Summer Canning Begins ~ ~ ~

Today was the first day of our canning!  Mmmm ~ strawberry season is right on track this year to be spectacular!  We live half way between Santa Maria and the Salinas areas where most strawberries are grown.  Which means great big, sweet berries are plentiful and very inexpensive!  Four pounds for $5 of giant, sweet strawberry's!!  

These are 4 pound packages, so you can see how large they are, no green, even on the very bottom tips.  They are field ripened and just as sweet as can be.  The eight pounds we put up today we had 2 berries that spoiled, 7 that were a bit too bruised for the jam, so we just ate them, and the rest - well they cooked up to 7 pint jars, and 1 half pint jar!

I thought there would be more ~ you too?  Well, I forgot a pint does take a pound of fruit. We got to taste a bit left on the bottom of the pot - oh yummyness heaven!!

Today we made a double batch at once.  Holy strawberries did that take a long time to bring to a boil!  Normally I do half pint jars because I gift so many (one year I even made 1/2 CUP sizes - total waste of a good jar and time!)  So tomorrow - I have 18 half pint jars to do!  

I'll make one batch at a time to speed up the process.  I know - it does sound backward.

So, what about you?  Do any of you can your own veggies or fruit?  Do you make jams or jellies?  I'm growing lots of beets, hoping to can those this year!

Oh my gosh!!  I just remembered!!  For Christmas, our youngest son and daughter in law bought us a food dehydrator and I think it's time to crack the box and learn to make fruit roll ups, or dried fruit!  Oh yum - now I can hardly wait for mangoes to come in to season!  Dried mangoes are just soooo, so so good!  As a matter of fact, mango jam, roll ups - frozen. 

Oh my, I'd better get going - I need to get the dehydrator how to book out and read it in bed tonight!  So, nightie night!

Blessing to all!

Hugs,

Donna