The Canning Learning Curve

I may be thirty-something years old, but this whole canning thing is new to me. No one in my family canned, and prior to this year's garden I had only made jam once or twice in all my years.

It seems as though the learning curve for canning can be quite steep. As I mentioned in an older post the first time I did pickles that required a salt soak I added it (the salt) to the recipe, and used additional slat for the soak, OOPS! I still find the directions on pickles unclear, maybe it's just my Mommy brain. Anyway, this weekend I had a couple more snafu's: I learned that tomatoes lose a lot of volume after being peeled and chopped (read as 'couldn't complete canning recipe due to lack of tomatoes'), and after following a Sweet Pickle Relish recipe to the tee I ended up with 6 half-pint jars instead of the "about 8 half-pints" it was supposed to make. Hmm.

And lets not forget all the jars of Apricot-Pepper Jelly sitting on that shelf that taste like a spoonful of cider vinegar- yuck! That was the recipe, and for once no fault of my own. (I have at least found that it makes a decent dip for breaded chicken or a tasty marinade when watered down with some canola oil), so not a total loss.

So I guess what I am asking to all you seasoned canners out there, when does this get easier? When will I stop making so many mistakes? When will I be able to throw out all of those jars of salty Zucchini Pickles and Apricot-Pepper Jelly that will never get eaten? (I just can not bear to do it right now, too much time, sweat, and money tied up in those jars!!)

Beach Crabs and Compost, CSA

Today the half share included the following:

• Jam or Bread (I chose Raisin Bread)
• 1 bunch Spring Onions
• 1 head of Lettuce
• Strawberries, 1 pint
• sm bunch of Kale (.5 lb)
• sm bunch Chard (.5 lb)

I also picked up 2 lbs of yellow and green Summer Squash @ 2/lb. The share was light this week. (Full share members had Scallions and Field Greens as well.)

Last week I cooked down the chopped Kale in a bit of Olive Oil and mixed it with some of the Sweet Onion Preserves as a pizza topping along with some locally made Feta. It is my new favorite pizza, I can't wait to make it again!!

While at the beach today I collected some seaweed and crab shells to mulch with, or add to the compost pile. I have to do some research and see which would be more beneficial. There are so many things I overlook when composting, some of which are in this list of 163 Things You Can Compost. This is one crab that won't be making it to the compost pile!

Other People's Gardens

Another post not about my garden. Hey, what else is there to do when the rain just doesn't stop and you have little to harvest? Make stuff with food from other people's gardens!

(Speaking of other people's food, my1st CSA pick-up was today: 1 head lettuce, 1/4 lb salad greens, sm bunches of kale and swiss chard, 1/2 doz. eggs, 1 kohlrabi, quart of strawberries, and cheese.)

All this dreary weather is making me think of the fall and winter months, which makes me dream of baking pies. Today I made the Blueberry Pie Filling (recipe in previous post). The recipe made 5 pints so I will do another batch soon in order to have batches frozen in 2 pint quantities, enough for 5 pies in all.

My blogger friends Erin over at Garden Now-Think Later! and EG at Engineered Gardener have been busy making blackberry jam and it has been looking yummy! So, I dug out some set aside recipes I have been wanting to try and washed up the Ball jars and got my canning on. These are the recipes I used for Sweet Onion Preserves and Jalapeno Strawberry Jam, thanks for the inspiration!!:

http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f94/sweet-onion-preserves-13516.html I substituted a mix of white wine, white balsamic, and red balsamic vinegars in place of the tarragon vinegar, and used rosemary and sage in place of the fresh tarragon.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Jalapeno-Strawberry-Jam/Detail.aspx This is all that was left of one of the jars come evening after making the jam. We all had some poured over cream cheese with crackers, and then my 2 yr old decided she was just going to go for straight for it and began eating spoon fulls right out of the jar. This recipe isn't too spicy, if you are looking for some real heat you need to kick the type of peppers up a notch. Used more hot red cherries than jalapenos but the cherries had less fire than I was expecting. Can anyone give me lessons on the world of hot peppers?

I saw these containers and thought they would be perfect for freezing individual pints of berries in.

Freezer Blueberry Pie Filling

I generally use frozen wild blueberries for pies but this is worth giving a second thought.....blueberries are such a good value at the grocer right now, those Jersey berries are a welcome treat since locally we are not in season yet.

12 C blueberries, washed, dried, and picked over
3 C sugar
1 T lemon zest
1/4 lemon juice
3/4 C corn starch

Stir together sugar and corn starch in a large saucepan. Add blueberries and stir. Leave to sit about 30 minutes/until it gets juicy. Then add lemon juice and zest. Turn stove to med. heat and cook until thickened. Store in freezer jars ( Will need 2 pints for a deep dish pie, 1 pint for a 1'). Should fill about 5 pints. Edit- I added a few good shakes of cinnamon to the sugar mix and salt to taste after it was thickened over the heat. Just a small amount of salt is needed, I did about 5 grinds of sea salt.