The Tilsons

I have a small fear of canning tomatoes.  It comes from last year’s exploding midnight tomatoes. Recall how I called this experience a canning marathon!  Hah!  HAHAHA! Naive child, so young, so sheltered.  Anyway - to make a short story longer, the tomatoes were the final leg of a canning spree, I was tired, it was midnight, and I was following the book.  Suddenly, BAAM its midnight and there are tomates in the hood of my stove, on my wall and shattered glass and tomato gunk all over the inside of my canner. This is where I procured the fear of canning crushed tomatoes. Read the complete Post.

You know that wretched feeling you get when someone mentions stewed prunes? or Prune juice?  Or Prunes even?  The terrible thought of what we fondly call “plum bum”? Well - forget it all.  (Except maybe the plum bum)  Why?  Because not only are plums the easiest things to can, but they are the most amazing tasting canned fruit, next to canned cherries of course.

My recommendation is to buy them at their peak, but everyone knows that if you canned only at a fruits peak, you would have to get them in jars during their 10 minutes of peak glory, which would inevitably happen in the middle of the night, while you were letting the cat out on a trip to the bathroom, parched and groping for a glass in the cupboard. Read the complete Post.

*Due to a complete lack of energy, the “Fruitapoluza ‘08″ posts have been dated retrospectively.  We appologize for any blogging rules we may be breaking at this time and assume no responsibility for injuries incurred while attempting to “catch up” all at once.

The great canning adventure began with Justin and I poring over a freshly posted ad on Craigslist, stating that a woman from somewhere was going up to the Okanogan and could get fruit of all kinds for anyone who needed it (Peaches, Pears, Plumbs, Tomatos, Apples).  Being that our food outside was staying green, due to the global warming of Vancouver, we decided in a fit of insanity, to STOCK UP.

100 lbs of Plums
250 lbs of Tomatos
200 lbs of Peaches
200 lbs of Apples
150 lbs of Pears… or something like that. Read the complete Post.

I have officially got the canning bug! Today I felt inspired to try a couple of new recipe ideas - thanks to the mint, lavender and rose jelly I bought my mom for christmas (and porked out on after stockings were opened). Here are the recipes:

I used the Certo box recipe for the apple jelly - note that two cheesecloth layers are enough if making a bag. Somehow the jelly clears up as you cook it. I don’t get it.
First, make a bunch of apple juice by:

1. cutting up apples in quarters, removing the stem and blossom end, and then cooking them (with water to cover).
2. Let ‘em simma for about 30 mins and then mash ‘em up with a potato masher.
3. Stick the mush in a jelly bag (or make one from cheesecloth) Then hang it precariously from a stick going across the gap between the counters. I left it all day.(This is pretty sketchy. My mom’s cherry bag broke once and they went everywhere - that stains.) I enjoy risk. (not botulism risk though…)
4. Then, the stuff you have at the end - strain it through a clean dish towel, and you’ve got juice!

For Basic Apple Jelly:

1. For Bring 7 cups of juice, 2 TBSP lemon and 1 pack certo crystals to a boil.
2. When boiling, add 9 C sugar and bring to a rolling boil for one minute ( make sure your pot is way bigger than your liquid, because the bubbles WILL boil over. They will expand like an alien species on a new planet and over take whatever pot they are in. Heck - don’t even bother trying to prevent it, just be ready with a spoon to eat it up cloth to clean it up.)
3. As it is doing this, try and get the fine white frost off as fast as you can. After a minute, turn off the heat and scrape the rest of the foam off. Should be a clear brown colour.
4. At this point, proceed with all botulism prevention methods of canning jelly (hot jars, hot lids, hot screw tops - pour in to 1/4″, wipe rim, screw top, place on towel to set)

If you want to add some flavour, try lavender or mint. For lavender I used between a 1/4 and a 1/2 C of fresh lavender flowers, crammed them in my big tea ball and put it in with step 2. Keep it in until after the 1 minute boil-overflow-thing.

For mint take 2 C of fresh mint leaves (from your garden!), wash them and put them in a bowl. Then pour 1 C of boiling water on them, cover with a plate and leave it for an hour or more. When ready, squeeze the leaves out and put 2 tbsp per cup of juice (that would be 14 tbsp in this recipe) in with the ingredients of step 2.

ENJOY~!

Like Dilly Beans, but with a T.

1. Pack 7 jars of beans, any colour, washed, ends trimmed. This will ad up to 6 when cooked.
2. Bring to a boil

   3 C Water

   3 C Vinegar (5% acid)

   3 T Canning Salt

1. Wash pint size canning jars and put in each jar

   1 clove garlic

   3-4 pepper corns

   pinch red pepper flakes

   heaping 1/4 tsp dill

1. Put the beans in the vinegar mix (brine) and bring back to a boil.
2. Pull the beans out, pack into jars and top with brine (to 1/2 inch from top), releasing any bubbles.
3. Wipe the jar, place lid on and screw top.
4. Process for 10 minutes in boiling canner bath.
5. Remove from canner, allow to cool and remove screw tops.
6. Serve after refrigerated. (best after 4 weeks of sitting)