I spent most of the evenings last week canning 50 lbs. of peaches and spiced peach jam, and I am exhausted. Canning is hard work! I cannot imagine how my grandparents, who are in their late 70s, still can peaches, pears, green beans, salsa, pickles, and various other produce items from their garden each year. Maybe I'm just a wimp. But the sweet peach halves in the middle of winter make it worth all the hours on my feet, getting splashed with boiling hot water.

A friend of mine complained the peaches she canned a couple of years ago didn't turn out--they had discolored and didn't taste good. So she asked if she could come watch me this year. I was thrilled to have some help, until I remembered that I can at night. I'm talking after 10:00 people, which means I'm not usually done until after midnight (or later!). It's too hot during the day, and I have to wait until my kids are in bed. Too many distractions otherwise.

Since she's not a crazy nocturnal canner like me, she asked if I'd post the process here. I'm thinking there are a few more of you out there who would love to try canning peaches, but don't know where to start. Well here you go. It's really not difficult, just time-consuming. And scorching, but don't let that deter you! It's kind of like hot glue gun burns. They are the curse of the crafter, but you get over it pretty quickly for the end result.

Canned Peaches Tutorial

Ingredients:
Ripe peaches (2-3 lbs. per quart)
Sugar
Water
Fruit Fresh or other powder fruit preservative

Equipment needed:
Clean quart canning jars
NEW matching canning lids
Canning lid rings
Water bath canner
Magnetic lid wand
Jar tongs
Funnel
Large pot
Small pot
Non-metal spatula

Before I do anything else, I always fill my canner with water (about 3/4 of the way) and put it on a burner on high heat. It takes a while to boil, so you might as well get started now!

The next very important step that I don't have a picture for is to heat/sterilize your jars. I put mine in the top rack of the dishwasher and run a sanitize cycle with heated drying. This will heat the jars so they won't crack, and clean them so no bacteria will be in with your peaches. I leave them in the dishwasher until I'm ready to pull one out so they'll stay hot.

Next, wash your peaches. I start with a small group of about six at a time.


In your large pot, heat some water to boiling. Drop about three peaches in the hot water for about 60 seconds. While these are blanching, wash your next six peaches.



Remove the peaches and submerge in cold water. I add ice cubes to my bowl of water so it will stay cold (the hot peaches warm it up after a few). You'll have to add more ice after every 2-3 batches.


Gently slip off peel with your fingers. If it doesn't come off easily, you may not have blanched it long enough. Put skinned peaches in a large bowl. Discard peels in another bowl.


I like to put the next three peaches in the hot water while I skin the previous three.
If you're doing a large batch like I did, sprinkle the peaches with some Fruit Fresh now.


With a knife, cut the peaches in half along the indentation.


Pull out your pit and scrape out any fibrous flesh with a spoon.


If you have pits that are broken in half, use a spoon to dig each half out.


After slicing about six peaches, I sprinkle them with more Fruit Fresh to keep them from browning and preserve the flavor.



Make a syrup from water and sugar. You can do a light, medium, or heavy syrup, but I always do light. My measurements are 2 1/4 c. sugar to 5 1/4 c. water, which makes 6 1/2 c. syrup. I usually make 3 batches for my 24 lbs. of peaches, but start with smaller increments if you aren't sure how much you'll need. Heat them in a large pot until the sugar is dissolved. Keep it hot.


Layer peach halves with the pit cavity side down. This could possibly the hardest part of canning. Those darn halves want to fall in cavity side up every single time, and it can be hard to turn them over with a spatula with these narrow-necked bottles. But it is important to help prevent bubbles. Leave at least 1/2" headroom from the top of the last peach to the top of the rim of the jar.


Using a funnel, ladle hot syrup over peaches. Fill to 1/2" headspace between top of syrup and rim of the jar.


Take a spatula (non-metal) and put it in the jar, pressing against the peaches around the perimeter of the jar. This will release air bubbles and is very important to ensure your food is safely stored.


10. With a wet cloth, wipe off the rim and sides of the top of the jar. This is important to ensure proper sealing of lid.


11. Oh yeah. Before you start ladling syrup, heat some water in a small pot and put your NEW lids (not last year's) in to soak.


12. Using your magnetic lid wand, lift a lid from the pot and place it on the jar.


Screw a lid ring on tight.


If you have a wire rack that came with your canner, suspend it over the boiling water and put bottles on it.


Once you have a group of bottles (my canner fits about 7 quart jars at once), lower the rack into the boiling water. Cover and boil for 30 minutes. Remember, your water should completely cover your jars by 1-2". If it doesn't, add more water and wait for the water to return to a boil before staring your timer.


Being extra, super careful, use lid tongs to remove bottles from canner and place on a dish towel on the counter. Pretty soon you will begin to hear the lids "pop" or "ping" loudly. This tells you the seal is good and your peaches are ready to store. If you don't hear a ping after 24 hours (and you can press down the center of the lid and it pops back up), refrigerate and use your peaches soon. I only had one bottle out of 25 that didn't seal.

Enjoy the fruits of your labor all year long. Ahhhhhh. . .

This week I went raspberry picking with some friends and we picked the most gorgeous, voluptuous berries I have seen. I couldn't stop picking because I kept finding more beauties.

I brought them home to their death by food processor and whipped up some of my favorite jam. I found this recipe last year in the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. In the book it is called Berry-Cherry Jam, but I always call it triple berry jam even though I'm pretty sure that cherries aren't even a berry. My favorite part about this jam is it is low sugar. You really just taste fruit and I love that. I have used raspberries in place of the strawberries, and also have swapped the amounts of cherries and strawberries. Put in the most of whichever fruit you like, just keep the overall measurements the same. This recipe makes 3 pint jars, but usually I double the recipe below so I have 6 pints.

Triple Berry Jam
by Ball
1 quart strawberries
1/2 pint sweet cherries
1/2 pint blackberries
1 cup water
1 package no sugar needed powdered pectin

Wash fruit. Drain. Stem and crush strawberries. Pit and crush cherries. Combine strawberries, cherries, blackberries, water and pectin in a large saucepot stirring to dissolve pectin. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add sweetener according to package pectin guidelines if desired. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. If gel starts to form before 1 minute, remove from heat. Ladle hot jam into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch head space. Remove air bubbles, adjust 2 piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.

I just picked up my first fall order of apples last week and it didn't take me long to jump right in on the canning and baking. I love fall...and as soon as I start canning apples it really begins to feel like fall! Everyone in our family loves snacking on apples, but we definitely like our baked apple goods as well. I thought I would share some of these favorite recipes with you.



The first thing I made was some canned apple pie filling. I used the recipe found here. You can't beat fresh apple pie all year round. It makes my house smell so yummy and festive. And these make great gifts for friends and neighbors.



Next up was a delicious recipe I got a few years ago from my mother-in-law. It seems like it is the first dessert that has to be made every time we get apples each year.

Autumn Apple-Chocolate Cake
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 T. cocoa
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup soft butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup water
1 cup chopped nuts, optional
2 cups grated apples
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan. In medium bowl mix together all dry ingredients. In another bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time and beat for one minute each. Add water and blend well. Gradually add flour mixture and beat until fluffy. Fold in nuts, apples, chocolate chips and vanilla. Spoon into pan. Bake about 1 hour. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.



I also found this recipe for Easy French Apple Dessert Squares on the eat better america site. They look delicious and you can't beat the fact that they are a bit more healthy too. I will definitely be adding this to my recipe collection.

Lastly, I whipped up a free-form apple tart. I had never tried it before, but it sure was spectacular.

Free-Form Harvest Apple Tart
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, divided
1 (4 serving) package lemon gelatin, divided
2 medium apples, unpeeled cored and sliced, and thinly sliced
1 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup sliced almonds

Place flour, butter, and 1/2 of cream cheese in food processor. Cover and process using pulsing action until mixture is well blended and almost forms a ball. Shape dough into a ball and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 1 hour until chilled. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out pastry to a 14 x 8 inch rectangle. Place on a parchment covered baking sheet. Set aside. Mix remaining cream cheese and 1/2 of dry gelatin mix until well blended. Spread onto pastry to within 2 inches of edges. Toss apples with remaining gelatin mix, cornstarch, and cinnamon. Spoon evenly over cream cheese filling. Fold edge of pastry over apples toward center of tart. Apples in center will remain exposed. Sprinkle top with almonds. Bake in lower 1/3 of oven 35 minutes or until crust is golden and apples are tender. Cool. Store leftovers in fridge.



Now that you have seen all these delicious apple recipes, I am sure your mouth is watering for some. So go pick up some apples and get started. Enjoy your apple season!

Had enough canning info from us this week? Sorry, we've got another one. Pickles!

We found some pickling cucumbers at a local fresh fruits and vegetable stand and couldn't pass them up. Following a recipe found here, we bottled them with mustard seed, dill, garlic, and a vinegar solution.

While we sterilized our jars in the dishwasher, we washed and cut up the cucumbers. We then boiled up a vinegar, pickling salt and water solution. We added a little bit of pickling spices to our solution until we were happy with the flavor.



Next, we added mustard seed, dill, and garlic to our jars and then packed in our cucumbers. Then we poured in our vinegar, salt, and water to the bottles. Aren't they beautiful?



After all of our jars were full of pickled goodness, we processed in a water bath canner per the recipe's instructions.



These are so great to have on your shelf for winter or summer. Think about how good they'll taste on next summer's burgers!

I have been a canning maniac this month. Not that I've had time for any of it. I've stayed up until the wee hours of the night washing, skinning, slicing, boiling. . . Sometimes I forget how much work canning really is when I'm ordering huge boxes of summer fruit. Usually the deal through our group buy is just too good to pass up. Like 25 lbs. of peaches for $7.50. Seriously, how could I not can this year? It's been a marathon push, but with only 24 lbs. of pears to go, I think I can can a little more!

Out of this crazy canning spree the Three Birdies have collectively canned cherry pie filling, apricots, raspberry jam, strawberry jam, plum sauce, peaches, peach pie filling, salsa, pizza sauce, and more. And Jessica even used her dehydrator to make some yummy fruit leather! As tired as I get of spending countless hours on my feet in a steamy kitchen, you can't beat the taste of home-canned fruits in the dead of winter. That's really why I do it. It really makes me and my family happy.





This simple fresh veggie salsa was really good, but it would've been a lot easier if I had a food processor (what a great Christmas gift that would make--hint, hint, Christian). Chopping all those vegetables by hand took for-ever!


These are my half-pints of pizza sauce. I found the recipe at recipezaar.com. This was really easy and the half pints are just the right size for two homemade pizzas! I'm also loving the new silver lids and rings from Ball. Look how cute the design is on the top of the lids!


And these new jar shapes (also from Ball brand) are so cute for jam. Just add a ribbon and a tag and they're ready for gifting!


I'll be canning these sweeties tonight. I mostly just do quarts, but last year I also tried Ball's recipe for pear butter. It's yummy on toast or English muffins.



Last year we told you about Stacy's awesome peach pie filling, but she couldn't find the recipe! It disappeared for a while, but we finally found a copy of it online and can finally share it with you. I made up a batch and prettied-up the jar for a thank-you gift. Super easy and sweet. Just layer patterned paper on coordinating card stock and wrap it around the jar. I used Tacky Tape or Glue Dots to secure it. Then tie a pretty bow and attach a coordinating tag. I also traced the inside of the ring on patterned paper and cut it out and adhered it to the top.




So, without further ado, here is a link our beloved peach pie filling recipe. It comes to you from PickYourOwn.org, a wonderful pick-your-own produce guide and canning resource. They are wonderful--so much good info on their site. I made pie-in-a-jar with this filling this week, and man was it delish! So good that my husband and I each had a half-pint of pie for breakfast. (I know, we're terrible, but it was THAT good.)

Canning is a wonderful skill to have--it helps us to be self-sufficient and frugal. We're lucky enough to have friends, family, and a church organization that have taught us these skills, but if you don't have these resources, there are tons of books and Web sites that offer step-by-step instructions for all types of canning recipes. We especially recommend the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. It's a good canning "bible." If you haven't tried canning but would like to, we suggest starting small--watch for bulk orders from your local farmers and try at just one type of fruit this year. Have any canning accomplishments you'd like to share? We're always looking for new ideas, so share it with us in the comments!

It's been a lot of work, but I love breathing a sigh of accomplishment as I stack my jars in the pantry, ready and waiting for a crisp winter day. I think I'm going to make myself a little present after the pears are done to congratulate myself on all that hard work. Can you guess what it will be?