What are you canning today? Part 7

[Canned Nerd]

You can take a lot of mental stress out of making jams and jellies by investing in some "Pomona Pectin" which is much more forgiving. The best part is it does not require sugar so you are free to adjust to your heart's content. It is definitely worth the added expense. I know Violet swears by it.

[Stephanie]

Yep...I've heard y'all bragging and I've got it in my possession (the Pomona). I think the main challenge was....I'm trying to do sugar free and Violet says the Pomona will help lots and lots. If I ever have a spare moment I'm going to try it.

 

 

[Jori]

12 more 1/2 pints of strawberry rhurbarb jam and 7 pints of strawberry lemonade concentrate. Wondering if you could substitute the strawberries with raspberries in the lemonade concentrate. Hmmmmmm.

[Jori]

Okay, so you've peaked my interests. Can you buy Pomona anywhere other than on-line?

[Prickle]

Okay, so you've peaked my interests. Can you buy Pomona anywhere other than on-line?

 

You used to be able to get it at health food stores, but those seem to be few and far between these days (at least around here).

[Canned Nerd]

I'm in California and I bought mine at the Whole Food store, but yes most health food stores should carry it but you may have to ask since mine was buried on a bottom shelf and only 3 boxes. I bought them all.

 

[snapshotmiki]

I have bought it at my co-op here in NM.

[mom11]

15 pints beet pickles...What a mess!

[mom11]

Today and yesterday....16 twelve oz., 2 eight oz. black raspberry jam.

[mishbloom]

Today nothing. I get to clean out my email inbox. YAY!

 

Last evening--5 qts Strawberries in Syrup and 3 qts Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling.

[Crazy4Canning]

I canned 43 pints of tomato sauce. My hands are very dry and I'm tired.

[mom11]

7 pints bread and butter pickles

[Pigzzilla]

Today I made 8 more 1/2pints of cherry jam. Made 14 a few days ago, so now a total of 22 cherry jam. Also today I made 8 1/2pints of red raspberry jam. Yum! Had a bunch more strawberrys ready in the garden, but I gave some to my neighbor, ate too many and then had s-berry shortcakes for dinner--I mean dessert. Enough s-berry jam for awhile.

 

I have about 4lbs of red flame grapes to do something with in the morning. Maybe more fruit cocktail? Hmmm, I have 2 mangoes and some fresh pineapple spears, a couple of just barely ripe bananas, grapes and a small jar of marashino(sp?) sounds better than plain old grapes to me! ...............pigz

[Crazy4Canning]

With little bits of fruit, you could make fruit cocktail. I did some last summer and it turned out superb. I did: pineapple, peaches, pears, grapes, a few marischino cherries, and an odd thing or two like an apple. I used a light syrup (1:4) and it really is nice.

[Violet]

Pigz, please do not add the bananas since they are pretty low acid.

 

[snapshotmiki]

9 pints of Dilly Beans today!

[Pigzzilla]

Thanks Violet, I got real busy on something else and did not can the fruit. So, no bananas in fruit mix. Hafta use them in my cereal. Oh well. There's always tomorrow.

 

I made a fruit cocktail mix last year and got to eat it all by myself..DH won't touch it. I used some large black grapes...they FADE and turn everything- including pineapple- PURPLE. Weird looking stuff but good. Lesson learned- use black grapes if I don't want to share!! Ha Ha............pigz

[Pigzzilla]

7 pints of fruit cocktail...without bananas.

 

pigzzilla

[ScrubbieLady]

6 jars of blueberry jam

[Kelly]

21 qts green beans and have to can tomatoes and make pickles.

[kathy003]

oh,, fruit cocktail sounds like a wonderful thing to can,, did you water bath can it?

 

C4C, did you just use all fresh ingredients from like a fruit market? I didn't know you could can green grapes.

[Crazy4Canning]

Hi,

 

Yes, I did end up using all fresh ingredients. My hands weren't the same for days.

 

It just so happened that I was given a variety of fruits - peaches, pears, and some fresh pineapples and grapes. I also tossed in a few marischino cherries. I learned to do no more than 4 cherries per pint or everything was tinted pink.

 

This is the BEST fruit cocktail I've ever eaten. It tastes so fresh and non-metallic.

 

The best thing is - you can can what you like and have all sorts of combinations. Fruit cocktail is the premium "end of season" way to preserve fruit.

 

Who knew that "end of season" would be such a favorite at our house and that people would pay such a premium for it in the stores?

 

ALSO - since a lot of fruit cocktails are being canned in Mexico right now, this way I can ensure CLEAN and healthy produce.

[Canned Nerd]

The "So Easy To Preserve" book from the NCHFP has a nice recipe for Fruit Cocktail, pg 43, using peaches, pears, green graps, and maraschino cherries. It would be easy to play with different fruits too.

 

 

[mom11]

We did 11 pints Violet's Sweet Pickle Chunks and 17 pints corn relish today. The dehydrator is stuffed full of sliced yellow squash.

[mom11]

We've done another 9 pints bread and butter pickles, 9 pints of Violet's Sweet Pickle Chunks, 9 pints blueberry/rhubarb jam, and 11 quarts, 1 pint blueberry pie filling. The dehydrator has had two more batches of sliced yellow squash. Sunday was a busy day. We used our wood-fired canner for the first time. It was fun! This was a wonderful gift, from our dear Mennonite friends!