Summer Passions - Canning Season Part 1

One of my favorite things about the summertime is being able to cook with and preserve fresh and local ingredients!  Last year, we did a CSA for the first time and loved it!  (Click here for more information about our CSA, or CSA's in general.)  We chose to do a CSA instead of a big garden for the past few years because having a toddler means giving up some of your hobbies - and gardening is one that takes a lot of time and energy so I cut back in the garden quite a bit.

This year, I have carrots, radishes, potatoes, and beets going in my garden, and most of them are still growing so we will see how they turn out. Along with our own garden veggies, we have been going out to pick your own orchards, getting produce from friends, and ordering extra from our CSA in order to gather the supplies for LOTS of delicious canned goods!  

This season so far I have made the following:

 - Strawberry Freezer Jam
 - Rhubarb Conserve (Conserve is like preserves, but with citrus and nuts)
 - Pickled Radishes (various types, from our garden)
 - Green Tomato Chutney
 - Bread and Butter Pickles
 - Gingery Pickled Beets

Here is some eye candy of all of those lovelies:

Rhubarb Conserve

Bread and Butter Pickles

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Pickled Radishes

Green Tomato Chutney

Pickled Beets

We use our canned goods as gifts, and to eat throughout the winter, fall and spring!  There's something so wonderful about opening a jar of something that you have made yourself - its one of my favorite things!  Plus with our diabetic daughter, it really allows me to control how much sugar goes into what we are feeding her!

Hopefully, early next week we are going blueberry picking, and I'm definitely making more (dill) pickles as well as some jalapeno pepper jelly in the next week or two!

Do you do any home preserving?  If so, what is your favorite thing that you make?  Or what is your favorite home preserved snack that you've ever had? I definitely love a good pepper jelly with cream cheese and crackers - or some fresh dill pickles on a roast beef sandwich!  =)

Summertime CSA Goodness - Pickles Edition

Hello there readers!  I hope everyone has had a great week!  I know it has been SO great to see the sun shining in Pittsburgh!

I want to start by talking about a great decision that we have made this year - joining a CSA!  CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and it basically means that you pay for a share in the goodies from the farm's growing season!  We paid for the entire season in May, and then from June - October we get a box of fruits, veggies and herbs once a week!  It's a really great way to try things you might not pick up at the grocery store, and to support local agriculture!

Another added benefit of our particular CSA (all work a little differently) is that we can order extra or specialty items each week as well!  This is really great for me during canning season, so I can order extra fruits and veggies to preserve for the whole year!

This week I loaded up on the pickling cucumbers - they were way cheaper than the store or other farmstands would have been AND the quality was awesome.  Even when I've grown my own pickling cukes, I never got ones that were this tasty, size appropriate, and crisp:

I mean, seriously.  Aren't these beautiful?

I had about 5 pounds of cucumbers, so I broke it up to make both fridge dills and bread and butters. I divided the batch into 1.5 lbs for the bread and butters and 3.5 lbs for the fridge dills - my favorite!

I find that when it comes to dill pickles, I get the best results making short term (fridge) dills that aren't water bath canned.  Honestly, they never last too long anyway in my house because they are so tasty!  I use a Bobby Flay recipe that I originally found over at One Perfect Bite.

            Sliced cukes mixed with garlic and dill.                                        Packed pickles in the jars after an overnight brine bath.

 Beautiful jars of briny goodness.                                                     `             All ready for the fridge!        `

As for the bread and butter pickles, I find those are much better when they are water bath canned.  I don't prefer the bread and butters, but my husband LOVES them on sandwiches so I always make him a few pints!  The recipe that I use is from one of my favorite canning cookbooks, Food in Jars.  Marisa also has a website with lots of great recipes and tips!  But I really REALLY recommend buying her book -- it's a great canning resource!

                                             Bread and butters getting heated through.                                               Finished bread and butters ready for the pantry!

The quality of the cucumber that you use definitely matters - so try to go as fresh and local as you can!  Being a mom now, I don't have as much time for my garden as I used to, so I only grow certain things.  Joining the CSA has definitely helped me to continue to get some of my favorite fruits and veggies in large quantities without having to grow them myself!

Are you canning anything exciting?  Do you belong to a CSA?  I'd love to hear all about what you are doing with your own gardens this time of year!  =)  Thanks for reading!

Canning Mania!!!!

Hello readers!  So, I've been slacking on my blog again.  I'm sorry.  But I promise that hasn't meant that I've been slacking on projects!  I still have several more "Pinterest Project" ideas in the works (and a finished one that I need to post another day), but my garden has had other plans for me lately.

Our garden has exploded.  And when I say exploded, I mean it.  There was a three week period where my fridge was busting open AND our window sills/counters were just covered with tomatoes/cucumbers/peppers.  Our freezers are already busting open, so freezing things wasn't much of an option.  So I decided this year I would take on canning.

I must say that canning is a LOT easier than I thought it would be.  Don't get me wrong -- you have to be precise and do a LOT LOT LOT of reading before you start!  But once you learn all of the major vocabulary and processes, it's pretty simple to do and do well!

One site has been particularly helpful to me during this time: Food in Jars.  This lady is from PA (also my home state) and has some absolutely. fabulous. recipes.  She also has excellent tutorials and links to answer any question you could ever have!  I also just bought her book because I know that it's going to be super awesome!

So far I've canned whole tomatoes, tomato butter, dill pickle spears, and a sweet/spicy cucumber pepper relish!  None of the recipes are my own, so please follow the links if you want to try any of these.  All of them came out swimmingly and I'm super pumped to have fresh veggies all winter long!  =) Here's a few pictures of my hard work:

I've tasted the relish (and it's really delish), but I'm most excited about the pickles!  They need to keep in the jar for at least a month before they will be ready to eat!  =)

Do any of you do any home canning out there?  If so, what are your favorite recipes?  I'm wanting to try my hand at a jam or marmalade next, as well as some hot pepper vinegar that I found on pinterest!  =)

Happy holiday weekend to all!  =D