Stocking Up

Last weekend Kristoffer and I decided to break out our preserving book and put some stuff up for the winter. We are thinking of this summer as our "apprenticeship" of canning. Kim and Terry have been doing it for many years and have all of the tools necessary, so while we are living with them we are watching and learning some of their tricks...like putting Crisco around the pressure canner.

Kim is a master gardener and this spring he let Kristoffer pick out a few different things that we would want in the garden too. We were amazed when we saw how many jalapeno plans there were and the different varieties he planted. However, we realized a little too late that they weren't all jalapenos...the long, curly ones are actually salsa peppers. So instead of putting up some jalapeno poppers, we just halved, seeded and froze those to make some yummy salsa when the tomatoes are ready.


Next up was the basil. We have lots of basil!! We love making dishes with pesto, but we can only eat so much pesto at one time.

So we mixed up a big batch and put it in the freezer for later!

The last thing we made was something a little more exciting and new! We canned our very first thing...raspberry jam!! We (Kim) have a very large raspberry patch, and we have always wanted to can something. While Kim and Terry were gone we took over the kitchen (literally, not one more thing could fit on that stove) and took our turn at canning.

We ended up with 12-4 oz jars and 5-8oz jars. We are hoping to be able to make a bit more later this summer.

Good thing I know 2 little boys and 1 big boy who love jam!!

Now to figure out what to do with all of the squash...