During summer season, you always have many food items fresh from the garden that you need to can in jars, and you can create jam/jelly, preserves from berries and other fruits....
Locally we have always had fresh plums, blackberries, strawberries and when travelling to Texas we purchase fresh peaches to occasionally create jam/jelly, preserves with...It is a lot of work to can/jar fresh fruits and vegetables during summer, a lot of cooking and the kitchen heats up quickly while you work over the stove top boiling!
Removing seeds from the fruits before canning is always a challenging process to get it just right!...
Black berries are the worst with the seeds!
I enjoy fresh fruit preserves, they have the fruit pieces in them, good on buttered toast bread for breakfast...enjoy all year! can/jar during summer and IF you get it just right you will have them all year to enjoy.....makes many jars depending on how much fruit you have grown, picked, saved for canning.....
Sure Jell is a wonderful help with canning/jarring, jelly/jam....Follow instructions on the boxes....great item to cook the jams/jelly with...preserves
Canning Jars that are purchased to hold/contain, preserve your jams/jelly, preserves, OR other food items like green beans that need to be canned...
I enjoy the brands---
Kerr
Mason
Ball
You will need to purchase the sealing lids and rings to go ontop of the jars/cans...You can find them at Walmart....follow instruction carefully, they have to seal perfect or they will not preserve!...Listen for the tops of your completed canning jars to go POP! and this means they have sealed correctly....it may take half a day or more to hear this...so watch them and listen....If you can press down on the top of the lid and it goes down when you press, this is not sealed right and you will have to start over soon...
many times after canning these may be difficult to open because they are sealed correctly, this is always good! Even when you purchase a glass jarred food item in a store, it is ALWAYS good when it is difficult to open...sealed correctly and those are probably vac-packed sealed jars in stores for quality/freshness...I like that...
I have helped can many different vegetables throughout the years with my family
I have helped can/jar these:
Pickles
green beans
pickled okra
relishes
tomato juice
tomatos whole
pickled jalapenos
salsa
Black-eyed peas with green snaps
strawberry jelly
Blackberry jelly
apricot preserves
Peach preserves
Grape jelly
Cherry jelly
Orange Marmalade--good on buttered/margarine toast for breakfast as are the rest of the jelly/jams, preserves....
I also enjoy these on those English breads Thomas is the brand, Nooks & Crannies...good with butter/margarine, your choice of jams, jelly, preserves....
Homemade biscuits are the best for breakfast with these also!
IF you are not able to can/jar preserves, jelly/jam my favorites to purchase that are the best tasting to being homemade are the brands---Blackburn's, and Garden Club....
There are a lot of pickling spices but so far the best one to me is a brand called Ms.Wages...it makes good pickled okra and good pickles!...I didn't get to create pickles this year, I didn't have enough space....but I will next year hopefully...
Purchasing canning jar labels that peel and stick onto the jars are always much simpler and easier to affix to the jars..Write the name of what you are canning/jarring on the labels along with the date it was canned/jarred so you will know what you have and when it was created....
Can/Jar labels brands I have used---Norpro, Sticko, Ball, Avery, or you can create them on your computer templates if you have all the machinery/gear you need to create that with...
Many times I see cute jars with cloth tops and ribbons made into ties on them, they are unique and I enjoy seeing the country charm aspect of them...old style!...I enjoy this! sometimes you will see adornments on them..or you can create this also..like the picture above...
ALWAYS remember to wash/bleach, rinse in water, then dry your glass jars before using them...The sealing lids need to be kept dry or they will not work when you begin to use them/boil them ontop the jars in a cooking pot...Be careful and follow canning instructions carefully!
julie
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