First up was bone broth.
Bones with about half-a-cup cider vinegar, onions, & celery. It needs a slow simmer over several days to extract minerals from the bones. |
This takes the longest so I start it first. I just toss our bones into a bag in the freezer, and later pull them out to make the broth. After they're defrosted I pick off any bits of meat I can find. It was quite a lot, actually, almost 2 quarts of a mix of chicken, chevon, duck, pork, and squirrel. Usually I use this is soups, but I think I might make another batch of scrapple with this.
Once that got going, I started in on some strawberry jam.
After that it was peach jam.
Stirring in the sugar. I'm guessing most folks would consider mine fruit spreads, because I only use about 1/3 the sugar of jelly and jam. |
This was the first time I've made peach jam. I didn't get more than a pie's worth of peaches at any one picking, so besides eating fresh pies I froze peach pies, raspberry-peach, and blueberry-peach pies. Then three quarts were gradually collected in the freezer for the jam.
I used my frozen cushaw to make pumpkin butter.
The only problem is that this one isn't good for reclaiming fridge or freezer space with this product, because it is a huge no-no to can this stuff. It must be stored in the fridge or freezer according to government safety recommendations. I reckon there's a small gain because when it's cooked down it takes up less space, and it's worth it because I love this stuff! It won't last long.
Then blueberry jam
My canning kitchen (on the back porch) is not heated so the hot jars and jam were steaming. |
I only used part of my frozen blueberries. There are still plenty in the freezer for blueberry pancakes and muffins.
Also elderberry jelly
Using a wine press to squeeze out every last drop. |
I only got about a gallon of elderberries to freeze. The birds got the rest.
Fig-orange jam was next.
Fig combines nicely with several other fruits, but we particularly like the orange-fig combination. This batch was made with my homemade apple pectin, so I'm cooking it down in my slow cooker. |
Last up was raspberry jelly.
Love this cheerful color. |
I didn't get quite enough juice for a batch of jelly so I mixed the raspberry with apple juice for the jelly. The raspberry flavor predominates, however, and it is so good.
This year's cold weather canning efforts. |
Does that seem like a lot of jelly and jam? It's definitely more than a year's worth, but we had such a good fruit harvest that I took advantage of it. Also, one of our favorite breakfasts is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with toast. So all that jam and jelly will be put to good use.
I did my pizza sauce last October, so that wraps up my cold weather canning for this winter.
Cold Weather Canning © January 2017