Canning

I've really been trying to preserve a lot of the fresh veggies and fruits that have been available to us so that we can enjoy more throughout the year.  Already this summer I have canned 2 quarts of salsa. Today at the Farmer's Market I got more jalapenos, pickling cucumbers, bread, and blueberries.  Once we got home, it was nap time for the boys. I took advantage of that and started my canning while they napped.

First, I started with pickled jalapenos. I got 16 jalapenos today at the market and had some at home already from our own garden.  I stemmed them and took out many of the seeds, then sliced them and put them in the pint jars.  I then added the hot brine to cover and placed them in a hot water bath for about 20 minutes. This is the recipe that I used for the jalapenos.  I think they turned out great, but it says to let them pickle for about 5 weeks before opening. It's going to be a looong 5 weeks!  I took this picture right after I added the hot brine, but before I placed them in the hot water bath.  The jalapenos do settle back down to the bottle once they have cooled.  I gave a jar of these to my father in law, because he too shares in my love for spicy things!

While the jalapenos where bathing away, I started on the blueberry preserves. I absolutely love blueberries and have since I was a child. But they always seem to go bad so fast. Meijer was having a sale for 2 lbs of blueberries for $3.99, so I got them with the intent to preserve them.  I mashed the entire 2 lbs in a large sauce pan, then added lemon juice, pectin, and sugar.  Once it had thicken slightly, I ladled the preserves into pint jars.  I also gave them a hot water bath for about 10 minutes. I used this recipe. A friend of mine made some earlier this summer and just gave me a jar today. We opened it for dinner tonight and it was awesome!!!

I had planned on making the pickles tonight, but we had a storm roll through around 7pm and it knocked the power out for about 2 hours.  By the time it came back on and I got the kids to bed, it was nearly 10pm. I just wasn't up for chopping. Oh well, I can get to them tomorrow.

So, total I canned 4 pint jars of jalapenos and 4 pint jars of blueberry preserves. My inlaws also brought over a whole truck load of fresh sweet corn that my father in law picked today. I can't wait to eat it! Last weeks batch was YUMMY! There's nothing like some Indiana sweet corn fresh from the fields.