Friday Fave: I CAN do it!

For several years I'd wanted to learn the food preservation technique of canning, and this year I finally did. Although I was excited to learn, I was also pretty nervous. I thought it was going to be difficult, complex and time consuming, and that I would fail miserably and possibly poison those I love.

Well, it was time consuming, but it wasn't terribly complex or all that difficult and I have yet to make anyone ill. Yay!

Earlier in the summer I preserved cherries that my parents acquired, and recently I made pickles and relish with cucumbers grown by a neighbor, but all the rest I canned using veggies we grew in our own garden. (Oh, and my new best friend is Mrs. Wages. Her salsa seasoning and recipe (found in Wal-Mart and ACE) is amazing and so easy. Thank you to my sister Jen for introducing us. And thank you also for my large water bath canner. Happy birthday to me!)

 

Pictured here are jars of cherry jam and pie filling, regular salsa, salsa verde, spicy dilly beans, pickle relish, and a bit of prep action. Oh, and of course, Lana loved to "help." (Here she is counting out tomatoes before they became salsa. In her Mickey Mouse jammies. Because that's how we roll.)

In total, I canned about 70 jars of various sizes. To those who regularly can and put up their family's produce, 70 jars is probably laughable. But for me, well, it was a lot.

How 'bout you? How do you preserve your garden's bounty?