Provident Living

Does the word "canning" sound overwhelming to you?  First you have to sanitize all the jars, then you have to prep the food, the get it in the jars, seal them in one fashion or another.  Canning is something that to me has always sounded so overwhelming. I've always wanted to be one of those moms that has a hot meal on the table, always has a clean house, and cans a year supply of food each summer...amongst many other things. Do you think I've accomplished this?  If you've said yes then I'm laughing because as of right now, my house is a disaster.  You see, I have a ten month old who thinks he's two.  He gets into EVERYTHING and is the messiest eater on the planet.  Most days he's worn me out by the time he's ready for his morning nap.  His diet consists of texture.  I know it sounds funny but if it doesn't have some type of texture he refuses to eat it.  BYE BYE BABY FOOD. 

Anyways back to canning.  Last year our apple tree did pretty well, that was till the ear wigs got a hold of them.  Apparently they like to nest on the flowers which then turn to apples and have holes from them burrowing and little black...poo.  Well this year we sprayed with an organic bug spray and it helped.  Some of the branches were almost to the ground they were so heavy.  We've been picking like crazy today and have brought in two heaping 5 gallon buckets full of apples.  We peeled and cored them and then put them in the crock pot.  Who ever thought of making apple sauce in a crock pot...well I'm sure someone has before but I just decided I'd try a week or so ago and it worked.  About two to three hours depending on which crock pot.  It cooks it down to a nice texture and is so yummy after adding some cinnamon and sugar.  They are in the jars but its late and since we have to be up early tomorrow, we'll be sealing them sometime tomorrow.  We still have tons of apples left that will be cooked down in the next couple days and canned so that we can have yummy apple sauce and pie filling through out the year. 

My next canning endeavor was freezer jam.  Last year I made a half batch and thats about as far as it went.  Six months pregnant and climbing through berry vines was not a fun task.  This year our raspberries didn't do well due to our oh so lovely morning glory which took over.  A short time after the boysenberries were ripe, it rained and we didn't get any of those, now into blackberry season...YUM.  Our blackberries FINALLY started turning red, then black and oh do they taste good.  I spent the last few days out there picking a few here and there while Luke was laying down for his naps.  Today I went out on a mission, to get enough black berries to make some freezer jam.  It took a while to clip back all the huge monstrous vines that had no berries to get to the ones with the big juicy ones.  Oh and did I mention the bee's?  Yes the bee's wanted their share of the berries too.  I just took our hose and turned the sprayer on mist.  Most flew away but one.  I was determined to get to a large cluster of ripened berries when this bee decided that we were going to have a war.  I hosed him down quite well before he decided to move on to bigger and better places.  Three cups of mashed up black berries later, I have three and a half pints of jam in my freezer.  Oh boy, I just realized that due to the lack of sleep last night...I forgot to add the pectin.  No wonder I felt like something was missing. Guess I'll add that tomorrow.