[bettyearl]

Do any of you bottle fruit or anything? I've gotten some good deals on peaches and tomatoes so I canned Salsa and Jam so far and will be canning about a 30 quarts of applesauce in the next few days. It is so exhausting, and I know some people really enjoy it. Maybe I'll enjoy it more when Matthew isn't potty training, and getting out every game in the closet or getting into the sugar, etc. while I'm trying to do the long hours it takes. My laundry has taken a direct hit as well, unfortunately and generally I'm just feeling zapped from a super long cold that's been hanging on about 3 weeks. Now Matthew looks like he's catching it.

[sugary~snails]

I dont can..but my nanny does..and I love canning with her

Sophia is driving me to distraction as well..and anthony is starting to follow her around grabbing things she misses..It has been an overall exhausting month

[bettyearl]

I'm so there with the exhaustion. Hearing Celry talk about how tired she is makes me glad for her and worry for me, ha!

Anyone doing any corn mazes or pumpkin patch stuff with their LO's this year?

[DawnC]

No canning here, haven't the faintest clue how or why to do it? LOL! Ok, I know WHY some people do it, but we don't eat anything "canned" other than jam, and Grandpa makes it for us 'cause my kids won't eat anything else!! As for fruit, we only eat fresh and veggies the same if available. Kudo's to you guys that go to the trouble though!!

No corn mazes or pumpkin patches up where I live and I remembered too late when we were down in the city. I also didn't have the appropriate footwear for the kids either.

Hmmm...just saw a commercial for the new Footloose...must see if it measures up to the first. Doubt it

[Celry]

I wish I knew how to can. We got a great deal on a bunch of tomatoes and have this old contraption from the 60s that spits the nice stuff out one end and the bad junk out the other. We cranked the tomatoes through that and then I froze some and cooked a ton of sauce and froze that for easy meals. We have a pressure thing for the stove for canning from DH's grandma, but we've never used it.

[sugary~snails]

I am off to google the new footloose movie..I am a little scared after the dirty dancing havana nights situation.


My gramma always does pickles...she used WAY TO MUCH SALT..but I still eat them..I just pucker with every bite

[M-E-M's mom]

I have never canned nor have I ever had anything that was (home) canned, Not that i don't want to, just never had the chance.

The new footloose movie looks pretty good I think, Of course it will never be the same. It doesn't have Kevin Bacon in it so it loses point there right off that bat!! LOL

I have the cold the kids all had last week. I'm thankful they are better, but I hate that they get over it in 2 days, and i'm more like 2 weeks!

[bettyearl]

this old contraption from the 60s

Those are INCREDIBLY time saving!! I'm going to borrow one - A Vitorio Food Strainer - from my son's teacher to help me get through all the apples. You can buy them still, but the old ones are much better than the new ones.

I have never canned nor have I ever had anything that was (home) canned, Not that i don't want to, just never had the chance.

I can't tell you how sad that makes me feel! I seriously want to send you a jar of jam or something lol! Some home canned stuff I've not grown to appreciate - like grape juice or tomatoes straight out of the jar. My mom likes canned tomatoes with some sugar on them - yuck! but... I can see the value of it to use in Sauces and things. To make canning worth it you either have to grow the produce yourself or get a great deal on it in bulk from a farmer's market or just "know" someone to buy things from.

Once you get the set up, the cost is minimal through the years. It just takes a lot of time. I will probably buy one of those vitorio strainers from ebay used - an old model 200 before next canning season.

[Northern.Mom]

My grandmother used to can stuff and I honestly never liked the taste of anything that was canned. I much prefer fresh stuff but I definitely appreciate the economicality (totally invented that word) of canning.

We seeded over the garden that was here when we bought the house. The previous owner rented out this house and the neighbor across the alley tended the garden. We agreed to leave the garden for him to harvest but after we moved in he sort of abandoned it - I think he might of felt awkward coming into our yard to take his tomatos and potatos. haha. I've got a pink thumb so I can't grow stuff and once the weeds started to take over and mosquitos invaded I steered very clear of that garden plot. Now, its lovely beautiful grass and our trampoline is on top of it.

Now don't even get me started on how nasty the produce is where I live..... makes me wish I was garden inclined........ also we have hardly any organic selection and what we do have is insanely expensive. We buy a lot of frozen food.

[DawnC]

I have 6 kids here today. SIX.

That is all.....

[marriedtoamountie]

I can't stomach the taste of storebought salsa. It's flavourless and gross!!

I totally agree though, I've had plenty of bad canning... but I think it's like cooking, you need a good one to enjoy the food!

My DH and Abby LOVE canned peaches. I think they taste like summer I don't do many jars, but I do about 10 quarts for the winter.

We've been trying to 100-mile diet... which didn't work as our geographical position isn't perfect, so we've been trying to do Canada grown. I'd much rather feed the kids fresh canned fruit from Canada than sprayed tasteless garbage from Peru or Mexico.

So we did Salsa this year. I did regular jam and some freezer jam. I canned some peaches, and froze about 15lbs. I froze a whole 1/2 freezer of fruit actually. (LOVE that my parents are in orchard country). My dad just sent us 100lbs of apples. So I'll do 40lbs into Applesauce and I'm going to try canning some piefilling. Then the other 60lbs go into coldstorage here and we'll have fresh apples almost all winter

I have a case of the last of our fresh tomatoes and I'm going to try to can spaghetti sauce. I froze a bunch, but I want to see the flavour difference....

[Mami]

I so want to can but would know where to start.
Any website suggestions?

[bettyearl]

I so want to can but would know where to start.
Any website suggestions?

If you have something you want to can, start here:
Canning 101 and Strawberry Jam (Part 1) | The Pioneer Woman Cooks | Ree Drummond

Also, once you know the basics (like the types of canning and which foods need to be processed which ways) you can simply type in "applesauce for canning" and you'll be showered with different recipes. The best part is, once you know how to follow the safety "rules" you can do what you want. And there's no need to can anything you don't love.

[bettyearl]

I got all my canning done!! Yea! It takes forever and I'm never 100% sure why I call myself sane when I'm doing it, but throughout the year I'm glad to see the jars on the shelf.

[sugary~snails]

One day I will jar. I do however have a few cans of pickles and ham coming by way of my gramma. Chummy!!