'Tis the Season....Canning Season That Is!!

Before I was even married and had kids, one of my "fairytale" ideas of being a stay-at-home mom was that I would learn how to make bread, jams, jellies, and can (bottle) fruit. I have very fond and vivid memories of seeing my mother and grandmother bottle peaches that came off my uncle's orchard in Mexico.

Well, that tiny fairytale idea of mine is coming true. I took advantage of my Mom being here and her knowledge to help me while Adam recovered. We bottled peaches, apples, applesauce and yams. My food storage is busting with all of these jars and I love it! I got 11 quarts of apple slices, 7 quarts and 1 pint of applesauce and 2 1/2 pints of yams.



I learned a hard lesson with the peaches. I had them all pitted and peeled the night before I bottled them. Even had fruit fresh sprinkled on them as well. But, because there were so many (32 lbs. worth) I had to put them into pots with lids on them. Well, the fruit fresh reacted with the stainless steel pot I had them in and turn 3/4 of the pot brown, just on the outside of the peach. I didn't want to chance it so I had to throw out that much of the pot. Of course and ideally, it is better to do it all in one day, but I couldn't because Adam was in the hospital at the time of the peaches and I couldn't leave that much for just my mom to do. So, in the hopes of "getting ahead" I actually lost quite a bit. I'll never do that again.

In my pantry I have bottles of Rainier cherries, apples, peaches, applesauce, yams, strawberry jam. I love how pretty it all looks but even more I love how I have saved my family that money!