Saturday, September 22, 2012

How This Working Mom Gets Her Canning Done


Last night the girls and I spent our Friday evening canning pears.  We did the peaches on Wednesday because they couldn’t wait.  We canned a total of 20 pints of peaches and 18 pints of pears.  We lost one jar of peaches when it broke in the canner.  I think I over packed it.  Dang it!  I ran out of pint jars so I stopped canning pears and we will be making the rest into jam.  Not quite enough left for pear butter but enough for jam. 

As a working mom I have found through trial and error the best way to get things done is in smaller increments.  I can smaller batches of fruit and I try not to do it all on the same day.  Sometimes ripening fruit can ruin the best of plans but for the most part it works out. 

I do try to plan ahead a little bit.  On Wednesday morning I knew I needed to can those peaches that evening so before I went to work I loaded the jars and rings into the dishwasher and ran it so they would be clean and sterile when I got home.  I also set everything out we needed to use to get the job done.  As soon as supper was finished we were ready to rock and roll. 



Having my helpers makes it much less of a task than it used to be.  I absolutely love the fact that they can actively participate and I appreciate their help tremendously.  They even help with the clean up afterward!  I’m a lucky Mom! 

We all take turns peeling and slicing fruit, making sugar syrup, filling jars and putting on the lids and rings.  While the first batch processes in the canner we clean up the majority of the mess.  While the rest of the jars process we do other tasks and put away the air dried dishes. 

One batch out, one batch in and one batch waiting.

I wait until the next morning to remove the rings and wash the jars.  I want them to be completely cooled.  Once the jars are all dry then I write the date on the lids and put the fruit away in storage. 

The pears after this mornings bubble bath.

Today I will make up the pear jam and then our canning will be officially complete for the season.  I’ll be able to get all the canning equipment put away in the garage too.  I have to admit I am really looking forward to getting that box of canning supplies off of the top of the refrigerator. 

I still have tomatoes to preserve but they will be stewed and then bagged and frozen.  I will be grating up some zucchini too. 

So far we have canned: 

12 pints salsa
10 half-pints rhubarb jam
3 pints bread & butter pickles
20 pints of peaches
18 pints of pears 

Plus 10 pints of raspberries in the freezer 

We still have some pears, peaches, applesauce and zucchini relish leftover from last year.  We’ll use those up first before we eat this year’s bounty. J  We are not huge fruit eaters so this is plenty for us.  Add the fresh fruit we plan to buy – bananas, oranges and apples - and we’ll be in great shape.

1 comment:

  1. I love other peoples' housekeeping details, especially canning!

    (I usually put my sealed jars away without washing them first! Too lazy. I just wash them a jar at a time when I bring them up from the basement)

    ReplyDelete

Your kind comments are always appreciated. I love hearing from you.

**Note: Comment Moderation has been turned on due to spam.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...