"She Got The Way To Move Me, Cherry Baby"

Canned some Cherry Jam tonight. Here's proof:


Low Sugar on the left...regular on the right. The Low Sugar stuff uses mostly apple juice concentrate as a sweetener, and just a little sugar to take the edge off the sour. The "regular" stuff...well...all bets are off....no diabetics please. I added little nip of Grand Marnier to both recipes, just to sweeten the deal.


This little gem is a value at twice the price. Ladies and gentlemen....I give you....the Cherry Pitter. Money In The Bank.


This evenings take from the garden. I know that this has nothing at all to do with canning cherries but...in the interest of science and what not. I wanted to post what we are still hauling in. I've been looking back on last years blogs to see how the harvesting season matches up. My guess is that we are about 2 weeks behind last year....which makes for a nice, long harvest...now, back to the cherries.


"Hot Pack" jam getting ready for processing.


Chrissy stepped in and photographed me in a Dr. Frankenstein moment.


Cooling. Chrissy in the background reading her No Greater Joy magazine.

Final Tally:
60 oz. of Low-Sugar Cherry Jam
28 oz. of Regular Sweet Cherry Jam

not a bad days work.

Canning Update

100% success!! all 27 quart jars sealed properly!!

My kids are going to get so sick of pickles :^)

"Don't Bogart That Can......Man"

So...you're probably asking yourself....what does a throw-away line from the 1994 Gen-x coming-of-age film "Reality Bites" have to do with canning vegetables? (actually....I'm sure you AREN'T asking yourself this....BUT....if you were....the answer would be: Nothing....except maybe the word "can".) It's been a really long night so....forgive me if I'm a little mental.
Right now it's 1:27 am. I've been at this since 8:00pm. Part of me never wants to see another pickle again for the rest of eternity....the other part of me wants to eat nothing but...
Anyhow...this is my first attempt at canning. I don't have a pressure canner so anything that I can has to be able to be processed in a water bath canner. The first victim was a huge batch of pickles:



27 quarts in all. I've read a million articles and blogs about canning. Everyone seems to have their own take on it. I'm coming to find that it's more an art than a science. You ask 100 gardeners how to can pickles and you'll get 100 different takes on the how-to specifics. I took the knowledge that I found and added my own spin....At the end of the day....I'm hoping for an 80% success rate. I guess that means....out of the 27 jars I processed tonight....I'm hoping for 21 or 22 of them to seal properly.
If that happens...I'll be thrilled.
I'll letcha know tomorrow how things panned out. As for now....I think I'll finish my drink and then head on to sleep. This stuff's like a part-time job...the "simple life" certainly is work....but fun work.