38 recipes and over 140 jars
01 November 2011
Well tis the end of canning season with the end of the garden. I was a good little squirrel and made over 140 jars of jellies, sauces and pickled foods from 38 recipes. Canning was fun for the most part but let me tell you sometimes after a full day of work, the last thing you want to do is start a few recipes that go until midnight. But it's all worth it (though I haven't figured it out in dollars) because you get food you wouldn't find in a store and it came from your garden. Some go for gifts, some I exchange for other recipes I didn't make, and we hope some will go with us to Mexico.
It will be good to get my kitchen table back since it's been filled with jars in multiple layers for months! I think we'll have to put in some shelves so the jars can get put out of harms way. We only lost one jar of black raz jelly (Phil was trying to be good and help clean and ended up snagging a jar with the vacuum hose), so for that I'm thankful.
Yum, Yum! Haven't tried everything yet but everything has been good so far.
You just don't realize how much supplies you use when you can. As far as I can calculate, I used over 30lbs of sugar (and I was reducing the amounts whenever possible), 2 gallons of white vinegar, over 1 gallon of cider vinegar and enough spices that I started pricing out who had the cheapest. Let me tell you McCormick is NOT a canner-friendly priced brand. But thankfully, we do have a co-op nearby that has lots of spices you can go in and weigh up your quantity and it's decently priced too. I showed Phil a few of the spices, like rose hips and chives (at $1.00/ounce) and told him that's what we have growing over there and over there. I think he's seeing the dollars in our weeds now. HA!