Domestic Goddess

Ok, maybe a little too much for a title, but I am feeling quite "domestic" and slightly boastful at the moment :)

It was my goal this summer to learn how to can. Lacking the materials and the know how, I was intimidated and didn't know where to start. There was a big sale on jars a couple of weeks ago and I bit the bullet and bought a couple of boxes along with a very large canning pot. I figured I would stick with the peaches and the pears since I knew my friends did those and I could have them teach me. Then I got an e-mail saying there was an orchard that had collected insurance money on its cherries, they couldn't sell them so you could go pick as many as you wanted for free. I wasn't going to go, but Marc encouraged me to, especially since it would be a fun experience for the kids. We found as many buckets with handles as I could find and ventured out to go cherry picking.

 

The kids were so excited, they could reach the bottom level branches and were just giggling and running from tree to tree picking the very ripe cherries. After we collected as many bucket full as I dared pick, we came home and admired our work:

The kids sold cherries at the garage sale the next day to earn money for books:

They raked in nearly $20 in cherry sales!! And made a pretty good dent in our cherry supply.

 I borrowed a "cherry stoner" from a neighbor and went to work pitting all the cherries. We froze a bunch, then I decided to attempt canning since I had most of the things I needed. I borrowed a "jar grabber" "lid grabber" and funnel from my cousin, watched a video on you tube on how to can cherries and Marc and I went to work.

 
 Canning is a process in patience and following the right steps exactly. We got 4 big quart jars done, and 6 pint sized jars. I've never been so excited to hear a little "ping" noise that tells you the lid is sealed properly. Check out these beauties!

On Monday, Marc was given two huge bags full of Apricots from a member at the YMCA! We decided to make jam out of them. At first, I was just going to make freezer jam, but after researching how to can jam, I decided it wasn't that much harder and tried that too. Marc and the kids helped with getting all the pits out:

 Jam is very specific in its measurements, order, and preparation. You can only do a batch at a time because of the pectin, apparently it won't set right if its doubled, so it just takes a while if you have several batches. While we were at it, I made a batch of cherry jam too. After a long night of working at the stove top, I was quite pleased with the results! We've got a great assortment of freezer jam, and canned jam. Now if I could get my hands on some free strawberries and raspberries life would be perfect!! ;)