After owning a canner/accessories for almost a year, I finally put it to use! I became interested in home canning last fall, so Jon bought a setup for me. However, I didn't get around to using it prior to the end of the harvest last year. (Our farmers market was done by the end of October - gotta love the short Colorado season!)
So, last week I pulled it out. Last Sunday at the farmer's market I bought a box of peaches (about 55 peaches). I've now completed 3 rounds of canning: 3 quart jars of spiced peach halves, 7 half-pint jars of peach preserves, and 4 pint jars of peach butter. I also ended up with a frozen batch of peach margaritas (thanks to Jon for the yummy suggestion!), 2 frozen batches of honey peach syrup (to be used as an ice cream topping), plus a few that we ate. =)
Canning definitely has a steep learning curve. At least for me. My first attempt took like 7 or 8 hours - it was hard to get everything the right temp at the right time! (Canner, jars, lids, and actual product to be canned.) But, I learned a lot, and the next 2 times went faster. It makes me happy to have local produce stored for the winter, when it's so hard to find anything local here. I'm hoping to do tomatoes or raspberries next!
2 comments:
I want to try some peach butter! Our nectarine put out a bunch of fruit this year, but I don't have a canner, so I ended up freezing a lot of them.
We had a box of CO peaches delivered to us last week (Amy's parent sent it). They were the best food ever made.
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