It's That Time of Year Again!

Ah summer, the time of year when it is so scorching hot outside, the last thing you want to do is have your stove on all day...but that is what canning is about! Unfortunately, most of the lovely fruits and veggies I can are in season in SUMMER!

But is always worth it! So this summer, we got started with berries and baby cukes from a local U-Pick (the Jungle Farm) that I have used before, and then got to work! A big thanks to my lovely sis-in-law, Lisette. It made a big job much more manageable! And another big thanks to my neighbour Kayla, who came out and helped me pick! I am surrounded by amazing people!



Getting everything prepped!



I love home canning for so many reasons. I love to control what is going into my jars of deliciousness, and I love how it tastes! Not to mention I am a bit of a "Martha" and enjoy homemaking activities in general! Cooking, baking, sewing, bring it on!

So back to the canned goods:



Pickles all ready to be processed!



We are all garlic lovers in my house, so we threw in a couple extra cloves per jar-I can't wait to see how they taste! The catch with pickles is the six week wait before you can dig in. The flavours need time to make friends, or else you are just eating cukes coated in vinegar.

I also used a new pickling spice mix this year. Usually I just use the Bernardin pickle mix, which is fine, but this year I had the chance to visit Silk Road Spice Merchant in Calgary, and their pickling spice looked amazing! So we will see, come October, what difference a high quality spice mix makes! I am also considering their dried hot pepper varieties to spice up upcoming batches of salsa!

We also made a batch of raspberry jam and a batch of strawberry-rhubarb jam. I have rhubarb coming out of my ears in my backyard, so I am going to be canning it in some new ways this year!

Beauties!

I have a long list of what I would like to can this year: tomatoes, homemade ketchup, pasta sauce, salsa, rhubarb marmalade, red pepper jelly...now just to find the time to do it all!

A BIG thanks to Lisette for cleaning up my kitchen post-production!