I may be somewhat absent during this time.  It seems there have been bumper crops in a variety of things.  My plans thus far?

• Bread and Butter Pickles, basic, and I may be trying both the hot and British varieties.
• Yellow Plums canned whole.
• Ketchup of various sorts.
• Plum sauce, if I dare..
• Whole peaches just right for cobblers, pies, and crumbles.
• Raspberry jelly because I have only two tiny jars left!
• Apple pies for the freezer.
• Spaghetti sauce for me.
• Hot sauce because it will be fun to make my own.
• Salsa for breakfast and as a side all year round.
• Carrots in water for when making anything roasted.
• White potatoes for the same reason as I’m canning the carrots.
• And, well, whatever else takes my fancy.

Will I make it through this list?  Who knows?  But, it will be fun trying.

If you are making jellies, jams, or such, make a comment below with your list.  If there are enough of us crazy enough to do this this year, I may even do a series of posts to allow for link-sharing of

• jellies and jams,
• pickles of any sort,
• fruits, and
• vegetables.

I can’t be the only one out there among my readers who pick up Ball’s Blue Book every year to see what they have come up with to try.

The Farmer’s Market has had tomatoes for a really good price. I couldn’t resist despite having made a ton of ketchup, BBQ sauce, etc. I decided to try a marinara sauce adaptation…

(I’m an old hand at rolling water bath canning, but haven’t used a pressure canner since I was a teen.)

Start with tomatoes, garlic, celery, and carrots.

• 12 cups of tomatoes (I use romas)
• 1/4 cup garlic
• 1 cup celery
• 1 cup carrots

Dice all of them up and place in a pot for 6 to 8 hours on lowest possible heat covered.

Once it is cooked, puree the mixture and place in another pot over low heat and add:

• 1 teaspoon marjoram
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1/2 tablespoon salt

Let simmer 4 to 6 hours on lowest setting.

Prepare canning jars and lids. If using pint jars, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to each jar. If using quart jars, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to each jar. This is to add acid.

Fill canning jars to 1/4 inch below opening. Place lids and screw tops on in preparation for pressure canner.

Place in pressure canner and bring to boil while covered. It will need to get to 10 lbs. pressure.

Once canner is at 10 lbs. pressure, wait ten minutes.

Remove canner from heat and wait for pressure to release on its own completely.

Remove pressure valve and let steam release before opening canner.

Let jars set for 2 minutes after removing lid.

Let the jars set for 24 hours before storing.

No disaster with my first ever use of a pressure canner!

I have managed to can 64 pints of pickles – and 3 quarts. I’m canning a few more right now. Well, I’m brining them. How do I do my pickles? Here is the basic recipe from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving: 400 Delicious and Creative Recipes for Today (the big book – not the smaller paperback) – with a few changes from my family’s own traditions:

10 cups of cleaned, sliced pickling cucumbers

1 cup sliced/diced onions (These should be the green type onions rather than the kind you buy in a bag.)

1 cup sliced/diced green peppers

Place them all in a stainless steel, glass, or crock type container. Mix one cup canning salt (real salt without additives, basically) in with the above ingredients.

Cover with ice and let it sit no less than 4 hours. Make sure that it stays ice cold while brining!

By morning – I usually do this right before heading to bed so it brines pretty thoroughly – you should still have ice cold water. Drain the water without rinsing the pickle mixture.

The next step is to put together the liquid and spice to cook the pickles in:

3 cups of apple cider vinegar

2 cups sugar

2 tbsp mustard seeds

1 tsp celery seeds

1 tsp ground turmeric

Put all of this together in a big pot over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Let the mixture come to a boil.

Then stir in the pickles and let them come to a boil over medium heat. Stir the mixture from time to times so nothing sticks to the bottom of your pan. The mixture looks something like this:

While you are waiting you should prep your canning jars. (I have a sanitize cycle on my dishwasher, so I put my jars in the dishwasher before starting the liquid mixture.) They should be washed and sanitized. Sanitization means boiling them thoroughly if your dishwasher does not offer this setting. Since pickles need to be hot packed, you can do this while prepping the mixture. Also prep your canning lids by boiling them for a very short time.

Remember: The jars need to be hot for packing in the pickle mixture!

Once your pickles have come to a boil once again, start packing your hot canning jars with the mixture. This can be messy if you can’t find your canning funnel. (Ask me how I know!) If, like me, you forget where your canning funnel is, using a very clean cloth wipe off the rim and outside sides of the jar. Place the lid – being careful to only touch the rim of the lid – on the jar and screw it on tightly. Wipe off the can.

Now, you should have a hot water canner with a nice rolling boil on your stove. (This sentence is why you should always read the whole recipe first.) Place the jars into the boiling water and wait for the water to come to a boil. Let the water boil for no less than 15 minutes. (This is because I am paranoid and always increase the canning time when doing hot water canning.) Once your 15 minutes is up, carefully remove the jars from the water and place on a clean towel, cover with another towel and wait for a day. You should hear a popping sound from time to time as your jars are sealing.

Now, you can do the math of how much of the various ingredients I used for 64 plus pints of pickles!

Enjoy!

Recipe based on: Traditional Bread and Butter Pickles, Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving: 400 Delicious and Creative Recipes for Today/ edited by Judi Kingry and Lauren Devine. Robert Rose, Inc. : Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 2006. p. 303