Can much?

I caught the canning bug this year.  BIG time.

I had done some canning in the past mostly because my awesome husband Bill was a canner and we grew some stuff in our garden.  But this year I took the plunge and canned my first stuff all. by. myself.  It didn't hurt at all that I have a bangin' garden with veggies coming out of my ears.

I started out with curried summer squash relish.  This turned out pretty good; I canned 7 pints and had a little left over for the fridge.  I used the food processor for this so the veggie pieces may be a little small, but for the first time using it I can't complain too much.

Next up were the beets from the back garden.  I just love how these Chioggia beets come out looking just like a candy cane.  Aren't they so pretty?

I pickled 2 quarts and 3 pints of assorted beets.  Beets are my absolute favorite veggie to eat.  If I were to ever grow just one thing it would be beets.  Just call me Dwight Schrute!

 

 

Up next came the dilly beans.  I can't believe my dill was ready at the same time as my beans so I took full advantage and canned 4 pint jars.  I also canned 2 pints of basil beans (the same recipe as dilly beans only you replaced the dill with, you guessed it, basil).  I'm looking forward to trying this variation out this winter.

 

 

My first round of tomatos only produced a small amount so I made 3 freezer bags of salsa.  Once again I used my food processor and played around a bit with the ingredients.  The bottom bag was made with plum tomatoes and peaches.  The top bag was also with plum tomatoes but no peaches.  The medium bag had normal tomatoes and produced much more.  This is dubbed "my big ass batch of salsa."

 

 

 

 

Freezer salsa was SUPER simple to make- there was no cooking or boiling water to process anything in.   I'm looking forward to tasting the difference in freezer salsa vs conventionally canned salsa.

 

 

 

Shown here are the 2 quarts of peaches I canned in a honey syrup.  I LOVE summer peaches so I figured these ought to be pretty good.  I got the recipe from a blogger (link to come later) and can't wait to try these out.  I had leftover syrup which has been an excellent addition to my morning smoothies but better yet in a gin and tonic.

 

I pulled a bunch of carrots one morning and got 3 pints of pickled carrots.  To the right are Christmas pickles- a mixture of zucchini spears, cherry tomatoes, red peppers, garlic and assorted spices.  I imagine they're going to look gorgeous and taste pretty good come Christmas day!

I canned 5 quarts of crushed tomatoes.  I go through at least 2 cans of those a week in the winter time so these should come in really handy.  Next to the quart jars are 4 pints of sauce I made.  I neglected to pull the seeds from the plum tomatoes so hopefully they will turn out OK.  I also canned 6 quarts of dill pickles.  I'm crossing my fingers that the extra additive of pickling crisp will make these pickles snap like a Vlasic.

There are a few things I forgot to get pictures of.  I canned 12 tiny jars of lemon basil jelly.  I also got another full pint of the jelly for the fridge and have been using that in some recipes.  It's really tasty but was rather time consuming to get the right consistency.

 

I also made summer squash pickles that hopefully turned out pretty good. 

 

There are still a number of things left in my canning repertoire for this summer- more summer squash canning, a lot more tomatoes/salsa, more peaches if I can get my hands on some (dill peach pickles anyone?), as well as some jalapenos and more lemon basil jelly.  My basement is stocked like crazy and I just love going downstairs to check it all out.

 

I also have to give a shout out to Front Porch Forum.  I put a post about needing some mason jars of any size and I have been given a ton from my neighbor (thanks Penny!), some from my neighbor and coworker Missy (thanks!) and bought a few at a very reduced rate from another neighbor ($.50/jar).  Behold the power of the internet!