Canning and Preserving

As summer comes to an end, I always have plans to do some canning and preserving with the summer’s bounty of fruits and vegetables. Peaches and blackberries are already put up in the freezer, ready for pies or cobblers. My grandmother always made jelly and my brother (our webmaster) always wanted to take home a jar of jelly from her cellar. He didn’t care what kind of jelly…as long as it was red. I could almost eat my weight in fresh tomatoes but I also feel called to can some of them so their summer goodness can be enjoyed in the winter in a good hot soup or a homemade stew on a cold day. Tomatoes are easy to preserve by canning, freezing or dehydrating them. (Or you could make them into salsa, like we do at Fredericksburg Farms.) Right now, we have a bountiful crop of figs on our one tree that I plan to make into preserves, and I may just try to dry some with my dehydrator. Now to get out my Ball Canning and Preserving book I have used for nearly 50 years, even though I know some of its recipes by heart.