Tags
canning, jam, jelly, kitchen, vegetables
Confession: I’ve never considered myself to be a fan of jam or jelly. Oh, I like a good PB&J just as much as the next person, and there’s nothing like toast with some lemon curd or apple butter smeared on it. But jam? I just don’t eat it that often.
So what the hell was I doing this morning, canning three different types of jams and jellies? Apparently, I don’t like STORE-BOUGHT jams. Homemade jams turn out to be the bomb.
Without further ado, then, here is the July canning report – heavy on the sweets.
July:
- Cinnamon Blueberry Jam (9 4-oz. jelly jars) – With a healthy infusion of cinnamon and cloves, this jam smelled divine while it was cooking – almost like summertime Thanksgiving. The recipe came from a booklet Chris’ aunt and uncle sent us as a housewarming present: a canning magazine from Taste of Home.
A little army of jams.
- Garden Herb Blueberry Jam (2 jars) – Can you tell we came into a LOT of blueberries recently? Five pounds for $10 at the store! We froze a lot for the chickens, we’ve eaten a lot, and there was still plenty of room for jam. I used the same recipe as above but used dried basil, oregano, and rosemary from the garden in place of the cinnamon and cloves. Muy interesante, si?
Those little stick-looking things in the jam are rosemary… I hope.
- Rosemary Jelly (3 half-pint jars) – I love incongruous flavors, so when I saw this recipe (minus the green food coloring, that is), I knew I had to try it. And, OHMYGOODNESS, it is so so good, y’all! It’s sweet, a little tangy, with a warm spicy rosemary undertone.
Rosemary jelly sans insane green food dye.
Fancy Saturday Breakfast: English muffin, cream cheese, and rosemary jelly.
- Tomato Sauce (1 jar) – This was my first attempt at tomato sauce. I was a little disheartened to see how many tomatoes it took to make just one jar of somewhat watery sauce! I will keep trying, though. I’m thinking this stuff might actually make a delicious bloody Mary!
- Easy Pickles (3 jars) – Since I didn’t really have enough cucumbers on hand to do full-blown pickles (and it was so stinking hot I couldn’t imagine getting the water bath canner going), I gave an easy refrigerator pickle recipe a try. This was also from the Taste of Home; can you see a pattern here?
My first jar of something resembling tomato sauce (and some more pickles).
- Hot-Cumin Pickled Summer Squash (4 jars)
- Turmeric Refrigerator Pickles (4 jars)
June:
- Bread and Butter Pickles (4 jars)
- Honeyed Green Hot Peppers (2 jars)
- Pickled Beets (2 jars)
- Classic Pickle Spears (3 jars)
I had no idea what I was missing until I made jam this year. Store bought jam just does not compare. We’ve eaten an entire jar in a week! I really wish I had made more strawberry.
I love seeing all your canning recipes. So inspiring!
It’s really quite amazing! It turns out that I really love jam. I just put another jar of the blueberry/garden herb stuff in the fridge, and I’ve been chowing down on the rosemary jelly. I think I’m going to make a bunch more of that for Christmas gifts – such a unique jelly!
Agreed! Store-bought jam doesn’t begin to compare to homemade. Every three or four years is a “jam year” for me. We get a bumper crop of raspberries, and I make a crap load of jam to store in the pantry. Gonna have to try that rosemary jelly – yum.
MMMM… raspberry jam. YUM. The rosemary jelly is seriously awesome – sweet, but with a rosemary kick that just brings it to a whole other level.
I might need to scour the produce section and farmers markets soon to see if I can get any more deals on fruit to jelly! I was weirdly intimidated by the whole thing, but with enough pectin, I think I couldn’t fail.