{*~Summer Canning Update~*}

I wish last summer I'd kept track of exactly what I canned. So my goal this summer is to blog a little bit more about what I'm canning. I entered 8 jars of goodies into the Butte County Fair for the last weekend in August and I'm SO excited! I could win $4 and a ribbon! I'd seriously die of happiness. Not joking at ALL.

Last summer I canned a lot. I made everything; mustard, BBQ sauce, giant jars of marinara, cranberry relish, jams, compotes and butters. I used primarily the Ball Complete Book of Canning and I found it was great! Tons of info, recipes, troubleshooting, etc. A few months ago I got a copy of Better Homes & Gardens Canning Magazine at Raley's and I LOVE IT. So far everything I've canned this summer has been from recipes there.

Here's what I've made so far:

11 jars of Strawberry Lemon Marmalade
8.5 jars of Blackberry Lime Freezer Jam (love this but learned I HATE the Ball Plastic Freezer Jars. The lids pop off too easy and they feel flimsy. I'll stick with glass)
8 jars of Vanilla Peach Honey Butter
10 jars of Peach Bellini Jam

Here is what I have left of the stuff from this summer so far, not pictured is the freezer jam because it's in our deep freezer and I'm lazy ;)

We have incredibly hard water. I leave the jars like this in our pantry because I don't really care what they look like but if I'm giving them as a gift or for the fair I take the tiniest bit of olive oil on a paper towel and rub the jars and lids. Voila! No more stains!

Cool right? Last summer I was incredibly generous with my canned goods, I was giving jars to EVERYONE and leaving very little for us. This year I'm still being generous but making sure we have enough. And I'm only giving stuff to people who pinkie swear to give me the jars back. I know that sounds silly but since we live in a tiny town, running up to the hardware store for jars & bands can get annoying.

So from last summer, here's what I have left in our pantry:

2 jars of carrot cake compote
4 giant jars of marinara
2 small jars of pizza sauce
2 jars of salsa
1 big jar of BBQ sauce...I'm going to cry when I use this up because it is like HEAVEN
1 jar lemon prune butter
2 jars vanilla plum sauce. This was my third batch of the summer. It basically is like the greatest thing on earth
11 jars of cranberry relish
1 jar sweet mustard

That's AWESOME! My favorite part was in January opening a jar of sauce to make pizza and it smelled INCREDIBLE and tasted GREAT! In January! No hothouse grossness! I planned our entire garden around things I could can. Did I tell you guys we have two artichokes on our plant? So awesome but it is currently being ransacked by aphids, I'm on a mission to destroy them. I was hoping my basil would do better, it's half dead, I'm hoping my mom has a good basil plant this year so I can steal some to make freezer pesto.

Ok, so on August 20th, if you are in the Redding, California area, I'll be teaching a canning class at That Kitchen Place ! I'd love it if some blog friends came by!!!

Today I'm labeling all those jars with these new spiffy labels I got yesterday at Target:

Cool right?

Have a great weekend!!!!