomato butter, is it like apple butter? How do you use it? </p>
<p>I thought my d was going to squirm with embarrassment. A friends family took her with them on vacation. They’re quite well to do and as a thank you I gave them several different kinds of jars as a thank you gift - vs a bottle of wine. It’s not like the were canned green beans, I think some of these things are little more unusual. She was mortified, but I handed it over in a gift bag wrapped up so they didn’t open it in front of us.</p>
<p>I did something similar for a gift when my son stayed the night at a friends house. I sent a well wrapped box up with four pints or half pints of goodies. He said they like them. Since he’s underage, and we weren’t present I couldn’t send wine.</p>
<p>The women in my mothers family were gardeners and great cooks and canned everything. This summer I have started making my own jams, peach, strawberry, cherry, blueberry lemon, and pepper and garlic jelly. I am also going to make experiment with a white zinfandel wine jelly. I love it and find it therapeutic. I did not have much success with my first batch without pectin. So I use a low sugar recipe with pectin. I also make sure my jam reaches the 220 f degree before I pour it into my jars. I also stopped using the water bath to seal the jars. I do a new method that I have researched which is turning my hot sterilized jars upside down with the hot jam inside. And after 45 min turn them over and the jars are sealed.</p>
<p>I printed it and will give it a whirl. I don’t have enough tomatoes in my backyard but I’m guessing the farm stand still has them. </p>
<p>I made champagne jelly years ago, which was delicious so I’m sure the wine jelly would be as well. </p>
<p>I actually got a new canner for my birthday, with tongs, jars, wash off labels, etc and I said I was probably the only person who would be happy with such a gift.</p>