Canning

I have never canned in my entire life.  One of the first things I noticed about the Baileys when I first met them was the jars upon jars of home-canned goods ranging from fruits/jams to sauces/soups.  I was quite impressed and always wanted to do it.  When we first moved to our home almost 2 years ago, I was so excited about all the fruit trees and the possibility of canning... but then I got pregnant, then gestational diabetes, and decided if I couldn't eat my yummy canned goods while canning I wasn't going to do it. 

A few months ago, our bishop pulled the entire ward out of the 3rd hour and talked about emergency prepardness and how he felt impressed for us to really get ourselves prepared.  he wanted us to work on our food storage, etc., then he proceeded to cancel about 30 minutes of church and wanted us all to go home and work on our emergency prepardness.  If that wasn't a wake up call I don't know what is. 

So, this year Luke and I invested in some canning supplies, and when bountiful baskets had peaches for $0.73/lb and pears for $0.55/lb we took advantage and bought a couple 24-28lb boxes.  I then proceeded to can them all in 2 nights.... yeah, not doing that again.  I was just so excited and it was so much fun for the first 6 hours, but it definitely became work after that. 

I also made some blackberry jam from the blackberries we picked on my birthday.  So, all in all, I ended up with 11 quarts of peaches, 12 quarts of pears and 6 pints of blackberry jam.  The apples on my tree are ALMOST ready so I'll be doing more canning still, but I am quite proud of myself and what I have been able to accomplish so far. :o) 

For those who are curious, I followed the directions on this website http://www.pickyourown.org/.  On the very bottom of the page there's a very small icon where you can find directions on how to freeze, can, preserve, and dehydrate just about anything.