The results of my weekend of canning

It was a busy weekend, but when you can look at your harvest and see what you did, it makes it all worth it.

The end results of my weekend's canning efforts are:
4 quarts of tomato sauce
7 quarts of dill pickle spears canned plus 1 quart of refrigerator dills (they are so much crunchier in the fridge and not canned, but I don't have the room for more than a quart or two here and there).
7 pints of relish
10 pints of french green beans (plus 1 pint that didn't seal that we already ate for dinner).
10 jars of grape jam

I didn't get to the apples yet and I have grape pulp that I need to freeze, but I think I did pretty good.

Pictures from my harvest kitchen!

It is going to be a busy weekend in my harvest kitchen. The day has just begun and I already have many things in progress. It is appropriate to call this weekend Labor Day because it will all be about labor for me!

A pot of tomato sauce is cooking down to the right consistency for canning. I picked the tomatoes from the garden yesterday and started processing them right away - the sauce wasn't thick enough when I went to bed last night so I put it in the fridge overnight and put it back on this morning. It just doesn't get much fresher than this!

Ingredients all cut up for a batch of relish. I ran out of relish and had to buy some this past year so I will probably be making two batches this year (or giving less away). The store bought just isn't as good as mine.

Fruit ice cubes. This is just pureed fruit frozen in ice cube trays. I process it and sweeten it to taste before making the cubes. I store the cubes in freezer bags in the freezer. I mostly use them to make smoothies. These are from the last of my currants. I plan on making some from raspberries and grapes this weekend. I love a mixed fruit smoothie with a little soy yogurt added in.

Thursdays are becoming Tomato Thursday

I seem to be processing tomatoes every Thursday - not sure how I picked that day of the week - funny how that happens!

This week I made tomato sauce


I had so many tomatoes this week they filled up both my 12 quart and 8 quart stock pots! I cooked them a little to make them softer so they go through the food strainer easier.


After they went through the food strainer I had about 10 quarts of juice to cook down.


I like to make my sauce a little thicker than what you buy in the store - I reduced it by more than half.


The finished product. You do want to add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to each pint before processing in a boiling water bath for 40 minutes. I like to make a variety of sizes based on the recipes that I know I will use it in. I will use most of it over the winter for Chicken Chili - so I used the 24 oz. jars for the majority of the sauce.