Makin' Ketchup

In my current obsession with canning I thought it would be fun to make my own ketchup. We did finally get some ripe tomatoes here in Portland, though not very many. I made tomato ketchup and tomato-peach ketchup. I was a little surprised by how little it makes. I haven't tried them yet so I hope they turned out well. They do look pretty in those jars though.

I used the recipe from Canning for a New Generation book I bought recently (sorry I haven't figure out how to link it to amazon or powells yet).

Thanks for stopping by,
Tonya

Salsa

Over the course of this harvest season I've canned 3 kinds of salsa; Peach Salsa from Canning for a New Generation, Spicy Tomato Salsa and Zesty Salsa from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I like my salsa hot so I used hot peppers in place of mild peppers. We just opened a jar of zesty salsa and I have to say it turned out great. The only change I would make for next year is to use hotter peppers as it still is fairly mild.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tonya

Preserving Summer's Bounty

I've had the past month off of school and had wanted to do a lot of sewing during this "break", but I've found myself working on other projects instead. Earlier this summer I picked local strawberries and made homemade jam. It was my first time canning as an adult and I couldn't get any of my jars to seal. I purchased canning supplies also hoping to make some pickles as well. However my interest, and LeMont would say obsession, has gone beyond strawberry jam and pickles to many other canning projects. I love the idea of eating something I've preserved myself. Equally important to me is knowing when my food came from, especially in our current food system. The egg recall has only increased my desire for healthy, local food. Plus its great to know that  by using reusable canning jars it also limits the amount of resources I'm using.

Over the past month I've made dried peaches, peach jam, kiwi jam, dried kiwis (very sour, I may not keep them), dried blueberries, pickled green beans, pickles, cucumber relish, spicy pickled carrots, blueberry lemon jam, blueberry lime jam, and blueberry meyer lemon marmalade. I've filled up a whole shelf in my pantry with preserved goods.
Here's a few pictures of what I've been doing.

I would love to hear what you've been working on lately.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tonya