Baking and canning

It's been a busy week in the kitchen.  The reason is probably because the farmer's markets are overflowing the beautiful fruits and vegetables.  I with fresh fruits and vegetables were available year round.  Oh, I know some people will tell me they are available but having a watermelon that is trucked across the country is not the same as cutting into a watermelon that was picked yesterday (or this morning) and in my tummy this afternoon!  Fresh fruit tastes so much better.

Even better is getting to know the farmers and knowing what goes into my food.  Better yet, knowing what does NOT go into my food - like pesticides or other nasty chemicals.

As of this post I have made jars of jam - cherry, strawberry and blueberry.  All of the jams were made without adding extra pectin.  I've also canned countless jars of salsa, hot & mild, stewed tomatoes, applesauce, bread and butter pickles and pickle relish.

Funny thing about the pickle relish.  The recipe calls for 5 cups of sugar so I purchased a new 5 pound bag.  I moved the bag around on the counter while I was preparing the pickle relish.  It wasn't until all the jars were filled and sealed that I sat down to write the recipes in the book of recipes I'm keeping.  It was then - very late at night that I realized the bag of sugar had not been opened!  Yikes!!!  The following morning I opened all the jars, dumped the contents back into the kettle with the 5 cups of sugar and bought everything to a boil & simmered for 20 minutes again.  Early taste tests show the relish, although perhaps a bit overcooked, tastes delicious.  Da Hubbs had some on his sandwich the other night and he gave it his seal of approval.


I'm actually looking forward to this winter when we can open the jars and enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of my labor.

Side note, I canned several jars of tomatoes yesterday - all of the tomatoes in the jars came from my garden - yeah!!!