Yesterday’s juice is today’s jelly!
It was a marathon afternoon and the house got to 75 degrees. But the juice turned out to be great jelly and we only had to make two trips to the grocery store. We had one batch that was soft set but otherwise both kinds set up well.
This is 23 pints of jelly and 30.5 half pints. I shared some with my aunt and my dad and still stocked my pantry stores. I still need to make a batch of cherry jam and can some more tomato sauce.
Happy Canning!!
My dad hand picked some grapes from the family farm. I forgot to grab pics of the grapes before we did the cook and crush. But the juice is GORGEOUS!
I got this cooked and filtered and ready to turn into jelly. I think we are going to clear the decks tomorrow and do a big jelly cook. I still have my apple juice in the freezer as well. All I need is a metric poop ton of sugar and lots of boxes of pectin.
Happy Canning!!
In non fibery news, my summer apple tree did very well this year. I harvested close to four plastic grocery bags of decent apples. I probably composted 50 times as much due to bird and animal loss. Or just failing to pick and they got rotten. And that is okay, I am not a commercial apple producer.
I cleaned up the apples and cut out all the bad or buggy bits and dropped into a pressure cooker. My preferred method is jelly from juice so I like to harvest that from the fruit. I cook as much of the apple including core an seed to develop as much natural pectin as possible
The juice is coming out very deep rose colored this year with the peel influencing the color. I use cheese close to harvest the juice. The kids didn’t really appreciate the apple sauce pulp flavor so I chose not to try to salvage any of that. I gave some to my friends with chickens and composted the rest.
It is crazy back to school time again so I don’t have capacity to make jelly right now so I sterilized several jars and I’m freezing the juice until I have time to work it. I am hoping that I can also get my hands on more wine grapes to re-stash my grape jelly stash as well this year.
And then I would just do a large cook day for jelly processing. Hopefully with extra hands to help!
Happy Canning!!
I have fallen into the Sonic trend of “dirty drinks” and oh my are they delicious!
My current favorite is old fashioned fully leaded coca cola with caramel cold foam or caramel creamer. It tastes like a coke float and some mornings is WAY faster than brewing coffee.
Anyone else doing these drinks?
I did a freezer restock this past week and had to shuffle around some items. This led to the discovery of some frozen turkey bones. I really needed the freezer space so what better time to use this up. Plus soup season is upon us!!
Into my instant pot went the bones, two kinds onions (they needed used up), chopped garlic, baby carrots, salt/pepper, and a little chicken bouillon to boost the flavor. I pressure cooked this for 90 minutes and then ran everything through fine cheese cloth.
I intend to freeze this so I cleaned and sanitized canning jars for the broth. I made sure to leave lots of room for expansion and popped into the freezer. I think some of this will come out for this Thanksgiving for gravy and the rest will find its way into soups and stews this winter.
Yum!!
I was recently at a bakery and found the perfect gift for my former work bestie. She has moved to another company and I miss her dearly. She and I enjoy self deprecating humor and the occasional cocktail. This towel fits her PERFECTLY.
I think I am going for work up a little “new job” basket and add this towel, a bottle of wine, some chocolate and a fidget toy. We don’t really do birthdays or Christmas and prefer random acts of kindness.
Happy Tuesday!
Late August around here means APPLE SEASON! Our crop was small but might this year but I think I have enough to do two batches of apply jelly.
It literally dangerously hot here in Kansas with 100-110 degree temperatures without the heat index. But apples ripen when they want. I took my time to wash and cut out the bad parts and pressure cook out the goodness.
After the juice is complete I made the basic cooked apply jelly recipe from the SureJell boxed instructions. This batch set but a very soft set. Not enough that I want to recook but I think I will make some tweaks for the second batch. It’s too hot for that!
OOOH! And I did something very environmentally friendly with the canning and sterilizing water. Stay tuned later this week!
Happy Canning!!
I’m not a super duper zero waste person, but I do like to find ways to reduce our footprint around our house. We recycle and use reusable goods where possible. But my kids drive me nuts with how much food we waste. And the leftovers that go bad in the fridge because I’m the only one that eats them and I can’t keep up. So I pooled my Grandma Christmas money with some savings and I got a countertop composter!
I did ZERO research. I just used a basic google search and found a machine I could afford with at least 4 stars on Amazon. And so far it works great! When we are home and cooking I can fill it once a day.
Depending on what goes in, the color is WILD. This was tomatoes, moldy cheesy pasta and coffee grounds. I just empty the bin into our backyard garden bin and start refilling this. It’s quiet and surprising smells good while its “cooking”. It does require filters and maintenance so I don’t know how long it will hold out. But it’s a nice new experiment for us and reducing our trash.
My garden finally woke up and we have started harvesting tomatoes!
The small ones are little Roma tomatoes that I am washing and freezing for sauce and recipes later this winter. The big slicer is destined for BLTs this week! We may get precious little before fall freeze so I am going to watch carefully!
Happy Monday!
I got a wild hair this weekend to make some homemade jam. I had 8 cups of cherries in the freezer from my family tree and some frozen ripe strawberries from the local U-Pick farm outside of town.
The kids and I worked for an entire morning to make three batches of jam, two cherry and one strawberry. The strawberry just came out so vibrant and well incorporated throughout. I find it mesmerizing! And they both taste really wonderful too!
I did use my food processor to breakup and crush the fruit fairly finely. I like jam with the whole fruit in it but I don’t like huge chunks as I spread on my carbohydrate platform. The kiddos have already consumed an ENTIRE jar of strawberry and can’t wait to pick more strawberries next year!
Happy Canning!!
Michele plays with yarn, food, and music in Portland
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