2011 Canning Adventures

We have been busy canning at our house. However, I must admit that Dan has done the bulk of it. At the beginning of September it was time be creative with Peaches. I stayed out of this, since Dan's mom was in town to help. That weekend they canned peach salsa and tomato salsa. They also made peach freezer jam. After spending an afternoon in Fallon they came back with rhubarb. Dan paired this with the strawberries that his mom and dad brought with them and canned strawberry rhubarb jam. They used the left over strawberries to make strawberry freezer jam.

After they left, he continued to work his magic with peaches and canned Peach BBQ Sauce, Peach Pineapple jam, and Peach Cobbler Preserves. I think my favorite is the Peach Cobbler Preserves. Noah was Dan's big helper and managed to slip all the skins off the peaches.

Dan had a little bit of rhubarb left so he made a rhubarb crisp for dessert. He had told the kids that the leaves were poisonous and not to eat them. However, somehow this got translated into the green parts were poisonous, at least in Noah's mind. Noah had to go to bed before it was ready so Dan promised he could have some with Ice Cream for breakfast the next morning. I came out and noticed that Noah had picked over it a bit and only ate the reddish parts of the stalks as well as the crumb topping and ice cream. I asked him if he liked it and he replied, "Yes, but Dad said the green parts were poisonous so I didn't eat them." I had a good laugh. My son actually thought his Dad would put poisonous food on his plate.

A couple weeks later it was time to work magic with Pears. We canned some Pears in cinnamon syrup, pear honey, pear butter, and Pear Cranberry Jam. We also made some pear chips and pear fruit roll ups. I was able to find a nice size dehydrator in very good shape at the local thrift store. It has been worth the $6.50 investment. This time I was the big helper. We stayed up one night after the kids had gone to bed peeling pears and stirring the pear butter so it wouldn't burn. I am also the one who made pear chips. I was too excited about my find, that I had to put it to work before Dan got home. Another yummy treat we made with pears this year were Pear Pancakes. I think we were all very happy when the drawer in the fridge was finally empty. It didn't help that the pears were much smaller this year, so there were a lot more of them to peel.

Dan also put the dehydrator to use drying our tomatoes. He made me a few jars of Sun Dried Tomatoes. They have been so good mixed with cream cheese, spread on bagels.
Soon it will be time to do some pickled beets, jalapeno jelly, and green tomato goodies.